Post by Contributing Author. Sonja from Practical Stewardship
Do y’all have a Costco nearby? I sure hope you do, because shopping at Costco can save you LOTS of money…well, that is if you buy the right things. Honestly you have to be discerning everywhere you shop. You can’t just think, ‘since I’m shopping at Costco, everything is a great deal’. Simply not true. Cereals usually aren’t. Meats? Some really aren’t that great of a deal. You’ve really gotta know your target (not the store Target:) grocery prices so you actually know what a truly great deal is.
Thrifty Thinking
In order to keep updated on my target grocery prices, twice a year I update my Costco Grocery Price List which contains about 150 natural and organic foods. That way I can compare it to other stores and know, ounce for ounce, what a great deal is. I just finished updating my Costco Grocery Price List, so you can go HERE to see the latest Costco Grocery Price List. FYI I don’t buy all or maybe not even half of the foods I have on the list, but I provide it to help people compare prices and be good stewards of the resources with which God has blessed us (since I use the list to compare prices too!).
So I thought it would be helpful if this frugally-minded mom (that’s me, Sonja) put together a quick top ten list of the frugal yet convenient foods to buy at Costco from the grocery price list. That way you get a sense of how another frugally-minded mom shops.
When I talk about convenient or convenience foods, I am not talking about unwrapping a frozen meal and zapping it in the mic, or putting together a Hamburger Helper kit. That used to be what I’d do, but those days are long gone. Now that I’m a mom and a wife in charge of nourishing my family, I’ve slowly changed the way I feed those under my care.
So with these convenient foods, what I am talking about are foods that are one or minimal ingredient foods. And somehow these foods have been made to be more convenient like being pre-washed, or cut, or shucked, etc…. I chose these frugal foods because each of them help me cook for my family in my own kitchen, as opposed to eating out which *rack-rack* adds up quickly.
As Stacy has talked in the past about buying Poorganic Food, being frugally-minded, we try to strike a balance of buying one ingredient foods with as many frugal organic foods as possible and not letting ourselves go into a massive guilt trip if we aren’t eating free range all the time. Shopping at Costco makes buying organic foods easier and often times, frugal, since they can buy in big quantities and can pass the savings along to their members. Unfortunately not all Costcos stock the same products, so Lord willing you’ll be able to find these items at your local Costco if you are interested. I sure wish that Costco would pay me to endorse them:) since I have a lot of good things to say about them. Is there a Costco rep out there??
So here are my top 10 Frugal Convenient Foods to Buy at Costco:
- Sprouted Organic Bread-I used to make my own 4 ingredient sourdough bread a few times a week, but now with our kids getting a bit older, all in school, all in sports and piano, I broke down and started buying bread. No shame though. I was thankful to find this sprouted organic bread at Costco. Plus it’s $3.34/loaf (comes with 2 loaves)!
- Kirkland Signature Organic Salsa-When tomatoes are in season, nothing beats making your own salsa. It’s fresh and frugal. Check, check. But when those tomatoes aren’t in season, I think buying salsa is the most frugal way to go. $7.99/2-38 oz.
- Boxed Organic Spinach-washed and ready to grab and throw into a smoothie like in one of our 52 different smoothie options, or throw together a strawberry spinach salad, or a cranberry mandarin spinach salad. Greens in a instant! $3.99/16 oz.
- Canned Organic Kidney and Black Beans-Yes, I do cook dried beans, but I still love having the cans around to throw in a last minute homemade Super Burrito or chilis and soups. $0.85/15 oz. can
- Kirkland Signature Organic Corn Chips-These are a staple in our home. Can’t live without the crunch of these chips. I used to be a Doritos fanatic, but no more. These have filled that Dorito-shaped void in my life and now is my favorite especially with homemade guacamole or salsa. $4.99/40 oz.
