im a sucker for bulk

husband and sulla went fishing today so agrippa and i finally went to Costco and got a membership. oh boy. i tend to have horrid buyer's remorse so i had put this off long enough, usually going with a friend who has a membership. like the majority of women in partnered relationships, i do the majority of shopping (there's an actual statistic out there but i cant find it) for the family and, well, the more money you spend, the more likely you are to maybe spend more than you need. anyway. so im in the land of buying way more than you need 'cause, oh my gourd, the cost per unit price is slightly less than you could get at your average grocery store. yes, i do need 152 ziploc bags! shoot, it's a recovering alcoholic going to Oktoberfest "just to hear the music."

So I went in with cash and was very specific about what i was buying. I knew my prices Again, nothing pre-prepared, food basics, etc. I bought raisins, cranberries, pears, lettuce, way more breakfast sausage than i would usually want to buy, but again better per unit price and it had no preservatives. im thinking it should last us for the year. And a soaker hose. Two of them actually. it was a very good price and ive been wanting to get some since last year and they will save money come summer when im watering several times a day.

there was nothing i bought that wasnt purposeful or necessary. i bought pears instead of apples because i didn't like the packaging the apples came in- plastic clamshells i could not recycle vs. plastic bags i could; a large jar of organic almond butter, because agrippa cant have peanut butter at his school for the price of a regular sunflower butter. i walked away from the britta pitcher filters and the electric pencil shapener (both things we do need eventually, but not now) but, still, as i checked out had the "holy crap! i spent how much on food!?" shock and it boiled down to "a fridge full of condiments and no food." i still need to go to the regular grocery store and some stuff i was really hoping they'd have - cocoa powder, non-nestle chocolate chips, regular soymilk - they didnt.

what did i just do? did i start a supersized bulk obsession? will i re-coup my membership fee in actual savings? remorse and guilt are kicking in big time. we use quicken to track our finances and will be looking closely at my spending at this store.