Yeah, the first year I upgraded to the executive membership I was refinancing my mortgage through a Costco lender. They discounted the lender fees by like $200 for regular members and $500 for executive members. Uh, that more than covers the $55 executive membership fee given that they were the cheapest lender either way.
Another year hubby & I booked a ~$5000 vacation through Costco Travel. Regular members got a Costco gift card worth 1% of the price and executive members got a Costco gift card worth 3% of the price or something like that to where the difference in the amount of the gift card greatly exceeded the difference in the cost of membership fees.
Just discovered the $0.99/lb chicken thighs where they wrap 3 per pack and sell 6 packs together. Chefs kiss
I really need to get a garage freezer. Waiting on our dryer to die so we can knock out two appliances at once, and the dryer isn’t long for this world.
Costco is no longer convenient to me and the kids are out of the house so we don’t buy a ton of stuff in bulk anymore. I am thinking about dropping the membership but I am fairly certain if I rent a car through their travel service at least once per year the savings more than pays for the membership. I have not found similar deals anywhere else that would allow me to replace it.
I’m curious about how good these deals might be. Care to test a location+date and I’ll see what I can find in a competitive quote?
Sure.
I frequently compare it against the basic travel websites like Kayak or Orbitz, Southwest Travel deals, and USAA discounts, as well as directly with the rental company. However, I can’t be certain it is always x type of car is always better or if it is more - here’s the best deal I found on Costco that I like (where car class may vary depending on some unknown mood) which I then try to find a better deal elsewhere.
It also isn’t always better if you have a specific rental company. It requires some flexibility there as well.
Making our first prepared Costco meal for dinner tonight. Mac and cheese. Also got the stuffed bell peppers and some raviolis but making those another night.
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I price checked a car rental for a five day trip we are planning next month. Costco was about $50-$100 cheaper depending on the provider. Not sure we will rent a car at all but it’s good to know.
Love the stuffed peppers, but I am partial to my own mac & cheese.
Two weeks in and I’ve spent almost $1300 at Costco so far. $750 of that was for a new appliance though.
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Hope you got the executive membership!
I did, seemed like it made sense to, no risk!
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Yep, and you’re almost halfway to recouping the extra charge.
Yeah, am thinking about going for the credit card soon too…but credit is something I take really seriously (my parents weren’t great with it so I have seen what debt/secrets can do to a family) so I want to talk with my husband about it first. Which might seem like overkill, but eh. Money issues ruin marriages.
I want to get a garage freezer soon too, but need to clear out the garage first. That will be another few hundred.
Costco has been really great for low carb, which I try to stick to. They have more low carb friendly products than my grocery store and being able to buy meat, cheese, and vegetables in the quantities I eat them has been great too. Just need that garage freezer for better storage!
Oh, and the premade meals have been awesome. My kids still complain about dinner, because they want to live on McDonald’s, but at least I don’t have to put in a ton of effort and STILL have them complain about dinner. Tonight we’re making some ravioli lasagna thing, not sure how that all works, but they’ll eat it.
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Hubby loves the ravioli lasagna. I find it bizarrely seasoned. So I don’t buy it very often.
We have the credit card. Use it for Costco, gas, and restaurants. Getting a little over $200 back for 2021 and already earned $80-something for 2022. I think that might include some of our 12/31 charitable giving that didn’t process until January because it doesn’t seem like we’ve gone nuts on spending this year. I bought a $230 rug at Costco so far and that’s really the only “big” purchase.
But I did put some charitable giving on the card on 12/31. Once we hit a certain threshold on the Delta card the rewards aren’t that great, and we had by 12/31, so I switched default cards in December.
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I take offense to this
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I haven’t been particularly happy with the freezer selection at the store, haven’t looked online. We have an old deep freeze that will die one day, so i have been shopping. My primary evaluation metric, energy efficiency. Nothing has been on the low side of the range.
We’ve really enjoyed their Indian meals - chicken tikka masala and mango chicken. We cook rice and greens to go with it and voila!
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We also like the rotisserie chicken. Very inexpensive. I’ll pick up a rotisserie chicken and whip up some homemade mac & cheese plus a veggie and that’s a nice and fairly easy dinner.
Got some “wholly guacamole” for the Super Bowl at Costco and that was pretty good but you have to buy a 3-pack. It’s a good thing the sample-lady mentioned you can freeze it. We’ll see how good the thawed tubs are.
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