Great ‘What to Buy at Costco & Makro’ Hunt

Mr_Zippy

Here are some example prices:

Fresh Chicken breasts (8x2 breast packs) - £6.49 / kg (around £14.50 a pack)
Extra trimmed, Sealed in twos ready for freezer
Tesco charge £9.99 / kg for quality chicken

Gillette Fusion Razors 16 pack - £23
Tesco charge £14.61 for 8 (equiv. £29.22 for 16)

Gillette Venus Razors 12 pack - £14.36
Tesco charge £5.80 for 4 (equiv. £17.40 for 12)

Sacla Italia Classic Tomato & Basil Pasta Sauce (350g) - £3.99 for 3 pack
Tesco charge £2.29 for 1 jar (equiv. £6.87 for 3)

Jack Daniel's 1 Litre - £20.69
Tesco charge £19.49 for 700ml (equiv. £27.84 for 1 litre)

Price comparison (1kg chicken used).

Costco Cost: £68.53
Tesco Cost: £91.32
SAVING: £22.79

Prices include VAT if applicable and of course may have changed, all purchased within the last 3 months.
Tesco prices from mysupermarket.co.uk today.

I note butchery is excellent quality, but I have only compared the price of the chicken...
The steaks are excellent quality and like 1" thick, so are pork loin streaks!

Also you can pick up some USA imports and often much cheaper than specialist importers eg.
Skippy Peanut Butter 40oz jar - £3.99
Hersheys Kisses 60oz bag - £4.99
Hersheys Chocolate Milk 21x8oz - £9.99
Cattlemans BBQ Sauce
Jack Daniel's Single Barrel
Paradise Valley Instant Mash - Really tasty stuff!!

I am sure not everything is cheaper, and you have to buy in bulk of course!

Hope this info helps!

Mr_Zippy

I forgot the costco fresh bagels, they are scrummy even if you freeze at home and defrost...

Nothing like the supermarket rubber ones you can buy!

Sharih

I joined Costco with a friend so we share the cost of the annual membership and you get two membership cards so we are not tied to shopping together.

The Special Occassions sponge cake for £11.99 is brilliant value. It is huge, and you can choose your own design and colours within various templates on offer. I recently bought one for a Ruby Wedding party and there was easily enough for the 80 guests.

I find it all really good value and quality but regularly buy Ariel washing powder, designer jeans (For all Mankind), trainers (including Diesel), bulk meet (the Kirkland range is reasonably priced for the excellent quality), and nice wines (Faustino No 1 Rioja currently about £11.50 and usually retails at about £20). Hardy's Stamp wine currently working out about £4.50 a bottle when buying a box of 6, whereas it's about £6.50 per bottle in my local supermarket. An excellent place to stock up on food for family bbq's at great prices. The great thing is that you can buy quality brands at good prices.

My only problem is having enough storage space at home for all the great bargains.

cs94njw

Two other things:

Saffron - I think 3 boxes for £7, but about 20 times more than you get in the supermarket for the same price.

Cooking chocolate chips 40%/50% cocao - a tub of dark chocolate chocolate chips. The kind you see in supermarkets for £2 a bag, this was like £2-£3 for a 500g tub.

cs94njw

And NOT forgetting...

Photo development! Can even create your order on the Internet, and pick up in store later.

Bit annoying with regards to copyright checking:

"These photos look professional, do you have a letter saying you can print these out?"

But in this day and age, 12 megapixel cameras can be bought by the man in the street.

Mark300zx

I was never really impressed with Makro and a lot of the time found it to be the same price as supermarkets, but Costco is amazing just recently joined and was blown away!

MPwannasavemoney

josey1964 wrote: »

I always stock up on toilet rolls and litchen towels when they are on offer.

I just bought a huge pack of kitchen towels only to find that they are bigger than the normal ones and do not fit in the holder on the kitchen wall :mad:

suzanandboys

Branded products are normally cheaper as you buy in bulk, things like persil washing powder, finish dishwasher tabs, kitchen/ toilet roll, tissues, tropicana, tins of pineapple. If you normally go for supermarket own brands there wont be much in price

MPwannasavemoney

Black bin liners, olive oil, batteries, Gillette blades, cotton wool pads, gift wrapping paper, DVDs some of the seasonal good and some of the cleaning materials make it worthwhile for me once in 2 or 3 months for a trip to Costco.

Meat etc we would buy but not enough space to store.

The other things I can make do or even better with carefully chosen supermarket offers, e.g. half price or BOGOF.

Never take OH - otherwise the increased expenditure more than wipes out any savings made.

BTW the ribs are absolutely mouth wateringly FANTASTIC!

BikerEd

The things that really stand out for me are:

Fresh meat. Frozen burgers, prawns, scallops, crab cakes. Organic apple juice. Spirits & wines.

Batteries, kitchen & bog roll, bin bags. Tools (aka men's toys!)

Opticians - this is Costco's biggest money saver for us. My wife has monthly lenses, my youngest daughter and I both have glasses. The savings pay for my trade membership many times over.