The Best Trader Joe's Bargains You'll Wish You Knew About Sooner

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Beware, all ye who enter a Trader Joe's without a shopping list in hand. There are so many amazing finds around every corner that you can easily blow your whole budget before you even reach the produce section. The chain goes out of its way to create store label products that instill radical devotion in shoppers, elevating simple selections like ravioli and chocolate bars to cult status.

Unless you've worked your way through the cache of enticing buys to learn which are your best buys, you could make visit after visit and never sample enough to really know which items make the best bargains. After all, some of TJ's prices can seem inflated, especially if you end up with a cart full of stuff you don't like the taste of.

For those of us who've picked up a bummer of a buy or two in our time, we know the heartache that sort of disappointment can create. To spare you the trouble of sifting through the entire store to find your most budget-friendly items, this primer of the best bargains at Trader Joe's singles out some of the store's tastiest treasures at prices that can't be beat.

It isn't often that an olive oil can change the way you think about cooking. When one comes along that does, you tend to put it at the top of your shopping list. That's exactly how I feel about this garlic-infused olive oil, a peppy culinary shake-up that gives adventurous cooks an affordable gourmet ingredient to play with.

Trader Joe's cold-pressed extra-virgin garlic olive oil comes in a smaller bottle than usual — 8 ½ ounces, to be precise. But priced at about $6, it's also several dollars less than similar bottles from other brands. It also turns out to be some of the tastiest oil you may ever have in your kitchen. Shop elsewhere and you'll see how much of a bargain this buy is. Garlic-infused oil in a similar-sized bottle from Target's Good & Gather brand can set you back over $9, and the quality is bound to be as inconsistent as other items in the product line. The Albertsons O Organics take on this zingy ingredient is $16.99, which seems utterly ridiculous, knowing TJ's has it for less than half the price.

Having ranked Trader Joe's olive oils in the past, I can personally attest to the rich flavor waiting under the cap. It's one of those ingredients you use sparingly — not because the price is high (which it clearly isn't), but because it's so special you can't bear to waste it. Yeah, it's that good.

Trader Joe's does plant-based products better than a lot of its competitors. Oat milk coffee creamer for $1.99 is a prime example of just how thoughtful the team behind these products can be. It isn't just a budget-friendly swipe at expensive brands that jack up their prices for similar stuff and call it a "specialty item." It's also a clever technique for getting shoppers to take the chain's signature selections for a test drive.

$1.99 is unheard of for an alternative milk coffee creamer, even if the container only holds 16 ounces. Most alt-milk creamers start at around $4 and only go up from there. For example, at Target, a 32-ounce bottle of Natural Bliss brown sugar oat creamer will cost you $4.99. It's a larger bottle, for sure. But if you only have $2 in your budget for coffee creamer, TJ's is a much tastier choice. If you opt for Silk almond caramel creamer instead, the price is also closer to $5 per bottle. That leaves precious little in your account to pay for coffee to put the creamer in.

I've tried all three of these non-dairy brands. I found Planet Oat to be on the thin side and lacking in flavor, and while Silk is a great product, its price is always a big turn-off. Trader Joe's offers a more balanced sweetness and provides a creamier consistency with an eye on affordability, even if the container is smaller than the other guys.

When you go trawling the freezer section of other grocery stores for something cool and decadent to indulge in, you usually prepare to loosen your purse strings quite a bit in order to afford them. Healthier fare like TruFru frozen bananas covered in chocolate often comes at a premium — one that can result in shoppers looking elsewhere for something to settle their cravings. If you know about Trader Joe's penchant for reproducing higher-priced inventions and offering them as bargain buys, then hearing about its icy tropical slices won't be surprising in the least.

Picking up a box of Gone Bananas from the Trader Joe's freezer case will only set you back about $2.69. Comparable versions cost significantly more at other retailers. For example, you'll pay around $4.78 for Diana's chocolate-coated banana bites at Walmart, and as much as $7.49 – or potentially even more — for actual TruFru, the premium option in every retailer. In this instance, all brands offer an 8-ounce package, which makes the bargain bonanza status of the TJ's box all the more obvious.

Having such a drastically lower price makes healthier snacking like this a much more affordable prospect. It also affirms that Trader Joe's knows what its shoppers like and gives it to them for far less than other big-name grocers.

