When many of think of Costco food, we often think of frozen, premade food that you pop on a tray and cook in the oven. Certainly healthy, whole food dinners aren’t what we think of as the typical Costco dinner. However, you can easily skip all the junk and buy a lot of whole food ingredients there! A very lovely organic salad with low-mercury sustainable tuna, organic quinoa, avocado, and shredded organic carrots with a vinegar and organic olive oil dressing can be made from ingredients found at Costco.
My local Costco has some real gems, such as the cheapest prices for organic quinoa, Kerrygold pastured butter, and Nutiva coconut oil in town! One 8 oz. package of Kerrygold butter only costs $2.33, and Nutiva coconut oil is only $.28 an oz. Amazing deals.
But is the cost of membership worth it? It costs $55 dollars for a yearly membership. Whether that cost is worth it for you or not is going to depend on a few things. First, what is available at your local Costco, as items vary, will be a factor. How far away it is from your house is also something to consider and how many items you’d be willing to buy there. They do have clothing items, books, toys, kitchen items and other household goods for good prices as well as the food. For natural cleaning, large bottles of white vinegar are avaible for next to nothing (probably made using genetically modified ingredients, by the way, though I use it anyways) and 13.5 pounds of baking soda is available for $16.59.
If looking just at the food, I think it depends also on whether you are a 100%-buy-from local-farmers person or not. If you are, it won’t be worth it for you. But if you have some flexibility, you may, like me, find enough food items to make it worth it. Plus, it seems like they are adding more healthy items in every month right now! I found several new items there today. Finally, a single girl mostly cooking for herself might not find significant savings, but a mother cooking for a family of six (or in my case, four), probably will – especially if you go through Kerrygold butter like we do!
There are several Costco’s near me, and even these can vary a little in what they carry. So keep in mind that you will need to check your local Costco for what they carry and prices. For example, one reader informed me recently that their Costco had even cheaper organic whole chickens than mine does.
However, here is a run down of some of the products of interest (I don’t necessarily buy all of these items, but was trying to find items my readers could be interested in. For the sake of length, I won’t go through the pros and cons of buying all of these items, but you are welcome to mention them in the comment section! I’d love to hear your thoughts.)
Dry Goods:
Organic Maple syrup 1L/$13.69
Adam’s Peanut Butter 80 oz./$.8.99
Maranatha Natural Almond Butter 26 oz./$6.79
Tree Top Organic Applesauce 36-4 oz. containers/$10.49
Tree Top Organic Applesauce 4-47-25 oz./$9.69
Organic Salsa, 2-38 oz./$7.75
Organic Tomato Paste 12/6 oz./$5.99 (they also had organic tomato sauce, diced, and maybe stewed for good prices as well)
Truroots organic, gluten-free pasta 2.20 lbs./$7.49
Organic wheat pasta from Italy 6-1.1 lbs./&8.49
Organic quick oats 112 oz./$7.79
Organic Lundberg short brown rice 12 lbs./$12.99
Seeds of Change organic quinoa 4 lbs./$8.79
Sprouted Grain Medley, 3 lbs./ $8.99
Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Sugar (Fair trade, unbleached – good for kombucha making) 10 lbs/(need to re-check the price on this item)
Vitacoco Coconut water 6-1L/$15 (may be sometimes $20 as it was on sale)
Himalayan pink salt in salt grinder container 13 oz./$3.99
Canned and Smoked Seafood:
Wild Planet’s low-mercury, sustainably caught tuna 6-5 oz. cans/$14.99
Kirkland’s Wild Sockeye Salmon, canned 3-6 oz. cans $10.89
Bear and Wolf Wild Alaskan Salmon 6-6 oz./$11.99
Smoked Wild Alaskan Smoked Salmon 24 oz./$16.89
Organic Chicken Stock 6-32 oz./ $11.99
Nuts:
Walnuts 3 lbs./ $16.99
Almonds 3 lbs./$12.79
Pecans 2 lbs./$13.99
Raw pine nuts 24 ounces/$23.99
Oils and Fats:
Organic extra virgin olive oil 2 L/$12.39
Nuova olio extra virgin olive oil, unfiltered and unheated (California brand) 1 L/$7.99
Kerrygold butter 3-8 oz./$6.99
Organic butter 2 lbs./$7.69
Nutiva Coconut oil 78 oz./$21.99
Frozen and Refrigerated Goods:
Frozen organic dark cherries 4 lbs./$12.69 (lots of other frozen fruits and berries, but not any other organic ones)
Organic frozen green peas 5 lbs./$4.65
Organic frozen corn 3.5 lbs./ $4.65
Frozen wild Alaskan salmon burgers 3 lbs. (12 count)/$14.89
Wild Alaskan frozen halibut 2 lbs./$37.69
Wild caught frozen mahi-mahi 3 lbs./ $23.99
Wild Alaskan frozen sockeye 3 lbs./$26.89
Organic eggs 24 CT/$6.99
Kerrygold cheese 2.18 lbs./$12.99
Lamb Leg Roast $4.99 a pound
Organic whole chicken $2.49 a pound
Organic drumsticks $1.79 a pound
Organic chicken thighs $3.99 a pound
Organic chicken breasts $5.99 a pound
5 CT bag of large avocadoes $4.49
Organic Fuji apples 5.5 lbs./ $6.99
Organic baby spinach 1 lb./$3.99
Organic spring mix 1 1b/$3.99
Organic baby kale mix 1.5 lbs./$4.99
Organic broccolini 2 lbs./$5.50
Organic carrots 10lbs/ $5.99
What do you think? Do the above food items make it worth it? Any other Costco members out there?