Forget the Savings. Here's Why You Should Steer Clear of Costco's Monthly Deals

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Shopping at Costco is a great way to save money on the items you buy all the time, whether it's groceries, toilet paper, or cleaning products. And when you have a need for something you don't buy regularly, like new sneakers or a replacement laptop, it often pays to check Costco's prices. You may find that you're able to save money compared to buying it elsewhere.

If you want to get a sense of which items are the most heavily discounted at Costco, all you have to do is look at the monthly deal book. If you're a member, you'll generally get a physical copy in the mail. But you can also get information about limited-time deals by looking on Costco.com.

However, there's a big danger in chasing Costco's monthly deals. You may even want to steer clear of them altogether.

When you spend money to save money, you don't save at all

Costco's sales strategy is no different than other retailers'. When stores offer a limited-time discount, what they're trying to do is entice you to buy the inventory they're looking to move off their shelves. They're not trying to help your finances.

And yes, that applies to Costco, too. Despite its firm commitment to excellent customer service, Costco is not in the business of helping people save money. It's in the business of making money off of customers' spending. By sending out that monthly deal book, Costco is trying to get you to open your wallet even more and add items to your shopping list that normally wouldn't be on there.

It's one thing to load up on things like paper towels or tissues at Costco while they're on sale. These are items that most people use regularly. So even if you're not out of them at home, if you see them for $5 off the normal price and you have space to store them, it makes sense to grab them at a discount. Rather, the danger in pursuing Costco's monthly deals lies in buying items you don't need.

Buying something simply because it's on sale doesn't amount to saving money. If anything, you're spending money needlessly, to the point where you might harm your finances by adding to a credit card balance or making it so you have less cash to pay an essential bill, like your rent.

For example, right now, Costco is offering $40 off the Ninja Foodi 10-in-1 Air Fryer Oven, which brings its usual $189.99 price down to $149.99. That's a nice amount of savings. But if you hardly ever cook, and you can't remember the last time you used a kitchen tool other than a microwave, then that gadget is likely to sit in its box collecting dust.

In this case, you aren't saving yourself $40. Rather, you're costing yourself $149.99.

A better approach to Costco's monthly deals

There's nothing wrong with seeing what Costco has on sale every month. But rather than chase those deals, approach them strategically.

If there's an item on sale that you use regularly and that doesn't have an expiration date to worry about (for example, toilet paper), then it pays to load up while there's a discount if you can afford to lay out the money. But if there's an item you never would've thought about purchasing, and you're only interested in buying it because you see it on sale, then that's an item to skip.

If you stick to this rule of thumb, you can enjoy plenty of savings at Costco without spending your hard-earned money needlessly.

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