Is getting a Costco membership worth it? It is an interesting question for sure. I am sure if you talk to most, they will say yes. This is not surprising as Costco memberships are very devoted to Costco. However, that was not the case with us. We joined Costco 10 years ago and after a year, we had enough and did not bother to renew. Why? For a couple of reasons. First, it is a chaotic store which is always busy and people never to seem to be happy. Each time we went there, it was a stressful experience which was not good as we already had other stresses.
The second reason was that everything was sold in large quantities. This is great if you have a large family or you have a small business. But for two people living in an apartment, not so much! We did not have a large freezer and did not want to get one. We also did not have a large fridge. As a result, it was hard to find things small enough to meet our needs. As a result, we let our membership expire after one year.
Is Getting a Costco Membership Worth it? Rapid Inflation Makes Us Rethink Our Decision
Now fast forward 10 years later and the economy has changed. Inflation has gripped North America and there is rising prices everywhere. Food, housing, clothing, electricity, vehicles and so on has spiked. As a result, we started to think of ways to save and that’s where we thought that perhaps we should revisit getting a Costco membership. We decided to take the plunge and paid the $63.00 for a basic membership and see how it goes. Our plan was to buy only things that we normally get at our grocery stores. We would not go and by other things that we never bought before. We realized that this would increase our grocery costs. This can be tricky because Costco has so many things and some of the items will not be back in the store if you do not get them now. This would take discipline on our part.
Is Getting a Costco Membership Worth it? It is!
To our surprise and delight it has been a savings and our membership has already paid for itself! As mentioned, we focused on items that we normally buy and see if we get a savings. For example, we usually by a roast chicken 2 or 3 times a month. The grocery store we normally purchase it at cost $12.99. However, Costco’s roast chickens are only $7.99 and they taste great! So with this item we have already saved $10 to $15! We also buy a lot of supplements and Costco has a few of our more expensive ones we buy. To our delight, these are cheaper at Costco by a significant margin. For example, we save about $5 to $6 a month on magnesium citrate. This is just a quick example of two items we save. But we have other items that we are saving from too. In the few months, we have had our membership, we have saved well beyond our membership cost. So it is worth it!
Conclusion
Costco is still pretty chaotic and the people who shop there seem pretty stressed at times. But it is a small price to pay for the benefit of savings. However, you have to be disciplined and not go beyond what you normally buy and need. This is the trap many fall in. It is so easy to spend hundreds or even a couple thousand dollars in one go! but if you can control yourself, Costco can actually be a savings. You just need to have enough control and buy what you need and not what you want. That is the trick!