What Can $100 Get You at Trader Joe's?

We had a $100 gift card to Trader Joe's, so we decided to see how far your money can go at a place like that. Before this trip, my opinion of the place was not super - I thought that it was an overpriced market for hippies. And although there were a ton of hippies there (and a ton of Subaru Foresters - we fit right in!), I was pleasantly surprised at how affordable the place was.

We started in the meat department since we wanted to buy some steaks for an early Father's Day celebration with Marko. We settled on a flank steak stuffed with feta and spinach, which actually ate up a good portion of our budget. But it was well worth it! Very tender and juicy and the fillings were great. We also bought some ricotta-stuffed chicken that we have yet to try. My opinion on the meat section: great food, a tad pricey.

Then we walked around the dry section and picked out a few things that caught our eye, including some Fair Trade Coffee (hippies) and some gourmet-looking pasta sauce. The value in the dry section was excellent - some of the stuff was priced way lower than my favorite Fry's.

Then we went over to the frozen section where I really went to town. It was so fun to walk up and down the aisles and see food that I have never seen before in a traditional grocery store. It all looked SO good to me and I had a hard time controlling my urge to put everything in the cart. The biggest scores were ice cream cookie sandwiches (which we gobbled up that same night), some yummy looking gnocchi (I have to learn to make these things!), and chocolate croissants. Although to be honest, nothing that we've tried yet has been anything short of fantastic. Jordan even scored with a bag of jerky treats, which she loves. But to be fair, that girl would also eat cardboard...

Matt had been keeping a tally in his head of what he thought our total would be when we got to the register - trying to keep it as close as possible to our $100 limit. At the register, I suddenly decided that the whole experience was making me feel a little hippie myself and I needed some yogurt-covered raisins. Luckily they were close by and I grabbed a box, putting our total at $102.57. I was very proud of my little human calculator - that math minor is really coming in handy in our daily lives :)

So now that I've given it a chance, I can say that I really like Trader Joe's. Fun finds, gourmet foods, cheap wines. I think I'll even make it part of my regular shopping rotation! My only advice is: don't go on Sundays. Apparently hippies love shopping on Sundays...