a drop of water

Executive Members at Costco can now receive a convenient 15% off Labor and Parts at authorized car dealerships.  You can find the dealership closest to you by following the link here.  Depending on how much you typically spend on car repairs each year and whether or not you would even consider taking your car to be serviced at a dealership, the 15% off benefit could cover the cost of the Executive Membership at Costco.  There is also special Costco Member pricing at authorized dealerships which often offer members sub-invoice prices for new vehicles, bypassing all the car sales bargaining.

These benefits are great already, but they are not even considering the potential 2% cash back on Costco purchases (1% more than the base membership), 3% back for Costco Gas, and 2% back on travel and restaurant expenses.

The annual cashback rewards are mailed to you in the form of gift certificates, which you can conveniently exchange directly for cash in store.  This is very convenient because it does not force you to spend your reward at the store of origin, like many reward systems limit you to.  Another lesser known rumor is that Costco has the practice of refunding members the executive membership fee if their pruchasing total did not warrant the premium.  (I personally have not had the opportunity to experience this though.)

One of the critiques of Costco is that the portions are too big for the smaller household. I suggest coordinating with other small households and splitting the Costco portions.  This way, you aren’t tempted to eat larger portions just to finish something, or forced to throw away large amounts of food because they have gone bad, etc.