The Lazy Genius Podcast - #33: The Lazy Genius Shops at Costco

Episode Date: October 2, 2017

This week, we talk about the benefits of Costco and the best items to buy (and skip) when you're shopping. Here are all the things mentioned in the episode: When Buying In Bulk Is a Terrible Idea 11 Reasons To Love Costco That Have Nothing To Do With Shopping (HuffPost) Save Your Life With Pasta Mondays Costco Tips That Will Save You Time and Money (Business Insider) Lazy Genius Ingredient #1: Frozen Meatballs The Lazy Genius Shops at Aldi Choose Your Own Adventure Tomato Sauce The Lazy Genius Makes a Smoothie And don't forget to join me on Instagram @thelazygenius this Thursday at 12:15pm EST to talk more about Costco and get your questions answered! This podcast is hosted by Kendra Adachi and executive produced by Kendra Adachi, Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amazon presents Laura versus Fruitflies. Swarming your fruit and terrorizing your kitchen, these little freaks multiply at a rate that would make a rabbit say, yo. Chill. But Laura shopped on Amazon and saved on cleaning spray, countertop wipes, and fly traps. Hey, fruit flies, your baby boom ends here. Save the Everyday with Amazon. everyone you are listening to the lazy genius podcast I'm Kendra and I'm here to help you be a genius

about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't today's episode is episode 33 the lazy genius shops at Costco I did an episode about shopping at aldi a few months ago and since then many of you have requested episodes about other stores so today's pitch is shopping at Costco is great I'm not burying the lead here I love Costco and I'm excited to tell you why. Now, if you don't have a Costco in your area, specific tips might not apply to you for the store in particular, but we will talk about a few strategies for bulk stores in general.

So stick around. Hopefully, you'll learn something new. So in the playbook today, we will talk about what it means to be a member at Costco, the pros and cons of shopping there, and then all my favorite items. First, let's look at how it works to be a member at Costco. Essentially, you pay for permission to shop there.

Right? Membership sites and stores are not a new thing, but I did not understand the concept of Costco for several years after I heard about it. Side note, Oprah was the first person to introduce me to Costco. She bought a cashmere sweater and a tub of popcorn or something. I don't know. And I was enchanted. I was enchanted by that place. But I still didn't quite understand how it worked. So that's why I'm telling you that now. So the membership situation is straightforward with only two price points to choose from. 60 bucks a year and 120 bucks a year. The higher price is called an executive membership and it's the one that I personally have. It's the level where cash back kicks in on your credit card. So every six months, I get a check from Costco for well over the $60 difference. One year it was almost $200, y'all. Now, those were the days when I had a side business baking and I bought so much butter. Oh my gosh. I love the executive membership, though, because it's just well worth it for our family. I'll share some of the things that we buy at Costco in a couple of minutes.

But if you spend, here's the math, I think I'm not great at math, but I think this is right. If you spend $250 a month at Costco, which does include gas for your car because they've got gas stations there too for great prices, you'll get your $60 back and cash back. If you spend $250 a month, you should get your $60 back. if you are unsure about what your spending habits might be at Costco, then just stick with a $60 card, right? You can always upgrade later. Okay, I'm going to give you one warning now. Don't get sucked into thinking that you need to spend a certain amount on merchandise

to make up for that higher membership cost. If you save yourself, I'll just get the executive membership. I'm sure I'll find a way to spend $250 a month and then only spend $60 once or twice a month. please don't buy a new set of tires and an expensive humidifier just to hit your total. It's really easy to get tricked into buying those things, quote, because they're a good deal, you know, when you really don't need them. Remember that Costco is only a good investment if it helps you save money, not spend more money on good deals that you actually don't need, all right?

That leads us into the pros and cons of shopping at shopping. Costco. So I wrote a blog post called When Buying in Bulk is a terrible idea. And you can find it at the lazygeeniescollective.com slash lazy slash Costco. I'm not going to go into detail about the bulk buying here, but I will quickly share my two biggest cons of bulk buying. Number one, don't assume everything is a good deal. And number two, bulk buying is a trap. It's just a trap. It's made to trick you into buying giant packs of everything. And I want to leave plenty of time in this episode to share specific Costco items and tips. So I'm going to leave the bulk buying trap talk to that blog post. Okay, so be sure you check that out when you're finished listening. The lazyjeanicecollective.com

slash lazy slash Costco. Now let's look at some pros of specifically shopping at Costco. Pro number one, you can get cash back. I mentioned this already, but if I'm going to shop there already, I love getting money back, right? I'm not as familiar with all the cashback rates on the hundreds of credit cards out there in the world. I choose to be lazy about that because a 2% cashback rate on my Costco purchases and gas, it works great for me. I feel like 2% is really reasonable, and so I just go with it. So that's pro number one. You get cash back.

