We do both the mostly prepared foods and the fancier stuff. We get a bunch of the almost prepared foods for nights we (really ShawWife) don’t want to cook and I got a bunch of lamb chops for Father’s day.
I concur on restaurants. We went to a restaurant tonight that was good – the chef just got a James Beard award – but not great and it was $90 a person. I don’t mind paying that or even significantly more upon occasion for a great restaurant. But this was not great. Lesser restaurants are also surprisingly expensive.
If you want to pay less, there are also options that cost a small fraction of the listed amounts. However, yes restaurants are typically far more expensive than grocers, particularly discount grocers. I was at Costco earlier today and bought the meats listed below. It’s hard to beat either price elsewhere.
Rotisserie Chicken – $5 for a giant chicken. This is ~6 servings for me, so in a particular meal, I’d pay 83 cents for chicken. The other foods in the meal would bring the total for the full meal to between $1 and $2.
Salmon Burger – $15 for 12 or $1.25 per serving. The other foods in the meal, might bring the total up to $2.
I also purchased Subway gift cards, which I plan to use while on a hiking trip this weekend. When stacked with the Subway footlong coupon, this brings the total to $6.99 * ($55/$75) = $5.13 for a footlong sub. If I call the 2 halves small meals, then $2.56 per meal
Regarding the toilet paper value, here’s the breakdown. Costco sells 30 rolls with 380 sheets for $19.99. Sam’s sells 45 rolls with 320 sheets for $22.00.
To fully calculate the value, 45 rolls has 320 sheets. That equates to 14,400 sheets. Divide 22/14,400, it equates to $0.001527 per sheet. Doing an apples to apples comparison, take $0.001527 and multiply that times 380 sheets and multiply that times 30 rolls. The result is $17.00 for the exact same quantity of toilet paper as Costco ($19.99).
Although I doubt the difference between Costco and Sam’s is this extreme, the price/sheet of copy paper is a whole lot less than the price/sheet of resume paper (for us older folk who still know what that is). So it’s not just the price/sheet but whether the quality of the sheets are the same.
How do you know Kirkland Signature (Costco) and Member’s Mark (Sam’s) are “exact same quality.” Sam’s Club often edges out Costco with slightly lower prices, but many report that quality differs between the 2 brands. I have not personally used the Sam’s Club toilet paper, so I can’t comment on Sam’s Club quality, but I can say that toilet paper quality differs with every brand I have tried. I’ve never found 2 that are “exact same quality.”
I mentioned getting Charmin in my earlier post. After the $6.50 discount, Charmin was $23.50. Charmin ultra soft was $2.81 per 100sqft compared to ~$2 for Kirkland Signature, yet I still chose Charmin. The higher price is worth it to me.
Some time in 2020 I bought 2 large packages of Costco TP because I could. I think I used maybe one roll and then went on a hunt for Charmin. I gave the Costco rolls to the local food pantry. The extra cost is totally worth it.
I’m 5’4” and got a size 4. It comes to about 2.5” above my ankle bone…more like a crop pant than a capri on me. It looks nice for a lightweight casual pant. I plan to take it on my next trip.
Edited to say it actually has “Ripstop Crop Pant” on the tags, but looks like the photo and the instore price was $16.99.
@Data10, it is hard for me to leave Costco without the rotisserie chicken. That can be two nights dinner (or dinner and lunch) and then the bones become chicken soup in ShawWife’s hands.
Used to love the salmon burgers but have not had them in a while. I used to have two salmon burgers for dinner. However, I have been on a weight watchers diet (lost over 20 lbs since mid-April) and they have 4 points a burger (compared to zero for fish). Last night we had black cod ($9.99 a lb) with black bean garlic sauce for dinner. (1 point). I’m guessing we eat less than a half a pound each, so the price of the entree is probably under $5. S But as my weight loss plateaus at my desired weight, I will take up the salmon burgers.
Costco is increasing their membership fees. Sam’s did the same thing last year. TBH, we got the Sam’s Mastercard and opted for a more expensive Sam’s Plus membership. The 5% for gas and Sam’s purchases, as well as pharmacy savings more than pays for the membership. It’s a bargain. Costco’s Visa card is similar.
I bought a gas BBQ that was $799 reduced to $699 at Costco but before I bought it, I checked the price at Lowe’s and they were selling the same grill for $1049. (I also get 2% back for executive membership, which is a $14. So, I in effect paid $685 for that grill, which is a pretty big savings relative to the Lowe’s price at the time.) I purchase blueberries at Costco for I think $3.99 or $4.99 but I went to the local store at 7 AM this morning (ShawWife invited people over last night for an 8 AM breakfast) and paid $4.99 for 1/4 the amount of blueberries. I can live with a $10 increase in my executive membership.
Alas, I don’t eat the hot dogs very often but for some reason they are the biggest treat for my MIL.
We always eat our Sams and Costco hot dogs at the store. As retirees, it is our cheapest lunch date option. (Hot dogs are not very healthy, so we only do it once or twice a month.)
; we are a strictly Coke family!