10 Reasons to LOVE Trader Joe's

If you have been reading my blog for any amount of time, it is no secret that Trader Joe's is my favorite grocery joint in town.  Maybe you too are in love with this small grocery chain, maybe you have never been, but friends, there is so much to love about Trader Joe's!

I took my class on a field trip there last school year when we were learning about communities, and I found out even more awesome facts about TJ's that I didn't know before.  What makes Trader Joe's the place to shop?

1. Small store, big community
Yes, the stores are small.  But they are no Mom and Pop operation.  They feel like it -- people take the time to say hello and chit chat -- but they operate as a full functioning grocery store.  The selection is smaller, but the basics are all there.

2. The prices
I have been saying for years that I save money by shopping at TJ's, yet so many friends of mine didn't believe me.  So I sought after proof.  Last Christmas I went shopping there with my list for the week.  I then headed to Safeway and price checked all of the same items.  Guess what?  I saved over $20 in one week by shopping at TJ's!  That's around $80 a month.  Cha-ching!

3. Samples
Raise your hand if you like to pig out on samples while at Costco?  You can do the same at Trader Joe's.  I have gotten so many great snack and dinner ideas right here, at this sample station.  Plus, there is always free coffee and tea for you to grab while you continue shopping.

4. A fab deli selection
If you want good deli meats or a variety of cheese, you have come to the right place.  Enjoy your edamame hummus and pita cracker like my little friend above and then head over and pick up some salami, gruyere, and chicken sausage.

5. "But I'm vegan!"
Have no fear!  You can get veggie-turkey, vegan cheese, or chicken-less nuggets.  No biggie.

6. A world-wide selection at local prices
Olive oil from Italy, rice from Thailand, Spanish olives from Spain.  These items come from where they are supposed to come from, but you pay for them like they were made right around the corner.  And hey -- if you want to shop American, they usually have a substitution for you, too.

7. Try it at no risk
Maybe you don't know if you really like olives from Spain.  That's alright.  Buy them, try them, and if you don't like 'em, return them for a full refund.  And you don't even need a receipt.  Or you can just ask them to open that bag of seaweed or whatever it is you are taking a risk on... if you like it they will give you a new package to purchase.

8. Preservative free, artificial color-and-flavor free
Did you know that everything with the Trader Joe's brand on the box is guaranteed preservative free, as well as artificial flavoring and artificial color free?  That means you are buying REAL food -- even the frozen stuff.  Imagine that!

9. Supporting the local community
If I buy red velvet cake here in California and you buy it there in ______, it might taste a little different.  Why?  Because although the recipe is the same the bakers are different.  Each store has a local bakery that bakes their recipes right there -- so your bread/cakes/scones/ are FRESH.  And then when they getting close to the date of expiration (but are still good) they send them off to the local food bank to pass out.  It's a win-win.

10. A personal touch
Every sign in the store, from the posters to the price tags on the shelves, are painted right there in your local TJ's.  The store is designed by local artists to reflect the community it serves and then artwork is created for each store specifically.  Not to mention there are no intercom calls, just a bell that is dinged and someone who comes out to help.  And if you are like me and you go weekly, they might even learn your name.  Plus, not only did they host our awesome field trip, they gave every child a snack pack with fruit, a 100% juice box, popcorn, and a real-fruit-no-sugar lollipop.  Way to help our kids see that eating right can taste GOOD!

A store that sells REAL FOOD at a GREAT PRICE with a PERSONAL TOUCH?  Yeah, that's the kind of store I want to shop in, too!

(This was in no way sponsored by Trader Joe's.  The opinions are my own, but the facts remain the truth.)

Have Some Aloha in Your Life & Save Money

A few days ago I shared with you about saving money by shopping for produce at Mi Pueblo.  I got tons of people (here and on Facebook) who were surprised.  I wasn't.  I had known for awhile that I saved money by shopping there, I just didn't know how much.  Now I do, and that makes it more real to me (and apparently you, too).  Of course, that got me going, and I couldn't stop.  So today, after I went grocery shopping to get us through to next Tuesday (there is NO WAY I am stepping foot in any store between now and Christmas, nor the day after!) I had to do again -- this time with my purchases from Trader Joe's.

There about a kajillion reasons (give or take) why I love Trader Joe's.  I have mentioned it (many times) before, but they just have the best stuff around.  Taste-wise, creativity-wise, and healthy-wise.  I am not one of those big everything-must-be-organic people.  Quite the contrary, actually.  I kind of just buy things that sound healthy, make sure I have a lot of veggies and fruits, not so much dairy and fat, and OK, yeah, I love my sugar.  But I do try to avoid preservatives and added junk.  I try to make sure the food we eat is just that -- food.  Not chemicals and colors, but things I could find in my kitchen.  Good ol' Joe provides me with healthy, usually organic, DELICIOUS stuff.  And at a great price.  GREAT PRICE. 

