Pantry Staples from Costco
Our Favorite Ingredient Pantry Staples We Buy From Costco
Our family spends less than $200 a week on groceries because of our budget, so we have had to get creative with our purchases. Our diet used to be so different, but found out that if we just have a variety of ingredients at home, ready to go, it helps our wallet AND our health. Making sure you have ingredients on hand will help prevent you from needing to run to the store, and it allows you to whip something up at home. We have found that Costco has great bulk buys, especially when you become an ingredient household.
What is a Pantry Staple?
A pantry staple is an ingredient in your home that you use frequently, can last for a long time, and can be used for a variety of different things. You shouldn’t need to buy all of these things at once. So, if you are starting from scratch on your pantry staples list, just grab a few things at a time, as you need them and continue to build it out.
Here are some of our favorite Costco pantry staples that we make sure we have on hand at all times.
- Organic Unbleached All-Purpose Flour: $19.99 (Price per pound is $1)
- Organic Maple Syrup: $14.99 (Price per pound is $0.44)
- Organic Cane Sugar: $10.99 (Price per pound is $1.10)
- Avocado Oil: $27.49 for 2 L
- Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil: $20.99 for 2 L
- Pink Salt: $8.99
- Pure Vanilla Extract: $13.99
- Royal Basmati Rice: $23.99 for 20lbs
- Kirkland Grass-Fed Butter: Don’t have current price
- Frozen berries: Don’t have current price
- Bachan’s Original Japanese BBQ Sauce: Don’t have current price
How We Most Frequently Use Our Pantry Staples
Flour: We use the flour mostly for our sandwich bread. We stopped buying bread and made it first in a bread machine until we got the hang of it. Then we started making bread in the oven, and now we are doing sourdough. We have been able to use the Costco flour for all of the recipes and it always turns out great.
Syrup: I use the Costco syrup for, obviously, pancakes. I also put it in our oatmeal, and other snacks, desserts, and coffee.
Cane Sugar: I use the Costco cane sugar for pretty much every recipe that calls for sugar. Even though it is cane sugar, I don’t seem to notice a difference. We also now use this sugar to make our brown sugar.
Avocado Oil: We use this as our seed oil substitute. Anything that calls for canola, or vegetable oil, we use avocado oil instead. We also use avocado oil to fry our taco shells, and they turn out great still.
Olive Oil: We use olive oil for salad dressings, Italian meals, etc.
Pink Salt: This is our everyday baking salt. Don’t be scared of it, just because it’s pink!
Vanilla: We use vanilla for different baking recipes, and also flavoring in oatmeal, or coffee.
Rice: Our family likes basmati rice the best, and find it to be the most versatile. We use rice very frequently. Depending on how it is seasoned, it can go with everyday proteins and veggies as a side; with tacos or other Mexican dishes; or Asian flavored with orange chicken, or as fried rice.
Grass-Fed Butter: Grass-fed butter is more expensive than regular butter, but for our family it is worth it because it is better quality butter. We use this butter for EVERYTHING.
Frozen Berries: Specifically frozen blueberries. This is a staple in our house because we can quickly throw them into pancakes, muffins, or on top of yogurt. They even work great just as a snack for the kids.
Bachan’s BBQ Sauce: This BBQ sauce is legit. Non-GMO and organic ingredients and the kids go crazy for it. It can be used as a marinade or even just as a dressing on top of veggies, rice, or whatever you want.
Having Pantry Staples Can Save You Money
Instead of having to do a last minute trip to the store, you can just use the ingredients you know you already have at your house. Having the basics means you can opt to make more food at your house instead of feeling a need to eat out. When your pantry is stocked with staples it also helps reduce the amount of frozen meals you might feel like you depend on, which will lessen the amount of money you spend on them.
The main point to remember when you are making a switch to stocking your pantry, is to go slow. Don’t buy all of the staples at once. Next time you go to the store, buy one bulk staple you need. Then, the next trip, get another. Eventually you will have a stocked pantry full of staples that you now only have to buy once a month or less.