Pro number two, the staff at Costco, you guys, they are fabulous. Like for real. I'm going to link to an article in the show notes, but Costco takes care of its employees so very well. And the environment reflects that. I've never had a bad experience at Costco because of someone who works there. It's always because of another customer who's in a hurry or route in line or whatever. But the employees, they are so helpful and kind and they seem happy to be there. They get paid a living wage. Most get on average about $20,000. dollars an hour for working. They have health benefits. They aren't forced to work crazy Thanksgiving hours. Managers are hired from within the company so like you can start out as a cashier and end up

being a manager of a store. I recently met a guy who has worked for Costco for almost 15 years and said it's the best work environment he's ever been in. I wish all people will and how they spend their days, but we as shoppers benefit when a company takes care of its people. I just love that. So pro number two, The staff at Costco is fabulous, and the company itself, they take care of their employees. And I think that's great. Pro number three. Pro number three, you can return anything. You can return anything.

If you buy a product to try, even if it is a gallon of barbecue sauce and you only use one spoonful because you didn't like the flavor, you can return it. Yes, people do abuse that policy, I am sure. But I love knowing that I can try a potentially awesome item without any risk. That's also one of the reasons they have samples because they know it's a big commitment to buy like a 24 pack of anything. So they don't want you to have to feel that risk. They want you to be able to try it. So the samples are kind of an easy way to do that, but you can return anything. I've seen it happen.

Pro number four. Costco, and here's the big one, Costco has some great products, really great products. And that leads us into the final part of our playbook, which is what to buy at Costco. Kirkland is the Costco store brand and there are a few items that are better than their name brand counterparts. I'm going to tick off a few of our family's favorites. Kirkland meatballs are fantastic. I wrote a post about those ages ago that I will put in in the show notes. Again, that's the lazy genius collective.com slash lazy slash Costco. We love those meatballs. We use them in lots of different ways. we also love a little bit too much probably the Kirkland American cheese. Y'all, it is so much better than craft.

Singles. Like, it is so much better. One of my kids eats cheese on almost every sandwich, like every day. And we have grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner once or twice a month, easy. So we go through a lot of cheese. And we have a place to store it. So it's worth buying a huge package of it. But y'all, it tastes so good. It tastes so good. some other things that we get frozen fruit is always a great deal at Costco they've got a lot of organic varieties as well which is great now in my town fruit is cheaper or kind of on par with Target and Aldi at Costco but depending on like cartwheel sales or Aldi specials or maybe I don't want like a four-bound bag of mango I just want a one-pound bag then I might get it at Aldi or Target but for the most part, it's a pretty safe bet that what you buy at Costco is going to be at least as cheap

as anywhere else and still really great quality. We also love the Kirkland four cheese tortellini. It is so delightful. It is a great change-up that we use on pasta Mondays, and it tastes so good. So a two-pack, it comes in a two-pack, and that costs $10, and then our family eats one pack per meal. So that's five bucks plus a few more pennies of homemade sauce, which I will link to that in the show notes as well, a recipe for how we make our tomato sauce. And it is so satisfying and super cheap and so easy and mindless. We love that tortellini. It's great.

A few other favorite items. The Kirkland organic tortilla chips, they are sturdy and so good. Milk. We buy milk there. We have bought several other brands of milk over the years, and Costco milk is so much better to us. We just love it. We can always tell a difference. Maybe that is like in our brains, but I don't think so. I think it's just really good milk. Aw isn't something we need to travel for. It's something waiting for us in everyday life, whether in a city street or a moment with a work of art. I'm Dr. Keltner, host of the Science of Happiness podcast. Join me for Cities of Aw, a special series on how our public spaces can spark awe, wonder, and enhance the quality of public life.

You can find us wherever you listen to your podcasts. We buy butter there. Those are artissory chickens. Oh, my goodness. Are you kidding me? You can't buy a whole chicken for $5. So that's always nice for like quick meals. We buy coconut oil, eggs.

The Kirkland vanilla ice cream is like the most decadent, thick, creamy ice cream on the planet. It has so much fat in it. Like there's no air in that stuff. I read somewhere that like bodybuilders use the ice cream to bulk up. It is such an indulgence. It's so incredibly good. I love that.

