Longest Costco Trip in the World

After a winter break hiatus, I am back and look forward to another year of exciting adventures for the Kemmling household. Over the next 4 months we will be visiting 6 different countries — most of which I have never been to before so stay tuned!

Now on to business. We love Costco. I mean who doesn’t? Besides the hot dogs they have ALOT of cheap stuff that is very decently priced. I have bought everything from furniture, to clothing, to technology, to food, to yes back to hot dogs. God I love them. And they are just $1.50. Anyway I will use Costco in this blog but you could of course substitute wherever you shop at where you buy way more than you need and feel proud of yourself even though you went 300% over budget. We shop at other stores too when we need to stock up but Costco gets the most of our discretionary rupees.

Do you feel like a 30 min drive for a Costco run is too long? Would you drive 2-3 hours? Would you go to another state? Well we live in India. So our Costco runs cover over 8,000 miles and almost 30 hours of flying. But it is necessary to make these trips and I will describe why. Usually we each get 2-3 checked bags each and we can pack each bag usually between 65-70lbs. As you can see we are pros:

Each time we come back from the US it is always between 5-7am in the morning. We have been flying for almost 30 hours and have been in the car at least 3 before we get home. However, nothing comes as close to Christmas as opening up your suitcases and beholding the wonder of bringing all of our favorite US goodies to our adopted country. It is so exciting because you forget half of what you brought and you are also so happy to have some of these amenities because you no it is probably the only stash in the country. Here are some of the major items we pack:

1. Baby Items — Yes you can get diapers in India. However the diapers after about size one are all pull ups. They also are very light on the volume of your little ones refuse so leaking is common. Can you imagine how messy it is to change a 6 month old with pullups that couldn’t hold more than one bathroom try? The struggle is real. Lots of tearing, lots of mess. So we always get a Costco size box of diapers to bring back with us which usually lasts about a month and a half. We also bring back baby wipes. They do have them in India but they are actually cheaper to buy in bulk in the US. We also are very familiar with different children’s medicine in the US so we bring those back. India does have equivalents but we do not actually know how they will work or affect our little one. I also have never seen baby food (I think because they make their own) so we bring pack the fruit pouchies for Tenley which she loves. Its also a good way to get some veggies in her! She likes the snack melties from Wal Mart and they don’t have that here so we bring those as well. They weigh nothing.
2. Household Products/Hygiene Products — Most of these are just personal preference. They do have deodorant here as well as shampoo. But we just like what we use in the US and in Tami’s case she requires a special shampoo formula so we bring that and other hair products. One thing we always try to bring is a TON of Tide pellets for our washing machine. We have a smaller washer here than in the US (maybe 1/3rd of the size) so we go through a wash literally every day. This requires laundry detergent and most of laundry is done manually in India so finding the pods or liquid is very difficult. If you do find it you will pay 10x more than you would in the US for a pod. 
3. Vitamins and Supplements — Believe it or not, at least what we take daily, is harder to find in India and if we do find it is more expensive. At this point we have enough of our vitamins and supplements to literally last the rest of our stay here in India. We also stockup on the Emergen C vitamin C mixes. It is just a good thing to get alot of Vitamin C but they do not have this mixture in India.
4. Cigars — Of course these are near and dear to my heart. I rarely see cigars sold in India. The ones I have seen were at super upscale hotels and were a minimum $30 a stick. There are Indian cigars I have seen at retail locations but I do not like them. They fall apart very easily and the tobacco isn’t as robust as I like it. So I always order some cigars to take back with me. 
5. Technology — While India usually has cheaper technology products (that are just as good as the US), the items we bring back are usually more expensive in India. Any Apple product is at least 40-50% more in India. It is seen as a luxury product. So we get our Apple watches, phones, TVs etc in the US. The same is true for our white noise devices. We need those suckers loud to drown out the constant partying, traffic, and fireworks you have outside your window in India

Now on to the consumables.

1. Booze — Imported liquor usually costs 2-3x what it costs in the US. But even Indian brands are highly taxed where we live. What would be well liquor at a bar in the US is premium here. There is also limited selection. So you have maybe 3-4 whiskies to choose from, 3-4 gins, 1-2 vodkas, etc. We just like our variety! So we always bring back some bourbon, good scotches, infused vodka, or some wines when we come back. We probably have one the best stocked bars in all of Pune!
2. Candy/Sweets — Imported candy, like all the stuff we like, is also very expensive. There is the import tax but they just seem to tax sugar more too. I was paying 4x the price of a bag of my favorite gummy bears here in India. But Costco I can get a 125 day supply for $13. We have brought back other sweets as well in the past like Halloween candy, tons of bubble gum (low calorie and gives you that sweet fix), and fruit leathers.
3. Coffee — This is a category that needs its own write up. They do not have drip coffee in India. Starbucks will back you a pour over which is about the closest thing. Offices, hotels, buildings, etc do not make it. It is all made from cappuccino and espresso machines. If you want a regular cup of Joe, then you have to get cafe Americano. We were able to get a coffee filter machine like we have back home but NOONE sells coffee grounds. We do find small packets of coffee beans but they are about the size of a sandwhich ziplock bag and cost about $10. So even if we had a coffee grinder a pot of coffee would be $10. So we buy our coffee in bulk from Costco and haul it back with us. Makes a HUGE difference in our mornings!
4. Food Condiments — these are just items we can’t get in India. We can find ketchup, mustard, mayo, etc but things like sweet relish and salad dressing that doesn’t taste like a vat of chemicals is impossible to find.
5. Snacks — The biggest snack foods we bring back are microwave popcorn, goldfish, pretzels, and beef jerky. The beef jerky is probably pretty obvious. They do have microwave popcorn here in India but most of it has these wild spicy flavors added to it. If you do find a bag of butter it is incredibly greasy and messy. Its like they put the butter on the packaging but not on the popcorn! So we always bring back a Costco box of popcorn. It typically lasts us about two months. The foreign branded goldfish and chips here in India are marginally more expensive in India but almost all of them are stale. I am not sure how long it takes them to get in transit but there is nothing worse than opening up a bag of Doritos after a long day of eating spicy food you cant pronounce and eating cardboard. So we stock up on fresh things like goldfish, crackers, and pretzels. 

Phew that was a long entry. We of course bring other things back with us like clothing we will need, cookbooks for our chef, toys, etc. But these are the major items that without the longest Costco trip on earth would make us living here alot more messy and expensive! I can’t wait for our next haul!