Slowing but surely, I’m figuring out more time and money-saving grocery shopping methods. Check out my big Costco experiment! I’m learning so much!
In this post, I shared that I had tried ordering all of my non-perishable Costco products online and letting them ship it all to me for free. Sounds so smart, right??? Yes. What a great way to avoid having to fill so many carts at Costco, right??? Yes. And this way, all of my non-perishables would land on my porch (with free shipping) and all I’d have to do in-store is buy fresh and frozen food. Maybe I could even get away with just one heaping cart, right??? Yes.
BUT WAIT.
One of you left a comment here to share that when ordering online, the prices are slightly higher than when purchasing in-store. I had no idea! And then I decided that I wanted to know how much more. Because if it wasn’t significant, I figured that my newly-discovered online-ordering method might be a huge time-saving help even if it did cost a couple of bucks more overall.
My Big Costco Experiment
The next time I was able to go back to Costco, I bought everything (and I do mean everything, as you will see in the pictures below) perishable and non-perishable. I filled an orange cart (you know the ones?) and I thought I was going to have a disaster in which everything on that orange cart would topple over onto the aisle as I turned. The stress – it was too much! WHO CARES if it costs more online, thought I. I can’t even fit everything I need onto this huge orange cart! I decided that I would go back to ordering online just to save the headache!
Hmmm. But then later, I pulled out my receipts for in-store purchases and compared several items to the online prices. Well, would you look at that??
Almost every online item costs around $1.50 more than the same item when purchased in the store. Some cost over $2.00 extra. This really adds up since I buy so many items!! I didn’t price check every single product from my past online order, but last time I shopped online I ordered 19 things. If I paid $1.50 more per item, that added up to $28.50 more compared to when I buy them in the store. Yikes, no thank you. I’d rather buy food with that $28.50!
So, now what?
Well, I think I figured out something that might work!
See, I can only make it to Costco about once each month if that. So when I go, I have a really long list of items that I need. If I’m by myself, there’s no way I can fit everything I need into one cart, or even onto one big orange cart. But here’s a plan that will be less stressful, I believe, than trying to Tetris everything onto an orange cart before it topples over.
I’m going to need to fill a cart, check out, unload into our van, then go back into Costco for round two. Ha! Sound like a ridiculous plan? Of course it’s ridiculous. But I think that’s where I’m at.
My New Costco Plan
- Walk into the store, take a deep breath, and shop for all non-perishables. Clothing, paper products, canned goods, boxed snacks and chips, baking products, applesauce, and whatever else doesn’t require refrigeration or extra care.
- Check-out, load the van, then go back in.
- Take a bathroom break.
- Eat a hotdog and drink a big cup of water.
- I’m not even kidding. This job makes a person need some major sustenance and $1.50 for the big dog/drink combo is pretty rockin’.
- Grab an empty cart again and fill it with all the fresh produce, frozen foods, refrigerated foods, and bread products that we need.
- Check out again, load the van again, open the box of Kombucha I just bought, and drink a bottle for refreshment and survival.
When packing our van, I usually fill a cooler bag full of meat and cheese, and a second cooler bag full of perishable produce.
This particular Costco trip, pictured above, filled the back of our Ford Transit! This was an exceptionally large shopping trip because we had a lot of events I needed to prepare for, as well as the need to fill our fridge/freezer/pantry at home for normal use. I got:
- Cheeses and crackers to serve for refreshments after Justus’ senior vocal recital
- Oat milk, Nature Valley snacks, olive oil, and a few other items for Kelsey (Justus’ fiance) and her roommates
- Chips, bottles of water, and paper products for Malachi’s Homeschool Melodrama performance nights (each parent signed up to provide items for concessions)
- Pork butt to make a pulled pork meal to feed the Melodrama group during a dress rehearsal
- Apples, grapes, mixed greens, spinach, blueberries, and raspberries
- Shredded cheese, kombucha, and Naked drinks to share with our college kids in apartments
- Oats and bagged granola
- Frozen pizza, chicken nuggets, and tilapia
- Hamburger meat and chicken thighs
- A few other odds and ends that I’ve forgotten and these:
These are for our 6yo and 2yo for Justus and Kelsey’s wedding this summer! What an amazing find at Costco!
Am I the only one?
So, what do you think about my Costco experiment? Have you ever had to go in twice in order to successfully make all of your purchases without items falling out of your cart?
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Stay tuned for more Big Family Food posts, where I share all about how I make food for our big family! And read here to catch up on other posts in this series you may have missed. :)
Do they have a pick up option? My Sam’s does and I can order everything and just schedule a pick up time (like you do with walmart.) I’m not familiar enough with Costco, and I’m guessing you already checked, but even if you could just order all your non perishables to pick up then you could do your other shopping and load everything up at once.
No, unfortunately Costco is different. It’s Instacart which is why the prices are higher. That’s why I love Sam’s and Walmart because they are right next to each other by me so I can do a two for one.
Yes, Laura, I have gone shopping and had to unload to shop again but only because I forgot
something (and end up buying the forgotten item and other things to keep it company!)
At least you have a good reason for having to shop twice!
I hope you have a shirt with a huge “WW” on it for Wonder Woman and I hope you wear it every day!
Any chance you could ask/hire a teen (Church youth group volunteer?) to go with and load the van after foray #1 and 2? That would save some of your energy for sure! I’d put out that ‘opportunity’ to the whole church (help wanted!) It is only monthly and you might be surprised (Again!) at how many would love to join your family’s ministry!
