My Costco Favorites
Y’all. This was the biggest Costco haul I have ever done and will likely ever do again. I planned for this and will not buy meat for months! I truly love Costco so much and each time I share on Instagram that I have been there I get a ton of questions about what I buy. THIS video shares with you many of my favorite things.
We love buying meat from Costco. Their pork chops, steaks, beef roasts, and rotisserie chickens are on constant rotation in my house. If I am just making a quick run into Costco I always grab their produce (salad mix, peppers, blueberries, brussel sprouts, etc.), organic whole milk, organic eggs, and usually a bag of walnuts or pistachios. These are my go to things.
Now I want to share with you a little about how I grocery shop. If you are looking for someone who spreads out the weekly sale flyers and goes to 3 or 5 stores on Monday morning, you’ve got the wrong girl. Let me be clear. We are very frugal in Coon house. We have our own debt free journey story (that I will share with you one day) and we intend to stay that way. But I am also someone who doesn’t want to spend hours grocery shopping. So here is how I have found to save money. I have certain things I know I can get for the best prices in my area. Target and Walmart are fairly similar here on your basic store brand items. I use the pick up feature for both of these stores. I pride myself that I have not been inside Walmart for years. ;) I put the items in my cart on my phone, drive up, and they put it in my trunk. This is my kind of shopping!
I find that using a delivery or pick up system like this keeps me on my list and on budget (you have a running total right there of exactly how much you’re spending) and saves me a substantial amount of time.
I go to Costco at least twice a month. I enjoy shopping here and they have the best prices on good, organic produce. This is why you usually don’t see sides listed when I meal plan. I purchase produce and mix it to make it work for each meal. My favorite veggies there are: zucchini and squash, cucumbers, salad, carrots, baby potatoes, peppers, brussel sprouts, and asparagus. I get a large bag for the price of a small package from the regular supermarket.
For toiletries I keep a back stock (see a blog post about that HERE), so I usually know well in advance what I need. I add this to my monthly Target or Walmart pick up order.
We do have a small local grocery store that puts their organic ground beef and chicken breasts on sale for only $2.99 a pound most Tuesdays. I stop here about once every 6 weeks to stock up on this.
I do use the service Shipt (mostly for Target - Shipt is owned by Target so you are not charged an additional fee for the items like with other delivery services.) For an annual fee and about a $5 tip each delivery, I can have things delivered to my door in around 2 hours. This has been a life saver! It saves you an hour or more of your time. Well worth it. You can save $10 on an annual subscription with this code: http://share.shipt.com/mB6lJ
We eat out less than once a week. We eat a lot of fresh food so things will go bad if not eaten. Because of all of this, keeping food in the house is a job. I think I have finally figured out how to make it easier for me while not breaking the bank.
Here are the keys that have worked for me:
Keep a running grocery list. I keep this on my phone using my reminders app. (See a whole blog post and video about that HERE.)
I have a list that is on the side of the refrigerator for my husband and son to jot things down if I am not there. I will stop by and add them to my phone.
MEAL PLAN. This is huge. I know what we are having for dinner each night and I know I have the ingredients going into the week.
What are your favorite ways to grocery shop? Are you someone who loves it or hates it? No matter what your preference is, I hope you have found the way that gives you margin for what you find to be goodness.
EEEPP! I almost forgot! Here the printables for our 12 Day of Christmas for those of you who missed the first email!