10 Costco Secrets Even Longtime Members Don't Know About
By Ben F. | 01/29/2026
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Last updated July 17, 2025
If you’re a regular at Costco, you get how satisfying it is to find a great deal.
The $1.50 hot dog and soda combo is iconic, but even longtime Costco shoppers overlook some of the best ways to stretch their budget.
Here are 10 tips that might not be as legendary as the hot dog, but are still pretty darn effective.
1. Get the most out of your Costco membership
Watch the price endings: Items ending in .99 are regular price. If you see .79, .89, or .49, Costco likely scored a manufacturer deal and passed the savings on to you. Prices ending in .88 or .00? That usually means a manager markdown to clear inventory – often items that won’t be restocked.
Look for the asterisk: A * in the top right corner of the price tag means the item is being discontinued. If it’s something you love, grab it before it’s gone for good.
Use the Costco Savings booklet: No coupons or clipping, just automatic discounts applied at checkout. All members get access, and the deals change every month.
Don’t forget Costco.com: Your local warehouse carries about 4,000 items, but Costco’s website has even more, and it often includes online-only deals you won’t find in store.
2. Use your Costco member-only benefits
Movie nights for less: Some Costco warehouses and Costco.com offer discounted movie tickets – just show your membership and save.
Vacation deals that actually save you money: Costco Travel hooks members up with exclusive pricing on hotel stays, rental cars, cruises, and vacation packages. You can even grab discounted gift cards for things like theme parks and city tours.
Better value on tires than you’d think: When you buy tires from Costco, installation includes lifetime maintenance – pressure checks, balancing, rotations, and flat repairs. They also inflate with nitrogen instead of air, which holds pressure longer.
Unexpected partner discounts: Your membership could get you deals outside the warehouse too – like 25% off Budget Truck rentals and other partner perks you might not even know exist.
Costco Next = direct-from-brand discounts: With Costco Next, you can shop products straight from select suppliers, while still getting Costco-level pricing.
3. Make the internet less annoying in about 60 seconds
If you’re still browsing the internet without an ad blocker, you’re working way harder than you need to.
A good ad blocker quietly removes most of the junk you deal with every day - banner ads, pop-ups, autoplay videos, and those endless YouTube interruptions that somehow always hit at the worst moment.
Once it’s installed, it just runs in the background. Pages load faster, sites feel cleaner, and you’re not constantly being tracked by random ad pixels following you around the internet.
Most people I know use something like Total Adblock. It’s cheap, takes about a minute to set up, and you immediately forget it’s there - except everything suddenly works better.
If you spend any real amount of time online, this is one of those “why didn’t I do this sooner” fixes.
Get Total Adblock here
4. Turn your home's value into extra cash
If you own a home, you’ve probably looked at your equity and thought, “There has to be a smarter way to use this.” Especially when big expenses pop up - the remodel you’ve been putting off, high-interest credit card balances, or just general life stuff that isn’t cheap.
But with today’s interest rates, refinancing or taking out a big lump-sum loan isn’t always the smartest move anymore.
Here’s an option a lot of homeowners are leaning toward instead: a home equity line of credit (HELOC).
A HELOC works more like a credit card tied to your home’s value. You tap into it only when you need cash, and during the “draw period” (usually 10 years), you’re just making minimum payments. After that, you pay back what you used over a longer repayment period.
It’s flexible, it’s there when you need it, and you’re not stuck paying interest on a giant loan you didn’t fully use.
Rates are usually variable too - so if the market cools down, you’re not locked into something sky-high forever.
If you’re curious what kind of rate you could get, tools like LendingTree’s HELOC matching tool make the comparison part easy. You answer a few questions, they show you your options, and you can decide whether a HELOC makes sense for whatever big expense you’re trying to tackle.
It’s one way to access your home’s value without overcommitting to a loan you don’t actually need.
Head to LendingTree here.
5. Use this before you buy anything online
A lot of people assume Amazon always has the best price. It doesn’t.
Big retailers know most of us don’t have the time (or patience) to open 10 tabs and price-check every purchase. So prices quietly creep up, and we just pay them.
