Last month’s Costco AMEX bill showed up a couple day’s ago. It was only $660!!!! That’s about 2/3 of its budgeted figure, and probably the smallest AMEX bill I’ve ever had!
The reason for this miracle, I think, is that ever since the last of the endless round of surgeries, I’ve lost interest in eating well and lost interest in shopping at Costco.
Any trip to Costco is likely to turn into an impulse-buy carnival. Whenever I’m in that store, I’m tempted (and usually cave to temptation) to buy 18 times more stuff than I need at the time and three or four things that are just too, TOO neat to pass by. Because, after all, we know they’ll be gone by the next time we get to Costco, eh?
Instead, I’ve been buying at grocery stores, Walgreen’s, and Target, and only buying as much as I need at any given time. Whereas you’d think that buying in bulk would represent a cost savings, apparently it doesn’t. At least not in the short run. It might, if you only bought things that are cost-effective in bulk — the paper towels and the toilet-paper, for example. But Costco’s meat (for another example) is no cheaper than grocery-store meat, and most of the other stuff, while appealing, isn’t something that you just have to have.
A second, probably lesser reason is that I’ve taken to occasionally paying for things with a debit card, so as to get a few dollars back in walking-around cash. Without the teaching job, I have no reason to traipse to the credit union to deposit checks twice a month (after the District gave away all our private information to hackers, forcing me to close my checking account and get a new one with a new account number and to put a freeze on all my credit-bureau accounts, I canceled the direct-deposit). So a debit payment works to provide a little cash now and again.
But I don’t think I’ve paid more than about $150 or $200 that way. Even if I put $200 on the debit card, that’s still only about $860: way under the $1100 budget.
Telling, eh?
Pretty cool…..I’ve read articles in support of this theory. Lately I have been trying to stay out of the stores as much as possible and we seem to waste less. Pretty crazy that your bill is a little more than half the budgeted amount…
Just curious, how long have you been on a Costco diet? The only thing I wonder is that if you have been drawing down on items that you bought on Costco, which could be keeping your costs down for now, but will likely see them increase as you eventually run out of certain items. I guess I’ll be curious to see what happens when your Costco stock runs down to zero, if your costs stay as low as they are. Or maybe that’s already happened!
Well, that’s happened a time or two, especially with the cleaning lady in the offing (she likes paper towels. She likes paper towels A LOT). What I’ve been doing to cope with a stock-up trip to Costco is writing a list and marching through the place as if I had blinders on.
If you’re absolutely positively DETERMINED to buy only what’s on the list, you’re a lot less likely to succumb to a buying frenzy. Not immune to it…but less likely.
We use Costco for big buys: 50 pounds of flour, 25 pounds of rice, 20 pounds of beans, ginormous batches of paper products.
In our case, the result is that we don’t buy a whole lot at supermarkets — just things like eggs, lettuce and milk. It’s great not to have to go to the store every Saturday.
My partner does all the Costco runs, which is fine with me. Although I’m pretty frugal I do have a bit of bower-bird syndrome (“Oooh! Pretty! Shiny! Want one!”) even if it’s only for those doggoned dried mango slices that are soooo easy to eat and soooo full of sugar….
“Bower-bird syndrome”…oh, that is GOOD! So much better than the now endlessly hackneyed “bag lady syndrome.” 😀
Try the not-quite-altogether-dried sugary coconut chunks. Mmmm num num $
I occasionally go into Costco to pick up prescriptions (one does not need a membership to get prescriptions) and if I have time, I wander around a bit to see what there is to see.
And I start to think “maybe I could justify a membership?” I think, well, I could buy gas here, and the rotisserie chickens are cheaper than anywhere else…
But then I remember that I live alone. And yes, I like hummus, but I don’t need a 48oz container of hummus. And all those neato things would definitely find their way home if I wandered by – even though right now I don’t know what I’m missing and don’t miss them…so I shake it off and don’t get a membership.
I have loads of friends with memberships and they have all said they are HAPPY to shop with me if I want to buy anything at Costco.