- Frozen Organic Fruits like strawberries, cherries, and mango-so easy to open the bag and dump a whole bunch of frozen fruits in our smoothies. No pits, no peeling, no hulling and they are often the same price or even cheaper than buying the fresh organic versions. $9.89/3 lbs. depending on type
- Kirkland Signature Stewed/Diced Tomatoes-again, these are so great to throw in to soups. Quick, convenient, cheap and organic. Yea! Plus it’s usually cheaper than buying the non-organic version at a conventional store. $0.745/14.5 oz. can
- Whole Peeled Garlic Cloves-I love these because literally I grab garlic by the handful, chop it, and saúte them and throw them in soups and chilis. You’ve gotta use them fairly fast, or they won’t last. My friend and I alternate buying these, and we share them. When I’m really on the ball, I throw some in my Vitamix, put the minced garlic in an ice tray, and freeze them. So good! $5.99/3 lb.
- Organic Pasta-I’ve NEVER made fresh pasta before. Not planning to anytime soon, but prepackaged pasta is sure nice to have around, for a super quick meal. $1.362/lb.
- Organic Uncooked Tortillas-These have become my new favorite this year. About 5 years ago I made my first batch of tortillas. They were great, but labor intensive, so this girl who was raised on tortillas and beans fell in love with these organic uncooked tortillas. Just make sure to take them out of the fridge about 15 minutes before cooking so they don’t crack. So good!! I love making a quick bean burrito (freezable too!). $3.50/18 count (comes with 36)
Go HERE if you want to see the rest of my Costco Grocery Price List.
Costco stopped selling the best retail tortillas.
Two Tias’ Tortillas, like the Organic Pizza kits, have disappeared from all Costcos that I know of.
Two thumbs down!
My post or the fact that Costco removes organic foods faster than they ever add them?
That they remove things. 🙂 When I get used to something and a store takes it out, it always makes me frowny. LOL
They remove far more than they ever add that tastes good at this point.
How sad.
Our Costco opens next month and I can’t wait! I was looking at these tortillas this weekend since you mentioned them and they look great and are on my list for my first trip to my local store 🙂
I hope they have them for you! We love our Costco!
I also buy almost everything you wrote about. I’ve been wanting to try that bread, but haven’t as of yet. I am really impressed with their prices on frozen fruit and veggies, and everything dairy except for milk. I haven’t priced the organic milk, but I can buy the regular milk cheaper at a regular grocery store. Their block cheeses are by far the cheapest, love the Kerrygold butter, whipping cream is just about $1-2 more for double the size. Fage Greek yogurt is always a staple at our house (it also doubles as sour cream), and it is cheaper, although they have recently raised the prices about a dollar and a half. I did notice yesterday that Costco now has their own brand of Greek yogurt, which I will probably buy and do a taste test with Fage to see if it’s comparable. As for products coming and going, ours used to sell a 3 lb, bag of almond flour for about $18, then stopped selling it and started selling coconut flour. Now they stopped selling the coconut flour and are selling another brand of almond flour, but for $23 for a 3 lb. bag! And no more coconut flour! They also sell organic white flour for a great price, but there are times like yesterday that they didn’t have it, but they usually get it back a few weeks later. Ours discontinued their sale of Franks Red Hot…so disappointing. Ours doesn’t have the organic uncooked tortillas, but they sell another brand of regular uncooked. We love it. It is soooo tasty fresh off the frying pan! I use them to make a calzone type of thing (kind of like a stuffed pizza) and stuffed quesadillas fried in oil. My teen daughter loves frying one and eating it with salted Kerrygold butter slathered on it. For a long while Costco stopped selling these uncooked tortillas, then they started again. Our Costco is about 15 minutes away, but we might move to a small town where the nearest Costco is about 1 1/2 hours away in Tulsa. They have 3 Sam’s Clubs there already (in Tulsa), but are opening their first Costco this summer. Coincidence? lol The nearest Sam’s Club is closer, about an hour away, but I am partial to Costco products (even though I’ve never been in a Sam’s Club, just from my experience and from what I’ve heard others say), My husband knows how much I love Costco and says I could shop there every two weeks instead of every week. I would probably try to hold off for three weeks because of the distance.
The organic milk prices haven’t lured me to buy them yet, especially since it’s only 1%. We like whole because it’s less processed.
So those tortillas I wrote about…I haven’t seen them the last two times I’ve gone:/ Oh well, at least I have some in the freezer. COSTCO, please bring them back!! Thanks for sharing, Elizabeth!!
