The Easiest Way to Cut Your Costco Bill Without Sacrificing Quality

Shopping at Costco can give your credit cards a workout because the warehouse club has so many amazing products for sale. From household electronics to groceries and more, just about everyone can find stuff they need -- and want -- when they visit Costco.

The problem, though, is that your bills can get out of hand when you fill your cart at Costco, even if the store does sell items for less, since you can take advantage of bulk shopping. The good news is, you can avoid draining your checking account if you follow this simple tip. It's the single easiest way you can reduce your Costco spending without sacrificing quality.

This move could save you 20% or more on your Costco bills

The best and simplest way to reduce what you spend at Costco is to switch to buying Kirkland brand products for as many items as you can.

Kirkland is Costco's house brand. There are more than 350 different Kirkland products for sale at the warehouse club, including clothing, grocery items, health and beauty items, baby items, pet food, and home and kitchen items.

Costco is rigorous in its selection process when deciding what products can be sold under the Kirkland label, and one of the key rules it set was that these store-brand items had to save customers at least 20% off of the already-low Costco prices for that particular product. This means if you make a change to buying Kirkland items instead of your favorite brand names, you could be looking at slashing your bill by as much as 20%. If you spend $100 on every Costco trip, you'd have $20 extra left in your pocket.

Can you really switch to Kirkland products without sacrificing quality?

Now, you may be thinking that buying the store brand is obviously cheaper, but that the quality is probably lower than the name brand. But that is not at all the case with Costco. In fact, a huge number of the store's Kirkland products are actually made by the same big-name manufacturers that are household names.

For example, some of the brands behind the Kirkland Signature label include:

• Starbucks
• Duracell
• Bumble Bee Tuna
• Diamond Naturals (dog food)
• Huggies
• Reynolds aluminum foil
• Keurig
• Ocean Spray
• Jelly Belly

So you could buy any of these other products being sold under the Kirkland name for a fraction of the cost of the name brand price and get essentially the same product.

Costco customers regularly rave about Kirkland deals, with many loving not just the low prices but also the great taste and wide selection. Reddit favorites include Kirkland olive oil (described as some of the "best you can buy"), as well as dishwasher detergent tabs, artisanal bread, various cheeses, and much more.

There's no reason to pass up these perfectly great products when doing so could save you 20% or more on your bill. Just be sure the next time you're at Costco you check out Kirkland products first and switch to as many of them as you can. By doing that, you'll be surprised at how easy it is to use your Costco membership to improve your personal finances while still getting the same products you love.