Costco Breakdown

Buying in bulk is a great way to save money, but can also be hard mentally when you're try to save money in the short-term. For this post, I've decided to put to the test our recent Costco purchases and figure out if we found some great deals or if buying in bulk actually cost us money.

My key rules for a Costco purchases is that it has to be an item we can store, food items have to be able to last at least 3+ meals and it needs to be an item we were going to buy anyway. 

Here is a laundry list of what we picked up this month at Costco. Then, I went to our normal grocery store and took the price, including sales, of each item and adjusted the quantity of each item to a like unit cost.  Here was my breakdown: 

	Costco	Safeway	Quantity per…	Costco	Safeway
Charcoal	33.2 lbs $15.89	12.5 lbs $9.99	1 lb	.48	.80
Chia Seeds	32 oz $13.99	16 oz $14.29	16 oz	7.00	14.29
Flour	50 lbs $9.49	10 lbs $5.69	10 lbs	1.90	5.69
Brie	19.6 Oz $7.29	16 Oz $17.59	1 oz	.37	1.10
Quaker Oats	10 lbs $7.89	18 oz $2.00	1 oz	.05	.11
Mozzarella	32 oz $8.89	8 oz $4.50	8 oz	2.22	4.50
Walnuts	48 oz $18.99	16 Oz $8.79	1 oz	.40	.55
Granola Bars	48 Ct $12.79	6 Ct $3.89	1 Bar	.27	.65
Peeled Tomatoes	6 lbs 6 oz $3.99	28 oz $1.49	1 oz	.04	.05
Bratwurst	14 brats $10.89	6 brats $3.99	1 Brat	.78	.67
Ground Beef  (88/12)	5.08 lbs $16.75	1 lb $4.50	1 lb	3.30	4.50
Chicken Sausage	12 at $8.99	4 at $5.00	1 link	.75	1.25

Safeway won for Bratwurst! They were having a great sale this past week on Brats, but typically they run for a dollar more at $4.99- giving them a unit cost of $0.83/brat. So with a sale Safeway wins, but otherwise Costco for the win.

I have found that our weekly grocery bill has decreased by roughly $40 dollars each week, which would account for the appx $150 we spend at Costco per month, $40 x 4 weeks= $160. We tend to pick up a lot of meat products that can get rolled over into the following month, but so far the overall grocery line item in our budget has not decreased. I guess we have to feel this out for a few more months to see if we start making a dent in our budget, but for now our freezer is still stocked with food and we are halfway through the month, so that is a good sign.

Buying in bulk can provide long-term cost savings, but be careful what you buy! I know we are always tempted to get things we normally wouldn't, but we try to stick to the basics that we know we'll use or can store.