Great ‘What to Buy at Costco & Makro’ Hunt

wigansheryl

Costco is great if you are able to bulk buy and store it. The meat is fantastic quality -compare the price not to the supermarket's budget or even main brand, but to their "finest" quality stuff. If you use the money off vouchers it is good value. I bought a salmon fillet with £3.00 off which cost me just over £8. It fed 2 of us 4 times with good size fillets. Two large chickens were £5.50 last week as well.

Strawberries are currently £2.95 for 1kg. A leading supermarket has them on offer for £2.29 for 400g.

Bottles of pepsi work at 72p each for 2 litres. The same supermarket has a 2 for £2 offer on at the moment. The cand of pepsi are also good value as is Kirkland bottled water which works out about 18p per 500ml.

My son loves the sausages, which are 80% meat content for Cumberland and more for plain pork and the breaded chicken tenders (which are like nuggets) made with 100% breast meat.

Mozzarella balls are £2.25 for 5. In the supermarket they are 90p each. The milk is cheaper as are boxes of breakfast cereal. Again because it comes in bulk it is all down to whether you have storage!!

Other good items are the crocs £18.00 including vat and they had UGG boots in Winter at £130 for tall UGGs. The trespass raincoats at £11 and Craghoppers fleeces for the same price are amazing value too.

With electricals and alcohol we tend to find that the supermarkets/high street/online retailers do as good deals, apart from my Babyliss straighteners which were £22.00 and cost £80 in the shops!

I could go on all day...for me it pays for its membership and some. I tend to go once a fortnight and then just "top up" at the Supermarket.

Long live Costco!!!

citroennut

My only complaint with Costco is that unlike Makro they don't send you a leaflet to let you know what bargains they have on offer. We are usually handed a leaflet when we arrive at Costco, though quite often some of the offers are already out of date. The last time we went, we didn't even get a leaflet.

Other than this we really enjoy shopping at Costco.

melsuggett

Haven't read through all of the thread so don't know if anyone has mentioned it but the Costco cafe is great and so cheap.... still have never managed to spend over a tenner yet!

The large baked potatoes cost £1.25... kids love the hotdog and soda... about £1.50 i think.... refil;able drinks 70p....

I know a lot of people sneak into the cafe part of Costco just to get the food as they often don't ask to see your card here.

Meat is good quality but not cheap. Have noticed some prices creeping up recently esp. the frozen prawn section.

Still love it though and continue to rejoin.

shaz-ann

I love Costco, I've been a member now for about 10 years. The only problem is that I can't make it a regular (monthly) shop - we wouldn't be able to fit everything in the boot of the car!

To me the must buys are:

• Parbake bread rolls are great, but the ciabatta is excellent - just the right size for sandwiches and excellent value
• The trays of muffins - huge and delicious, these freeze well too
• The meat is all excellent quality and works out cheaper than supermarket. I can expecially recommend the chicken breasts, the beef mince and the Aberdeen Angus roasting joints, their pork chops are good too.
• Fresh salmon - about £11-£12 for a side, skinned and boned too. We normally get about 4/5 meals out of it (there are 2 of us and we use decent portion sizes)
• Sausages - high meat content and delicious
• Cat food, especially Felix much cheaper than supermarket
• Finish dishwasher tablets - 2 packs of 90, last for ages
• Jelly Beans - ok maybe not a must buy, but so much cheaper than the shops - a huge jar costs around £14
• Blueberries - cheaper than the supermarkets even when they've got them on special offer, but be sure to eat them in plenty of time as they don't keep for long
• Washing powder - the last tub of Kirkland we got lasted us for nearly 2 years, you don't have to use much and the tub is huge.

