No Cart Costco Shopping Is The Hack That

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There are few beacons of suburbia that shine quite as brightly as Costco. With free samples and delicious treats as far as the eye can see, Costco Wholesale is a mecca of middle class grocery shoppers and with good reason. By buying in bulk, you can save on many staple products, like diapers, formula, PopTarts in a box the size of your torso.

And personally, ya girl has never met a Kirkland product she didn’t love.

But anyone who’s ever waltzed the aisles of the big box store can tell you that Costco has a “dark side.” Or, rather, we have a dark side once we walk through those doors. Impulse buys can quickly turn our money-saving intentions into a grocery bill in the triple or even quadruple digits. But Alli Powell, who runs the Instagram account Getting Grocery Girl has a simple hack that can spare your poor wallet at the store. Honestly, I’m inclined to listen to someone who claims to be able to feed a family of four on $150 a week. (In this economy?! This is surely witchcraft.)

Powell says the “No Cart Costco Haul” is a surefire way to keep yourself from loading up a massive cart with items you want but actually don’t need. It’s just as easy as it sounds: just say no to the cart. It automatically means you can only purchase what you can carry. Literally where was this very simple yet brilliant insight when I was there every couple weeks to “just buy diapers” and walked out with a new set of Pyrex, a bag of chips that could double as a sleeping bag, a new book, workout clothes, a palette of muffins, and five pounds of grated Parmesan?

“This is becoming my new favorite way to shop @costco,” she writes in the caption. “I get there a little before opening and try to use less crowded aisles to quickly navigate my way through the store. This trip took about 15 mins, partly because I couldn’t find the detergent! It’s got new packaging which is more environmentally friendly. We go through @gomacro bars so quickly, I just pick them up every time I’m here now, the salted caramel and chocolate chip flavor is my favorite!”

Elegant. Simple. Easy-to-replicate. I love this. Now to fight the feminine urge to make my whole family come along so I have more arms to carry a couple of those cute throw pillows…