Stuff I didn’t know I needed….until I went to Costco (June edition, with kids)

Since January, I’ve been doing a monthly feature I call “Stuff I didn’t know I needed… until I went to Costco.” I figure that at least 88% of most people’s purchases at Costco are unplanned, and my goal is to celebrate that.

These posts highlight the deals, the drools, and the randomness that makes Costco the amazing place that we plunk down $200 for 8 items (and then mentally justify our purchases on the long drive home). As my kids are out of school, I asked if they wanted to come with me today or stay home with dad. Of course, they wanted to go to Costco.

My son’s first question was “what’s for lunch?” I didn’t plan this outing super well and realized that we were setting out to do our grocery shopping during lunch hour. (A big “no no,” I know.) I decided to have my kids eat first to prevent some of the begging later. I don’t know that I’ve ever eaten at the Costco food place, but the prices sure seemed good!

Each of my kiddos got a slice of pizza and an ice cream and I paid just about $7.50. NOT bad.

Have you ever had one of these Costco pizza slices? My goodness, they are just HUGE. As you can see, my kids had to work hard to eat them! My daughter could barely eat 1/2 of her pizza and 1/3 of her frozen yogurt too. I guess the Costco proportions shouldn’t have surprised me, but they did.

While the kids were eating, this sign caught my eye. Did you know you can phone-in an order for pizza? At $9.99 for an 18″ pizza, seems like a deal to me.

Once the sugar high had set in nice and good, I knew we were ready to explore the store.

These awesome pop-out umbrella covers caught my eye. Wouldn’t these be PERFECT for those rainy soccer games? They had them in Seahawks and UW logos for $159.99 each.

They had matching coolers for $37.99.

The character-themed backpacks caught my kids’ eye today. They were $14.99 but you know, we *just* started summer break a couple weeks ago and I am not ready to buy anything schoolish. Yet.

Well, except this. Have you ever seen these giant workbooks that Costco sells? They have them for a number of grade levels and they are great to keep your kids busy during the summer! I bought my son the 3rd Grade one for $7.49. Sister wasn’t so interested. (Oh well, it’s all good.)

I was very surprised to find this book – Pacific Northwest Foraging. It JUST got released (June 3rd to be exact). I was kind of amazed that Costco is already carrying it. I totally bought it. (The same title is $18.27 on Amazon today.)

I think my son might have been more excited about the foraging book than me!

These end-cap in the book section caught my eye – it was full of classic novels, all beautifully bound for $9.49 each. If anyone can make Moby Dick seem interesting or cute, Costco can.

Healthy frozen dessert maker = $38.99. If all this takes is fruit, I wonder if one couldn’t make their own healthy frozen desserts without this machine?

Because every house needs a globe. NEEDS.

I LOVED THESE!!! I nearly bought them, too. 3-pack soup mugs (BPA-free) for $12.99. You can put soups, casseroles, chili, stew…. and then take them wherever.

These wood cutting boards were also cute – the set of them was $19.99.

Takeya Pitcher Set, $24.99. These are the kind of pitchers you could make fruity or herbal infusions with.

I was pleasantly surprised to find this 12-ct Hail Merry Mini Lemon Tarts for $8.99! This is an amazing brand – they make raw, gluten-free, AND vegan treats. You usually find them in upscale/nutritiony stores, like Whole Foods or Marlene’s. This is actually a good price considering what I’ve seen them for elsewhere. (And yes, the make DELICIOUS treats!)

I always spot prepared meals like these at Costco. Some of them look really good. Do you have any you’d recommend for a “dinner on the quick?”

Coconut Curry, 20 oz for $8.99. I might have to splurge on this next time! I fail to see how you could go wrong with a combo of curry and coconut!

Pretzel rolls, $5.99. My sister introduced us to these over the weekend and my husband asked that I please bring some home today! They are SO good. You can just eat them like a dinner roll, or you could use them as slider buns. I’m also envisioning an open-faced turkey cranberry sandwich with melted Swiss… gah, I’m getting hungry now. Just…. try these.

Emergency food supply for 6 persons for 72 hours for $65.99. I did the math for you, and that works out to $3.66 per meal. Seems kind of spendy, but then again very few items you can buy at the store are shelf stable for 20 years. (Well, I suppose there’s always vodka.)

My kids were so stuffed from the pizza slices the size of their heads, they turned down most of the sample carts today. Except my son was excited to find the berry trail mix stand and he insisted I take this picture.

Ready to see what I bought and how I did today?

We bought (2) big things of cereal, a HUGE box of fruit snacks, the pretzel rolls, chicken thighs, a 12-pack of Muller yogurt, the Foraging book and the 3rd Grade Workbook for my son and paid a total of $82.65. (As a reminder, I consider anything under $100 a successful shopping trip!)

Today’s total is a bit higher than normal because we were actually buying some groceries today, and not just random random like I normally do when I’m at Costco.

Here’s one more perk of shopping Costco with your kids: special smiley faces drawn on the back of your receipt by the door checker.

I guess I should bring them more often.

What have you found at Costco lately? Have a successful shopping trip? Or a trip that broke your bank account? I want to hear about it – leave a comment below.