Fall Costco Haul — What $507 Buys for a Family of Seven
This fall Costco haul is the one where the season officially showed up in my cart. My sound went cuckoo on the video and did not pick up a thing, so I narrated the whole trip afterward — but the cart is the cart, and it tells on me. Pecans for baking. Heavy cream for soup season. Whipped cream because there are going to be desserts. And a whole second list of groceries for a ladies brunch I am hosting this weekend. Seven people to feed, one warehouse, and about $507 out the door.
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Unpack the whole cart with me above, or keep reading for everything that was in it.
What Went in the Cart on This Fall Costco Haul
I go to Costco once a month on purpose, and I go with a list. This trip had two lists on it, though — the regular monthly stock-up for my crowd, and a separate handful of things for the brunch I am putting on this weekend. That is why the cart looks a little fancier than usual.
Produce
- Bag of sweet potatoes — $5.99
- Raspberries and blueberries
- Lemons — for the brunch
- Green apples and red apples
- Organic spring mix — also for the brunch
I called this arugula on camera. It is spring mix. I held it up, said the wrong word with my whole chest, and then read the label about four seconds later. I am a dork and I left it in, because that is how it goes around here.
The meat counter
- Ground beef — $4.99 a pound
- Beef stew meat — $7.99 a pound
- Boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Ground turkey
- Salmon — my splurge
- Bacon — for the brunch
The salmon is the one I always hesitate over and always buy anyway. It is a splurge and it is good for us, and both of those things get to be true at the same time. The stew meat I break up into a few different meals rather than making one giant pot of anything, and the chicken gets cut down and portioned into the freezer the same afternoon I get home. If you have never broken a big warehouse package down yourself, I walk through exactly how I do it in my Tuesday tip: pork loin — same method, different animal.
Dairy and the cold case
- Milk
- Eggs
- Butter
- Heavy cream
- Whipped cream
- Greek-flavored pasta salad — brand new to us
Heavy cream and whipped cream in the same cart is the clearest signal I have that my brain has flipped over to fall. Soup season and baking season start in this house the minute the mornings get even slightly less miserable, and I would rather have the cream in the fridge than have to make a trip for it. The pasta salad is a gamble — a Greek one, already made, and we have never bought it before. We will find out.
Pantry and spices
- Pecans — for fall baking
- Big jug of olive oil — under $20
- Big jug of avocado oil
- Oregano — $3.99 for the big container
- Spiceology Greek Freak Mediterranean blend — $7.99
- Better Than Bouillon
Greek Freak is the one that made me holler in the aisle. That seasoning runs expensive online and it was $7.99 sitting right there, so it came home with me. Same story with the oregano — $3.99 for a container that size is not a price I walk past. Both of those live permanently on my counter along with the Better Than Bouillon, and if you want to see everything I keep stocked all the time, it is all organized like a grocery store over on Shop My Pantry.
The oil is the sleeper deal of this whole trip. A giant jug of olive oil for under twenty dollars, and I do not keep it out on the counter looking like that — I pour it into a smaller glass container by the stove and refill it when it runs low. Same with the avocado oil. One purchase, months of cooking, and nothing ugly sitting out.
Snacks, drinks, and the things nobody eats
- Kirkland sparkling drinks, 24 pack — $9.99
- Skinny Dipped dark chocolate coconut bites — 3 grams of sugar
- belVita breakfast biscuits
- Beef jerky for school
- Magic Erasers
- Command strips
- Toothpaste
I forgot to show you these on camera and they are one of the best deals in the cart — a 24 pack of Kirkland sparkling drinks for $9.99. Those go in lunchboxes all week. The Skinny Dipped coconut bites are not for the kids at all, they are a little treat for my hubby, and at three grams of sugar he can have them without me feeling one bit bad about it.
And then the Magic Erasers, which I genuinely thought I would stop needing once everybody got past the toddler years. Reader, I have a house full of teenagers and I go through them just as fast. Nobody warns you about that part.
Half This Cart Is for a Ladies Brunch
The lemons, the bacon, the butter, and that spring mix I so confidently called arugula are all headed to a brunch I am hosting this weekend, and I am so excited about it. I have some fun recipes lined up, and brunch is the thing I have been thinking about nonstop lately because it is what my next cookbook is about.