And then I love those really giant cans of crushed tomatoes. They're not Kirkland brand. I don't actually remember the brand. It might be contadena or something like that. But I use those constantly. We eat a lot of red food. And so I will go through one of those giant cans really fast. And those cans, they taste great.

It's a great tomato. It's not really like bitter or acidic or anything. And it costs the same. is like one 28 ounce jar of tomatoes for like this gigantic jar. So I use a lot of those. I used to actually buy more produce at Costco than I do now. I buy most of my produce at Aldi these days. But there are a few items that are generally cheaper at Costco that we can store and use before they go bad.

Because those are really the tricks that can get you in trouble when you buy stuff at Costco or anywhere that's bulk is you don't see past the price. I talk about this in the blog post, but if you don't see past the price and you're like, oh, this is such a good deal, I'm going to buy all of this lettuce. And then you're like, no, I'm not going to eat all this lettuce. If you don't have a place to store it and if you don't have a plan to eat it, it's not worth buying. It's just not. And so that has kind of gotten me into trouble in the past at Costco, but there are a few items, at least produce-wise, that I still work for us. And those are the organic spinach.

So I use those most for smoothies. I use spinach for smoothies. And if it starts to go bad, that huge container, then I will make smoothie booster cubes, which I talked about smoothies in the last two episodes ago. So you can check that out. That will be in the show notes to you. But yeah, so we use this spinach for that. So if it's going to go bad, I have a place to put it, you know.

and then carrots, there are these huge bags of organic carrots, and we eat a lot of carrots in our house and lots of different recipes, and so those always tend to, yeah, we eat them before they go bad, mushrooms, and then berries. We buy berries if they're priced well. Sometimes Allde is cheaper, but Costco, if it's priced well, it's a really good deal on berries. Okay, let's quickly talk about a few things I don't buy a Costco.

First, I don't buy a ton of fresh meat. It is priced well, and they even have. have organic chicken options there. Frankly, I buy meat when it's at rock bottom prices anywhere I am and I freeze it. That's really the only way I buy meat. I don't really buy it on demand unless I'm desperate for like a certain cut of meat and I don't have time to go to another store. I will buy it at Costco.

The prices aren't that different. We just try and save a lot on groceries by being intentional without meat. That's a place that I really try to save money. That's just us, you know, so go for it and buy your meat there. It's totally fine. There are great options at reasonable prices. Just make sure you have the space for it. So I mentioned this already, but I don't buy a ton of produce at Costco.

I'd buy most of it at Aldi. If you don't have an Aldi, Costco is such a great option. You just need to not assume that it's a good deal and be aware of the fact that you might not eat nine mangoes. So just think, like, just because this might be a good price on this thing, do I really need 20 of them? maybe you don't, right? Because you might end up throwing more of it away than the savings is worth. So just pay attention to that. I don't, a few other things I don't buy. I don't buy bread or cereal at Costco. I used to do both. I used to buy both there. But again, Aldi. A two pack, okay, at Costco, a two pack of nature's own honey wheat bread, which is our preferred school sandwich bread, is 429.

So it's a little over $2 a loaf. That's cheaper than the same bread at Target or Walmart. So that's good. That's a good deal. But Aldi has a honeywheat bread that's perfectly fine and a dollar a loaf. In my olden days world, like when we live in the olden days and we just made all of our own food and bought what we didn't have from a neighbor, I would make my own bread. I would bake sandwich bread every week, but that's just not my real life right now. We do bake bread, but it's usually for dinner. It's not very sandwich friendly. So that's just not something that I do. So dollar bread from Aldi it is. I don't buy bread at Costco. Serial is the same way. We actually, don't eat a ton of cereal. And the kinds that we do eat are more for dessert than they are for breakfast. All these fruit loop knockoff is better than actual fruit loops. I'm serious. And I can

always snag a good deal on another favorite, like cocoa pus or cinnamon toast crunch or something with like coupons and target cartwheel deals. It's not a regular purchase for us cereal. So doing a little extra work to save a couple bucks is worth not always having cereal around, which we would if we bought it at Costco. So we just kind of like buy it when it's on sale and when we want to have that snack. That's just us. A couple of other things I don't buy at Costco. I don't buy dried pasta. It is cheaper almost everywhere else. At Costco, a variety shape eight pack is usually nine or ten dollars. So that's like more than a dollar a box. And at Target and Trader Joe's, you can get dried pasta. You can get dried pasta for less than a dollar a pack. And then you get to pick the shapes you want. So absolutely skip

