Costco memberships are totally worth it only if you live with other people. If you live alone, you hardly ever need food in quantities Costco provides, and in our experience Costco causes you to consume vast amounts of food you wouldn’t otherwise need or want. If you’re looking to gain some weight, it might be an idea. Otherwise save the membership fee and look for specials at the grocery store. But if you have a bunch of roomates then it's completely worth pooling together money to get a membership

Costco has great deals every once in awhile.  So if you don't have a membership, you can always tag along with a buddy who has a Costco card and just pay him cash to pick up whatever item you want.  But like we said, it's not worth buying an actual membership if you live by yourself. What's more, the ridiculous quantities in which they sell some things can throw out your back. Cough, cough.

If you really want to save money on food, then buy your gorceries at Wal-Mart. They have bar-none the lowest prices in the world.  With the purchasing power they have, nobody, not even Costco, can compete with them unless you're buying in bulk, then Costco will save you a bundle of money. Costco however has the lowest prices for gasoline in the industry.

Another great thing about Costco is that you can return ANYTHING, ANY TIME! We're not kidding, we've returned a mattress 8 years later telling them that it didn't last the amount of time specified on the box. Even if you can't find your receipt it's still worth trying, as they can often trace the product back to your membership.

** BONUS ** They also have offer free samples of all the time to munch on while your shop.