My Family's Costco Go-Tos: Wrangling the Economic Chaos One 32 oz Jar of Kirkland Pesto at a Time
Bonus: The one item that pays for the whole Costco membership fee in days.
I became a Costco fan the day I realized that baby formula was so unconscionably expensive in my local pharmacy, they began locking it behind glass. Because the only thing a brand new mom likes more than overpaying for something that literally keeps her child alive, is the delightful uncertainty of waiting for a disaffected assistant manager with a key.
Will he show? Will it be before or after the baby has a complete meltdown? Will it be before or after you sweat through your third shirt this lovely August day? Who’s to say!
The first time I walked into Costco and discovered the massively discounted price for the exact same brand of formula, I nearly cried as I happily handed over my annual membership fee.
(Fun Fact: The same formula was twice as expensive as CVS in the grocery store that shall not be named — and, on a few occasions, it was expired. We don’t shop there.)
This is a good time to support Costco
We’ve now officially endured 100 years days of economic chaos, egregiously erratic tariff policy, and a full-on trade war started by the guy who is so in touch with average Americans, he has just discovered the word “groceries.”
So it seems like it’s the right time to share my family’s Costco favorites, as promised in a recent post. I hope you’ll share some of your own in comments too!
The savings are kind of insane at Costco, but this is not just about savings.
(And it’s not just about the free samples around lunch time either, although that Kirkland asiago cheese spread is next level.)
With Costco’s CEO Ron Vachris and the Board of Directors holding tight to their commitment to respect, inclusion, and creating an overall welcoming environment for all kinds of employees, (SO WOKE, SO TERRIBLE, SO MEAN), well call me a fan for life.
I have even carved out some valuable NYC closet space for bulk items. It’s jokingly been dubbed The Prepper Closet. Complete with a couple of shiny new storage containers for flour and rice, because we get the bugs around here.
What’s In My Costco Cart: A Not Entirely Exhaustive List
For background, we’ve got two adults plus two hungry teens with impressive metabolism, and often, two hungry college students. Plus all of their friends, because we are committed to being the Good Snack House.
What we lack in square footage, we make up for in love. And fruit gushers.
So no judgments please, as I open up my virtual pantry to you and reveal some of the delicious processed — and non-processed — food we consume.
The prices I’ve listed are accurate at my local Costco as of right now, but could be impacted by all those TARIFFS, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WORD. RIGHT UP THERE WITH MOIST. AND TUBE STEAK.
Household/Personal Care
Generic Kirkland Versions of Advil, Zyrtec, and Benadryl With four period-having kids, and six allergy-having family members, we go through a lot of meds. These items alone pay for the Costco membership in mere days.
Let’s do the math:
- 365 Kirkland brand tablets: $12.56 on sale. That’s $.03 per tablet.
- 365 CVS brand cetirizine tablets: $58.99. That’s $.16 per tablet
- 40 Zyrtec brand tablets at CVS: $32.99. That’s $.82 per tablet.
With four of us taking daily tabs, we spend $50/year. That saves us $186/year (compared with CVS brand) or as much as $1,147/year if we were to buy 40-tab bottles of Zyrtec.
This, by the way, is the stat that convinced my mom to get a Costco membership too. And she has to pay a toll to get there!
198-Count Pack of Band-Aids $15.29 rings in just under the price of a smaller 120-count box of generic CVS bandages that are a little mid. And it’s nice never to run out.
Bounty, Charmin, Vanity Fair Napkins I am hopelessly devoted to the name brands I grew up with, but Kirkland brand paper goods work in a pinch. Especially for napkins.
Sometimes people ask where in the world I make room for giant packs of paper towels. My grandmother kept them in the trunk of her car. I have The Prepper Closet.
Note: I stopped buying VF napkins for years to avoid Koch-owned products; now I do penance by donating an equal amount to WCK or Planned Parenthood. Same as I do when I have to buy something at the grocery store that shall not be named.
Vitamins! Nature’s Bounty Vitamin D, 125 mg as mandated by my doctor, are 400 for $15.84 on sale. Just under $.4/day. Compare with $29.99 for 240 at Walgreens, or $.12/day. Three times more expensive! Bloop.
Multi-Packs of Venus Razors Phew, women’s razors are a fortune everywhere else. Costco: $27 for 15. I might start looking for something more eco-friendly though.
Duracell Batteries Stick with the name brand in this case, don’t go with Kirkland. The prices are amazing.
