Costco

seafarers_wife

I like it as i fine i save the cost of my membership on contact lens solution alone!

I do buy alot of bulk and freeze stuff to get best value for money, and i physically cant spent less than £100 when i go, so i have 2 shopping budgets. one for the supermarket and 1 for costco so that when i go to stock up i have the money there. it also helps to have a good idea of supermarket prices as soemtimes its not always cheaper to buy from costco for some things.

i tend to buy the following in bulk

cat litter - £10 a bag and lasts for 2 months
lurpack 1 kilo - £5
cheader blocks - approx £4 a kilo. cut up and freeze in reasonable block slices - usually get 3/4 freezer portions which does a weeks worth of cheese for sarnies
mouthwash - depends whats on offer
loo roll - depends on whats on offer
kitchen roll
baked beans
tomato soup - very occasionaly cheaper in supermarket when have heinz on 6 tins for £3
navy rum/bacardi/gordons gin - approx £16 a litre
diluting juice
J20
chips/wedges
bottled water
baby wipes
nappies
croissants - they are a must with every shop!
washing powder - 1 box lasts me approx 1 year! persil non bio (blue box) and persil purple box for coloured clothes
finish dishwasher tablets - 180 tablets for approx £10 when on offer
their own kirkland brand bin bags are AMAZING

they also have clothes, toys, books, household goods and tools so its worth going for a neb and then decideing if you want to join.

SAHD_Jim

DW and I have been members for about 3 years or so. Our local store (Cardiff) is only a little further than our nearest Tesco Extra and next door to our nearest Asda, so it isn't even a trek for us.

I always compare proposed purchases with Mysupermarket.com first and we save bucket loads every visit. Anything not cheaper and we pop next door to Asda. You get a voucher book that makes savings potentially very decent indeed. We spend so much there that we now have gone for Executive membership and the cash back last full year led to a profit of £20. Their deals on wine cases are especially good in my experience.

The even better news (that I only discovered last visit) is that they now accept Amex, so it adds to my platinum card cash back now as well!

If you don't have an issue bulk buying this is the way to shop imho. As long as you are prepared for a loft or garage full of toilet roll, kitchen roll, shower gel, wine etc and you won't be disappointed with the savings.

Edit: Oh and while things like meat can be more expensive (unless there is an offer on), I find the quality is far superior to anything you can get in the supermarket.

PolarBearGirl

We joined Costco again this year (haven't been members for ages) as we now have a garage to store stuff. Definitely worth it for toilet roll, kitchen roll etc when offer is on in the voucher book, also washing powder and dishwasher tabs/washing up liquid etc.

Deals are not so good without the voucher book though so you need to check it out first. I also buy stuff we use loads of particularly if we like the brand rather than supermarket own - ground coffee, marmite, muesli, tinned tomatoes, breadmaking flour (need a very large storage box!), big packs of pasta and rice etc.

We've pretty much stopped buying any fresh stuff apart from meat as the packs are too big to be economic, exceptions this time were Tropicana orange juice and Fruit Corners which were incredibly cheap this time. I would probably buy butter but I have a baby and we're using unsalted, and cheese but the really good price packs are coloured (I've never understood why Scottish people think cheese should be orange...)

We paid the membership and I reckon we've saved that many times over even though we usually end up spending over £100 each time :eek:

My husband had the great idea of going round anticlockwise, starting with the snacks - tinned food etc, rather than the electricals, that way you aren't overdone before you start the food shopping and you get a treat of looking at the books etc at the end!

nodwah

The membership is £25 +vat - so £30 actually! (unless there's a deal) the best thing is to share with a friend and then it only costs you £15 - you can give the spare card to anyone - doesn't have to be family

I reckon I save money with one visit a month to stock up on basics like everyone says, I just try to resist the books and clothes and stuff like that, but they did have a very good deal on and Xbox 360 250 Gb today - christmas sorted!

Oh and car tyres are very good, nearly forgot!

julietiff

nodwah wrote: »

The membership is £25 +vat - so £30 actually! (unless there's a deal) the best thing is to share with a friend and then it only costs you £15 - you can give the spare card to anyone - doesn't have to be family

I reckon I save money with one visit a month to stock up on basics like everyone says, I just try to resist the books and clothes and stuff like that, but they did have a very good deal on and Xbox 360 250 Gb today - christmas sorted!

