Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tales

I don't even like shopping, but I LOVE going to Costco. Since I had an unexpected day off today, I made a trip. I was low on gas, so I went to the one with a Costco gas station to try that out.

I think, for me with my hybrid car, it's not worth it. Even at 9:30 AM, there was a seriously long line (half-hour), and I didn't save all that much. Less than $4, total. I won't bother doing that again.

However! Shopping! I went in for one single thing (a $5 refill for hand soap), and ended up with $100 of stuff. Which is what happens every time I go. I only bought one thing I didn't "need" (a $20 fleece sweater, it's going to get cold out soon!).

Remembering the comments on my last post, I got butter this time. Half the cost of in the supermarket! Though four pounds of it is going to last me for ages and ages...

This time I gave in and got a container of grapes there. A four pound container for basically the same price as two pounds from the supermarket. Unfortunately they don't taste as good, but grapes are a crapshoot that way.

Yet again (two trips out of three), there were no samples out. I just go too early, boo.

It's going to be hard to give up my membership, but I just don't use it enough to cover the cost... hmmm, checking Google, membership is only $60? For some reason, I thought it was like $200 or so. I guess I won't have to let it drop after my year is out, I must save more than that. Yay!

All minor things, thankfully.

Dear LJ: How hard would it really be to include a user name when someone likes your entry? "Someone likes your entry". We know you can send user names, you do it when someone leaves a comment, so why in the world not when someone likes something? Ugh.

Dear Amazon: While I understand why you do it, making the customer pay postage for a return is just awful. It's not even worth returning stuff to you... which I know is exactly the point. Boo on you!

Just last night I bought two new containers of Benefiber, $30 each. Went to Costco today... they were $14 and change. I ran right home and tried to cancel the order, but it had shipped already. Ugh.

Dear Costco: I was so looking forward to shopping at you! I'm not usually someone who enjoys shopping, but I have such fond memories of going to your store as a kid. Unfortunately you are no where near as good or as fun as I had expected... Admittedly it has been 30 or so years since I last went, so lots of time to build you up in my memory. I recall you as a store that had everything! I haven't gone grocery shopping in two weeks so I could clear out as much freezer space as I could for stuff I was going to buy on my trip. ...and I came home with almost nothing. The aforementioned Benefiber. New Brita pitcher filters (questionable if a good value or not, since I had to buy a pack of TEN, and I'm not sure I'll use ten before I die), and a $10 pack of pulled pork (oh my god, such a big pack). There were other things I wouldn't have minded getting, but of course everything was in such big packs...

I had heard so much good about their hot food as well, but... I had part of a hot dog (yes, a good value at $1.50, even if I gave away the drink it came with) and I bought the chicken bake thing to try later (very big for the price), but both of them were pretty meh. I wouldn't get either again. The last thing I bought was probably the best purchase: A rotisserie chicken. They're usually $8 or so from supermarkets around here, so the $5 price alone was great, and I swear this chicken is three times the size of supermarket ones. I'd go back for that alone.