I am not sure if it is the same everywhere, but at least in my part of NJ Instacart prices for Costco are higher than the Costco warehouse (it says so in the website). So I don’t know if it would end up being similar to a regular supermarket.

@Alexicographer – yeah, our Costco is also like a 20 minute drive from our house so we don’t go there very often. Then when we do we feel like we have to get all the things. I try to be judicious (no, we don’t need all the things and we’ll still have to go to the grocery store in 2 days anyway…) but this weekend clearly not.

But also very early on I established a policy that I will never, ever go to Costco on a weekend. Indeed, I won’t even order from Costco via Instacart on a weekend (I am not kidding), because I just find the whole experience so unpleasant (and don’t want to subject others to it on my behalf either).

But! There’s an assortment of things that are a good value for even my household-of-3 from Costco, so we shop there. Hmmm. Steaks, bone-in chicken thighs, cooked or raw bacon, eggs, olive oil, butter, blueberries (fresh in or near season, or frozen), Kirkland yogurt, large boxes of cereal, peppers, TP, paper towels, various frozen veggies, seltzer water, some cheeses. I love their pumpkin pie, and — what a value! Oh, and Ghiardelli brownie mix, chocolate chips, flour, vitamins, and I like to keep their spanakopita on hand as a quick appetizer for guests or potlucks (yes, I am happy to serve Kirkland spanakopita in either of those settings). I have to be careful because I am tempted to buy things like large quantities of crackers, etc., and then (again, household of 3 here) often they go stale. And most of these are not “urgent” items, so I can indeed avoid shopping there on weekends without much planning required.

Now we also have a list of things we buy at Costco, and I so appreciate the feeling of being DONE. Of having all the paper towels and hand soap and chicken breast we could possibly use … for at least a few weeks.

Thanks for the reminder to get stamps!

@Lori C – fun! Yes, you can look at church websites, because a lot of the larger churches have choirs and they will all do Christmas themed shows. You can also just google choirs in my area and see what local community choirs come up. Then go to their websites and see when they’re advertising their upcoming performances. And finally, if you have any major concert halls near you check their schedule — sometimes multiple choirs will perform, say, The Messiah over the course of the Christmas season in these venues.

@Kat – here in PA liquor has to be sold on dedicated registers (I guess so you can maintain the fiction that it’s a separate store?) which is a big improvement from when it couldn’t be sold at all at grocery stores (about 5 years ago). You still can’t buy more than 12 units though (2 six packs). All this means we weren’t buying wine at Costco! Then it would have been even more expensive…

@Geralis – oh my goodness yes. We could have gone out for a very fancy dinner with wine and paid the sitter for less than what we spent. But then we wouldn’t have 2 dozen cheap eggs!