Don't believe me?  Here, my list for today:

Do you see that?!

If I had gone to Safeway I would have spent $19.13 more, MORE, just because I chose one store over the other.  Um, I'm sorry, but what makes Safeway so special that it can charge me so much more?  I mean, I like Safeway, and I kind of feel bad for beating up on it this week, but you know... not really.  If they want to bring their prices down, then I will stop harping on them.  But until that happens, I will not be shopping there.  (And the same goes for all the other major grocery stores in my area.)

<FYI -- A Trader Joe's commercial just came on Pandora.  What are the odds?>

Just so you know, I did not get these numbers arbitrarily.  I actually price checked and found the equivalent item -- and the cheapest version of it.  In times that I couldn't find a match I did the math and found what the item would be for something of the same size.  (Yay for passing 5th grade math back in the day.  Let me tell you, as a teacher, if you can pass 5th grade math you can do almost anything in life.)  I did not choose any organic items in Safeway, although most of my TJ's item naturally came that way.  So these numbers you see?  They are the real deal.

So, what's this for a month?  $76.52   Yup, you read that right.

And a year?  $994.76  

Read it and weep, Baby!  Almost one thousand buckaroos, right there.  Plus my Mi Pueblo savings (because, let's face it, as wonderful as Trader Joe's is, most -- not all -- but most veggies straight from Mexico are going to be cheaper...), that comes to around $1,400 or so per year. 

Of course, I only went shopping for four days.  I will have to do another check when I do a whole weeks worth of groceries.  But until then, go and visit our friends in Aloha shirts at Trader Joe's.  Enjoy their samples, chat it up with the friendly people (who happen to me by name in my town -- yeah, I shop there a lot), and save some dough.  Like I said before, we all work hard for our money and I am pretty sure we want to keep it in our bank account where it belongs.  Or cash it in for some plane tickets to Hawaii and get some Aloha on for real.

Practice Spanish, Save Some Money...

Way back when at the start of this blogging journey (Ok, it was like eight months ago, not eons ago, but still...) I made a proclamation that I like to spend as little as possible on groceries so I could spend my money on other things.  Completely true, so I said it.  And then I never really said much more about it after that.

Today as I unpacked my bags of produce for the week and looked down at my receipt I started wondering how much money I actually do save.  I mean, I know that I don't spend a lot, but I started to really ponder how much I actually do not spend that I would have spent had I shopped elsewhere.

See, I went shopping at Mi Pueblo.  Actually, between Trader Joe's (which has excellent prices on all non-produce items) and Mi Pueblo (my go-to for the veggies) I do a pretty good job.  Here is the thing about Mi Pueblo though: you have to be willing to practice that long forgotten high school Spanish.  Because chances are you might be the only English speaker around.  I took a friend their once and she said she felt like she crossed the border.  It is true, you walk in and feel like you are in Mexico.

Great!  I love Mexico.  Beaches, pina coladas, tacos... and fresh produce.  So why say no to it here?

Did you see that picture up there?  Two full bags of produce.  FULL.

As you might be able to tell, we try to eat a rainbow every week :)

Here is something you might not know about me: I am a number person.  I love seeing how much things cost/don't cost, the MPG I get every time I empty a tank, so on and so forth.  So of course I had to figure out how much this food would have cost me if I had shopped at Safeway AKA the "normal" grocery store.  See what I found:

DO YOU SEE THAT?  I saved $9.19 by just going to a place that speaks a different language.  And let me be the first to tell you, the produce there is FRESH.  And BEAUTIFUL.  And TASTY!

"So what?" you may think.  "$9.19?  That's not that much."  Well, if I save that much per week (give or take), that comes out to $36.76 per month.  What can $36.76 per month get you?  Another tank of gas?  A nice top?  Dinner out?

How about per year?  It comes out somewhere between $441.12 if you are counting by months (4 weeks/month) or $477.88 if you are counting straight weeks (52/year).  I don't know about you, but I could do a lot with $400+ .  That's a whole lot of eating out/ clothes/ bills to pay/money to put in savings.  Shoot, I could buy a ticket down to Mexico to practice some more of that Spanish! 

Ok, so maybe I look too far down the road, but hey -- I work hard for my money, don't you?  Why would I want to throw it away?  I don't, and more importantly, I won't.

Speaking of Mexico, I just went and dug out some pictures from our trip to Mexico two years ago.  It isn't only the produce that is beautiful...

My husband in the midst of playing soccer in the street with some local kids.  If you had any doubt of his nationality, this should clear it up for you.