Costco as a budget tool

I have to say, after the past couple of weeks I think that Costco is going to pay off. So far, I have been sticking to salad greens, tomatoes, avocados and nuts--and saving quite a lot.

I don't really buy meat there, as it is not grassfed--and for just general domestic meat, Safeway appears to have better deals at least part of the time. Steak at Costco is cheaper than anywhere else at the moment though...I bought some steak (non grass fed) there a few days ago for $3.99 a pound. We had company last weekend, and I wanted to splurg a little and cook something really summery and Paleo, and relatively inexpensive like grilled marinated steak with vegetables and fruit. The grass fed equivalent would have been twice that at PCC, so we had non-grass fed steak this time.

I am pretty much sticking to the cheapest grassfed and wild or organic meat sources I can get the majority of the time, which means that for the most part Trader Joe's is my favorite, with weekly trips to PCC to see what they have. They do have organic ground meat at Costco (grassfed part of the time, but grain finished) for about $4.99 a pound, which is about the same price as TJ's "organic" beef. However, I prefer grass-fed variety as it tastes much better to me! and at TJ's it is $5.99 which is only a dollar more...

I bought a huge package of chunk light tuna (12 cans) the other day. M will eat my Curried Paleo Salad which is made with tuna, other than that fish is pretty much out...We both love shrimp, but it is too expensive at the moment...

I read about people who manage to eat this way on about 30-40 dollars a week, and to be honest, I don't see how. A typical menu for us would be:

Breakfast: Two organic omega 3 eggs with a large side of veggies (asparagus, or onions and peppers, or all three with mushrooms and tomatoes, etc., you get the idea)

Lunch: 4-5 cups salad greens and raw veggies with about 4 ounces leftover meat from the night before, and homemade olive oil and vinegar dressing (or homemade bleu cheese dressing if we are feeling decadent).

Dinner: 4-5 ounces of meat with at least two veggies and usually more salad.

Snackfood would be nuts and raw veggies or fruit.

At Costco I can buy most of this and organic too for about $120 for a week(so far). At any other store it is about $150 a week. The farmer's markets are just getting started, so in a week or so that will certainly be an option for potentially less expensive produce--but I will still continue to buy my staples at Costco. I just haven't seen better prices for certain things even at the Farmer's Market...

In addition, I expect the price I pay each week at Costco to go down as I continue to plan out menus.

I could buy a lot of stuff in bulk there like organic chicken breasts, and organic beef, but I don't see huge savings there. And, there really aren't a lot of cheaper options--all the farms around here that sell free range grass fed beef charge way more than that...Even if I bought a "share" it would end up being about $7 a pound...and I live in an apartment, so a share would be pretty much out of the question (no room in the freezer).

Now if you go completely domestic--between Safeway and Costco you could save a LOT of money. I could get by on very little money if I bought my veggies at Costco and my meat at Safeway and didn't worry about what kind of meat I was eating.

Of course, I was raised Catholic. On a farm. So the guilt complex I get from contemplating all this is giving me a headache. I think I need a glass of wine...