Even if you've never set foot in a Trader Joe's, you may have heard the term "Three Buck Chuck" bouncing around among your wine-loving friends. The boutique grocery store set a new standard for inexpensive wine by placing it on the top shelf and making sure it offers the quality to match. Whether you use wine selectively in the kitchen or savor a glass or two in the evening, Three Buck Chuck helps your wine funds go further than pretty much any other wine on the market — even if the current price is $3.99, not literally "three bucks."

The name is a play on the wine's proprietor and namesake, Charles Shaw, but Three Buck Chuck is a much catchier moniker in a laid-back grocery store like Trader Joe's. The collection covers a variety of wines, with everything from chardonnay to pinot grigio, just like you'd find in any standard wine catalog. It's the sort of doorbuster item that gets shoppers excited to find out what other jaw-dropping bargains might lie in wait. 

Trader Joe's doesn't try hiding it with the other cheap wines, either. This liquor section superstar gets first-rate billing and primary real estate in the center of the display. It's often featured on end caps to draw all the new fans into its well-priced sway. It also makes an excellent addition to your personal Trader Joe's gift guide for the wine people in your life — including yourself, if you're so inclined.

Sticker shock is a sure thing when you check the prices on potted herbs at the grocery store. These diminutive plants can often cost $4 or more, which almost never justifies the quantity of usable leaves you end up with. If your intentions are to nurse your plant until it grows into a flourishing shrub for future use, you can pretty much kiss that dream goodbye. Many herbs give up the ghost after a few weeks, no matter how much tender loving care you give them.

Trader Joe's throws a twist in the pot game by dialing down the prices to a refreshing $3 or so per plant. Though there's no guarantee you'll be able to raise a full-blown rosemary bush out of your tiny sprig, at least you won't be spending more than you need to while trying. And if all you end up with is a few dollars' worth of fresh mint or basil out of the deal, then you haven't paid any more than you would for the little packages of fresh herbs in the refrigerator case.

For the more confident herb growers, the store also sells complete herb gardens for around the $10 mark. This Trader Joe's hidden gem boasts tufts of rosemary, thyme, and sage that can adorn your countertop, awaiting their destiny as part of your epicurean exploration.

All you have to do to impress party guests is tell them that you have a wheel of extra-smooth double cream brie with apricot jam and jalapeños spread over top. It doesn't take much to dazzle hungry revelers, but picking up a disk of French cheese to get the task done can leave you wondering why bacteria-laden milk is so costly. Trader Joe's understands the struggle and serves up a tidy package of the cherished French cheese that doesn't skew your celebratory budget into a negative balance.

You can have your very own tidy round of brie for a cool $4.49 or so for an 8-ounce package at Trader Joe's. If you wander to Walmart in search of lower prices, you'll pay about 70 cents more for a similar package. Saunter all the way to a Kroger and you can expect to shell out around $7. It's essentially the same cheese, just sold at radically different rates. Clearly, of all the grocery retailers on the block, Trader Joe's is the best at helping you keep more of your grocery funds in your pocket — and you'll need it for the apricot jam and jalapeños to finish your dip, too.

Another tasty plant-based selection, Trader Joe's soy chorizo replicates the sizzling spices of the original sausage-centered formula but keeps the base entirely animal-free. It's an easy grab when vegetarians and vegans need something a little bolder to flavor their eggless scramble or pasta dishes.

Pick up a generous 12-ounce package of this spicy alternative to the pork-based original for just $2.99 or thereabouts. It's not quite a pound, but it's plenty to get you through a few of your favorite recipes. You can find a comparable package at Kroger stores for $4.79 – almost $2 more. There may be justification for such a difference, but corporate profit margins probably aren't a compelling enough reason for you to go with the more expensive option. You have your own profit margin to keep in check.

If you need a handy holder to wrap up your soy chorizo before digging in, check out Trader Joe's organic mini flour tortillas, another bargain at $2.49 for 14. You can make street tacos to your heart's content to share with your fellow plant eaters.

When was the last time you found yourself face-to-face with a chocolate bar that weighed over a pound? Trader Joe's shoppers know the answer to that question is, "The last time I was in TJ's." The chain's Pound Plus chocolate bar is more than just a novelty that snags your attention in the store's overloaded chocolate section. It's a bona fide bargain that the majority of national brand chocolatiers can't even hope to match.

