Costco Membership - Over $50 in Savings - New Members Only

I've always wondered whether a Costco membership is worth it for a single, young grad student. Thoughts?

curious about what the other coupons are? better than the 10/20 giftcard offer?

Quote from starlure : curious about what the other coupons are? better than the 10/20 giftcard offer?

If you are going to get those 3 items anyway they are easily $20-25. So Yes.

great, like their owned brand

So new members need to pay 55$ up upfront? Is it worth it?

I'm assuming its the same as it was previously....other coupons include $3 off canned chicken, $3 off tuna, $5 off meat, $5 off baked pizza, $10 off glasses, and a couple of others I can't remember

Quote from BitterYouth : I've always wondered whether a Costco membership is worth it for a single, young grad student. Thoughts?

Depends on where you live. Where I live, (secret base) Costco is more expensive for groceries with a few odd exceptions like maple syrup and organic olive oil. Random stuff like that. Not worth a membership for me - I cancelled several years ago and have saved hundreds of dollars in membership fees. I have relatives who pick me up the occasional odd thing like the maple syrup.

The real unslick thing about "CostMo" as we call it, if you watch how almost everyone there shops - is the impulse buys. I "cart watch" and people watch at CostMo sometimes - it's an interesting place to visit. Also, many of their products come in higher quantities than you might normally buy. For the average human brain, this means you eat more of it. At my local grocery store, the smaller boxes of many common groceries are actually cheaper per ounce/pound/whatever than larger ones so you can't even assume the price is better on Costco's giant packs. And you lose out on sales if you buy in bulk.

But that maple syrup, man, it's like half price.

Quote from BitterYouth : I've always wondered whether a Costco membership is worth it for a single, young grad student. Thoughts?

it is not, but... if you share the buying with your roomates/friends and split the cost.. you save $$

We joined costco after our first born child . It save some $$ for bulky packs from Costco. you can name it from milks and others...

if you are a single, you are wasting $$ since have to buy a bulky packs....

I am curious how long it takes to satisfy Costco that you are a new member? I have been able to get three coupon deals, but the last time, the associate told me I did not qualify after being a non-member for only two months...But that they will go ahead and honor the coupon deal this time! (I got the feeling on the prior two coupon book deals that they did not really want to do it then either) I guess this time, I will send Costco a letter and ask them for a clarification.

From memory, in addition to the Free rotisserie chicken, free 35 pack of 1/2 liter bottled water and 48 pack of AA Kirkland Alkaline batteries you also get::

$5 off any purchase of fresh meat.
$3 off an 18" pizza baked in store to take out.
$3 Off a 24 pack of chocolate chunk cookies
$3 Off a 6 pack of Kirkland 12.5 oz canned Chicken Breast
$3 Off an 8 pack of Kirkland 7 oz canned Albacore Tuna
$1.50 Off a 16 ounce package of baby salad greens (lettuce and spinach mix)
$10 off a pair of glasses from the optical department.

In addition to the above, I also received 250 My Coke rewards points, and I spent 120 of those points for coupons for 4 - 12 packs of Coke carbonated products costing up to $4.99 each, which just arrived in the mail!

Quote from BitterYouth : I've always wondered whether a Costco membership is worth it for a single, young grad student. Thoughts?

Where I live (soCal), it's worth it for the gas savings alone. Not sure if that applies to you or not.

Quote from Nathan0490 : Chicken - $5 Batteries - $15 35 pack of kirkland water - $4 = $24 in freebies Curious what else you get but eitherway good deal. Thumbs Up.

Then how do they add all those up for over $50?

I am going to costco for the first time tomorrow with a friend who has membership.
Anything specific worth buying from costco? eg someone couldnt stress more on maple syrup, anything else worth buying?
TIA

Quote from jawshoeaw : Depends on where you live. Where I live, (secret base) Costco is more expensive for groceries with a few odd exceptions like maple syrup and organic olive oil. Random stuff like that. Not worth a membership for me - I cancelled several years ago and have saved hundreds of dollars in membership fees. I have relatives who pick me up the occasional odd thing like the maple syrup. The real unslick thing about "CostMo" as we call it, if you watch how almost everyone there shops - is the impulse buys. I "cart watch" and people watch at CostMo sometimes - it's an interesting place to visit. Also, many of their products come in higher quantities than you might normally buy. For the average human brain, this means you eat more of it. At my local grocery store, the smaller boxes of many common groceries are actually cheaper per ounce/pound/whatever than larger ones so you can't even assume the price is better on Costco's giant packs. And you lose out on sales if you buy in bulk. But that maple syrup, man, it's like half price.

I totally agree with you except that maple syrup. Why do you feel the need to eat that much syrup when you have sugar there available and free (well almost!) LOL
On a serious side, I don't think it is cheaper when you buy so much of it (everything in Costco is a giant pack) and end up throwing it away because you fed up with it as there are too much of it. As for saving on gas, most of the time gas price in Costco is the same as Arco or some of the cash price gas station.
My 2 cents.

Quote from cantalup : it is not, but... if you share the buying with your roomates/friends and split the cost.. you save $$ We joined costco after our first born child . It save some $$ for bulky packs from Costco. you can name it from milks and others... if you are a single, you are wasting $$ since have to buy a bulky packs....

Another thing I do to improve my membership at Costco is to "SHOP THE SEVENS"
Costco always flags their closeout/clearance items by a "7" in the cents position of the price. Just scan price signage for these 7's, and you may be able to pick up some very good deals

FYI Sam's Club uses a 1 in the cents position of the price, to flag their closeout/clearance items. In Sam's Club, "SHOP THE ONES"