Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I just returned home from my annual holiday shopping trip to the valley for baking supplies.
Shopping at Costco
Our family firmly believes in buying local and for most of the year we do. We know where to shop to stretch our money as far as we can and still eat good wholesome food. We would love to be able to say that we buy only organic, locally grown fruits and vegetables, but we can’t. We’ve been forced to cut back on the luxury of being able to eat healthy, nutritious foods and are forced to succumb to eating some GMO foods.
Occasionally, we take a trip to the valley to stretch our dollars a little farther. I did my homework before I left home, I was on a mission to seek out canned goods, bulk flour (25#), bulk sugars… I even got a terrific deal on a 25# bag of carrots (only $5.99 at Smart & Final). The carrots can be made into stews, soups, or sliced and frozen.
I had intended to purchase a 25# bag of flour at Smart & Final as well but as luck would have it, we went to Costco first. Since I had made a list of sale items from each store and the price and/or savings, I saved an additional .50 cents at Costco.
Listen, if you can’t afford to go out and drop a few hundred dollars to stock up, don’t worry – the truth is that you don’t have to. Determine how much “extra” money you can afford to spend and make a large purchase, once-a-week, or once-a-month. It doesn’t matter, even buying one single item bulk each month will put you out ahead of the game at the end of the year.
Don't forget the toilet paper. A huge waste of money - however, necessary.
We bought a huge flat of toilet paper for $17.99, (at Costco) just $5.00 more than we would normally spend on a package 1/3 the size at Cost-U-Less in Sonora. So, we bought two. I won’t have to buy any toilet paper for probably six-months — what cost me money today that I had to scrimp for — will compound over the next 6-months and save me hundreds of dollars.
We did the same thing with our insurance, we cut back on as much as we possibly could on our insurance. Then we scrimped and saved so that we could pay 6-months in-advance. As our savings added up, so did our ability to pay the bill 6-months in advance and we were able to add back in more coverage — simply because our money is going further these days.
This system works with almost anything, but I must warn you: This method requires some speculation, you have to have a very good idea what things are worth and what they really cost. We’ve messed up a few times, but we are saving hundreds each month, so I don’t feel too bad when I end up not getting such a terrific bargain on occasion.
Energy Saving Tools
A simple rule of thumb is if you aren’t sure, don’t buy. Another terrific bargain is sure to present itself before too long. All in all, I feel we had a productive trip. I had taken the time to print off a list of sale items, complete with the store address and telephone number. I was able to route our trip to prevent backtracking and was able to enter each store’s address into the Tribeca’s navigation system and the GPS did the rest.
Related articles
- How to Shop at Costco and Sam’s Club Without a Membership (lifehacker.com)
- Billeater: What to Buy and Not to Buy at Costco Stores (savings.com)
- What does going *Green* mean? (blog.reliableanswers.com)
- Preparing for the Unknown… (retailbandit.com)
- 10 States Celebrate National Bulk Foods Week (greenanswers.com)