We are a family of 3, my husband seems to think that Costco and such would not help us out that much. Do any of you all go there and if so does it help any with the budget and such??

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Susan
DH Mike
DD Sami

I know for us it has been a good source of saving money. We buy baby formula, diapers, wipes and filters for our Brita pitcher at Costco. Those are just a few of the things we regularly buy there. I have found it a very good deal on a lot of items.....of course not for our regular food shopping as we don't need big bulk items for all of our groceries.

You have to price book Costco like any other store. Some items are great deals, some are break even and sometimes Costco is more expensive. And you have to be disciplined. It is really easy to spend way more than you planned when you let yourself impulse buy.

We're a family of three, too, and we go every month or every other month.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

Gas is a great deal at Costco in my area. And like others said, some things are great deals and some things are not.

I'm currently going to Sam's Club regularly for only formula, because it's massively cheaper. I can get 3lb's - 2x the big can amount of regular formula - for $19+. The big cans of regular formula cost $25 on sale, or $20 with a $5 coupon/check. Since I'm getting twice the amount, I'm saving at least $20 on formula each time, and she's using about one every two weeks - so saving $40 a month there. That's a membership for a year at Sam's Club.

We buy all our paper towel and toilet paper there. I just buy a "brick" of it, and it lasts for about 6 months with us, and I get the nice Charmin Strong TP, and the Sam's brand paper towel. I can handle cheap paper towel, but not cheap TP.

I also like to buy meat at Sam's, usually the whole pork loin, which I cut into chops and freeze in packs. Buy diapers too there.

Sometimes if it's in the budget, I get the bulk sized things like ketchup that we use regularly, or a case of canned mushrooms or other canned veg. Sometimes I can get those cheaper on sale, sometimes I can't find a sale when I want to stock up.

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I love Costco! My only complaint is that it is so far away - but maybe that is not such a bad thing. We use to go monthly but with gas prices and money cut backs we've cut back as well. I'm working an every other month right now but I hope to go in, probably September, and by enough to get us through to the end of the year.

Things for me to buy there are cat and dog food. Diapers. Fruit. Cheese. Toilet paper. Vinegar. The things I need to avoid at Costco are the books. The clothing for my kids and other misc. stuff.

It depends...you need to scope it out and see if the prices are enough to warrant it for your family. We belong to BJ's...my savings at their gas station alone are enough for me to keep renewing As for the stuff inside: I do find that we save by being members....milk is about 70 cents a gallon cheaper, eggs are cheaper, Greeting cards (I try and get all of mine there) gift wrap and bags are all 50% off whatever their retail price is. BJ's also puts out coupons and I can use manufacturers coupons as well (even with a store coupon).

HTH

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If you can find just one item you'd save $1 per week (or $4/month) on at Costco over what you pay now at another store, that justifies the $50 annual fee. Some items at Costco don't seem that much cheaper, but the quality of the Kirkland brand is fantastic, so you save money in the long run by buying items that are bigger/stronger/just plain better. My faves are the Kirkland antibacterial wipes, baby wipes, and kitchen trash bags. We signed up for the Costco American Express card. They charge the Costco fee to your card instead of an annual fee, and when we signed up they gave us 3 extra months on our Costco membership for the first "year" (15 months). The Costco Amex pays 3% back on gas right now (they send you a Costco check every few months), so if you spend $1700 on gas in a year (that's 30 fillups at $55 each in my car), you'll recoup the membership fee.

We go every week for milk and yogurt, the amount I save in milk alone more than paid for our membership the first year. We also have the executive membership which is double the price but you get 2% cash back on all your purchases at the end of the year in the form of a costco card, then i use that to pay for the next years membership. It works well for us but we spend alot there being a family of 5 soon 6.

With only one child, I don't know if you would really need it. If you are good at shopping sales with coupons it probably won't save you that much money. And with a small family you really don't need to buy in bulk so I see your dh's perspective. They offer a free pass for a day to go check it out and see what you think!

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A woman is like a teabag. You never know how strong she is until she gets into hot water.-Eleanor Roosevelt

We have an executive membership - it costs more but we always get the money back at the end of the year - this year we paid the membership and still had $35 left over.

Anyways we are a family of three as well. When DS was little we saved a fortune on diapers and wipes at Costco. Now we buy the basics - we get the following organics - milk, eggs, ground beef, salads, bread, frozen green beans, corn and more so much cheaper than any place else. When I buy ground meat it comes in 3 pound packages. I either cook it up and then freeze in 1 pound packs or just toss the 1 pound pack (it is a 3 pack) into the freezer. We also get Cherios there.

We also get our gas there and that saves us a ton as well.

If you ever do parties they have great appetizers and cakes. I also love their brand and use their TP and papertowels.

I would suggest going through the store and seeing if there are things there that you will use. Not everything are in huge packages - often they are big but come in multiple sealed packs so you don't have to eat something so fast.

A word of advise it is a store that can really break your budget so you need to learn to go in with blinders on or you could easily spend and extra $100 - I could do that without blinking in there but have learned.

Oh they also put out coupons a few times a year on things you might like to stock up on. Although it seems these aren't as good as they used to be.