Costco Membership Deals – Ways to Save On A Costco Membership!

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Costco Membership Deals 2023 – Ways to Save On A Costco Membership!

If you’ve been wanting to join Costco Wholesale club, but are unsure if you’ll use it enough to justify the $60/year cost or if you are just looking for any way to get Costco Membership deals, here are a few different ways that you can save on a membership to Costco.

A Costco membership can literally save you thousands of dollars a year! Over the years it is hard to know exactly how much we have saved with our Costco membership, but it is significant.

If you are looking for Sams Club Membership Deals you can find those here too.

Discount Costco Memberships Available:

Costco membership prices can be a little daunting for some so we love when Groupon has their Costco membership package available! But it’s only available for a limited time, so act quickly! It is probably the best Costco New Membership deals we see.
If you are looking for a way to save on a Costco membership, the Groupon package is definitely one of our favorite ways to save! There are some awesome perks with this membership package such as a Digital Costco shop card, special coupons & even travel offers!

Groupon Costco Membership Deals:

Costco Groupon offers currently available include –

Sign up for Costco’s 1 year Gold-Star Membership package from Groupon and you’ll receive a Digital Shop card for Costco for $40!

Grab the current Costco Membership Card on Groupon here. Available for new customers only (or if you have not had a membership for the previous 18 months.

Current Costco Membership Deals Available – Costco New Membership Deals:

Here are some more ways to save on Costco New Memberships.

Get a $20 Costco Shop Card as a new Executive Member or get a $10 Costco Shop Card as a new Gold Star Member.

Join as a new Executive Member and enroll in auto renewal to receive a $20 Digital Costco Shop Card. Or, join as a new Gold Star Member and enroll in auto renewal to receive $10 Digital Costco Shop Card. To get this offer:

To receive a Digital Costco Shop Card, you must provide a valid email address and set up auto renewal of your Costco membership on a Visa® card at the time of sign-up. If you elect not to provide a valid email address and sign up for auto renewal, a Digital Costco Shop Card will not be emailed. Valid only for nonmembers for their first year of membership. Not valid for renewal or upgrade of an existing membership. To qualify as a new member, an existing Costco membership must be expired at least 18 months or more. Limit one promotion per household. Digital Costco Shop Card will be emailed to the email address provided by the primary member at time of sign-up. within 2 weeks after successful sign-up and enrollment in auto renewal. Costco is not liable for incentives not received due to entry of an invalid address during sign-up.

*Use the provided single-use promo code when entering your payment information. (Note: You will see a $0.01 deduction on your membership cost after the promo code is entered. This indicates that your promo code has been successfully processed so your incentive will be emailed.) New members will not receive the promotion if the provided code is not entered at checkout when purchasing the membership.

Costco Membership Deals

More Ideas on How to Save on Membership:

Costco Gift Memberships. Use a Costco gift card to shop:

If you only plan on shopping a few times a year for specific items, have a friend with a Costco membership buy you a gift card (Costco Shop card) & then you can shop using the gift card.  You will not be able to refill Costco shop cards, though, and only Costco members can buy them. We have done this before we had a Costco membership to try it out & had a family member buy it for us. I think it’s a great way to shop Costco for items that your family regularly buys to see if a membership will work for your family & your shopping needs.

Look for daily deals on Costco memberships deals:

If you know you want a Costco membership eventually but don’t need it right away, take your time & wait for one of the deals to come around where they are offering extra freebies when you purchase a membership. We will list these in the section above when we see them available, but it can be one of the best ways to get a great deal on membership. You can also often find Costco booths at places such as festivals, fairs & other events with special membership packages.

Costco Membership Deals

Buy the Executive Membership:

The Costco Executive Membership is a great way to go if you can afford the $120 up front. The way this works is that you pay $120 for the Executive membership your first year.

You will get a rebate of 2% of your spending at the end of the year. If you spend approx. $250 a month or $3000 a year, you will make money off the rebate (assuming you renewed for the $60 membership the following year. You would have to spend $5,500 annually to cover the cost of renewing at the Executive rate of $120 for the following year).

However, if your spending does not reach that amount, Costco will make up the difference to get you to $60 (for example, if they sent you a rebate check for $25 for the year, you would go to the customer service desk, and they will give you the difference).  That means that if you apply that $60 towards the next years membership, you did not end up paying any extra for the Executive membership (you got two years for $120 out of your pocket, or $60 per year).

But if you are a frequent shopper or know that you’ll be purchasing some larger ticket items , this could be a great way to save as you will earn cash back on your purchases, and will likely make money off the membership.

(One last note on this – TNWM reader Monique, was not able to qualify for the $60 minimum, because they used the car rental service. She was told that if you use the extra services available to Executive members, then the minimum refund won’t apply, so you may want to double check on that if you plan to use those extra services)

Costco military membership discounts & Employer Discounts:

Ask your employer if they will be offering a Costco discounted membership package. When I worked in the schools, several times a year, Costco would come set up in the teacher’s lounge & they would work with the school district to offer a special membership package (similar to some of the discount membership packages we’ve seen at the daily deal sites where you might get some freebies or a Costco card when you sign up to be a Costco member).  If your employer does not offer this, then check with your professional organization.

