I ended up making an unscheduled trip to Trader Joe's yesterday. Going to TJ's is kind of a big deal for me, since the two nearest stores are each about 60 miles away in opposite directions. And yet, it is the only place to buy unsweetened mayonnaise, which I use frequently in my low carb diet.
Naturally while I may only want two things, I always walk out of there with an entire shopping cart full of food. Sigh! It's hard to resist some of the great deals and rare finds. But it's also hard to distinguish those items from things that are the same price (or even cheaper) at the regular grocery store.
Here are the things that are on my permanent to-buy list for Trader Joe's:
- Unsweetened mayonnaise
- Unsweetened vanilla-flavored almond milk (cheaper at Trader Joe's than anywhere else, and a great taste)
- Olives (they sell stuffed extra-large olives for about 50% the cost of the same size jar at Safeway)
- Nuts: both raw and roasted/salted almonds are several dollars cheaper per pound
In the past I have bought a lot of Charles Shaw wine (a.k.a. "Two Buck Chuck") but I'm not in much of a drinking phase these days, so I skip it now.
Trader Joe's is also a great source for organic and all-natural meats at a good price. But if you don't care about those metrics, the meat is more expensive than conventional meat at the grocery store. The same goes for their fruit and vegetables, which are pretty good for out-of-season produce, but come packaged in an awful lot of plastic.
One thing I never buy at Trader Joe's is coffee. The prices aren't that better than the bulk stuff they sell at Safeway, and the taste is about the same. Plus you can often find Starbucks coffee on sale for less per pound than Trader Joe's coffee, and I personally like it a lot better.
How about you? What's on your always/never list for Trader Joe's?
Image courtesy Flickr/Madison Guy
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