Just FYI I buy the whole peeled garlic cloves and throw the bag in the freezer. It lasts longer, and freezing them doesn’t seem to compromise the flavor. They do tend to look translucent as they are thawing, but that doesn’t seem to effect anything. Except for making my own bread, these are usually the staples I get at Costco as well. Thanks for the list!
Hi Aubrey. I like that idea of just throwing the garlic in the freezer in a pinch. I will blend it before freezing it and put it in ice cube trays, and it retains it’s color and doesn’t go translucent that way. But when you see it could go bad soon and don’t have time to cut off the ends and blend them, it would be great to just throw them in the freezer. Thanks for the idea!!
Hi Kim. Hopefully your Costco carries the organic uncooked tortillas. They are so good! But those Costco stores don’t always consistently carry the same items, so I hope you find them. I bought Kerrygold butter there for the first time when they had a “coupon”. I’ve been holding out to get some more there if and when the price dips again. The color is such a deep, golden yellow, and it has such a nice, and rich flavor. Even my kids can tell the difference.
We live two hours from nearest Costco, but we have a membership and hit em up at least a few times a year when we have to go “to the city.” They have a super price on huge bags of organic apple chips…yum! We stock up on Kerrygold butter, frozen wild caught salmon, cheeses, and sometimes baking staples. These are my indulgences 🙂
Oh, and I agree, homemade tortillas are so yummy but overly time consuming in my experience so I seek out the organic ones when I can. I didn’t know that Costco carried these…will have to check that out!
My local Costco carries the really BIG cans (6 lbs for $4) of Marzano tomatoes from Italy. Since I need to cook very low sodium for my husband these allow me to make a big batch of pasta sauce from scratch and freeze some of the extra for other meals. When pork is really cheap locally ( $0.99 to $1.20/lb depending if it’s boneless or not) I buy it in bulk to make my own sausage (with the grinder I got at Costco). I don’t do casings, just bulk and it’s so frugal and I know EXACTLY what is in it. I LOVE using the Costco peeled garlic for that project! I’ll share a “SECRET” for use of the garlic from a friend whose husband’s family is Italian and does a huge annual preparation of sausage. They put the peeled garlic into a blender with a bottle of dry, drinkable, but inexpensive, white wine. Blend it up, let it “steep” for 15-30 minutes, strain it and use the “garlic wine” as liquid in your Italian sausage. It is wonderful. (The alcohol is gone during cooking.) I put the leftover garlic in a (dedicated) plastic container and store it in the fridge. It keeps fresh for a much longer time than the plain peeled garlic. When I’m cooking Italian I just grab it and throw a tablespoon or so into a pan of olive oil and I’m ready to go. The wine seems to “preserve” the garlic for many weeks!
Okay, Deb, that is an AWESOME idea for the garlic to preserve it! Thanks for sharing!! We have some leftover white wine, so I’ll have to try it!
Love this list! I’m all about convenience foods on the cheap!
Thanks Rosemarie! Gotta love frugal!
This is EXACTLY what this frugal mom buys at costco–except I make my own bread. Great list (I was hoping to find a few more things to get, but great minds think alike!)
Good to be confirmed! I do like having the homemade bread around. I just have to make choices sometimes.
I love buying the kipper snacks from Costco. We put them on gf crackers (also from Costco) with some Franks RH (also from Costco). I love the tortilla chips and salsa from Costco as well.
I used to make my own almond milk, but now I just buy in bulk at Costco. It’s much cheaper there than the grocery store!
The thing that I hate is getting used to buying something there and then they take it away. They used to sell this amazing gf corn pasta, but then stopped. So now I’m stuck buying rice pasta from expensive Bulk Barn.
I really wish Costco would sell bulk rice flour. My Blentec just doesn’t grind rice fine enough, and I’m not happy with prices at the grocery store and Bulk Barn.
Hi Sarah. I TOTALLY agree with you about their products. They used to sell these great cooked multigrain tortillas. I bought a few extras and froze them. Glad I did because they stopped selling them a couple of years ago. I was super excited to find these tortillas and have some in the freezer…just in case!