Oh and car tyres are very good, nearly forgot!

Re spare card- but remember it has to have their picture on it
took at the same time as your card.
Forgot to mention their boots are excellent too

PotatoPotato

nodwah wrote: »

The membership is £25 +vat - so £30 actually! (unless there's a deal) the best thing is to share with a friend and then it only costs you £15 - you can give the spare card to anyone - doesn't have to be family

I reckon I save money with one visit a month to stock up on basics like everyone says, I just try to resist the books and clothes and stuff like that, but they did have a very good deal on and Xbox 360 250 Gb today - christmas sorted!

Oh and car tyres are very good, nearly forgot!

What was the xbox 360 deal? maybe worth posting as a grabbit?

Willow_K

We joined at the beginning of Sept and have saved a fortune already.

The meat is amazing - big trays of lamb and beef steak for £15-£17. After my first shop I compared the prices to the supermarkets on My Supermarket - although some of the supermarket prices were a little cheaper if there were offers on, generally Costco showed quite a bit of saving, plus the quality is amazing, so when comparing prices, it really needs to be done against supermarket premium stuff.

Loo rolls are usually 40 for £10 and branded - so 25p a roll. Large tins of coffee are really cheap and it's also great for things like sauces and herbs - huge jars of schwarzkof herbs and spices are £1.75 - £3 - basically the same price you pay for the tiny little jars in the supermarkets. Orange juice and milk are also really good value.

Their cherry tomatoes on the vine are excellent - £4 for a 500g pack and they stay fresh for ages. There are also bargains to be had on gifts, stationery etc. We bought a complete set of Roald Dahl books for £17.99 for DD which are £25 on Amazon.

Electronics are really good as well. We recently bought a new laptop - forgot to check Costco and even though we got a really good deal, it was still £40 cheaper in Costco.

You do need space to store stuff though!

claire16c

vada wrote: »

It's worth it for things like toilet paper and kitchen roll, which we bulk buy. I have free membership, but if I had to pay the fee I wouldn't hesitate. Members also get booklets full of coupons, which sometimes have incredible deals, and when they're trying to clear stock prices go way down. A while ago they were selling those 750g jars of Nutella for a little under £2, so we stocked up (Nutella is very popular in our house). It's also worth browsing the store for the free samples, and IMO their bakery products are better than anything in the supermarkets. A tray of 12 giant muffins the size of grapefruits costs about £4 - freeze them and they last for ages.

Sounds stupid but I had no idea you could freeze muffins! I hadnt bought them before purely because we could never eat that many before they went off - Im definitely going to be buying them on my next visit now!:rotfl:

Free samples - when I was backpacking, me and DH were in Melbourne and because of the exchange rate food is very expensive there, so we went into costco and ate a load of free samples, and then had the cheapest lunch we had in Oz anywhere, in the cafe lol. Did the same in hawaii - had some lovely samples of pulled pork there!

SAHD_Jim wrote: »

The even better news (that I only discovered last visit) is that they now accept Amex, so it adds to my platinum card cash back now as well!

If you don't have an issue bulk buying this is the way to shop imho. As long as you are prepared for a loft or garage full of toilet roll, kitchen roll, shower gel, wine etc and you won't be disappointed with the savings.

Edit: Oh and while things like meat can be more expensive (unless there is an offer on), I find the quality is far superior to anything you can get in the supermarket.

My dad went there last weekend and they told him at the checkout he could use amex too - maybe theyre telling everyone? And yes its great as I can earn airmiles now.

I find whenever I go to costco I end up spending about £90. Whether Ive been 2 weeks ago or 2 months, so be careful if you do sign up OP!

I really like it though, when the loo roll is on offer you can save against buying branded loo roll in the supermarket, and I hate buying loo roll on a weekly shop as its so bulky. I also buy the huge plastic bottle of Bold detergent, lasts for ages. Also if its on offer Kelloggs cereal can be a good price.

I just store the bulk stuff in the bedroom cupboards or understairs cupboard.

claire16c

Willow_K wrote: »

Electronics are really good as well. We recently bought a new laptop - forgot to check Costco and even though we got a really good deal, it was still £40 cheaper in Costco.

yep our telly was £60 cheaper than amazon, and comes with a 5 year guarantee.

BLUis

Does anyone know if they have any offers on the PS3? We are going to buy one for our son for Christmas

TIA