Q-Tips, Swisspers Premium Cotton Rounds, Kirkland trash bags, Tampax, Always Liners, Neutrogena Body Wash, Mouthwash, Tums…
The Grocery Essentials
Eggs, Milk, Half & Half Tip: Costco sells a regular-sized quart of Half & Half for $2.72. That’s less than Walmart ($3.57), Target ($3.79), and our local grocery ($5.49!) — and may be the one normal human-sized food purchase in the entire place.
Kirkland Signature Jasmine Rice in a massive bag is the first thing we bought for The Prepper Closet It’s a wildly affordable $24.04 for 25 lbs right now, with some other brands available. We used to buy Lundberg or RiceSelect which are each about $5/pound (eep) in supermarkets. And considering Thai rice is now subjected to a 36% markup, with tariffs as high as 54% on Chinese-grown rice — stock up now if you go through rice like our kids do.
Kirkland Olive Oil Stock rotates, but Kirkland Signature Organic EVOO ($20/2 liters) is terrific for cooking or salad dressing and always gets a shout-out in the food blogs. We also keep a fancy (non-Costco) bottle on the table for drizzling over salads and dishes.
Kirkland Organic Maple Syrup I can’t abide by corn syrup dressed up as something you put on pancakes, and this is another Costco steal at $12.89 for 1 liter.
Kerrygold Butter Salted and unsalted. It is the best.
Kikkoman Soy Sauce Underrated bulk purchase. At $6.49 for 64 oz, it costs just a wee bit more than the standard 10 oz bottles. We go through about one a year.
Spices If you use as much cinnamon ($5.46/10.7 oz) or McCormick Montreal Steak Seasoning ($8.52/29 oz)as we do, it’s helpful to have an affordable bulk container of it on hand.
If you use vanilla beans, Kirkland’s are supposedly great — but likely to be impacted by the 47% tariff on imports from Madagascar. And that is a tragedy, friends, because as we’ve all learned from The Barenaked Ladies, vanilla is the finest of the flavors.
Fruits and Veggies Galore! My teens tear through fruit so fast it’s unreal. One Sunday breakfast = One less cantaloupe in the fridge.
You can’t beat Costco prices on strawberries ($6/2 lbs), bananas ($2.18/3 lbs), cantaloupes, mangoes, lemons and limes, giant watermelons in the summer, seedless grapes, apples, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, oranges, and packs of bell peppers. Amazing quality. And prices are about to soar, I’m sure. Which could mean less fresh fruit, more fruit gushers for my fellow citizens.
MAHA!
Avocados They’re a steal, though I’m already seeing the prices climb: Now $13 for 6, though it still beats $3.79/each at my local grocer.
Note that one-third of the items in stock at Costco are imported [insert sobbing emoji] so I’m really hoping they manage to keep their prices down.
Kirkland Organic Frozen Strawberries or Three-Berry Blend for icy-cold fresh smoothies, a breakfast staple for us. We would get Greek yogurt at Costco, but everyone likes a different kind and the giant tub is a little unwieldy.
Kirkland Ground Beef, Organic Chicken Breasts, Steaks, Hickory-Smoked Bacon: Stock up and freeze it. Lord knows Canada and Mexico are rethinking their beef exports to us.
Kirkland Organic Sugar The 10 lb bag lasts us forever and costs under $10. It’s harvested in Paraguay FWIW, so grab some because plenty of sugar imports are being hit with TARIFFS, THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WORD.
Barilla Pasta Variety Packs A steal! We decant them into airtight containers to avoid bugs. (I don’t love cutesie pantry container organization, but I like bugs even less so here we are.) Sometimes they have linguini, sometimes fun shapes, sometimes both.
Giant packs of Kirkland “Mexican” shredded cheese and Mission Tortillas This is a big quesadilla/taco night household. Join us sometime! $6.55 for 40 medium flour tortillas is hard to beat.
Kirkland Pesto SO good and I say this as someone who makes pesto from scratch. Add a little fresh basil and a little extra parm to brighten it up. $10.37 for 32 ounces — though we buy two jars at a time.
Kirkland Chewy Protein Bars I was a Chocolate Mint Zone Bar devotee for years and…they disappeared the brand! Just like, straight up killed it. Gone. As if it were a really important government department in 2025 or something.
