After spending several years on the fence in terms of joining some sort of wholesale shopping club, we finally decided to become Costco customers earlier this year. The “quick trips” to Target and Walmart to pick up toilet paper or peanut butter or laundry detergent were almost always more expensive than I planned, so we decided to see if buying stuff in bulk would make a difference, if changing how we shop would have a positive impact on our budget.
And in a word (or three): yes, it has.
In fact, it’s made a huge difference. Now granted, we’ve had to be smart about what we buy at Costco – which means we stay far away from the computers and fancy knives and fine jewelry and whathaveyou – but in terms of buying paper goods and canned goods, it’s been a mighty good thing. Costco has been our grocery budget’s friend.
Plus, you know, they have two of my favorite snack products in the entire world in convenient economy sizes.
There are no words for the deliciousness contained therein.
But if there’s any drawback to shopping at Costco, it’s that you come home with many items that require storage, all manner of rolls and bottles and jars and cans. And as a result, for the last seven or eight months our laundry room has sported an elaborate organizational system that consisted of stacking all Costco purchases on top of one another.
Aye, and precariously.
Because the stack? It defied the laws of physics, my friends. At one point we had a small flat of English peas as the foundation for a multi-level tower-o-product that included paper towels, bottled water, Ziploc bags, marinara sauce, granola bars and an assortment of pasta. I just figured that if the whole thing ever came toppling down I’d scream “JENGA!” and pretend like it was fun.
Pragmatic as always, I am.
Last Sunday I’d been home from San Antonio for all of five minutes when David asked me if I’d grab him a twelve-pack of diet Coke from the laundry room. I figured that was easy enough since the twelve-packs are typically located right inside the laundry room door so that we have the opportunity to break a toe or three every single time we need to get to the washing machine. But when I walked into the laundry room, there were no twelve-packs in the middle the floor. In fact, there was no anything in the middle of the floor. Not an ill-balanced stack in sight. And when I looked behind the door to try to figure out where all our stuff was, here is what I saw:
Y’all. I squealed. And then I clapped. And even now – over a week later – I still think that, aside from my newborn son, it may be the most beautiful sight that I ever did see.
I mean, forget all those notions of being wined and dined that I harbored in my twenties. Because now? In my thirties? Wining and dining is fine and all, but truth be told it doesn’t hold a candle to the fact that my husband bought shelves, assembled them, and then filled them with our Costco bounty.
I get a little weak in the knees just thinking about it.
Last Monday I met my sweet friend NK for lunch, and after we finished relaying tales from our respective weekends, I told her about Shelving Surprise ’08. I told her about how all the paper goods are on the top shelf, and how I don’t have to break toes on the Coke products anymore, and how even the dog treats have a place of honor now.
And after I finally quit talking, NK pushed away her plate, looked straight in my eyes, and said, “Oh. Now that’s romance.”
I couldn’t agree with her more.
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