Here it goes, anyway:

Costco doesn’t appear to be designed for DINKs like my wife and me. You go into the joint and it is filled with bulk merchandise — the kind that two people will never use up before it goes stale or dries out or just takes up space until your house starts to resemble a “Hoarders” episode. It basically screams “big families and small businesses.”

But I recently bought us a $60 Costco membership and it took very little time to pay for itself. My initial decision was simple — there’s a Costco only two miles from us and the gasoline there (which is Top Tier certified) costs 80 cents to a dollar a gallon less than other stations near us. With my wife having to use her personal vehicle for work soon, the gas savings for her vehicle alone could be $50 a month or more, and I’m likely to save $20 a month or so on my less-driven car. That’s more than a membership fee every month.

But Costco offers more than just bulk stuff and cheap gas. For example, I just knocked $80 off a car rental by using Costco’s service. Had I not found an incredible buy elsewhere recently, I would have bought a new set of deeply discounted tires through Costo a couple of months ago. Their travel site is legendary. The store often has great wine bargains. We haven’t bought pre-made meals there yet, but they look great and are highly price competitive. They sell prime cuts of beef at great prices when we want to splurge, although those typically are in big packs (but hey, we have a freezer). And they offer savings on all sorts of big-ticket items, from appliances to mattresses to electronics (although those aren’t always the best prices).

So there may be reasons for even a single person to get a Costco membership. Frankly, we’ve used ours far more than I thought we would. And if you’re thinking it’s just the place to get giant bulk things, you’re missing out.