Costco Haul

Both Aaron and I spent our teenage years on the western side of America—Aaron being born & raised in the state of Washington, and me living in Hawaii for ages 12-17.  We were both very familiar with Costco and the Kirkland Signature brand—it actually began in Washington state.

Shortly after my family moved to Alabama, a Costco warehouse opened up about 30 miles away from our home.  Aaron and I got Costco memberships in 2012 a couple months before Michael was born.  

Aaron now happens to work at a facility within 3 miles of the store.  So, about once a month he’ll swing into Costco to grab a few things on his way home.  We’ve definitely found that it’s to our benefit to get some staples at Costco even if they’re in the bulk size. 

Here’s some of our favorite things to get from Costco:

-JIF Peanut Butter.   I’m a choosy mom.  I know prices vary across the nation, but we get this at Costco and it comes in a Twin pack and the PB jars are  48oz. each  That’s 3 lbs EACH.  That’s HUGE!  A singular smaller  24 oz jar at the regular grocery store is $7.99.  We pay $9.99 for this twin pack.  This is pretty much always on our list.  We eat some peanut butter in this house.  And when I say “we” I pretty much mean me. 

-Butter sticks.  I do a fair amount of baking, and we use a reasonable amount of butter in our cooking.  I like to get butter at Costco (the Kirkland signature brand).  It comes in a 4-pack of four 1/2c sticks each.  I put one box in the fridge and put the rest in the freezer.  I like not having to worry if I have butter.  Once I’m down to my last pack in the freezer, it goes back on the list.  We can usually go 2-3 trips between having to buy butter.

-Ziploc bags.  I particularly like buying the box of sandwich bags (read: I have a kid in school and I pack his lunch).  And I like having the box of gallon size bags too—they’re just good for all kinds of uses around the kitchen.  Food storage, thawing out meat, storing the bacon package after it’s been opened, sealing off stinky trash (like shrimp peels), containing all the medicines that we pack whenever we go on a trip (Benadryl, Tylenol, motrin, Zyrtec, etc).  We’ve bought the variety pack of Ziploc when they didn’t have the full box of sandwich bags available.  But it’s hard for me to find enough uses for the quart size bags and snack bags.  I definitely prefer to have the full box of sandwich bags, and a box of gallon bags.

-Crystal Light lemonade mix.  We prefer using carb-free drink mixes at our house.  Now, taste-wise, I prefer the Publix brand for lemonade mix.  But we prefer the convenience of the Crystal Light availability at Costco.  Aaron found a bag of the mix, which includes about 20 little packs which each make a 2-qt pitcher of lemonade.  We make this all the time and it’s nice to know we have lemonade mix for whenever Noah (he’s our biggest lemonade drinker) asks us to make more when the current pitcher runs out. 

-Dog food.  When you have two medium size dogs, dog food disappears like no other!  It seemed we were constantly buying dog food at the grocery store and that would hike up our bill so high!  So, we decided to search for our preferred branch (IAMs) at Costco.  They didn’t have it.  So we chose to try the Kirkland signature brand.  Our dogs did fine (sometimes dogs struggle with changing brands—tummy issues).  It’s so convenient now to buy a huge bulk bag once a month.  Usually our Costco trips are contingent on when the dogs need food.  I keep a running list of things we need from Costco, and whenever Aaron says he’s swinging by Costco after work, I just text my list to him.

-Meat.  I really really really like to buy meat at Costco.  We like to get the bags of frozen chicken thighs or tenders (when they don’t have thighs in stock).  We also like to buy their portioned out ground beef burgers (not the frozen ones, but the ones in the fridge area).  We then put 2 or so patties in parchment paper, wrap them up, and freeze them so it’s like a pound of ground beef for each wrapped portion.  We get about 4 packs of portioned meat when we buy it this way and it’s so much cheaper than getting it from the store.

-Ground coffee.  I think we usually buy this about once a year, to a year and a half.  A big canister that I use re-usable k-cups with lasts a really long time.  Also, it’s nice to have ground coffee on hand for when we have guests and make a pot of coffee. 

-Chocolate chips.  This is also something I hate buying from the regular grocery store due to the marked-up prices and small bags.  We buy the Nestle humongous bag and I pop it in the freezer.  We buy this about once every 4 or 5 trips—depends on how much baking I do. 

-Shelf stable chocolate milk.  This is a necessity in this house to have chocolate milk on hand at all times for potential blood-sugar lows for Michael.  We also send this to school for the nurses to have as part of Michael’s low blood sugar supply boxes.  We take this on trips, and always keep some in the consoles of our vehicles, and the no-need to refrigerate til open is so convenient. 

-Applesauce.  When Costco stocks the unsweetened Mott’s applesauce packs, we get them.  Twenty-four individual servings in a box, and we use them in lunches for Michael, as well as Noah’s breakfasts (sometimes he just wants applesauce). 

-diapers.  We started buying diapers at Costco when Michael was a baby.  We also bought Pull-ups from Costco.  We have started buying diapers again since Avery’s birth. 

-wipes.  We also buy baby wipes at Costco.  We don’t want to know what it’s like to run out of wipes, so this is our failsafe.  Also, it’s cheaper.  We can buy wipes about 2 to 3 times a year and be set.

-Facial wipes.  I liked to get either the Kirkland Signature Daily Facial Wipes (smells so good!) or the Neutrogena Make-Up Removing Facial Wipes from Costco. 

-Bar soap.  Costco carries our preferred Dove brand bar soap and it’s nice again to have the convenience of reaching under the bathroom cabinet for a bar of soap and knowing we have a supply.  We buy this about once to twice a year.  Each pack comes with like 16 bars of soap.

-BreatheRight strips for Aaron.  It’s always nice to have these on hand too rather than running out and having to  buy them at the grocery store.

-Paper plates.  It’s super convenient to have a supply of paper plates on hand for those nights when we don’t want to have a dinner mess, or we have a casual big-family dinner, etc.  We keep these in our laundry room on a shelf, but they do take up a lot of space.

-Napkins. Once I bought napkins like on two back-to-back Costco trips.  That was probably two years ago or more.  After I finally finish using the napkins I’m going to attempt using cloth napkins at home. 

-Parchment paper. Comes in a two pack and lasts us about 6 months.

-Paper Towels.  Life savers.  We keep these on a shelf in our garage.  Very nice to have on hand, and so convenient for times when the bus driver stops in front of my house and asks if he can have a roll since a kid just vomited on the bus.  Yes, here, take it.  I don’t need it back.  I have plenty.

-Toilet paper.  Again, this takes up a huge amount of space, but it doesn’t have to.  I could undo the packs of 6-rolls (4 packs of 6-rolls per Charmin container) and distribute them among both bathrooms. 

-Foil. Comes in a two pack.  Really helpful around the holidays when I don’t have to think if I have enough foil to cover turkeys, etc.

That’s pretty much our main haul.  Occasionally, we’ll come across good seasonal deals like cocoa packets at Christmas time, and that’s always fun.  We got 60 packs of cocoa mix for $5.00 in December.  I also bought Oreos here (10 sleeves a pack) in my early post-partum days with Noah and Avery.  We’ve also bought spaghetti sauce, spices, granola bars, etc. from Costco.

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba