My Favorite Items When Grocery Shopping at Trader Joe’s

While some people don’t enjoy doing their weekly grocery shopping, I look forward to it for some strange reason. I guess a big reason is that I have found a grocery store that I can get 95% of my healthy groceries from at a very good price. I’ve become slightly obsessed with shopping for my weekly groceries at Trader Joe’s. I go every weekend, usually on Saturday morning, to gather all of my food for meal prepping and the week ahead. Planning on what I want to eat has helped me to avoid snacking and falling off of the wagon with my healthy meals. This post will list out my favorite items that I buy every week when I go to Trader Joe’s. This list will help to guide you if you do plan to visit one of their stores, or if you need some ideas for your trip to the store this week. Enjoy reading my Trader Joe’s Healthy Grocery Shopping List 🙂

Smaller Size Means Less Temptations

Every time I shop at Trader Joe’s I have a pleasant experience. The store is not overwhelming in size, the one by me on Route 3 in Clifton, New Jersey is my go-to store. It has two shopping aisles and the perimeter of the store, that’s it. You can get everything done in less than a half hour and that to me makes the experience more pleasant. I don’t like to really shop at huge grocery stores, because to me I feel like that is when I am more likely to make impulse buys of stuff I really don’t want or need. When you are a bit more limited to the amount of products you will stick to your list because there is less temptation to throw something in your cart you don’t need or really want.

Fresh Produce & Organic Options

Before shopping at Trader Joe’s the only place I could buy organic items, especially fruits and vegetables, was Fairway Market and Whole Foods. Shop Rite was completely overpriced for organic items, sometimes charging triple the price for an organic item vs. a regular item. (example: red peppers were $5.99 organic and $1.99 regular) I can’t imagine why the price increase was so dramatic, but that would turn many customers off. At Fairway Market and Whole Foods I still felt like the prices were very steep. At Trader Joe’s I can buy almost everything in the fruits and vegetables section for a very reasonable price. There is usually a regular item next to an organic item and the prices are so close you always reach for the organic. (example: regular lemon bag of 4 was $1.99 vs. organic $2.99 – for one dollar more you should grab the organic bag). I have move to buy all my produce organic if there is the option. At Trader Joe’s I get about 85-90% of my entire cart organic, and the cart you see above only cost me $140 total. That includes eggs, milk, 4 packages of uncooked meat, 3 packages of cooked chicken and much more. I think their prices are amazing, fair and with organic being my option when shopping this doesn’t make me cry when I pay at the register.

Trader Joe’s Doesn’t Break The Bank

As many times as I got to Trader Joe’s and fill up my cart to the brim, I am always surprised at the total at the register once everything has been scanned. I have yet to spend over $150 on a shopping trip there, and that includes meats, nuts, snacks and everything in between. I am not able to buy everything there (minus seafood which I still like to get either fresh from Fairway Market or my local grocery store that has a seafood department) – since most of the Trader Joe’s fish is packaged. I like my seafood to come fresh from a display case, it’s just personal preference. But all the prices are really fair and really great. I also love that they don’t have “sales” or use coupons, which means you know that every time you go in there the prices are going to be consistent. I hate having to “Price Shop” and I surely have no time or patience to clip coupons, so that is a big plus in my book. I buy my protein sources from Trader Joe’s now: including cage free eggs, heat & serve chicken, lean ground beef, lean ground turkey and chicken breasts which are all natural and really great quality.

Fresh & Flavorful Items – Fruits & Vegetables

When I shop for my produce now I like to buy organic but I also don’t want to go broke doing it. That’s where Trader Joe’s seems to beat out the competition. Don’t get me wrong, if I could afford going on a supermarket sweep at Whole Foods, I would. But I shop every weekend and we eat a lot of healthy food so I can’t afford dropping $200 a week on groceries. We also tend to eat out 1-2 nights a week so for us, the quality and the price for organic items is awesome! I get all of my produce there and it’s always very fresh and tastes great. Most of it is organic, only a few items I have found they don’t have organic but for the most part 85-90% of the fresh fruits and vegetables have an organic option next to it. Everything also stays for quite a few days and I never have the experience of bringing something home that spoils quickly.

My Favorite Trader Joe’s Grocery Shopping List Items:

So without further delay below is a list of the items I buy every time I go to their store. The shopping trip you see below cost me $140 and that included a ton of meat, nuts and other higher priced items. Every shopping trip is a bit different because I might not need everything that week, but on average it is between $90-$125 for a week’s worth of our groceries for breakfast, snacks, meal prep, lunches, dinner, etc.

Meats & Protein: Heat & Serve grilled chicken breast strips, Heat & Serve Just Chicken White Meat, 94% Lean Ground Beef Patties or Ground Beef, Lean Ground Turkey Breast All Natural, Natural Chicken Breasts and Natural Chicken Breast Tenderloins,

Fruits & Vegetables: (Mostly all organic when the option is available) yellow onions, green peppers, red bell peppers, carrot sticks, sugar snap peas, celery hearts, asian stir fry vegetables, brocolli, strawberries, blackberries, avocados, bananas, edamame, asparagus spears, mixed green lettuce, lemons

Dairy Items: Organic Fat Free Milk (my fiance doesn’t like almond milk, but I only drink Almond Milk), unsweetened almond milk, fage 0% fat free plain yogurt, cottage cheese, low fat string cheese snacks

Miscellaneous Items: No salt crunchy natural peanut butter, raw whole almonds, low sodium chicken broth, organic creamy tomato soup (for winter its great to use for soups!), organic ketchup, seasonings

Not pictured but additional favorites of mine:

Brown rice pasta, whole wheat pita pockets, bran flakes cereal, low fat mozzarella shredded cheese, dog treats and snacks for my puppy.

If you want to find a Trader Joe’s near you check out their website here: click here for store locator information.

• We buy direct from suppliers whenever possible, we bargain hard to get the best price, and then pass the savings on to you.
• If an item doesn’t pull its weight in our stores, it goes away to gangway for something else.
• We buy in volume and contract early to get the best prices.
• Most grocers charge their suppliers fees for putting an item on the shelf. This results in higher prices… so we don’t do it.
• We keep our costs low — because every penny we save is a penny you save.

It’s not complicated. We just focus on what matters — great food + great prices = Value.

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