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The conclusion of Grad Money Matter’s post on Costco being a Good Value for the Money, but Not Frugal states:

Unless you are extremely disciplined, you will likely end up buying at least a few items that you were not planning on buying anyway, and they cost you more at Costco than regular grocery stores. So, while you might get more stuff for the same amount of money by shopping at Costco, some of that stuff may not be what you actually need and so, Costco isn’t a very frugal place to shop at! For small families, the cost of membership could possibly well exceed the amount saved. So, if anything, for small families, Costco can be definitively anti-frugal!

The key portion of that statement is “unless you are extremely disciplined”. However, it doesn’t take much to become an extremely disciplined Costco shopper and save significant amounts of money, even for small families (we are a family of 3). Here’s how to shop at Costco the frugal way:

Make a list. We keep a piece of paper stuck to the fridge, and whenever we run low on things, we add them to the list. This list is for anything that you could buy at either a grocery store or a warehouse store like Costco.

Do some window shopping. If you’re just starting out, go to each store with the list and write down the unit prices on the items you buy regularly. Get out your calculator & compare. If you’ve got old grocery receipts laying around the house, you can save time on this step by taking the list to Costco & comparing, although your comparisons won’t be as accurate because of the differences in sizes. This takes a little time, but you only have to do it once! And the savings will be significant over time. Don’t buy ANYTHING during this step!

Evaluate. Look at the items that are cheaper per unit at Costco and decide if they are things that could be frozen or stored for long periods (such as meats, breads, or toilet paper). If they’re things that you won’t eat before they will go bad, knock them off your Costco list. We don’t buy fruits or vegetables there, for example, unless we are willing to freeze them.

Divide the list into two categories: things to buy at the regular grocery store, and things to buy at Costco. With experience you’ll know which items are always cheaper at Costco, which are a better buy at the grocery store, and which could be a better deal at either depending on sales and coupons. If you’re not used to shopping at both stores, use the comparison information you got during the window shopping step.

Fill up. Eat a full lunch or dinner, including dessert, before a trip to Costco. (Do this before getting regular groceries as well for that matter.)

Get started. Take your Costco list with you & head to Costco, leaving your spouse or children at home (unless they don’t usually ask for additional items when you shop).

Walk straight to the back of the store. Do NOT pass Go (electronics, books, DVDs, gadgets, and that giant stack of cool things you’ll see as soon as you walk in). Go directly to the back of the store. It only takes about 2 minutes of discipline to do this, and chances are you’ll have saved the cost of your $50 annual membership right there. Just concentrate on not running the other shoppers over or on people watching, and you’ll be too busy to notice the latest & greatest things you don’t need and didn’t intend to buy.

Buy the bulkiest & heaviest things first. In our store these are on the left side of the back wall: dog food, cat food, toilet paper, laundry detergents, etc. Turn around and hit the meat & bread sections next. Your cart will be so heavy at this point that you won’t have much interest in browsing. (It’s hard to browse while pushing 80 to 100 lbs of things — you’ve got to really concentrate on steering your cart & keeping it moving.) Check your list to see if there’s anything on it that you’ve missed, and go straight to those individual items. If you don’t find them in their usual spot, ask someone where they have moved to instead of searching for them yourself. The less items you see in the store, the better. If you do see something along the way that seems appealing, tell yourself that if it’s on your list NEXT time, THEN you will get it. After all, you didn’t know you “needed” it until you saw it, so chances are that you really don’t. You’ll likely forget about it as soon as you get home. Finally, head up to the pharmacy area and pick up any prescriptions, healthcare & eye care items that are on your list. In our store these are right next to the checkout, so make that your final stop.

Escape. Top up on gas, and head home to unload.*

We do this about once a month, and usually spend between $80-$120 there — on a VERY full cartload of items that would cost us significantly more at the regular grocery store. And we rarely have anything in our cart that wasn’t on the list when we walked in. The things we buy don’t spoil, get used up, and they’re things that we use every day and would have bought anyway. This cuts our normal grocery store trip down to about $80-$100 every four weeks, with a $10 once-a-week trip thrown in during the remaining weeks to pick up perishables.

(*Don’t forget about Costco’s other services as well, such as photo processing or recommending Realtors, etc. I got a $1200 rebate just because I clicked on a link on the Costco web site and allowed them to recommended an [excellent] Realtor to me when I needed one.)

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