I know the NEA (National Teacher Association) does offer a special Costco membership package, so I bet that other professional organizations might offer this as well.

Costco Military Membership Package

There is a military membership package as well. You can purchase Costco Membership Activation Certificates to join Costco as a new member and you will receive a $20 Costco Shop Card.

Find promotions available to these professions too:

Medical Professional offers here.

First Responders get a $20 shop card with sign up here.

Government Employees get a $20 Shop card with sign up here.

         Costco Membership Discount AAA

Also find these offers too – 

  • Earn a $10 Costco Shop Card when you refer a friend
  • Costco student membership – College students, get a $20 Costco Shop Card with membership
  • Costco Membership fee for seniors – Costco does not currently offer a special Costco membership fee for seniors (only all the discounts already listed here.

Can you shop at costco without a membership?

The Costco website states that “As a nonmember, you may still purchase prescriptions from a Costco pharmacy with cash, debit, Costco Shop Cards or a Visa® card. However, you must be a paid member to enter the warehouse and purchase any other items.” 

You can also shop online or in store with a Costco shop card (aka gift card) but it must be purchased by a Costco member.

You are also able to shop in Costco with a friend or family member who has a valid Costco membership.

Is a Costco Membership Worth It? 

It is going to really depend on your shopping patterns, to determine if it is worth it for you or not. Most Costco members love their memberships, and if you can get a Costco Membership deal like we mention above that makes it more worth it. There are other online retailers where you can buy in bulk and have it shipped to you (like Walmart – they do offer a free 30 day trial of their Walmart+ membership here, if you want to try that out).

We have been Costco members for as long as I can remember & it has saved us thousands of dollars over the years!
A few of our favorite ways we’ve saved at Costco::
  • Costco Travel – we love using their rental car service as it’s often been the lowest prices we can find on rental cars (& no cancellation fees if booked online, so if you find a lower price, you can rebook)
  • Costco Flowers – Get your bouquets from $9.99!
  • Gas – Costco consistently has the lowest gas prices around our area especially in the last few years of high prices
  • Costco Gift Card Deals, Restaurant Gift Cards, Movie Tickets and deals – you can get big savings on local restaurant gift cards & movie tickets at a discount.
  • Outdoor Gear – some of our favorite gear for our outdoor adventures is from Costco such as our snowshoes, hiking poles, base layers & more!
  • Costco Rotisserie Chickens – these are such a great price, and so delicious too. We share lots of meals you can make from them too.

And although we are huge fans of shopping Costco, we have compiled a list of 7 things not to buy at Costco here as well.

What is your favorite part of your Costco membership? If you aren’t a member yet, check out this awesome Groupon Costco membership package!

Costco Products Price List

Costco Products Price List – over 1,000 prices to compare

If you’re still debating about whether a membership to Costco is worth it, check out our Costco Products Price List, where you can compare the prices for over 1,000 grocery & household products to other stores to see if the products you buy the most will be priced better at Costco or other stores. This is a very helpful resource to print off specific sections or use the database to see if a Costco membership is the best decision for your family based on the regular items on your grocery & household list.

Do you have any other ways you have saved on membership costs at Costco? What are your favorite Costco Membership deals?

Costco Membership Coupon & Discount Offers - 5 ways to save on Membership Fees

 

5 Comments

  1. Quick math – if you spend $230 or more per month on NON-GASOLINE Costco purchases, then the Executive membership is a good deal. They are eager to sign you up, and have always guaranteed me that if I didn’t earn back the extra $55 membership fee, they would refund the difference (which they did).

    Gasoline may not be the only category of Costco purchases that is non-qualifying for the 2% discount, so be sure to ask Customer Service if your typical purchases qualify.

    1. Eric – Yes it definitely can be a great idea to get that Executive membership for sure, if you know you regularly spend a certain amount at Costco, like you mentioned or if you have some high-value items to buy there, but great tip to make sure to look at all the categories of qualifying purchases!

  2. If you are planning on going on a vacation, a Costco membership might be worth it. We just booked a trip to Cabo and Costco was $1000 less than the cheapest sit we could find for the same hotel/room. Also, their car buying service is amazing and we saved several thousand using their service and also saved the crazy dealer negations.

    1. Great tip on the vacations, Diane, looking at hotel rooms! And I definitely did not know that about the car buying service – very good to know! We have done car rentals thru Costco & found them to often have the cheapest rates as well!

  3. Where I live (Quebec), gasoline, milk, alcohol and cigarettes do not count towards the 2% Executive cash back. In short, everything that is in any way price-regulated by government rather than market.

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