Costco Run down in the States

Last Friday, I headed down to Bellingham with a friend after work.  The border line up was a 20 minute wait.  By the time we reached Costco, it was 7pm.  They close at 8:30pm, so we fought through the crowds and picked up some groceries in a jiffy.

Next on our list was to fill up my running empty tank, I had just enough to make it down there.  Gas is so much cheaper down in the states.  I paid $40 for the fill up versus the usual $60.

After a quick bite at Taco Bell and Arby’s for dinner, we headed to Ross. There, I found a cute top for myself and Hello Kitty dress for my niece for $10.99 a piece.   We also shopped at Walmart and Fred Meyers where I bought a few more things.  I picked up some cheap chicken breasts and Vitamin Water for 69 cents.  Apparently, you don’t have to pay deposit and recycling fee.

Just before midnight, we made our way back to the border.  The crossing took us 10 minutes or so.  It was a successful trip.  We both got what we wanted from crossing the border.

Deal of the night… A whole roasted chicken at Costco for $4.99.  This chicken provided many meals for my bf and myself.

Lunch#1- carved a few pieces and served it with fries

Dinner#1- chicken fajita with pepper, celery, onion and cheese

Lunch#2- scrambled egg with shredded chicken & onions and served it with hash browns

Dinner#2 & leftovers for lunch#3- macaroni with shredded chicken and mixed veggies in cream of mushroom

Dinner#3- shredded chicken with roasted potatoes and turnip

Virtual Broker – Margin Review on my Portfolio

Margin gives you the ability to buy stocks on borrowed money from the brokerage.  The more money you invest in a stock, your risk becomes greater as well.  It can be for the better or worse, but you really need to access how much you are willing to put down or stomach.  *Always be careful when borrowing money.*  

Presently, I have a margin account with Virtual Brokers.   The current rates at Virtual Brokers is 4.5% for CAD and 4.75% for USD.  Margin rates are usually competitive, since they have collateral to the amount of cash you have in the account with them.

Last month, I sold my Goldcorp stock.  So at the moment, I have $4,470.37 cash sitting in my CAD account.  I still don’t know what to buy on the Canadian side.

I also added a few American stocks to my portfolio on margin, but they haven’t been performing as well as I had hoped for.  At the moment, Currently, I have $8,384.51 margin in my USD account.  I am hoping Coke will make a turnaround soon, so I can lessen my margin load.

Current Value for USD Stocks on Margin:

Coke (KO)

2,075.99

1,912.00

-163.99

-7.90%

Visa (V)

$4,152.49

$4,052.83

-$99.66

-2.40%

Costco (COST)

2,240.99

2,292.40

+51.41

+2.29%

Anyways, I have been lazy and not really keep track of my overall stock portfolio.  Time for me to sit down one night and make a good tracking system for all my purchases and sales of stocks for 2013.

Buy Costco (COST) – 20 @ $112.00/share

Costco is popular.  I’ve been meaning to add COST to my portfolio for the longest time.  For some reason, I just held off.  When I first looked at it, COST was trading around their all time highs at $80/share.  Too bad, I didn’t take the first leap.

I am a little bit late to the rally party.  Recently, their share price has retracted a bit which calls for an opportunity for me to jump in.

I believe Costco is a major retailer that attracts a lot of customers though it’s only an exclusive club.  How many people do you know has a Costco membership?

Second Round at Costco

My fridge is once again very bare of food!  Time for a Costco run, but this time, I just stocked up on mostly snacks:  Canned Oysters, Pita Bites, Beef Jerky and Mini Ritz Bites.  Shopping with other half has its disadvantages as he wanted this and that which totally brought the total to a higher level.  SIGH.  The only staple food I got was eggs, jam, and roasted chicken!!

For dinner, I got one whole roasted chicken to chow down for $7.49.  Alternatively, we were thinking of going to a nearby Swiss Chalet for takeout.  For two sets of smaller sized chicken including sides and signature sauce, this would have run us a tab of $20 and over.  So we saved a good $12.50 or more on our dinner instead!

We haven’t gone out to eat in a long time… since we moved in together.  Most of the time, I cook dinner for both of us or we go eat separately sometimes with family or friends.

Here’s the final bill at Costco:

Milk Run

Our freezer was stocked up on frozen meat:  ribs, wings, chicken drumsticks, pork chops.  But our fridge was lacking milk and vegetables.

It was time for a milk run plus some other goodies!  I have a gift card to use at Costco, so I went there after work to pick up a few items just the other day.  Four items ended up costing me $25.28!  Spending sure does add up.  My guilty purchase was Haagen Dazs bars.  It was on sale for $11.49 from their regular price of $14.99.  Each bar cost $1.28 before tax.  I had one tonight, and it was so worth it!

Breakdown on what I spent at Costco:

1. Milk- $4.63
2. Asian Affair Pre-Mix Salad- $4.79
3. Spinach Spring Mix- $2.99
4. Haagen Dazs (9 bars)- $11.49 (Sale)

Costco is an exclusive warehouse retailer that charges a membership fee to their customers for shopping at their big box stores.  They are extremely popular and have a  loyal customer base.  Why are these people paying $55/yr for Gold Membership or $110/yr for Executive Membership just to shop there?  Costco focuses on selling products at low prices, often at very high volume. These goods are usually bulk-packaged and marketed primarily to large families and businesses.  People shop there so they can save money or so I think!  I must admit, Costco has a really good deal with their quarter pound hotdog and pop for $1.50.  Their fries are to die for as well!

I am thinking to myself as I browse through their aisles, “Am I really saving that much by shopping at Costco?”  Look at the price of the milk, I thought milk would be a little cheaper at Costco than other grocery stores.  But I think $4.63 for a four liter jug is comparable to stores like Superstore or Walmart where anyone can shop there!  Maybe if I crossed the border to shop at Costco, it’ll be more advantageous.  Everything down south is much cheaper from gas to cheese, and I would assume milk as well!  It’s not fair, why do I live in such an expensive city?

All I am saying here is Costco is not the best deal in town unless you spend a lot in groceries and love to buy stuff.  Personally, I would not be a member of Costco as I am minimalist.  Sure, I would tag along with  a friend who has membership to shop there from time to time, but it’s not worth my money to pay Costco to shop there!  I don’t spend enough to make it worthwhile.