dried pasta at Costco. It is too much money. And then baking staples is the same thing. Now, if you bake a lot and you have giant containers to store those huge bags of flour and sugar, then that is worth your savings. Because when you buy those huge bags, that's where the savings kicks in. But if you don't have a regular avenue for storing and using all that sugar, just buy it all to your target. it's cheaper generally at those places and it's a simple bag that can actually fit in your pantry there are oh my gosh y'all there are so many products at Costco that have nothing to do with groceries pots and pans and books and Halloween costumes and beauty products and vitamins and cleaner like there are so many things we cannot possibly hit everything that you can or can't buy

there now for us as a family we are generally more savers than we are spenders and so like when we go to Costco, a lot of that stuff just gets passed over on our regular shopping day, but the bulk buying membership rules still apply for that stuff, okay, which you can read about in that blog post I mentioned. Don't assume it's a great deal. And don't buy it if you don't have a place to put it or a plan to use it, right? That is where they trap us. That is the bulk buying trap, is they get us with the price. And then they force us to take this huge container or something home that we're like, wait, where am I going to put this? And oh, wait, I'm never going to use all of this. So just pay attention to those things no matter what you're buying at Costco.

Okay, so to recap the pros for shopping at Costco, you can get cashback. The staff is fabulous. And the country treats them well. You can retreat. Oh, my goodness, you guys, words. You can return. I want to make the tree sound so badly. You can return anything if it doesn't work for you. and there are really genuinely great products at Costco. Not just good deals. There are great products. But speaking of deals, don't assume everything is one, right? Do your homework.

Be thoughtful as you're shopping. Bulk buying is a lot of fun. It is. But it might not be worth that momentary fun when you throw away unused food. Or you can't open your fridge because it contains like a bushel of lettuce, right? Nobody needs that. So just be smart. And Costco can be a great benefit to you and your family.

There are a ton of links in the show notes that will help you. There are so many things that we mentioned. So including that blog post that I mentioned about bulk buying. And then there is another post that I linked to in those show notes from Business Insider with some really sneaky shopping hacks at Costco. So some of them are great. Some of them are like, they're fine. But it's worth checking out.

So go to the show notes at The Lazy Genius Collective. dot com slash lazy slash Costco and yes if you live near me and you shop at the Costco on wendover tony's checkout line is always the fastest line without fail so you're welcome for that pick tony okay let's do our lazy genius tip of the week before we go and it does relate to Costco okay so Costco sells pizza in their food core area like slices or you can buy a whole pizza ready to go but they also have taken baked pieces in the refrigerated section of the store. The pizza's fine. I mean, it's not great, but it's not bad.

But occasionally, the giant pepperoni, and these pieces are so huge. The pepperoni pizza, it goes on sale. It's usually $9, which is still a great buy, but it'll be on sale for six. If it does go on sale, buy one immediately. Not because it's a great deal on a giant pizza, which it is, but the amount of pepperoni on a Costco pepperoni pizza is obscene. It is obscene. It's like an entire package. So here's what you do. You buy the pizza that's on sale. You take it home. You remove all the pepperoni off of that pizza. Replace a few of the pieces back onto the pizza and then put the rest of the pepperoni in a freezer bag and stash it in the freezer for your own pepperoni uses in the future. I am serious. It's like a two inch thick pile of pepperoni when you pull it all off and it's really good pepperoni. We make pizza pretty much every Friday, and it's also fun to have some around for like Italian sub-sambuages or that kind of thing. So when that pizza goes on sale, call it a quick dinner for that night.

You get a pizza, and then you have this huge score on pepperoni. That is the lazy genius tip of the week today. Okay. That's going to do it for today's episode. And again, you can access the show notes at the lazy genius collective.com slash lazy slash Costco. And if this episode or any other episode has helped you, I would love for you to pass it along to a friend. If you want to make sure that strangers discover the beauty of living like a lazy genius and not just your friends, then you can leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Just this past week, the show received about six new reviews, and it landed the show in the top 100 of its category.

And that is 100% because of you guys. It truly is. So thank you so much for sharing and reviewing and being such cheerleaders of the show. And remember, be a genius about the things that matter and lazy about the things that don't. Bye, guys. Have you ever felt like you were living just a very big? B or B plus life, it's so dangerous to live that. More dangerous than a B minus or a C plus life, because when you're living a B or B plus life,

you don't change it. You think it's good enough. Is it? I'm Susie Welch. I host a podcast called Becoming You. People think, okay, an A plus life is not available to me, but there is a way. We are all in the process of becoming ourselves. Listen to Becoming You wherever you get your podcasts.