Savings We Can't Afford...

Boredom saved us a bundle of $$$ yesterday!

Carla and I were both off work at the same time. It doesn’t happen all that frequently. Bright, sunny day in the low 70’s. “Lets get the hell out of the house and do something different.” We agreed.

Where to? The beach? Historic downtown? A long bike ride? Maybe we should do yard work or even clean 10 years of dust off the plates and glassware on display in the bay window. We’ve only talked about doing that for seven years now. The dust is so bad that a blue glass dolphin paperweight and a little green pig sport thick dust rugs like hair. I ran two fingers down the opposite sides of each one to make them look like they are wearing fresh Mohawk haircuts.

Beware the punk dolphin and his angry pig friend.

But no, we decided none of that would hit the sweet spot. We were after some real excitement. 

Somewhere in conversation, the idea of going to Costco came up. We’re not members and the closest store is a 50-minute drive. But we’ve talked about joining longer than we have about dusting.

So off we went.

The bottom line? It was awesome! We saved so much money it’s hard to believe.

We walked away from the new member station with double “Executive” memberships and new Visa cards with a $9,000. credit limit. The membership only cost $140. and the nice lady charged it to our new VISA card that we don’t even have yet! And listen to this, the VISA card is a cash-back deal. As best I can understand it, every time we use the card for anything, they send us a check for $60. The Costco cards are “Executive” membership cards, and it sounds like we get a check back for $60. whenever we buy anything with them too. We’ll be swimming in $60. checks! No wonder Costco is so popular!

We figure that we’ll go back to Costco tomorrow, in & out 5 times, and buy a $1.00 item each time…and get 5 $60. checks next week! And each time we spend the $1.00, we’ll use our new VISA card and get another 5 $60. checks! That’s 10 $60. checks! $600. for spending $5.00!

I can’t believe other people haven’t thought of this. I guess we’re just extra smart. I mean, I didn’t listen to every detail of the way it works, but I really tuned in to the part when the saleslady kept saying: “And then you’ll get ANOTHER $60. Check!” and was proud of our smart decision to join.

You ever been there? It’s a double football field indoor arena crammed with miles of awesome values. King Crab legs and lobster tails for miles. It’s probably best suited for a family of 12 or 15, but we figured that we can freeze or store at least half of what we bought. And looking at the prices? We would be foolish not to buy in bulk like that. Anything less than packing the car would almost be wasteful.

We limited ourselves to the basics though. $388. worth. You know, things like vacuum packed cooked octopus, or maybe that 64 pack of Ferrero Rocher chocolates.That, plus the $140. to sign up came to $528.00. But we saved so much by buying our necessities in bulk that it’s a no brainer. Plus, remember that we also have all those checks for $60. that will start rolling in next week!

Hard to believe that after all these years, we are finally saving so much money by shopping at Costco!

We really wanted to go back again next week, but I crunched the numbers and realized that I'll have to get a second job before we can afford to save like that on a regular basis.