I love Costco! What mom doesn’t?! And finding out it would be closer to my home and office than Sam’s Club was music to my ears. No more drives down Ambassador Caffery to get to Sam’s Club?! That was torture no matter what time of day I went. When Costco opened up, I eagerly signed us up for a membership. The promise of better quality products, including fresh fruits and vegetables, plus bulk organic items lured me in. I should have known better … and I shouldn’t have given my husband a Costco membership card.
Enter my husband’s frequent trips to Costco to “browse.”
He would return with the most random bulk items. With meager storage in our home, I continue to remind him we don’t have a lot of room for all of it. But it doesn’t stop him from continuing to buy with no purpose in mind. I truly believe he just likes to buy in bulk. I’m not sure why he wants to buy in bulk – we are a family of 3 and don’t eat that much to make it worth our while. Maybe he is programmed to buy in bulk after growing up as one of five children. For example, he recently came home with 3 dozen eggs, a six pack of organic chicken broth, a box of 45 snack bags of cheez-its, a 16 pack of Dole fruit cups, a jumbo bag of individually packaged sliced apples and a 8 bowl box of Vietnamese Pho. And that was two days after I had grocery shopped and stocked our kitchen with everything we would need for the next week.
Thank goodness for my mad, Tetris-like organization skills.
After each of his shopping trips, I get to play real life Tetris in our refrigerator and hall closet. Surprisingly, I find a place for all of it. Of course, the dole fruit cups expired about a week after he bought them (and hadn’t even opened the box). I already had a six pack of organic chicken broth, untouched I might add, that he had purchased the last time he went to Costco by himself. Not to mention, he bought another pack of socks that he didn’t need. I end up throwing away a lot of food because he purchases without checking expiration dates or thinking about whether or not we actually need that item in that quantity (which we rarely ever do). And I certainly don’t need a 47” wine glass for home décor. That would be shattered in 2.3 seconds.
How do I stop this?!
I warn, threaten and plead with him not to go to Costco without me. At least when I go with him, I can edit our basket and firmly repeat the word “no” as we walk up and down each aisle. This is just one of those tasks that I wish he would leave to me and me alone. I’ve had great success with meal-planning, meal prepping and Wal-Mart grocery pick up. While I like purchasing certain items at Costco, we don’t have to do all of our grocery shopping there – I’m not feeding a family of eight. But, no matter what I say and do, I can’t seem to discourage my husband from taking solo trips to the box store he loves. So, until he stops, I guess I’ll just have to continue improving my Tetris skills.
