Is Costco worth it?
Whether you have a big family, small family, you live in an RV or a house.
Today, that's what we're going to discuss.
We are Costco members and we have been both of us for over 10 years.
Costco has three different types of membership: Gold, Business and Executive.
Gold and Business are both $55 a year and the Executive membership is $110.
We have the Executive membership.
There are two main differences between the Gold and the Executive membership.
With the Executive membership
if you happen to sign up with any of the different Costco services that they offer
health care, auto buying program, etc
Executive members get additional benefits above the Gold membership.
Now the biggest difference for us is that
Executive members get 2% back on all eligible purchases in Costco.
This does not apply to their gas stations
but everything you're buying in the warehouse and online.
Now the Executive membership is double the price of Gold.
So you need to spend at least enough money to make that $55 back.
That the Executive membership is actually worth it for you.
Otherwise we'd suggest going with the Gold membership if you don't plan to use it that often.
With all of the great items at Costco sells
and a lot of the discounts that come with those
it's really easy to justify spending $55 on a Gold membership.
The main reason to join a warehouse membership like Costco is to save money.
If you can't go to a warehouse, you can also shop online.
Costco has some really great online deals and it's always free shipping.
I've never run across an item that didn't have free shipping
and if you don't like the product you can always return it to a warehouse.
One of the big things for us is Costco gasoline.
Their gasoline is on average about three to five cents cheaper
as we've seen it across the country.
But in some of the bigger metropolitan areas,
we've seen over 30 cent difference between a Costco gas station
and any of the other gas stations in that area.
Now, this does lead to a bit of a problem because
when we used to live in Los Angeles and you would show up at Costco gas station
you probably have to wait five or ten minutes to fill up
and sometimes it just wasn't worth.
Some Costco's do have diesel you can check their website
to see if the Costco you're planning on going to offers diesel.
And the height limitation at Costco gas stations is 13' 6".
Another great benefit of Costco is their propane sales.
They fill up the standard 20lb propane tanks
that you might use on your barbecue.
They'll also fill up your RV.
So whenever we get to a Costco that has propane, we fill up our RV.
Those prices tend to be about half that what you might find it let's say U-haul
or some other home improvement store.
Costco also has great prices on tires
and if you buy all your tires from them
they have really great tire coverage.
So you can get free tire rotations, free nitrogen fill
and if you happen to need a tire replacement
they will credit you for the tread that's left on your current tire.
They also do free tire repairs.
The other thing to take note of is that they're always running sales
either for their Michelin tires or one other brand
that if you buy four, you get $70 off.
And if you didn't buy your tires from Costco
you can still get them inflated, rotated and repaired for a fee.
And their fee is a lot better than most tire shops.
But let's actually move into the store and talk about some of the stuff inside.
Now when you go into Costco, you're going to see different sections
of goods that they have around the store.
One of my favorite ones is always going through the electronics department.
They have fantastic prices on all different electronics including cameras, gear, big-screen TVs.
They have different goods for the household.
Some will have furniture, kitchen items and all sorts of things for the house,
for the garage, generators, power washers.
And we've noticed as we travel around the country
those items will vary depending on where they are.
In the south, we actually saw a lot of gun safes and things like that.
And as we've come up north and we're in Wisconsin we saw snow blowers at Costco.
The ones by the beaches will sell surfboards others by rivers will sell kayaks.
There is also a huge alcohol section.
Costco happens to be the largest buyers of wine in the country and maybe even in the world.
But their wine selection is phenomenal their prices are usually great.
And the sales they have on alcohol are fantastic as well.
There's a whole meat butcher section.
They do a lot of the butchering on-site.
Fresh fruit, vegetables, they have a whole frozen food section and then dry food.
So all your spices, rices, beans, packaged goods, processed goods, chips, breads.
They do dog food, they do baby supplies, cleaning supplies.
Now, Costco also has a pharmacy
and you can get all your prescriptions filled their including prescriptions for your pet.
So you can get almost everything taken care of at Costco for the most part
depending on what you need.
