After that whole sticker shock thing at the optometrists office last week, I decided to go ahead and re-new my membership to Costco. Although I had to pay out of pocket for my glasses, the prescription lenses were hundreds of dollars less than what I was quoted at the optometrists office. I have already submitted my claim to the insurance company and should be getting a refund in the next few weeks.
My parents gift us a membership to Costco every year, but I’ve been holding off on renewing the card simply because I didn’t want the temptation of being able to shop there. Don’t get me wrong, Costco is great for things like furniture, mattresses and the occasional sale item, but like everyone else I know, I am prone to overspending there. I can pop into a regular grocery store for a pound of cheese, but if I stop in at Costco I’m more likely to go home with a $40 assortment of gourmet cheeses. Go figure.
But those Costco weenies…You can’t beat that deal. Or so the HH’s says.
I think they’re gross.
Food wise, I kept things pretty simple last week. Big salads for me and dinner leftovers for the HH’s lunch.
Fried rice is a staple in our house. I make a batch every single week {mostly for Monkey Boy}.
I needed a cup of mozzarella cheese and a few red pepper flakes for the roasted zucchini Parmesan I made last week but I didn’t want to go to the store, so I called Mrs. HB and worked out a barter.
I made spaghetti and meatballs for the boys…
And a lasagna and broccoli for them the next night.
The Girl and I just recently discovered The Great British Baking Show and are working our way through the first three seasons on Netflix. Apparently the show is rubbing off on her because she has been bit by the baking bug. Last week she made us meringue and digestive biscuits. And this week she plans to make creme brulee and macarons. Which of course I have totally no problem with. 😉
Winco $26.71
I had planned on doing a no spend week {for the second time in July} but my I ended up on the other side of the bridge on Saturday and so I went ahead and popped into Winco and stocked up on fruits and vegetables.
Usually when shop at Winco I do self checkout because it’s so much faster and I put my groceries in double paper bags {which I later re-use as garbage bags in my kitchen}. The city of Tacoma just recently imposed a $0.05 bag tax and I totally forgot about it so I was charged $0.20 PLUS additional $0.02 tax on the paper bags at checkout.
Lame. But totally not. If it cuts down on plastic and paper bag consumption, I’m all for it. Next time I’ll just have to bring my own bags.
Raspberries! We are picking about a handful every other day now. It’s lovely.
And round 2 of the green beans are looking pretty good these days too. With a little luck, we should be able to start picking them in a few weeks.
Ahh summer. It’s here.
So how did you do at the stores last week? Did you buy anything exciting? Do you find yourself overspending when you shop at Costco too?
~Mavis
Total Spent This Week $26.71
- Total Spent in January on Groceries $202.99
- Total Spent in February on Groceries $143.94
- Total Spent in March on Groceries $183.35
- Total Spent in April on Groceries $205.67
- Total Spent on Groceries in May $248.60
- Total Spent on Groceries in June $147.47
- Total Spent on Groceries in July $252.14 {Yikes!}
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- Total Spent in January on Take Out, Date Nights, and Bakery Treats $42.19
- Total Spent in February on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $118.45
- Total Spent in March on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $25.29
- Total Spent in April on Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $62.50
- Total Spent in May of Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $54.52
- Total Spent in June of Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $119.15
- Total Spent in July of Take Out, Date Nights and Bakery Treats $12.45
Go HERE to read more Shopping Trip Stories.
Carolina says
Love the Puggle Princess Lucy checking out yout your Winco haul!!! Nothing gets by that girl!!!
Robin says
While I try to make good decisions about what I purchase I do try to support local businesses. My husband is an optometrist and I can tell you we cannot afford to sell frames and lenses at a Costco price, they have a much greater buying power than small businesses do and get their products MUCH cheaper than we ever could. They also purchase most of their frames from China. People want to have the small town businesses but they don’t support them. Sadly most are going under and soon it will be all big box stores.
Mary says
I love the British Baking show. It’s awesome.
Sherry says
I love The Great British Baking Show! I just finished season 3 over the weekend and have to resist the urge to bake all kinds of sweets that the show always makes me crave!
Terri says
My husband even watches the Great British Baking show we me. They have an American version too.
