3 Times I’ve Wasted My Money at Costco

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Even seasoned Costco shoppers make their share of mistakes. Here are a few poor choices I’ve made. 

My Costco membership is something I use often. My family typically shops there once a week, and I generally get an opportunity to save a fair amount of money on groceries and household supplies.

But if you’re not careful about the items you buy at Costco, you could end up wasting your money instead of saving it. Here are three specific occasions when I fell into that trap.

1. Buying a massive cheesecake to consume solo

There are certain things I buy at Costco weekly, like milk and produce, so I typically don’t shop there with a list. Because of that, I tend to give in to impulse purchases when I’m roaming the aisles.

Sometimes, that’s not a big deal. I once picked up a box of pre-made lentils simply because they were on sale, but I wound up serving them over rice for dinner a couple of nights in a row during a busy week. So even though that was an unplanned buy, it wasn’t a wasteful one.

But sometimes, my impulse purchases don’t work out so well for me. Earlier this year, I saw a red velvet Junior’s cheesecake at my local Costco for under $20. Seeing as how this dessert normally retails for more like $60, I decided I had to have it.

But cheesecake has a limited shelf life. And my freezers at home were completely full at the time. So once I brought that cake home, I had a choice — consume it within a few days or throw a bunch out.

I thought I was up to the challenge of devouring an entire Junior’s cheesecake in three or four days, but I was wrong. Even with the help of my husband (my kids don’t really care for cheesecake), we wound up dumping about half of it.

2. Buying bulk veggies and fruit right before a vacation

It normally makes sense for my family to buy fruits and vegetables from Costco since we tend to go through a lot of them. Earlier this year, we took a quick getaway in late May that had us away from the house for four days. But a few days before that trip, we stocked up on our usual haul of fruits and veggies from Costco, thinking we’d maybe pack a cooler and take some of them with us since our rental house had a full-sized fridge.

Only in regular me fashion, instead of packing for our trip calmly, I wound up throwing bags together at the very last minute and forgetting all about the produce we were supposed to bring along in a cooler. By the time we got back from our trip, most of it had spoiled.

3. Buying pain relievers in bulk and throwing out half the bottle

A pack of 1,000 Kirkland brand Ibuprofen pills costs $13.99 online right now, bringing the cost to $0.01 per pill. By contrast, a smaller batch of Amazon’s generic Ibuprofen costs $0.05 a pill.

The last time I needed to stock up on Ibuprofen, I did so at Costco for the savings and brought home a 1,000-pack of pills. But 1,000 pills is 500 standard doses, and that’s a lot to go through in 18 months, which was the expiration window on the bottle. So in the end, I wound up throwing out a lot of those pills.

Most of the time, I come out ahead financially by doing my shopping at Costco. But these specific incidents were clearly an exception. Luckily, I can learn from my mistakes and hopefully make better choices going forward. That means not bringing home a massive cheesecake unless I’m hosting guests who can help me eat it, not stocking up on perishable items right before a trip, and not overbuying pain relief medication despite the appealing price point.

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The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Maurie Backman has positions in Amazon.com. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon.com and Costco Wholesale. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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