Last week I received our annual Costco rebate check in the mail. For the last 7+ years my parents have renewed our Costco membership as a Christmas gift every year. It’s a pretty sweet gift if you ask me. The HH uses the Costco card to buy supplies for work and I use it occasionally for groceries so most years we end up with a rebate check.
I redeemed our Best Western points {the HH stays at one particular Best Western when he travels} for a $25 Kroger gift card as well. Normally I would have opted for a Starbucks gift card but since I’m going the decaf route these days and I’m not a big fan of any of Starbucks’ decaf tea options, I decided to redeem the points for groceries instead. 🙂
Costco $125.32 Free!
I was pretty excited to shop at Costco knowing I had $130. 25 to spend. I stocked up on necessities like flour, sugar, brown rice and chocolate chips and then bought a few treats like pizza and Haagen Daz bars for the boys and Good Earth Sweet and Spicy tea for myself.
I ended up spending only $125.32 of the $130.25 so the cashier handed me back $4.93 in cash.
Albertsons $4.98 $0.05 out of pocket after Costco overage
With my Costco cash in hand I popped over to Albertsons and picked up 3 bags of powdered sugar {2lbs for $1.00 each} and 2 bags of day old rolls/bagels {$0.99 each}.
Fred Meyer $25.30 $0.30 out of pocket after gift card
My next stop was to Fred Meyer where I used my $25 Kroger gift card. Whole chickens were on sale for $0.88 lb, grapes $1.28 lb, Tillamook Cheese $4.99 for a 2lb loaf, butternut squash $0.79lb, carrots $1.19. I also picked up last week’s Fred Meyer freebie item, I $2.00 container of Ice Breakers mints. I never buy mints but the HH was happy to have them for free.
And then the freebies kept rolling in.
The HH brought home yet another box of FREE Corn from farmer Ted. I had no idea he was still harvesting corn so late in the year. Crazy!
I also stopped by Mrs. HB’s and bartered some of our Swiss chard for almost 2 dozen fresh eggs. 
And now for a few of the meals I made last week:
Roasted chicken with garden fresh potatoes, butternut squash and carrots. 
I used the leftover chicken and made homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner the next night.
Tuna stuffed pita pockets with sweet potato fries. Yumm-O!
Dozens of brownie bits.
4 pans of homemade meatloaf {I’ll post the recipe tomorrow}.
Homemade meatballs. 
It was a good week with lot’s of freebies.
How did you do? What’s your favorite way to spend YOUR Costco rebate check?
~Mavis
Total Spent This Week $0.35
Weeks 1-28 Shopping Exclusively at Costco $1,229.25 {$43.90 a week/$175 a month average}
Weeks 29-42 Shopping wherever the heck I want $371.10
Total Spent Year to Date $1600.35
Go HERE to read more Shopping Trip Stories.
Barb says
Love stocking up on good things, especially when it’s “free.”
What kind of egg carton is that in the picture?
Mary Ann says
Looks like the organic 2 dozen eggs carton from Costco to me.
Mavis Butterfield says
Yep! I pulled it out of the recycle bin. Ha!
Betty D says
I live in Columbia SC area and the closes one to us of Costco is in Augusta,Ga….but there fixing to build one in our area soon. My son goes to Ga to shop there about once a month or less. How do you get rebates with them. I want to be ready…grin….for sure do though.
If you have a Kmart still in or near by about once a month or more they dble coupons up to $2 and like to stock up on pet /shampoo etc…Can get some good deals for sure. The down side is they will only take 5 coupons a day. Might not be worth it to those living a distance away. They do have a pt thing were you get so many pts each amount you spend and you can use when you want….but I find the pts time is to short and they run out before I can get back there on the good side you can use them on online orders …To me the best is getting things on dble coupon times.
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Amanda says
I live in the Greenville/Spartanburg SC area and we have 2 Costcos! We love them! If you sign up for the executive membership ($110 per year) you get 2% cash back on all purchases. We usually get a big enough refund to pay for our membership renewal plus some.
Brianna says
Augusta, GA is my Costco!
I use to live outside Topeka, KS and would travel every few months to Kansas City (1 hour) to go to Costco. The Kansas City ones (there are 4) were huge compared to Augusta. I can’t find most of my Costco favorites or basics here in Augusta. This Costco is small and stocks a ridiculous amount of processed foods….they don’t carry the 50lb flour bags (only 25), no whole grain flour either, no Stretch Island fruit Leather, no canned beef stock, frozen veggies are pretty much only mixed and green beans, no Aveeno products, not much organics, no tea, produce department is tiny, no diesel fuel, only strawberry jam, etc. It is disappointing compared to the other Costco I frequented for the past 5 years. My membership is up for renewal in December and I am considering not renewing. I did get a $190 rebate check though. The rebate is based on the type of membership (executive) and it is a percentage you receive back on eligible purchases (tires, fuel, and several others aren’t eligible). I think it is 2% or so back. I do purchase my holiday gift towers through Costco online and they are so much better than Harry&David and packed well and reasonable in cost. The cakes are a good value too and freeze well. I’m not a fan of the milk jugs, the design seems flawed and it is difficult to pour without it spilling a small amount or dripping over the lip, I wish they would redesign it.
Betty D says
WOW….Ive never been in a Costco and hope to when they build the one here. We have Sams and had 3 of them but one closed down and now I hear there closing another one. There a distance from me but worth it to go. The last several yrs they’ve been having instore good deals. like those spiral Florance light bulbs…a huge pack of 10 for only .99 along with other deals but with the Costco coming we might lose another one. I lived in Augusta,Ga for 15 or more ys back before 1979, then other places before landing in SC….have a brother whos in Kansas and has a business there. Only experienced the east/north east and south but was born in the north.
Helen in Meridian says
I ran into WINCO early today to get the dh maple bars for his birthday, and swiss cheese to get melted on top of the french onion soup I am making. They have their fresh chicken breasts for $1.48 a lb. This is the cheapest I have ever found in small quantities. They had 3 or 4 in a pkg. Hope you all can get some too. They said that price was good thru Tuesday for sure, when I asked how long it was on.
Mavis Butterfield says
French onion soup sounds delicious Helen. Tel your HH Happy Birthday for me.
Kari says
I was blessed with freebies today, too! My HH got back from his annual hunting/hang out with his family trip. Along with a couple birds of some sort (I’ll call it mystery meat,) he brought about 100 lbs of spuds (yes, we call them spuds in Idaho,) two sweet meat squash, leeks, and a giant bag of kale. Who doesn’t love free real food?