Shopping at Costco Wholesale is really paying off

The high cost of gluten-free food. Explore Asian-brand Organic Black Bean Spaghetti is about $4.50 a pound at Costco Wholesale, compared to organic whole-wheat spaghetti at Whole Foods Market and Trader Joe's for $1.39 a pound.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss cash rebates that return your Costco Wholesale membership fee many times over, and bargains at the International Food Warehouse in Lodi.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In the last few weeks, I received two 1% rebate coupons totaling more than $343 from my Costco Wholesale-American Express TrueEarnings Card.

And I'm waiting for my annual 2% cash award for executive members like me who pay $110 a year to join Costco, twice the regular fee.

The TrueEarnings Card gives you rebates at gasoline stations (3% or 4%) and restaurants (2%) in addition to the 1% back for purchases at Costco and other stores.

The rebate coupons must be used at Costco, but if you make a small purchase, you will get the balance of the check in cash.

Organic brown eggs from Costco Wholesale, served with store-bought tofu and organic long grain brown rice.

A salad of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix with Chilean blueberries, cinnamon-dusted roasted almonds, and Kirkland Signature Parmigiano Reggiano, a reduced-fat cheese, all from Costco.

Bargain organic greens

The International Food Warehouse at 370 Essex St. in Lodi is a good place to supplement my purchase of Earthbound Farm Organic Spring Mix from Costco Wholesale in Hackensack, where a 1-pound tub of the pre-washed greens runs $4.79 to $4.99.

On Thursday, I picked up a 5-ounce package of Earthbound Farm Organic Zen, a deep-green blend of Asian greens, spinach and kale, for only 99 cents.

You have to watch the use-by dates. I saw other Earthbound Farm Organic salads that had a use-by date of Thursday or the day before.

My Zen blend was good for two more days.

Other bargains were half-liter bottles of organic balsamic vinegar with no artificial color for $1.99 each, and 8.5-ounce jars of organic olives from Turkey for $1 each, though the sales flier mistakenly said the bottles were 16 ounces.

Large yams were only 39 cents a pound, and Korean yams rang up at 59 cents a pound.

Bella Famiglia Organic Balsamic Vinegar from Italy contains no added color.

The International Food Warehouse in Lodi has a wide selection of Asian Indian and other ethnic food, but there are no bargains to be found in the wine, beer and liquor department, above.