Journal News Editor Michelle Miller-Carl and her husband purchased their first home in February 2008. Her blog follows her adventures in new homeownership.

I came, I saw, I Costco-ed.

Perhaps it was the news that the warehouse giant had started the process to nestle one of its stores snugly within the Auburn city limits that led to my husband and I venturing there this evening. (In reality, it was a $75 gift certificate I got from my Dad as a housewarming present.)

I thought Friday evenings would be a better time to brave the Costco on Stanford Ranch and Five Star Blvd. in Roseville. Boy was I wrong. The parking lot was a sea of cars that rivaled Disneyland.

We actually found a pretty good spot and strolled up to the entrance. I found out that if you have a gift card, you don't need to be a member (cool), so we were in - behind the walls in an exclusive club for families with lots of pantry space to fill and an extra freezer in the garage.

We were in, but we were also in way over our heads.

This isn't the kind of place where you do an "aisle-by-aisle" shop, we quickly determined. We'd probably spend $500 if we did that. So we made a beeline to the DVDs first. Prices were pretty good. The selection wasn't very deep, but they had a ton of recent titles for $9.99.

Then we just kind of meandered around, pushing our oversized shopping cart no doubt engineered to match the oversized consumables there: (1,000-count boxes of straws, 5-pound tubs of butter, 12 packs of toothbrushes).

It wasn't a pleasurable experience. Even though the aisles are extra wide, I ended up playing bumper carts with many fellow shoppers just trying to make my way down the aisles.

They also don't have signs telling you what's on each aisle, so curiosity leads you down each path, much to the chagrin of your pocketbook.

Here's what we ended up purchasing:

Compilation CD $14.79

"Once" DVD $12.99

20-pack of Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches $9.49

12 packs of Orbitz gum $8.39

30 Hershey's candy bars $11.45

2 tubs of 48-ounce peanut butter $7.29

24-ounces of McCormick taco seasoning $3.79

18 frozen hamburger patties (6 pounds) $15.69

Some things were great purchases (buying individual McCormick taco seasoning packets are like $1.25 for a 1.5 ounce pouch - it would cost $20 to get 24 ounces), but we have an awful lot of Citrus Mint Orbitz gum now. I hope we don't get sick of it.

Costco also isn't much on selection. They had Altoids, but not my wintergreen flavor.

Now, I know Costco is great for families (I saw many a Mom and Dad shopping with their voracious teenagers in tow), but it just doesn't fit our family right now.

My husband's reaction: "My favorite part of the Costco experience is when you've finished paying and everyone decides to clog the avenue behind the checkstands, completely oblivious that this is the only throughfare to get out of the store."

Final report: We didn't get the full Costco experience because we didn't go down every aisle. But you won't catch me in Costco for a very long time - not until I need a 96-count pack of toilet paper.