Costco For People Who Live Alone

I ran into this problem too, which is one of the reasons I didn't renew my membership with them, although I do really like the store and I'm happy to support a place that pays it's employees fair wages.

For a while, I was seriously considering getting a spare freezer so I can store all the extra frozen stuff I would otherwise not be able to fit in my regular freezer. But it seemed kind of silly for me to have something like that while living in an apartment.

Even non-food items, like large packs of paper towel or laundry detergent, can be tough because I only have so much space to store everything.

One thing you can do, if you really like certain products there and they are selling them at a great price, is see if any of your friends, family or co-workers want to split some of these items with you.

 

If you're able donate non perishables to a food bank close by. It's always a good idea as mentioned by ohiotom76 to split large quantities. Prepare meals and freeze them for another day is good too. You can also arrange foods by earliest expiration date first and plan meals around those dates. There will be days when you probably won't want to eat that particular meal then treat a neighbor with it, maybe a senior citizen.

 

I would suggest looking into something a tad more sustainable than things with year expiration. Expand your horizons in that sense. Food that is disgustingly cheap & sustainable is quite difficult to step away from. However, dirt cheap fresh items I find quite easy to ignore. Give it a week or two another set of things that could not be sold in the appropriate time frame will surface.

Also, take into account what you eat regardless of the season. Are there a few items you just generally stuff in your face regardless of price? Keep an eye on those items.

 

The best thing to do would be to ask friends or co-workers to shop with you, so you could share! Otherwise I think that donating foods might work, but it would probably only apply to less perishable options due to food safety concerns.

 

To be honest, I really don't find Costco to be much cheaper than other stores and with just two of us in the house there is a lot of waste.I shop the sales at other stores and always get good deals. However, I do keep my membership at Costco because there are a few items I haven't been able to find elsewhere and I do like the gift ideas they have at Christmas.

 

I think when it comes to Costco and your someone who lives alone or only a few of you in the home then maybe only necessity type products should be bought there. Stuff such as laundry soap, and toilet paper just to name a few. But when buying it another thing to take into consideration would be do you have the space to store the products to have on hand in the future.

As for saving money on food items, might I suggest a story known as 99 cents Only if you happen to have one in your area. This is place that is like a grocery store and dollar store all in one. It even has a produce and frozen section. When it comes to items that can expire this can be a good place to still cut cost and not have to worry about throwing something out, after all it only cost a dollar to start with.

 

The only thing I could suggest is to team up with someone else and split your purchases. You could consider batch cooking some of your food - making several meals at once then freezing them for later use.