Wide Open Wallet
An honest look at family finances
Repost: Why we upgraded our Costco Membership
Author: Ashley20 Apr
My schedule is chaotic right now… So to try to get me through til the end of the semester (Finals on May 11th!) I’m going to be filling in the gaps with some articles that I wrote last year. Should be brand new material to most of you since I only had a handful of readers back then. If you remember these posts, then you are one of my most loyal readers. I owe this blog to you since it was my early subscribers that motivated me to continue. :) Thank you. I apologize for the rerun.
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We had to renew our Costco membership this weekend. They sold us on upgrading to the executive membership. It costs an extra $50 but you get 2% cash back on everything you buy at Costco. Which is pretty cool. Plus I get to go at 10:00 in the morning rather than having to wait til 11:00 when it opens for all the “normal” people. Which is way easier for me.
We normally spend about $100 a month just on groceries, so if we buy any big stuff it could put us over the $2,500 we need to make $50. We also buy tires and Christmas presents for the kids there. I bet over the year we could come pretty close to spending another $1,300. Especially if my husband gets his wish and we buy a new plasma TV for the living room. (He did, but we didn’t end up buying it at Costco)
But the cool part is that the program is risk free. If you don’t get at least $50 back they refund you the difference. So if our check is only $40 then they give us $10 back from our membership. So really, might as well do it, because the worst you can do is break even.
I can’t help but think, why do they offer a risk free cash back program. Where is the benefit for them? It didn’t take long for me to figure it out. I’ve been an executive member for about 5 days now and I’ve thought of several things I should start buying at Costco. Plus I automatically take 2% off the price of everything there. I need to stop doing that. The first $2,500 I spend there isn’t extra money anyways, so I shouldn’t be shopping with that in mind.
What we really hope to do is earn $100 a year, that way we can get our entire Costco membership for free.
Update: We ended up getting $91 back. So close!
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5 Responses for "Repost: Why we upgraded our Costco Membership"
I found this very interesting so decided to call Costco and check for myself. They said the guaranteed $50 back if you don’t earn that much in rewards is only for your first year as an Executive member; if they end up making up the difference that fist year, then you have to become a Basic member again.
As for being able to shop earlier hours (that in itself is huge given the crowds) it depends on your local store. I have to call mine but i have a feeling it doesnt apply there, as the store seems to open at 10 am for everyone.
not a shabby idea recycling old posts every now and then….i might have to follow suit on my days out of “the office”
good luck with everything!
I had no idea about the earlier hours benefit. Sounds great! Good luck with finals.
It’s new to me! I didn’t know Costco would refund the difference if you don’t earn enough on the executive plan. Unfortunately most of our big costco spending is done for a few years and we don’t have kids yet. Both cars have new sets of tires and we bought the TV there two years ago. I doubt it would pay off for us, but good to know when our circumstances change.
Honestly the cash back on the credit card alone is enough to up your membership at costco. I use that bad boy for everything and I get well over 200 buck back at the beginning of every year. And if you go in there and buy a pack of gum they give you the change in cash, not store credit.
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