Pound Plus bars come in several varieties, such as milk chocolate with almonds, 72% cacao dark, and even a caramel, sea salt, and pretzel combo — all in a bar that demonstrates exactly why Belgian chocolate tastes so good. Prices for a Pound Plus bar run between $7.99 and $8.99, depending on the flavor. If you break it down by price per ounce, Trader Joe's 17.6-ounce bar ends up being between 45 cents and 51 cents per ounce.

When you round up a pound's worth of chocolate from the bigger brands at national chain grocery stores like Safeway and Kroger, you can end up paying as much as 97 cents per ounce. You also normally need to buy a multi-pack of smaller bars and unwrap them one at a time. With this mega bar, you just peel back a corner and have an entire pound-plus of chocolate at your disposal. Pick up one of these colossal treats for your favorite chocolate fan and watch their eyes go dreamy at the sight of it. (And don't be afraid to grab a square of your own.)

Oreo lovers have watched the price point for their favorite cookies creep slowly upward over the past several years. Trader Joe's steps in to help ease the ache of inflation with Joe-Joe's, the chain's lower-priced alternative with a fittingly whimsical name. These cookies have become a trademark item beloved among Trader Joe's shoppers, who go more than a little gaga when specialty options like pumpkin spice and chocolate-dipped peppermint Joe-Joe's show up during the holidays. You have to be a fast shopper to get some of those before they disappear, though. They're just that popular.

At its core, the composition of these cookies is close enough to satisfy diehards of the classic black-and-white cream-filled treats. A family-size pack of actual Oreos sits at around $5.99 at Target and $5.29 at Kroger. That's 33 cents and 29 cents per ounce. However, a 12-ounce package of Joe-Joe's ringing up at $3.49 equals 26 cents per ounce, making them cheaper than the real Nabisco deal — which, compared to Trader Joe's, isn't a "real deal" at all.

The untold truth about Trader Joe's and the Joe-Joe's phenomenon doesn't stop at cookies. You'll also find ice cream and stout featuring the cookies-and-cream flavor in Trader Joe's stores to keep the good times rolling.

When canned soup doesn't deliver the powerful punch of flavor you're looking for, Trader Joe's swoops in with fresh soups in the refrigerator case that save the day. Singling out just tomato-based soups, Trader Joe's sells fresh heat-and-eat creamy tomato feta soup in a 20-ounce tub for $4.79. Compare that to Kroger-owned Fry's, which lists its 24-ounce tomato bisque at $6.99, and Albertsons, where a 15-ounce container of tomato basil soup rings up at $5.49. It's an easy comparison that demonstrates the favorable pricing at Trader Joe's on some of the most commonly stocked items in the grocery deli section.

Every soup fan is bound to have their own opinions about the best and worst Trader Joe's soups. Being able to depend on the chain for affordable options, no matter where your taste in soup lies, is what makes this purchase one of the most satisfying bargains in the store. At prices this fair, you can afford to sample a few flavors to figure out which is your preferred creation and still have a little cash left for crackers to go with it.

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As a frequent Trader Joe's shopper who loves a good bargain, I've always got my eye out for the best-priced picks in the store. Checking the Fearless Flyer that comes in the mail keeps me posted on affordable new drops, and sometimes I end up on the email distribution list for the digital version, too. After years of sifting through the shelves, I've developed a sense of what constitutes a bargain item here, beyond just low prices. High quality ingredients and specialty products that don't break the bank are my favorite list-toppers, rather than just basic items that happen to have an agreeable price point.

For this list, I set out to find a range of purchases from different categories, watching out for items that also qualify as unique Trader Joe's offerings. This led me to the olive oil and oat creamer, both of which are go-tos for my kitchen collection. Potted herbs have also been in my window in the past, another personal pick that's saved me cash. I've sampled the soups and found the attention to detail to exceed the fantastic price. The other items are deals I've kept my eye on, always saving the sweets and treats for a far-off day when I feel deserving of tasty bargains.

To illustrate how price-friendly all these items are, I made comparisons to similar items at larger retailers, all of which come with higher price tags. This makes choosing budget-friendly swaps easy for eager shoppers.