Shopping at Costco doesn’t have to mean buying mega jars of mayonnaise. Here’s how to shop for a small household at the warehouse.
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Plan Your Meals and Go with a List
I’m a big list-maker, and a list is particularly helpful when grocery shopping to keep me or my husband on track. Our running digital grocery list for Costco has go-to items and things we always keep stocked at the house. But the list also helps us think and plan for future meals. For instance, if we’re entertaining guests, I might pick up extra organic greens for salad recipes, blocks of cheese for a cheese board, and meats to throw on the grill.
Visit Once or Twice a Month
The beauty of Costco is that you don’t have to go every other day or even once a week. Buying larger quantities of items you can easily store for future use means going once or twice a month. We go grocery shopping at Costco about once every five to six weeks at my house to stock up on our usual suspects.
Stock Up on Basics
It’s not sexy, but shopping at Costco is essential for toilet paper, laundry detergent, toothpaste, pain relievers, dishwashing liquid, trash can liners and more. We have just enough storage space for the extras, so we never run out.
Buy Things with a Longer Shelf Life
Our pantry always contains dried pasta, olive oil and other cooking oils, crackers, coffee, canned San Marzano tomatoes, walnuts, oat milk and coconut water—all of which we buy at Costco. You can get many non-perishable items at the warehouse—including beer, wine and spirits, depending on your state.
Shop the Frozen Section
We always have three things in our freezer: organic frozen fruit for smoothies, organic broccoli for roasting or stir-fry recipes, and frozen, uncooked, shell-on shrimp for any shrimp recipe under the sun.
But Don’t Skip the Fresh Produce
If your household eats a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, Costco is a savior (especially during the winter months). We regularly stock up on fresh berries, greens or lettuces, mushrooms, carrots, sweet potatoes and baby potatoes—most of it is organic, too. I put Organic Girl power greens or organic spinach in just about everything, from pasta recipes to smoothies, so we’ll always grab a box or bag.
Premade Items Can Be a Lifesaver
I’ll never forget the first time I witnessed the Costco rotisserie chicken frenzy when they restocked the chickens. I avoided the scrum! But we’ll occasionally buy a whole rotisserie chicken to divide up for several meals, from chicken salad to chicken enchiladas. Break it down and freeze the meat for later use, including the bones, which you can use to make chicken broth.
Freeze Everything You Can
We don’t have a separate freezer (although sometimes I wish we did), yet we find room for freezing extra food in our run-of-the-mill kitchen freezer. We freeze meat, breads (the Costco ciabatta rolls are great for everything from burgers to sandwiches and croutons) and occasionally baked goods (muffins!). I love Tortilla Fresca Uncooked Flour Tortillas, which are found in the refrigerated section. They’re raw and come in packs of two; we always freeze one.
We’ll buy a pack of four New York strips, eat two and freeze the other two for another meal. Organic chicken breasts and ground beef are sold in smaller packs that are easily stored in the freezer. We’ll freeze fresh crab meat if we’re not going to eat it right away, and sometimes fish (depends on what it is and whether it was already frozen). And don’t forget that you can freeze butter!