If you want to see how I actually put one of these together — the menu, the order I make things in, and what gets done the day before so I am not a wreck on the morning of — I laid a whole one out in my fall brunch menu for a crowd. Those lemons are almost certainly becoming lemon scones, which my daughter talked me into making for the first time not long ago and which I have now made three times since.
The Pecans Are the Real Sign of Fall
Every year there is one item that goes in the cart and tells me the season has turned, and for me it is a bag of pecans. They are going into apricot pecan scones and eventually into pie, and probably into a batch of cranberry pecan cheddar crackers once the holiday parties start. A good part of this bag became candied pecans for the party favors at that brunch — under thirty minutes on the stove, and straight into little jars with a ribbon.
One thing worth doing with warehouse-sized pecans: toast them before you bake with them. King Arthur recommends about six to eight minutes in a 350°F oven, until they smell nutty and go a deep color — their old-fashioned pecan pie recipe walks through it. It takes almost no time and it is the difference between a pecan that is just there and a pecan you can taste. The rest of the bag goes in the freezer so it does not go rancid on me before December.
And yes, the pumpkin candle is already lit at my house. I have a whole hill I will die on about pumpkin if you want to fight me about it.
The Total
About $507 out the door. For a family of seven, a month of groceries, and the makings of a brunch for a whole group of ladies, that is not too shabby and I am at peace with it.
The part that actually keeps a haul this size from turning into waste is what happens in the next two hours. The chicken gets cut and portioned. The stew meat gets divided into meals. The pecans go in the freezer. And all of it gets written into a real plan before anything gets shoved in a drawer to be forgotten. I put that plan up here every single Saturday — you can see this week’s over on my weekly meal plans page, grocery list and all.
Fall Costco Haul FAQ — Feeding Seven
How much does a fall Costco haul cost for a family of seven?
This one came to about $507, and that covered the monthly stock-up plus a separate list of groceries for a brunch I am hosting. A plain month without the entertaining add-on usually lands a little lower than this for us. The next month, with a whole Thanksgiving dinner folded in, my October Costco haul came to $608.
What do you buy at Costco for fall baking?
Pecans, butter, heavy cream, and whipped cream are my four. Pecans go in scones, pies, and holiday appetizers, and the dairy covers everything from soup to dessert. Buying them all at once in September means I am not making a special trip every time I want to bake something.
Is the giant jug of Costco olive oil actually worth it?
For my house, absolutely — it was under twenty dollars and it lasts me months. I never use it straight from the jug though. I keep a smaller glass bottle by the stove and refill it, so the big one lives in the pantry and the counter stays clean.
How do you keep bulk meat from going to waste?
I break everything down the same day I get home, before I sit down. Chicken gets cut and portioned, stew meat gets divided across a few different meals, and it all goes in the freezer labeled. Buying in bulk without a plan is just a slower way of throwing money out.
What did you buy at Costco for the ladies brunch?
Lemons, bacon, butter, and a big container of spring mix. Brunch is easier to shop for than people think — a handful of good ingredients does most of the work, and almost everything can be prepped the day before.
More Days at the Longstreth House You’ll Love
- Back to School Costco Haul — What $552 Buys for a Family of Seven — the August trip, with five lunchboxes stacked on top of dinner.
- Costco Haul for a Family of 7 — What a Typical Month Looks Like — a plain month, no season and no party attached.
- Costco Haul With All Five Kids — Our Big Summer Stock-Up — the summer restock, with all five of them pushing one cart.
- Mid-Month Costco Haul for a Family of 7 — the trip I swore I would not make, and the birthday cake that made me make it.
- Family Thrift Haul — what $140 gets you when you shop with Jonathan and Hannah.
📬 Come to the table on Saturday
Every Saturday morning I send a printable meal plan and full grocery list — the whole week, formatted for the fridge and the grocery run — plus new recipes and whatever’s happening at the Longstreth house. Drop your email below and I’ll save you a seat.
Fall Costco Haul — About Stephanie Longstreth
Stephanie Longstreth is the home cook, mom, and storyteller behind StephanieCooksForACrowd.com. She cooks for a family of seven in Florida — five kids, two cats, and one husband who appreciates a good meal. Four of her children came home through adoption, and family stories are woven into everything she makes and shares. Find her crowd-friendly recipes, weekly meal plans, and real family life on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest @stephaniecooksforacrowd.