Costco Shopping list for your whole food pantry!

Costco brings me so much joy. It must be something primal, some instinct of being prepared? I love the feeling after you get home from a Costco haul, and you put everything away and you just feel so happy! I mean, I feel prepared for the week for a split second and then I realize my family will somehow manage to demolish the food in record time. But for a moment, I feel on top of the world.

FREE Printable Costco Shopping List Here

It's also a family activity, in non-Covid times that is, kids LOVE the hustle and bustle of Costco. At least, mine do! Maybe it's genetic. Look at sweet William here, 18 months old and living the Costco life. He used to say, "GOT-GO" for Costco. Oh my gosh, he starts Kinderyear next year and I am just not ready. Where did this little bebe go?!

Costco has become a wonderful resource for some of the whole-food/grain-free/paleo food products, as well as organic meats and produce! So honestly, it just makes sense to go and stock up if you can manage a bigger shop 1-2 times a month. We have a garage fride and freezer and it really helps. You get a better price for your goods and you're prepared for spastic cooking, which pretty much is how I roll. I don't like meal planning to a T. I enjoy having proteins in the freezer, ready for me!

Same goes for pantry items, like almond flour, dried mangos, maple syrup, honey, good quality avocado oil mayonnaise. The prices for these things REALLY add up if you're grabbing a small quantity at your local grocery store. Oftentimes, Costco gives you a better quality and bigger quantity for an unbeatable price!

Snacks is where things get dicey. We don't always get all the snacks I've listed on my shopping list. The snacks add up, even though they're a great deal we don't always prioritize them in the grocery hauls! It just depends. Snacks we always get though, are the Simple Mills almond flour crackers and the parmesan Whisps. Those are just great add-ons for protein and fat for the kids, and us really.

I've included a check mark style grocery list for you for your next Costco trip, which is what we follow, but just as a highlight for you here I will go through what I get in a typical Costco haul. I usually go 1-2 times a month, we stock up when we're there and supplement at our local store in between visits or for the smaller items we choose to not get at Costco.

Keep in mind, I don't buy everything on my list every time I go to Costco. A lot of this stuff lasts us over a month (the giant bags of onions and potatoes in our fridge; or, the mayonnaise, almond flour etc.) some stuff lasts a lot longer! We tweak our list every time we go to Costco!

Pantry Items:

Coconut Oil

Avocado Oil

Avocado Oil Mayonnaise: a very large jar of Chosen Foods Mayo for a really low price, 24 oz for $6.99. It's generally the same price for 1/3 of the size at a normal store.

Canned salmon- great to have on hand for adding onto a salad, or to eat with crakcers or veggies. Lasts forever and a great price!

Maple Syrup: this is the best quality and price for the size!

Honey: I purchase this at Costco for baking purposes. If you want the immune benefits of local, raw honey, I would buy hyper-local and in small batches

Almond butter: best consistency, my favorite! Only ingredient is roasted almonds.

Almond flour: 3 lb bag for $12, just the best price and it's great quality. It's all I use.

Chia Seeds: it's a big bag. I store in freezer to keep the seeds from going rancid.

Peanut Butter: single ingredient creamy PB

Strawberry preserves: Really yummy jam. It uses cane sugar and fruit.

Cholula Hot Sauce: a 2 pack of bigger bottles of the world's best hot sauce. Don't @ me to argue about this!

Vital Proteins Collagen Powder: this is a special Costco size, you cant get the big 24oz container anywhere else (that I'm aware of!) I typically stock up when these run on sale for $21. They are usually $29

Coconut Milk, whole milk in cans

Canned tomatoes & tomato paste: pantry staple and great price!

Rao's marinara sauce: BEST quality canned tomato sauce, 2 pack in larger jars for $10, it's a great deal but not always something we get. It's a "if there's room in the budget" thing.

Garlic Powder: Any spices I use regularly that Costco sells, I buy

Onion Powder

Cinnamon

Vanilla Extract: this stuff has blown up in price in the last couple years, Costco has the best value

Primal Kitchen Ketchup: two pack of the glass jars. Clean ketchup!

Primal Kitchen BBQ sauce: It's so good. We usually don't go through this as fast in non-grilling months. But, it's a 2 pack and worth it.

Produce:

Organic cucumbers: my kids genuinely plow through a cucumber per day. I usually get 2 of the 3 pack of organic cucumbers to satisfy this need

Organic carrots: I buy a 10 lb bag and keep in my garage fridge and use as needed

Snap peas: if they have them, I get them because my kids like these

Greens: I pick whatever is looking good that visit. Usually spinach, power greens, or romaine

Organic Apples: I buy whatever is cheapest. I usually go for 2 bags of organic Fujis, they're usually marketed in some kind of kid-friendly way, but are the cheapest per pound.

Clementines: it's a 5 lb bag and sometimes my kids eat 5 a day, so this one's a no brainer!

Bananas

Onions: another 10 lb bag, but again, I stick in my garage fridge and they last forever

Potatoes: sweet potatoes or russets, I grab what looks good and store in garage fridge

Bell peppers: they usually have a bag of 6 mixed red/yellow/orange bell peppers. Great add ons to meals!

Avocado: 6 pack avocados for roughly $4 is a no brainer! Love avocado for plated fats or to accompany sugary fruit or veggies

Berries or Grapes: depending on the season, I'll usually grab some other kind of fruit. If berries are a decent price and look good I'll get some berries. Grapes almost always are good at costco, but the summer months also bring watermelon and peaches which I'll grab!

Fridge Items:

True Story Turkey Lunch meat: If you've seen my kids' lunch pictures, you know we always have lunch meat! True Story is a human brand, and they don't add a bunch of preservatives to their meat. Clean and simple! Best price you'll see. Just be sure you can eat an entire package within 4-5 days of opening, for freshness!

5 dozen organic eggs: Costco has great humane certified eggs. They continuously gain approval for how they source their eggs. The 5 dozen box of organic eggs is $14.99. It's a great deal for quality eggs, and we plow through them.

Teton Ranch grass-fed sausage: I feel like a broken record, but once again, great value here! You get a 3 pack of 4 sausages for $12. You're essentially getting your third package for free, every other store sells these sausages for $6 for 1 pack of 4 sausages!

Kerrygold butter: Best value, 4 pack (2lbs butter) for $7

Organic Valley Stringles

Chobani whole Greek yogurt: Special giant Costco size, low price

Freezer:

Cauliflower rice

Frozen Berries (we get strawberries and blueberries)

Grass-fed beef burgers: so great for a last minute meal!

Salmon portions

Meat:

I don't always get my meat at Costco, it just depends on the week! But when I do, I get:

Organic whole chickens, 2 pack (save those bones for broth!)

boneless/skinless chicken breasts & thighs

Organic ground beef

Snacks:

We always get Simple Mills almond flour crackers and parmesan Whisps. If there's room in the budget we sometimes get:

Grain-Free Granola

Apple Chips

Terra Chips

Barnana plantain chips

Grain-Free cookies

Wheeeeeeewww! That's a lot of stuff.

Here's the link again for your FREE Costco Shopping List

Let me know in the comments below what you think of my Costco list! Do you get these items, or different ones? Am I missing out on anything? Costco can be pretty regional as well, sometimes other locations have different offerings!

What's your favorite thing at Costco? Let me know!