That’s totally reasonable, Laura! Just FYI because I know you are new to girls, Costco has those beautiful girls’ dresses twice yearly, at Eastertime and Christmas. So if you know you need dresses, that’s when you’ll find them. If you have a Burlington Coat Factory nearby, they often have beautiful and inexpensive fancy dresses too, but it can vary by time of year and by location. Children’s Place is my go-to for tights.
This is going to sound harder than it is (but truly is not nearly as hard as steering an orange cart with the Leaning Tower of Costco it, lol)….when I have big Costco runs to do, I use TWO carts at the same time–push one in front of me, and pull the other cart by it’s front end behind me. Try it, it totally works! Then you have only one trip through the tills; plus all the heavy can be on the bottom when you load the van, without needing to rearrange trip #1’s booty.
And, of course, I still stop for the hot dog for the energy to unload at home, lol.
Love to hear your big food stories!
In all seriousness, I have a life long back injury from doing a full cart push one/pull one!! I highly discourage it!!! :-(
Our Costco is only 2mi. away, but for our family of 10, I fill a regular cart to heaping, both top and bottom, EVERY WEEK. So….If Costco was an hour away for me and I only went once a month, I would TOTALLY do two trips like that. I’ve done the two carts at once trick, but it was too much for me. I am not a big person and the carts were too heavy and unwieldily to manage together. I might consider filling one cart, parking it near the front somewhere, and then filling another cart, go through checkout for both, and then taking them separately to the van. (?)
I almost never take boxes at checkout, they get packed all wrong and are too heavy and you can’t stack them in the van. So when I load the van, I put all boxes, flat and heavy things on the bottom. Make space for next heavies – glass, jars, bottles, etc. – I just puzzle it all together, keeping heavy bags of produce heaped in a corner (oranges, potatoes, onions, etc.) and the lightest things on top. You might consider hard sided coolers, since they can have stuff stacked on top…. :)
You’re doing so great!!I’m sure your heart is very full. Love never fails.
Laura….here are two other options….
1 When you pickup your orange cart swing by the checkout and pickup boxes. As you do your shopping you simply fill the boxes and stack them on top of each other. No more leaning tower of catastrophe ?
2. You make Costco a family fun day. Load up everyone (so you have help with another cart) and take your time going through. Have hot dogs on your way in. Sit on the bikes, taste the food, plan ahead and look for gifts for upcoming events, have book time, etc. Then get ice cream on your way out.
You have a day together enjoying each other, littles are ready for a nap when you get home, and shopping is accomplished. We schedule 2hrs when doing this. My kids love it.
We used to shop at Costco monthly, but since we moved, the nearest one is about two hours away instead of only one.
So with the price of gas and the time it takes, I’ve started ordering non-perishables from Costco for delivery. Yes it costs a bit more, but it saves the time/hassle of loading everyone up and the time spent in the car (as we rarely have a reason to go that direction so it’s just an extra trip), plus the gas. So for now, ordering makes sense. Maybe when gas comes back down it’ll be wiser to shop in person but for now I appreciate the delivery option.
This is me too. Our costco is about an hour away and with gas I am thinking it will pay me to just order online. But I have been overthinking it for days.
Maybe this won’t work for you but I push one cart and pull another behind me. Your forearms and hand strength will be tested but only really at the end when both carts are full.
Personally my time is worth more than $28.50. Sometimes I have to weigh the cost vs my time.
Is there a customer service area where you could leave your first filled cart while you fill the second? Then you could check out both carts at once and ask one of the workers to push the second cart out to your van. This would save you the physical strain of maneuvering two carts and be faster than doing two separate check outs.
I also like the idea of outsourcing any of the aspects possible, unless the actual shopping is life giving to you. :)
Is Sam’s Club a possibility? They don’t up-charge for their Click and Pull. When we adopted two children and had a baby just a few days later, while already having 4 children at home, Sam’s Club Click and Pull was a Godsend!
Cousin! (Yes I’m shouting, but just a bit to get your attention). I hope you have an executive membership AND the Costco credit card that earns cash back on every purchase. It really adds up. I just cashed my annual check from Costco cash back and it was over $500. I imagine yours would be much larger since you are shopping for so many more. You also get 5% back on all Costco fuel purchases
About every 6mo to a year I do a big haul at a discount grocery (used to be aldi but found I do better at this particular store most of the time). It’s about 1 1/2hrs from us so I make sure it’s worth my time. Normally it’s the whole crew or at least me and some kids. I do multiple carts of dry goods/canned, check out, load it into our vehicle, eat some lunch or snacks and head back in for cold stuff (normally a smaller amount) and then check out again ? I don’t get “too” many odd stares as it’s run by mennonites.
Yes! We may shop at the same store! Sharp Shopper saves me so much money! We always have at least 3-4 loaded carts. Although it’s great that we take up so many carts so each kid “gets” to help :)
I think it’s a great idea! I did this my last grocery trip (not Costco though, so minus the hot dog) when my cart was full and I was only halfway through my list. It was so much easier than trying to puzzle everything back into the cart again after checkout!
I totally agree that the extra charge for shipping to your house is too high – especially if you have to go to that store anyway. I think your idea is so worth it. It’s exactly what I would do. Even if I had to go through 3 times, it would be worth it to not be stressed out and to get all the things my family needed. $28.50 every month for a year is $342.00. And that’s if you’re only getting those 19 or so items every time you order! I can fill a whole cart at Costco for $342.00.