How to avoid a big bill at Costco

Everyone who shops at Costco knows one of the biggest challenges is walking out with just what you went there for. This article contains some great advice on how to keep your Costco shopping visits under control.

Here are some of my tips:

• Only go to Costco if you have a shopping list.
• Go straight to those items and get them first before you buy anything else.
• Don't buy stuff just because it "seems interesting."
• Watch the quantities unless it has an unlimited shelf life.
• On food items always check the expiration date and then ask yourself if you will use all that by the date. If not, don't buy it.
• Fresh produce can be the worst. That crate of peaches may look wonderful, but if you can't eat them all in a week, don't buy them.
• Remember, Costco has a super liberal return policy. If you change your mind, just take it back.
• Costco has some great deals on clothing. But, just because the price is amazing, you may not need it. This is one of the reasons why I have way too many casual jackets.
• Costco's coupons can be attractive, but Costco now shows volume pricing and often the coupon item isn't the cheapest product. The Kirkland version will usually beat the coupon item.

Happy shopping.

Time to crank this puppy up again

It's been well over a year since my last post to this space. And, after several frustrating attempts to recover my password (I really have to hand it to Google as they do focus on making it hard for people to break into your stuff), I finally had a brain fart and figured it out with some help from Google.

So, I hope to be posting regularly to this site with my discoveries, updates and reviews of all that's going on at my local Costco stores. Warning: This may not be representative of what's happening in your region or store as there definitely are differences.

Since I last posted, one thing I've noticed is the steady increase in the number of products bearing Costco's own Kirkland house brand. To me, this is a good thing. I've consistently found the Kirkland brand to be not only of high quality, but incredible value. I'm currently doing a test of men's blue jeans between Kirkland, GAP, Land's End and Eddie Bauer. Not completely finished, but so far the Kirkland blue jeans ($12) are running ahead on value and comfort.

I'm hoping to post two to three times per week as a service to fellow Costco Shoppers.