Best things to buy at Costco for new parents during COVID
This post covers the best things to buy at Costco for new parents.
We’re a few weeks away from our little one arriving and have entered full-blown nesting mode. To be honest, it feels a lot like preparing for a hurricane, so it’s something we’re familiar with being from Houston.
With COVID not going away anytime soon either, we needed to stock up on items that would last us an extended period of time, so it made the most sense to get these things at our local Costco.
We won’t be able to have family/friends over, so the plan is to get what we need so we can limit the amount of time we (mostly me) have to leave the apartment.
Here are the things we got during our latest Coscto run.
Food
Eggs: probably the most versatile thing on this list. We eat eggs every day for breakfast so we got a few packs of them to last us a while. Scramble them, hard boil them, fry them, you can literally do anything with them so make sure you have enough to last you a few weeks!
Meats/Fish: we typically don’t buy meats/fish in bulk because we’re limited on fridge space, but I did get us a 5lb pack of ground beef that we could keep in the freezer. If you eat a lot of meat, it might be worth getting it in bulk and freezing/meal prepping in advance.
Frozen Meals: we LIVED on the dumplings from Costco early on in the pandemic. They were easy to heat up and were the perfect meal to make when we were too tired to cook. Costco also has plenty of other frozen meal options that are easy to reheat/cook. Just keep in mind that options might vary depending on where you live!
Drinks: we got some Kirkland coconut water so that we could have at home and pack some in our hospital bag, but of course, there are plenty of drink options. If you don’t like the options there, we LOVE these Water Drops. It’s a flavored syrup sweetened with Stevia that you can add into water. You bet that I’ll stock up on these when/if they are ever available at Costco.
Mayo: we’ve been eating a lot of tuna salad and sandwiches so we go through this pretty quickly. The Chosen Foods Avocado Mayo is our go-to and it’s an amazing deal at Costco at around $8-10. The same product costs $20 on Amazon. Insane!
Household items
Toilet Paper: probably one of the most common Costco purchases, except this time, we went Charmin ultra soft instead of Kirkland per mom’s request. 🙃
Napkins: we go through these pretty often so we just got the big pack and stored it in a cabinet. Shouldn’t have to worry about these for a while and they’re great for meals or cleaning small spills and messes (I hear babies have a lot of those too).
Disposable plates and utensils: if there’s anything I’ve learned during staying at home during the pandemic is that you cannot avoid dirty dishes. If it was hard to deal with without a baby, I can’t imagine we want to worry about them when he gets here, so we stocked up on disposable plates and utensils. Costco has some that I like better than our regular utensils.
Snacks
Apple sauce: Karla dealt with nausea and morning sickness the entire pregancy so we’re stocking up on bland foods. Kirkland apple sauce does the job!
Nuts and trailmix: these make for a great, quick snack. I plan on packing some in our hospital bag but they will also be useful to have while we’re at home figuring out how our baby.
Crackers: we got classic Ritz but any alternative cracker will do! Goes great with tuna, cheese, soup and anything else you eat crackers with.
Snackpacks: there are in the dairy aisle and are great midday snacks! They have cheese, nuts, dried cranberries. If I feel a little hungry during the day, I always grab one for Karla and I to snack on.
Batteries
Does anyone else get AA and AAA batteries mixed up? No, just me? Okay. Well, we have some leftover AA battries (I tend to get these from Amazon) but I went with the Duracell AAA Batteries at Costco.
The baby has a few things that need batteries but you’ll also have things around the house that need them e.g. TV remotes, medical supplies, alarm clocks, smart door locks.
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Cleaning Supplies
Sanitizing wipes/spray: when available, we got a 3 pack of Clorox wipes and during our most recent trip we got the Honest disinfecting spray.
Dishwasher/Laundry detergent: as much as we don’t want to be washing dishes and cleaning laundry, it’s inevitable, so stock up on some dishwasher/laundry detergent. We’re slowly transitioning to free and clear products and Costco has a few of them but the exact options might vary depending on your location.
What’s missing?
Diapers. Baby formula. Baby wipes. Costco has tons of options for these but we’ve opted to go with different options that aren’t available at Costco.
Diapers: We had a close friend use Bamboo Nature diapers with her baby and loved them. This is what we put on our registry so we have a few cases of those. Time will tell if these work out or if we end up going with Kirkland or Huggies options at Costco.
Baby Formula: we still haven’t figured out what formula, if any, we’re going to use. There’s lots of options but after watching a Flav City video on the ingredients in baby formula, there’s a lot to consider.
Wipes: we’re going with Water Wipes. We’ll definitely stock up should they ever show up at Costco.
Want to learn more about preparing for baby?
Check out my Get Away review to see how you can get some quiet time before your little one gets here
Read what prenatal appointments are like for dad’s during COVID
