I ran a price comparison of over 200 food items at Costco and Amazon Subscribe & Save. I was very surprised to find Costco prices were lower by an average of 12% on over 170 items! I thought it would be a much closer race! COSTCO WAS THE CLEAR WINNER. See my favorite Costco deals. But, while I feel justified in keeping my Costco membership, I did find some items that are cheaper (or smarter) buys on Amazon. Don’t forget, Costco charges a $55 annual membership, so their prices should be lower. Amazon Subscribe & Save items ship for free to anyone, even those without Amazon Prime memberships. IMPORTANT: The only way I’m able to beat Costco prices is by subscribing to 5 or more items each month. By agreeing to automatic reordering on 5 items, I’m saving 15% on Amazon prices. There is no obligation to continuing these subscriptions. You can cancel with one click as soon as the item ships. Keep in mind, Amazon pricing changes frequently. Variance in pricing is inevitable.

Just remember to always factor in unit cost. Clif Kid ZBars sell for $0.49 each at Costco. Save $0.01 per bar by buying with Amazon Subscribe & Save. Make sure to subscribe to at least 5 items in the same month for maximum savings! Costco price: $0.49 per bar Amazon price: $0.48 per bar Buy Clif Kid ZBars, chocolate chip (18 bars) $8.70 at Amazon Subscribe & Save WITH 5 OR MORE SUBSCRIPTIONS IN ONE MONTH I’m saving myself the trip to Costco by buying Clif Bars with Amazon Subscribe & Save. When I subscribe to 5 or more items in one month, I pay only $0.84 per bar, only one cent more than the Costco price. Costco price: $0.83 per bar Amazon price: $0.84 per bar Buy Clif Energy Bars, Chocolate Brownie (12 bars) for $10.10 at Amazon Subscribe & Save WITH 5 OR MORE SUBSCRIPTIONS IN ONE MONTH Costco and Amazon sell the exact same sixteen-ounce Monster Energy drinks, and I save a couple bucks buying online! Costco price: $1.38 per can

Amazon price: $1.33 per can Buy Monster Energy Drink (20 16oz cans) $26.52 at Amazon Subscribe & Save, WITH 5 OR MORE SUBSCRIPTIONS IN ONE MONTH Costco sells 1160 wipes for $24.99. Amazon sells 624 wipes for as low as $12.23. Costco’s price per wipe: 2.2 cents. Yorkies For Sale Cc TxAmazon’s price is 2.0 cents. Wedding Dresses In BorivaliThat’s a 10% savings!Savannah Cat For Sale Memphis Tn By subscribing to receive 5 or more items in a single month, I save 15% and delivery is always free! I can cancel as soon as I receive shipment notification or anytime thereafter. Costco price: 2.2 cents per wipe Amazon price: 2.0 cents per wipe Buy Huggies Natural Wipes Refill (624 ct) $12.23 at Amazon Subscribe & Save WITH 5 OR MORE SUBSCRIPTIONS IN ONE MONTH

Costco and Amazon sell Huggies diapers in all sizes—I’m using size 3 as the example. Costco sells 198 size 3 diapers for $42.99, or $0.22 per diaper. Amazon sells 174 size 3 diapers for $36.79, or $0.21 per diaper. Plus, Amazon has more frequent available coupons to ‘stack’ with the already low Subscribe & Save price! Costco price: $0.22 per diaper Amazon price: $0.21 per diaper Buy Huggies Little Movers (174ct size 3) $36.79 at Amazon Subscribe & Save WITH 5 OR MORE SUBSCRIPTIONS IN ONE MONTH Costco sells a twelve-pack of seven-ounce cans for $12.99. Amazon sells a twenty-four pack of five-ounce cans for $19.79 when you subscribe to receive at least five items. Both deals work out to be the same price—$0.16 per ounce. Buy Chicken of the Sea Chunk Light Tuna (24 5oz cans) $19.79 at Amazon Subscribe & Save WITH 5 OR MORE SUBSCRIPTIONS IN ONE MONTH Costco sells 18 boxes of Kraft Mac and Cheese for $14.29, or $0.81 per box. Amazon sells 35 boxes for $29.15 or $0.83 per box.

