Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a HUGE Trader Joe’s fan. It was so sad when I moved from California to Utah and discovered there was not a Trader Joe’s within a few hundred miles. How were we supposed to eat?!?! Luckily, I  only had to wait a few years before they opened one not too far from my house. (This post contains affiliate links.)

Ever since then, I go there almost every Sunday to do my weekly grocery shopping. In fact here is a list of 25 of the best things to buy from Trader Joe’s, and you can see in my Weekly Dinner Menus that I use their food in most of my cooking. KristenHewitt.com also has this awesome resource with more Trader Joe’s Meal Hacks and Snacks.

Funny thing is, I literally live behind another local grocery store chain (so close it’s embarrassing to drive there instead of walking). Yet I still drive across town to shop at TJ’s.

I always chuckle a little when I come across a controversial article on Trader Joe’s. While I do feel better about food I buy from TJ’s, there is the misconception out there that they claim to be 100% GMO free, among other general “healthy” claims, when in fact they have never said that.

When the person complained that the Joe-Joe’s (like an Oreo but way better) didn’t help her lose any weight or become more healthy, she forgot that even 100% organic, all natural, non-GMO cookies… ARE STILL FREAKING COOKIES!

Ok, rant over. Two things that are a fact however; the majority of their food is simply delicious, and they have good prices. I know I get questioned a lot on whether they really are cheaper than a traditional grocery store. I even find myself questioning Trader Joe’s pricing sometimes when I spend more than I should.

In order to settle the debate once and for all, I drove my butt over to the local grocery store by my house, and bought the exact same groceries I would have that week at Trader Joe’s. Here is a side-by-side comparison of the Trader Joe’s price list versus our local grocery store.

A couple things to note: Anything highlighted in light green is organic from Trader Joe’s, but not organic from my local store. Also, this ended up not being a completely comprehensive list because there are things I get from TJ’s that you just can’t get from the grocery store (like the Gorgonzola Gnocchi or their famous Cookie Butter). And finally, I made sure to match up pack sizes as closely as possible. If anything, just to be fair, sometimes the local grocery store pack size was smaller than Trader Joe’s. But never the other way around.

Trader Joe’s Price List vs. Our Local Grocery Store

So as you can see, in a typical week of grocery shopping, I save money by going to Trader Joe’s instead of the grocery store by my house. Which in my mind is just the icing on the cake for feeling better about the food I’m feeding my family.

Craving one of the famous Trader Joe’s finds, but don’t live near a store? I was surprised to see that you can order some things on Amazon, and even get them in two days with Prime (which is on sale for $5.99/mo until the end of the year)!

What’s your favorite score from Trader Joe’s?

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