Sandi says
My husband is hooked on it also. He even watches it when I’m working then tells me about the interesting cooking ‘techniques’ he learned!
Anne says
Well said robin!!
Robin says
Thank you Annie, I appreciate that you made the effort to read and comment on my post.
Sue R. says
Our raspberries are just about done for the first crop of this year–I think I’ve frozen about 20 quart bags of berries (plus what we’ve been eating)! The winter recipes will be tasty this year.
Carrie says
I always overspend when I go to Costco. I can’t get out of there without spending $100! If it wasn’t for the cheap gas I would cancel my membership but the price difference between gas stations covers the membership. It’s usually $0.25 difference per gallon! I just need to stay out of the store or be very strict about only buying whats on my grocery list.
Leslie says
Super interested in the macaroons- coconut or French? Would love to see a post on the adventure of French macaroons, as my only attempt so far was a total flop. A totally delicious, hideous, had to eat/destroy the evidence flop.
Mavis Butterfield says
French. I’ll let you know how it goes when she makes them.
Rebecca in MD says
I had the same debate about renewing my Costco membership this year. In the end I renewed it for the same reason you did – – – to save on my glasses. I used to overspend at Costco, but now I go there with a list and just get what is on the list. I only buy what I can get there cheaper than any other stores. With this strategy my Costco haul has dropped from $150-$200 per trip down to $40 – $60 per trip. There are just some things like glasses, crab meat, and paper products that just pay for the membership for me.
Karin C says
I too Have let our Costco membership expire, my in laws have one and they go regularly and puck up the things we need like toilet paper , feta cheese and sugar .
I use to uses the shelf checkout bit dinnymore as I feel they have put them in to get rid of a persons job so I now use the cashier run tils .
Our local Wal Mart changes for bags as do a few other places so I try to Remember my bags .
Waiting for my raspberries later this week to do another batch of jam , got 22 quarts from the first one and hope to get the same again .
Happy Monday Mavis , Lucy and family .
Vicki says
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAeHuDcy_bY
I love these guys…
Jamie says
Thanks for sharing the video Vicki!
Mel says
I binge watched the Season 2 of the Great British Baking show this past week. And made cinnamon rolls and strawberry muffin bread. :).
Katherine says
We live less than 5 miles from a Costco so getting gas there is not out of the way and totally worth the membership. I usually let my son and DIL know when I’m going we will divide and split the cost of meat, poultry and other grocery items. It works out well for us.
Torry says
We live in Tacoma, but it is so easy from where we live to shop in Lakewood or other parts of the county. I’ll be interested in seeing if Tacoma’s tax revenues decrease because of the bag ban. we have been saying to each other, “Which store do you want to go to, free bags or bag free?”
Since I use public transit a lot, sometimes with our weather, you need a plastic bag!
Deborah says
We spent about $167 last week on groceries. We mostly bought on sale items. I did splurge and buy a whole chicken (69-cents a pound) on sale. I cooked it in my instant pot. It was falling apart. LOL. I made chicken salad out of all of it. It was so good! I also got 1 1/2 pints of chicken stock. I had put 2 lemons in the cavity of the chicken. The broth is awesome!
This week, we will be eating out of the freezer and pantry. I am loving my Instant Pot (electric pressure cooker for those who haven’t heard of it).
Elise says
A few months ago I bought 2 sorry-looking raspberry bushes (Raspberry shortcake variety) at Costco, $2.00 each because they were so sorry looking… They are a bushy, container variety, but we already have 8 raspberries ripening! hoping they don’t get eaten by any critters, and looking forward to seasons to come!
We have had plastic bag bans here for YEARS (SF Bay area) and our paper bags are 10 cents each. I am SO in the habit of carrying my parachute-cloth bags that fold up smaller than my husband’s wallet (about 1/3-1/2 the size of his wallet) that sometimes I run out of trash bags! (because, you can imaging that I do NOT buy plastic trash bags…). When I remember, I specifically buy 10 grocery bags at a time at check-out 🙂
Continue to LOVE your blog Mavis! It’s really the ONLY one I follow 🙂 I may even join Instagram because of you! I can see Instagram on the PC (but not comment), but can’t see it on my phone unless I join…