The benefit of going to Costco is be able to buy in bulk and save.
A lot of the items that Costco carries, they actually come out with their own Kirkland brand.
So it's Costco's generic brand for popular items sold at Costco.
For example, we used to buy cold pressed coconut oil for $20.
Now Costco has come out with their Kirkland brand coconut oil for $17.
There's a three dollar savings there. So look for Kirkland brand items.
And we found that they also tend to be as good or better quality than the name brands.
Another great way to save a Costco are their coupons.
They come out with a new set of coupons every month.
You can look those up online or just walk into the store and they'll hand you them.
Also, as you're walking around the store, keep an eye out for manufacturers instant rebates
and other sales that they're doing throughout the store.
Whenever we can we stock up on water at Costco
and the Kirkland water that we always get is actually on sale and it's $1 off.
From $3.39 and we're stocking up. I think this is probably the most our coach can hold.
We've heard from a lot of people that they don't want to
join a warehouse because they don't have to buy in bulk.
The nice thing about Costco is, a lot of the food items and all of that you can
buy in smaller individually packaged goods.
Typically, they are a bit bigger than what you might find it at a supermarket.
But that said, what we found is we buy all of our basics there.
We'll buy paper towels. We buy dog food.
We buy all of our oils, a lot of our spices and things there.
And we simply break the packaging up and find places where we can put it in the RV.
They have fantastic meats and vegetables.
We'll buy fruit there. Bananas and various other things.
Kait loves their watermelons and they have fantastic prices on watermelon
We buy apples and things that will keep for a while in the fridge.
When we buy their meat it does come in larger packages.
But what we do is, we'll separate out all the meat into Ziplocks.
So that we only have to pull out a ziplock and use that.
Everything else goes into the freezer.
We also try to find things that are already broken up into little packages.
So if you look at their organic ground beef, it's already separated into three packages.
All you have to do is put them in the freezer.
If you like to buy organic products, Costco also has a great selection.
We always choose organic when possible.
The other thing is they're starting to carry more gluten free products as well.
Costco is also really well known for their samples.
It's a great way to sample products that are in bulky packages.
You don't want to buy two boxes of cereal that you never tasted before.
Hot food is very popular at Costco. Their $4.99 rotisserie chicken flies off the shelves.
We were actually a Costco where there was a line of people waiting
for the next batch of rotisserie chicken coming out of the oven.
In addition to hot foods, they also have a food court.
They're very well known for their $1.50 hot dog and soda combo.
If you're in need of a quick bite to eat, at a really good price you really can't beat their food court.
And their $10, or $9.99 jumbo pizzas are fantastic.
Now the thing that I love about Costco is our 100% money-back guarantee.
And that applies to their memberships as well.
So if you're wondering do I want to pay $55 for a Costco membership for a year?
You can buy that membership. If you're not satisfied they will give you your money back.
If you happen to find a product that you don't like
or goes bad they will give you your money back.
The only time that's limited is on certain electronic items that you purchase
and usually those will come with a 90-day money back guarantee.
One of my favorite benefits of being a Costco member is their credit card.
They used to have one with American Express that now moved over to Visa.
We get 4% cash back on all gas purchases.
3% on travel and restaurants. 2% in the store.
That's actually 2% on top of the other 2% we get for being Executive members.
Now we're going 4% back in the store and 1% everywhere else.
And using that credit card all the time really pays off.
Especially when we're filling this beast with 80 gallons of gas.
We hope you enjoyed this video.
If you're wondering whether a warehouse membership is worth it.
If you're going to be full time RVing or living in a small apartment.
Our answer is absolutely.
There are always items that you can get at Costco
and benefit from all the savings that they offer.
Let us know if you belong to a warehouse membership and what you think of it.
Thank you so much for watching. We'll see you next time.
Bye.
And here is a pro tip for all you Costco shoppers or soon-to-be Costco shoppers.
If you can find a Costco that's near Sam's Club
their prices will actually be less and other Costcos in the area.