Truth be told, shopping at Costco has always been a recreational activity for me. As a kid I'd go to Costco with my mom, and we'd always try to buy "something fun" along with the toilet paper and the dishwasher detergent. When Bill and I were still students, we'd go to Costco for $2 pizza, then stop in and buy a huge container of muffins and a case of canned clam chowder. And even now, in the present day, it's like, Ooh, you wanna go to Costco? Yay!
Half the furniture in our house comes from Costco, as do Bill's prescription eyeglasses and the laptop I'm using right this very second.
Costco is always such a fun adventure, because you never know what treasures they're going to have each time you go. You may go in there for a multi-pack of Diet Coke, but you walk out with DVDs, clothes, fun new treats to try, and a bouquet of roses.
And that's why I'm not convinced that Costco membership has ever saved anybody any money. Yes, it's true that the per unit cost of toiletries, cleaning products, and other household items is cheaper when you buy in bulk at a wholesale warehouse. Yes, it's true that you can get a good-quality electronic device or appliance at a reasonable price at Costco. But when you go in the store for bulk toiletries or a new DVD player and you walk out with
Maybe I'm the only one who lacks discipline when shopping at Costco. But, judging from the contents of other people's carts, I don't think I'm alone in my Costco purchasing habits. You see people buying potted plants, giant boxes of holiday gift tags, random decorative yard statues, and toys, and it's hard for me to believe that those people came to Costco specifically to buy those items. Who's all, "Honey, oh no, it's October 1st! We need 500 self-stick gift tags for Christmas NOW! Quick, to Costco!"?
And what about the free samples? Those are designed to get people to buy items that they didn't originally intend to buy. Oh, yes, I will buy these frozen cups of stew on a stick, think of all time they'll save us!
Yep, I'm pretty sure the average Costco user is not saving money.
But in my recent efforts to save money, I decided I would go on a no-frills shopping trip to Costco. I would make a list! I would stick to it! No non-list purchases!
I even brought my own water bottle from home to wash down the free samples, so I wouldn't be tempted by that 50-cent soda at the snack bar.
It was so boring.
I bought just about every household item we ever use. Laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, Diet Coke, cat litter, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, are you bored yet?
It cost me $408.
How on earth is this going to save us money? Even when only buying super boring stuff, stuff we absolutely need, I spent too much money at Costco.
I did get a very good-quality $18 fireman Halloween costume for Nathan, and a birthday present for a kid whose party is coming up. And also, hopefully we'll get more than one month's use out of the many, many, many household products we bought.
Or will we? I think in the case of some items, buying in bulk also means using in bulk. Like, take for example that 32-pack of Diet Coke we bought. Six days later, it is already gone. Between two adults, we managed to consume 32 cans of Diet Coke in 5 days. Had we not actually had 32 cans of Diet Coke, we wouldn't have consumed so many.
Same thing with the M&Ms. In an attempt to cut back on minor snack/drink purchases, I bought Bill a big pack of M&Ms and a case of water at Costco, to be consumed in place of his daily M&M/water purchases at the train station store. Now, the Costco pack cost $25 for 48 bags of M&Ms, so that's roughly 50 cents per bag. And yes, that's probably half of what Bill pays at the train station. Which is good, that means we can get twice as many M&Ms for the same amount of money. Except, we end up eating about three times as many M&Ms, in about a quarter of the time it takes to consume them from the train station store.
What I mean is, if you have it, you're gonna eat it. Failure on the M&Ms front.
Perhaps Costco is better for non-edible consumable items. It's not like you can intentionally use toilet paper at a faster rate than normal, unless you want to TP your neighbor's house or make toilet paper mummies. And you wouldn't want to get through dishwasher tablets or laundry detergents any faster than you normally do.
I do think Costco can save you time, though. Now, the time savings is not in the drive there. With the exception of my last two years of college, I have never lived less than 25 minutes from a Costco. So it's always a major drive, the parking lot is a pain, the hauling of heavy items to/from your car exhausts you, and then you have to put away all that stuff when you get home. Those activities are all time-consuming. But, theoretically at least, you now won't have to make 10 little individual runs a week to Target and Walgreen's to buy miscellaneous household items. And maybe staying out of Target and Walgreen's can save you money, too, because the less time you spend in a store, the fewer random impulse buys you end up with.
So, house fully stocked with Costco items, we had everything we needed, except ... everything else we needed. You can't rely on Costco for all your groceries, because unless you have a very big family or you're buying for your business or something, you don't always want to buy certain items in bulk. For example, I cannot personally consume 36 eggs before they expire. I don't want 50 pounds of flour. And I need some items that Costco doesn't even carry.
So, it was off to the stores again. I realize that I am cutting back by purchasing some items at Costco, but it still doesn't seem like any of this is cheap. I did use coupons and scour the sale ads to buy these other items, but here's where I get stuck: Do you ever stop buying?
Let me explain. Let's say you go to a particular store and they have a really good deal on toothpaste. You don't actually need toothpaste right now, but, geez, it's such a good deal, and you will need it eventually, right? So you buy the toothpaste. Great, there's nothing wrong with that. Except, next week it will be body wash, or deodorant, or tampons ... and then, do you ever stop spending?
This phenomenon is, of course, what manufacturers and stores want to happen. They print a coupon that gets you $1.00 off, but only if you buy two of the item, and even if you only use two of that particular item in a year, you reason that you've saved 50 cents off each one and you've gotten a good deal. Then you store it all away, but you just keep buying more and more because it's such a great deal.
This is why I'm convinced that the average person kind of sucks at saving money. I really think the only way to actually save money is to set a grocery budget, say you're only going to spend x amount at a particular store, vow to pay cash, and then keep a running tab on your cell phone's calculator as you shop.
I tried that approach at the grocery store the other day. (Well, minus the cash part, because it's just too scary to me to think about getting up to the register and not having enough money.) I said I was going to spend $20 total. I had a list, but there was flexibility on the list because, for example, I could just choose the cheapest fruits and buy the quantity that was left in my budget. Except ... I got to $20 before I even left the dairy aisle. (Another concern: I wanted the low-fat or fat-free cheese and yogurt, and those were more expensive, at least this week.) I amended my budget to $40, because I mean after all I should buy produce, and when I got to the register my total was $50, down to $45 when my coupons were scanned.
Bill says if you can get a good deal on something you will eventually use anyway, you should buy it. I say, when will it end?
2 comments:
Use cash. REALLY. It works. Also? I shop at Aldi. I shop there so often, that I know exactly how much everything costs, and I can buy $50 of groceries for a family of 5 to eat for about 3 or 4 days. Really. Granola bars: $1.89. Cereal: $1.99. Bread: $.89. There is a lack of options, therefore, a lack of confusion. If you want ketchup, here it is. One choice. If you don't like it, don't buy it here. And surprisingly, most of their stuff is actually REALLY GOOD. As in, tastier than most name brands! Their frozen pizzas, fresh pizzas, soups, ice cream, chocolate, fresh hummus, and fresh salsa are my favorite items above any other store.
Do it for a month and tell me you don't see a spending drop. Go with $100 cash (no debit card!) and try to only spend about $75. Round everything up for tax and keep count in your head.
And, another thing. All that stuff takes up so much space that in a three car garage, there is barely enough room for one car! (FYI, our neighbor, of course.)
Oh yes, when you store the extra items in your garage and you forgot they are there, you run out and buy another five-pack of whatever. (In this case, that's us.)
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