Costco makes the next best option that everyone in our family can agree on. It’s hard to beat a box of 42 for $16. They each have less sugar than you’d think, plus 10g protein, making it a go-to for me when my blood sugar is crashing.
Ginormous Tub of Feta, President Brie, BelGioso Fresh Mozzarella, Imported Parmesan…Seriously, give me all the cheese. But first, I recommend getting yourself a Ginormous Tub of Feta, seeing as how all the dairy producers in Greece are currently making plans to send their delicious Feta to countries that aren’t imposing 20% tariffs for literally no reason.
Oh, did you know Feta is a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) product? Like Champagne? So any domestic version has to be called feta-like. Or feta-ish. Or I Can’t Believe It’s Not Feta.
Actually, Feta-ish is a great brand name.
Feta-ish ™
You can’t steal that now.
Pepperidge Farm Bread, Skippy Peanut Butter, Nutella The giant two-packs of PB & Nutella go fast around here, as does bread. In fact, one of us would starve without these staples and I’m not naming names.
Annie’s Macaroni and Cheese Assortment I was always a blue box gal myself, but this is the kids’ favorite. A 12-pack is around $18 or so, compared with $3-4 for a single box at our supermarket. The Shells and White Cheddar are always the first to run out.
Nissin Top Ramen Another teen staple, and at Costco, a carton of 48 packs is $15. That’s not a typo. Packs are $2.50 each in our bodega, so we’re saving $105 on ramen alone every six months.
The Treats!
Cases of Coke, La Croix, Fever Tree Ginger Beer Jon tears through 12-oz cans of Coke. The rest take us a while to get through. Mostly we use a Soda Stream and French flavored syrups to make our own fizzy drinks, as I mentioned last week. That Fever Tree Ginger Beer — ooh.
Eggo Waffles, Bagel Bites, Annie’s Cinnamon Rolls, Mini Spanikopita If…our freezer can handle it all. We have to sacrifice the Eggos if someone’s craving ice cream bars.
Ice Creams Galore There’s a different selection every trip, but you can generally get great deals on Haagen-Dazs bars, Nestle Drumstick variety packs, and mochi. Those treats get expensive when you’re buying six individual ones at a convenience store after pizza!
Dino Buddies Don’t Judge The mom who used to insist on from-scratch nuggets has given up. Our kids will never outgrow them and I might as well pay a lot less for them at Costco.
Massive Two-Packs of Cereal You can’t imagine how many Honey Bunches of Oats a college kid can down over a single weekend.
All the Snacks: Tate’s Cookies, Angie’s BOOMCHICKAPOP, Stacy’s Pita Chips, Goldfish, Club Crackers… Costco’s snack selection is outrageous and rotates frequently so you can’t always count on any one thing. (Jon gets very sad when they’re out of the kettle corn.) We can almost always rely on the mega box of Goldfish — $13.56 for 66 oz, compared with about $4 for 6.6 oz in supermarkets. Phew.
Halloween Candy Never buy it anywhere else. Seriously.
Kirkland Nuts Almonds, cashews, and pistachos are all well-priced. So are chocolate-covered raisins.
Kirkland Peanut Butter Pretzels Terrific, but sadly, it’s just me who craves them and I can’t eat that huge jar by myself. (Come over sometime and I’ll get some for us.)
Utz Cheeseballs I would just like to say for the record that despite my love for these things, I am not, in fact, the mysterious Cheeseball Man.
That you know of.
I did say that this is not an exhaustive list, but it should be plenty to get your shopping list started.
What am I missing? Did I hit your own Costco favorites? What else do you love there? What do you buy there that you don’t want to admit to? (Come on, I gave you Dino Buddies.)
We really like the Kirkland brand liquid laundry detergent, the one that’s unscented and good in high-efficiency machines. I must use less than the recommended amount because it lasts forever, but it still does a great job with no obnoxious lingering faux-floral stench. And the kitchen trash bags! It’s just two of us, and we typically put out just one bag a week what with recycling and municipal compost pickup and Ridwell, so a box of those lasts us close to 2 years.
I pay for my membership with what I save on Culturelle and CoQ-10, but I have to say some of your listed items are cheaper at Wegman’s. What can I not resist at Costco? Those street taco kits, walnuts (so cheap and super fresh), chicken tenders, and of course their rotisserie chicken and tuxedo cake (now that’s a balanced meal). Otherwise, for just us two empty nesters, most package sizes are too much for us to consume. But thanks for some of those suggestions, which I will try next time!