This is one of the few browser tools I actually keep installed: Capital One Shopping.
When you shop online, it quietly runs in the background and does two useful things:
Automatically tries available coupon codes at checkout
Checks other sellers to see if the same item is cheaper elsewhere
Here’s what usually happens: you’re about to check out, and a small pop-up tells you there’s a better price or a coupon you would’ve missed. Sometimes it’s a few dollars. Sometimes it’s a lot more than that.
It takes about 30 seconds to install, and then you can pretty much forget about it while it does its thing.
If you shop online even semi-regularly, this is an easy win.
Get the Capital One Shopping extension here
6. Build a little game-testing side hustle (some people earn up to $350/day)
If you’re already glued to your phone half the time, here’s a surprisingly legit way to make that time pay you back.
Freecash is one of the bigger platforms that pays users to test new iOS and Android games. No degrees, no resume, no “professional tester” nonsense - just download the game, try it out, and get paid.
Some offers can pay up to $350 depending on the game and how much you play. Freecash’s homepage shows new payouts constantly, and the better you get at picking the right offers, the more you can earn.
All you really need is a smartphone and a few spare minutes. I’ve used Freecash myself, and it’s one of the smoother experiences out there. They even threw me a $5 bonus the first time I installed a game, which was a nice little extra.
If you’re already scrolling anyway, this is an easy way to turn some of that downtime into actual cash.
Try Freecash and see what you can earn
7. Get yourself a financial advisor
A lot of people try to manage their money completely on their own - and honestly, it’s one of the biggest financial blind spots out there.
Sure, you can DIY your investments, retirement plan, tax moves, and long-term strategy. But most people don’t have the time, tools, or interest to stay on top of everything. A good advisor isn’t just someone who picks funds - they’re someone who keeps an eye on your entire financial picture so you don’t have to.
Research backs this up, too. Vanguard found that working with a financial advisor can add around 3% net in extra returns per year¹. Over decades, that’s the difference between “comfortable” and “wow, I actually did pretty well.”
More importantly, advisors take care of the complicated stuff you’d never think about:
Making sure your retirement plan actually works
Handling weird tax implications before they become problems
Keeping your investments balanced instead of emotional
Helping you set up insurance, estate plans, and income strategies that fit together
If you don’t already know a trustworthy advisor, Datalign makes the search part easy. You answer a few quick questions, and they match you with vetted financial advisors in your area who fit your goals and comfort level.
If you want the simplest way to get expert guidance without hunting around, start with the match quiz and see who they recommend.
Find your advisor match on Datalign
8. See if this company will pay off your credit card debt
When you’re deep in debt, it can feel overwhelming. Like no matter what you do, you’re just treading water. And the longer it goes on, the harder it is to catch up.
That’s where National Debt Relief might be able to step in. If you owe more than $10,000 in credit card debt, medical bills, personal loans, or collections, they could help you combine it into one lower monthly payment.
There are no upfront fees, and many people become debt-free in 12 to 48 months. Getting started takes about 30 seconds – just answer a few quick questions to see if you qualify.
See if you qualify with National Debt Relief
9. Use these extra Costco tricks to save even more money
Get a chest freezer (if you have the space): It’s a game-changer. Use it to stockpile meat, frozen fruit, burritos, muffins—whatever you want to prep or grab on the fly. Most Costco staples freeze really well.
Team up with a friend or neighbor: Splitting bulk buys helps you save money and storage space. Perfect for smaller households that can’t go through a 10-pound block of cheese on their own.
Stock up when staples go on sale: Things like supplements, dry goods, and household basics often go on sale in cycles. When you see a deal, grab enough to hold you over until it rolls around again.
Don’t forget about your Executive membership perk: You can take the annual 2% reward as cash instead of applying it to your next Costco run. That way, you earn more toward your next reimbursement check—and get a little extra back in your pocket.
LendingTree
- Tap into your home equity for quick access to cash
- Get lower interest rates and flexible repayment terms
- Use it like a credit card (for anything you want/need)