One thing I have found is that the majority of the fruit and veg isn't really that much cheaper. Also I would avoid the books - as previously mentioned they are often hardbacks and you can usually buy these cheaper online, and the dvds and cds. Also, the Scottish beef - we were disappointed the last time we bought it, stick to the Aberdeen Angus - ok it is more expensive but still cheaper than you would buy it at the supermarket.

pumpkinlady

Shop at makro every 3 months or so - my husband has a card through work - Andrex toilet roll and bounty kitchen rolls are good buys also the washing powder - i usually buy ariel and persil - whichever is variety is on offer - ie: capsules tablets etc - I also buy cup drinks for kids the last ones were 99p for 24 and big box of granulated sugar and then keep my eyes open for other offers - kids often get dvds or computer games for 99p .

Mr_Zippy

citroennut wrote: »

My only complaint with Costco is that unlike Makro they don't send you a leaflet to let you know what bargains they have on offer. We are usually handed a leaflet when we arrive at Costco, though quite often some of the offers are already out of date. The last time we went, we didn't even get a leaflet.

Other than this we really enjoy shopping at Costco.

They send me a leaflet once a month, maybe you address has an error in it.

Saying that I haven't received a new one for this month yet.

USbird

Many Costcos in the US sell petrol for several cents per gallon cheaper than the average petrol station. It's definitely worth bringing your Costco card on any US roadtrips! US stores also have a much larger selection of books -- I always find current fiction bestsellers in paperback, usually for less than or the same price as Amazon.

Our Costco favorites here and in the US, all of which we find to be real bargains compared to supermarkets:
-- I will join the list of bagel fans -- they are delicious and freeze well.
-- We also get large bags of prawns and individually wrapped fish fillets (salmon and sea bass are favorites) at a great price.
-- Their frozen crab cakes are also excellent -- mostly crab meat, very little filler.
-- They occasionally sell Amy's Burritos in the frozen section -- something like 12 to the box.
-- My husband raves about their frozen chicken fillets. They're huge and cook up very moist straight from the freezer. He also loves the steak and ale pies.
-- For yummy and cheap brownies, try their box of Ghirardelli brownie mix -- there are 4 or 5 packets of mix in the box; just add water, oil and an egg and you've got a gooey tray of chocolate.
-- As others have said, there is no better place to get party supplies. Cheese, houmous, deli meats, mini quiches and other frozen starters, crisps, huge and delicious cakes, pizzas, burgers ... you name it and you can find very good quality food and drinks for a good price.
-- They often have nice gift baskets or specially packaged items at the holidays that are far cheaper (but look as nice if not nicer) as similar gift items in the department stores.
-- Three-packs of Kettle Chips are always in our basket, as are large jars of jam or marmalade
-- We like their pack of three curry sauces to use for quick weekday meals, and their large box of naan is excellent -- very soft and fluffy even after defrosting.
-- Nice wooden picture frames in sets of two or three for a GREAT price compared to Argos, John Lewis etc (but obviously a more limited selection).

Other than that, I'd echo what others have said about nuts, household cleaners and detergents, and some of the toiletries. We definitely feel we get our money's worth out of the membership.

My British hubby (I'm American and a longtime Costco lover) was skeptical about Costco until I dragged him there, and we spent our first visit noting prices of items we were interested in so that we could comparison shop at the supermarkets before buying anything. Now he goes once or twice a week and is a big convert.

Any

melsuggett wrote: »

Meat is good quality but not cheap. Have noticed some prices creeping up recently esp. the frozen prawn section.

Still love it though and continue to rejoin.

Yep, noticed that too! Still better price then in supermarket, but use prawns as a luxury now where I used to be able to live on them!:rotfl:

silvercar

Love costco.

Get trade membership if you can, the queues are smaller in the morning and you get free coffee and cake when you arrive. (its cleared away at about 11.30am).

I've bought Birkenstock sandels and crocs - half the price of high street stores.

Batteries are good value and flowers, especially hanging baskets - all made up for £12.

Other surprising thing is that you can change something bought in the US stores in the UK if its faulty!

citroennut

Mr_Zippy wrote: »

They send me a leaflet once a month, maybe you address has an error in it.

Saying that I haven't received a new one for this month yet.

Thanks for that. Will check that they have the correct address.