Moving into a first home means an empty kitchen, and creator @ashlyntworek filmed exactly what it takes to fill one. Her video opens in the Costco parking lot with her partner beside her and the words “FIRST COSTCO HAUL FOR OUR NEW HOUSE” across the screen, and it ends six minutes later with two carts, a very long receipt and a car packed to the brim.
“This is our first Costco trip in the new house, since we finally moved in this weekend,” she says from the passenger seat. “And we have a brand new fridge and freezer to completely stock, so this is going to be aggressive.” The couple had not been to Costco in four or five months, depending on which of them you ask. Her parents were watching the kids, which gave them about an hour to get it done.
@ashlyntworek
The plan to stay focused lasted a few seconds. Her partner stopped to look at a 75-inch TV almost as soon as they walked in. “And we’re already getting sidetracked,” she says, before getting sidetracked herself by a rack of flannel shirts priced around $10 and telling him to grab one too.
Then the cart starts to fill. Produce comes first: avocados because their daughter loves avocado toast, cucumbers, bell peppers, oranges, peaches, apples, a sack of potatoes, a whole watermelon, strawberries, corn, carrots, broccoli, raspberries, blueberries, mango and bananas. In the bakery her partner takes over. His favorite sweet treat is a cinnamon roll, so the twice-baked cinnamon croissants go in, along with bagels. She stops at a sign for mini beignets filled with chocolate and hazelnut, 22 for $9.99. “This is a calorie deficit’s biggest nightmare,” she says.
When he reasons that they have two kids to feed now, she points out that they have been shopping like that for a while already.
The meat department is where the total starts to climb. A package of ground beef rings in at $37.84. Five pounds of stew meat, a $21.60 pack of pork chops, chicken breasts, chicken thighs and a large beef roast follow. She balks at a tri-tip priced around $40. “Literally that’s going to be like $400 of meat,” she says. A rotisserie chicken, which she calls Costco’s “big bag of joy,” gets hung from the cart handle.
From there it is the refrigerated cases, the freezer aisle and the household basics a new home needs all at once: eggs, sausages, cheese, guacamole, soup, pesto, salmon, burger patties, laundry detergent, trash bags, freezer bags, toilet paper and a large bag of cat food. Somewhere in the middle of it, he walks into frame pushing a flatbed. “Had to get some backup,” she says. The second cart takes the pantry run, from marinara sauce and chicken broth to spaghetti, tortillas, yogurt, string cheese, protein shakes and snacks for the kids.
At the register she turns the camera on him and asks for a final guess. He says about $2,300. “I really hope it’s not $2 grand,” she tells the camera.
She never says the number. She holds up the long receipt and says only, “We were way off in our guesses, so that’s good.” The last shot is the back of the car. “We managed to completely fill this car to the brim,” she says. “I’m talking to the brim.”
That is the part followers were left to work out for themselves, and it is why the video plays like a game. The viewer watches every item go in, hears the prices she reads out loud, gets one guess from the person pushing the cart, and then has to decide how far off “way off” really was.
It also shows something first-time buyers tend to underestimate. A normal grocery trip tops up a kitchen that already has oil, spices, condiments, freezer staples and cleaning supplies in it. A first trip after a move replaces all of that in one afternoon, and the total reflects years of slow accumulation bought in a single hour. Nothing in their cart is extravagant. It is simply everything at once.
For anyone about to make the same trip, a few things in the video are worth copying:
Go without the kids if you can. The couple gave themselves one hour while her parents babysat, and even then the TV aisle nearly derailed them. A stock-up run takes concentration that a regular trip does not.
Shop for the freezer on purpose. A new, empty freezer is the best reason to buy meat in bulk. Splitting large packs into meal-size portions the same day, which is what the gallon freezer bags in their cart are for, is what makes a $400 meat run last for months instead of weeks.
Guess the total before you reach the register. It sounds like a bit for the camera, but saying a number out loud is a budget check. If the guess makes you wince, there is still time to put something back.
Expect a second cart. Paper goods, detergent and drinks take up more room than food does. Grabbing a flatbed early is easier than rearranging a full cart in the middle of an aisle.
Put the household basics on the list, not just the food. Trash bags, laundry detergent and toilet paper are easy to forget when the focus is on the fridge, and they are the things a new house runs out of first.
The couple left with a full car and a receipt they were relieved by. The new fridge and freezer they came to fill have plenty to hold.
