How Much Money Costco Actually Saves Me
Is Costco really worth the $60 membership fee? For a large family with kids, it seems like a pretty obvious yes. But what about for a 1- or 2-person household? I looked at the items I buy most frequently from Costco to learn how much my membership actually saves me (in a 2-person household) and it’s definitely worth the fee.
I first started shopping at Costco because I was a PhD student with little time and even less money, so I was willing to try anything that saved me both. Since Costco offers to reimburse the membership fee if you don’t save at least $60, it was worth a try. At the beginning, comparing prices between Costco and my regular grocery store was a bit of a time investment. I’m that person who walks around the store with phone in hand looking up the grocery store price and calculating which bottle of this or that is actually cheaper per ounce. But it didn’t take long before I knew which items I could get for a better price, and the savings on coffee beans was my first hook.
The amount of money I save on coffee beans alone pays for more than 2/3 of my membership fee. Seriously! A small bag of Starbucks coffee beans costs $7.49 at my regular grocery store and lasts about 2 weeks. But I can get the same coffee beans in a bag more than 3 times that size for $21 at Costco — not to mention the bag is often on sale for $5 off. Over the course of a year, I’d have to replace that grocery store bag twenty-six times at a total cost of $195. At Costco, I only have to buy coffee about eight times a year and really less than that since I usually buy 2–3 bags at a time when I find it on sale. If I catch just one sale per year, I buy 5 bags at $21 and 3 bags at $16 for an annual total of $153. That’s $42 of savings just on coffee.
I also love Costco’s prices on some of the common ingredients in a vegan/vegetarian diet. On average, eating a vegetarian diet is cheaper than eating meat regularly; but some of the staples of vegetarian recipes can still be a little expensive. Nuts, seeds, dried fruit, nut butter, and maple syrup are all items I buy exclusively from Costco because I just can’t stomach the price of them elsewhere. In order to really see the savings though, you have to look at the price per ounce (not per item), which requires a little simple math. You just divide the price of the item by the number of ounces it contains. So here’s a per ounce breakdown of grocery store prices versus Costco prices for some of my favorite and most frequently used ingredients. My savings totals are based on the difference between Costco prices and grocery store prices at Costco quantities.
Walnuts — $0.44 (16 oz) vs. $0.25 (48 oz). Savings: $9.12
100% Real Organic Maple Syrup — $0.52 (32 oz) vs. $0.37 (33.8 oz). Savings: $5.07
Almond Butter — $0.41 (12oz) vs. $0.33 (27 oz). Savings: $2.16
Organic Hemp Seeds — $0.94 (12 oz) vs. $0.40 (32 oz). Savings: $17.28
Quaker Oats Old Fashioned Oatmeal — $0.09 (42 oz) vs. $0.06 (160 oz). Savings: $4.80
Pitted Deglet Noor Dates — $0.48 (8 oz) vs. $0.25 (40 oz). Savings: $9.20
Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil — $0.29 (16.9 oz) vs. $0.20 (67.6 oz). Savings: $6.08
Organic Soy Milk — $0.06 (32 oz) vs. $0.03 (384 oz). Savings: $11.52
Vega Sport Plant-Based Protein Powder — $1.37 (29.2) vs. $0.98 (32.5). Savings: $12.67
Adding up the savings on all of these items comes to a total of $77.90 — that’s $17 more than my annual membership! But that’s from just one shopping trip. The list above includes only items that I use just about every week (making the large warehouse quantities convenient as well as cost effective), which means I’m buying these groceries at least three times a year and tripling that savings to $233.70. I also frequently buy Annie’s Organic Mac ’n’ Cheese at a savings of $1.74 per box and La Croix seltzer at a savings of $0.10 per can, totaling $23.28 worth of savings every time I purchase them at Costco (for consistency we’ll say three times a year, but I definitely buy way more Annie’s than that). Between coffee, staples, and these regular extras I’m saving $285/year after deducting my membership fee. That may not seem like that much savings for a whole year, but that’s my absolute minimum savings just from shopping Costco online.
All of the grocery items I’ve mentioned above are just the ones that I can order online and have shipped to me (free with a $70 order). I’ve spent the last two years splitting my time between Boulder, Colorado where I lived in walking distance to three different grocery stores and rural Tennessee where I have to drive 30 minutes to get to a decent (affordable) grocery store. In Tennessee, buying dry goods from Costco online has saved me driving time as well as money. But when I’m in Boulder, I shop Costco in person where I can buy Beyond Burgers, cheeses, tortilla chips, breads, stuffed pasta, frozen fruit, local beer, and gasoline at discounted prices.
Costco can also be good for big electronics purchase. Earlier this year, I splurged on a Sonos Sound Bar and saved about $79 off of the standard price. I made similar savings last year when I bought myself an iRobot Roomba from Costco. Finally, I’m also signed up for the Costco Anywhere Visa Card, which has no annual fee for members but gives you 3% cash back on restaurants and eligible travel purchases, 2% back on all my Costco purchases, and 1% back on everything else. Last year I earned $83.25 in cash just from using the card!
So, when it’s all added up, I’m making my membership fee back and saving over $450 per year by shopping at Costco. For me, that’s definitely worth it. Costco also saves me time because larger quantities mean fewer trips to the store, and that’s worth something too. But just because Costco works for my 2-person household, doesn’t mean it’ll work for you — it depends on what you buy. I stopped buying produce at Costco because I couldn’t eat it all before it went bad, and throwing away food is throwing away money. People have different ways of making Costco work for them, and buying coffee and vegetarian staples online is my main way of using Costco. But it’s definitely worth the $60 membership fee to try it out and see how much you can save.