For $0.02 a box, I’m buying on Amazon and having it delivered for free! Costco price: $0.81 per box Amazon price: $0.83 per box Buy Kraft Macaroni & Cheese (35 boxes) for $29.15 at Amazon Subscribe & Save WITH 5 OR MORE SUBSCRIPTIONS IN ONE MONTH Costco packages most of their small items in oversized cardboard packaging to reduce theft. Don’t be fooled into thinking you’re getting a greater value based on size. I’d always heard Costco was a good place to buy ink, but I did a quick price compare on black ink for my HP printer and found the Amazon price was 15% less for the exact same product (sans giant cardboard packaging). Costco price: $34.99 per cartridge Amazon price: $33.78 per cartridge Buy HP 901XL Black Ink Cartdridges $33.78 at Amazon At Costco, San Francisco Bay single serve cups cost $0.30 apiece. I pay $0.31 per cup to have the K-Cups delivered to my office with Amazon Subscribe & Save. Costco price: $0.30 per cup

Amazon price: $0.31 per cup Buy San Francisco Bay OneCup (80 ct) $23.37 at Amazon Subscribe & Save WITH 5 OR MORE SUBSCRIPTIONS IN ONE MONTH I switched from Kirkland Signature Nature’s Domain dry dog food to Diamond Naturals dry dog food at Amazon after learning that Diamond Naturals manufacturers Kirkland Signature dog foods. Both brands are well-reviewed, above-average, and cost-effective dog foods. I’ve been happy with the switch, and I’m saving 15% while avoiding the hassle of a flat bed Costco cart with a forty-pound bag of dog food! Costco price: $0.97 per pound Amazon price: $0.82 per pound Buy Diamond Naturals Dry Dog Food, beef flavor (40lb) $32.65 at AmazonI spend a lot of time in grocery stores.  They’re my leisure activity.  I love a good grocery store like a University student loves a good kegger.  Let me walk you through what a typical visit to the toilet paper aisle is like with me: Karen: (subject strolling back and forth in front of toilet paper aisle)  Hmm.  

I will buy this toilet paper.   Other customer:  Why are you telling me? I’m not concerned with what bathroom tissue you buy.I wasn’t talking to you anyway, I was talking to myself.  Basically you were eavesdropping on a private conversation with myself.  Which makes you either rude or a spy. Are you a spy?  You seem very spy-like. Other customer:  I’d prefer to be rude than suffer from logorrhea. Karen:  Wha … what? I’m starting to understand the whole “bathroom tissue” thing. Karen:  I’ve decided you’re not a spy.  You could never fit any cool spy stuff in that ridiculously small spy kit. Other customer:  It’s not a spy kit, it’s my crayon box. Karen:  Either way, kid …  I’m still buying the toilet paper that’s on sale. A similar scenario is likely to happen in the dairy, meat or cereal aisle. This scenario is never likely to happen again because as of a few weeks ago I changed my attitude.  And my toilet paper brand.

All because of my never ending plumbing problems. ONE thing you can do to decrease the chance of any plumbing problems is buy the right toilet paper. And do NOT buy the wrong one. I wanted to know which was which, so of course … I did an experiment. If you have any sort of plumbing issues, the most important thing in toilet paper isn’t if it has lotion, isn’t if it’s thick, isn’t if it’s soft, isn’t if it’s on sale … the MOST important thing is … DOES YOUR TOILET PAPER DISSOLVE? Toilet paper that doesn’t dissolve just sits in a clump in your plumbing.  And if it gets caught on something like a jagged edge or corner in your pipes it will stay there for a longggg time, allowing more and more paper to get stuck and caught on it, creating, eventually a big mass of undissolved toilet paper blocking your sewer line. And then one day you’ll flush the toilet and instead of the water in the toilet bowl going down, it will start to move UP.  

As you stare in horror, desperately trying to remember what to do (turn the water supply to the toilet off immediately) you’ll wonder why, WHYYYYYYYY is this happening to YOU? Because you’re using the wrong toilet paper. In the olden days this wouldn’t have been as large a problem but a lot of today’s low flush toilets just don’t have enough power to push the super luxurious toilet paper through. I went out and bought 3 brands of toilet paper. I bought the cheapest brand possible at $5 for a whole whack of rolls.  It was my store’s own cheapo-brand. I bought Charmin Ultra Soft which looked like a standard premium toilet paper.  I bought it because this particular toilet paper had a claim right on the packaging that it’s a “no plunger” toilet paper.  Meaning it won’t clog your pipes.  Presumably that means it will dissolve easily. I bought Cottonelle Gentle Care with Aloe which looked more like a blanket than toilet paper. I put 2 sheets of each of the brands into a glass jar.

Then I added 2 cups of water to each jar. Then I let them sit for half an hour. After half an hour I stirred the toilet paper up a bit to see how it broke down. Both of Premium and Super Premium brands (Charmin on the left and Cottonelle on the right) barely broke down.  The cheap stuff broke down very well. 84% of households buy Premium and Super Premium brand toilet paper by the way. The Charmin Ultra Soft which claimed on its packaging that it wouldn’t clog your pipes, did dissolve but not nearly as much as the cheap stuff.  After half an hour in water I could still pull out big globs of paper without it breaking. The cheapest brand, as I suspected, dissolved away to almost nothing after half an hour.  All that remained after stirring it a bit were tiny little bits.  It almost broke down completely.  This toilet paper would not cause your pipes to clog. The Cottonelle with Aloe and ripples?  This toilet paper almost didn’t break down at all.