Whole foods/Trader Joes must haves

Trader Joe's is way cheaper overall. Whole Foods has more organic, nonpackaged fruits and vegetables, and a wonderful loose tea selection (not available at all stores).
At TJ's, I get condiments, spices, tea-bag red chai tea, organic light string cheese, milk products, boxed soups, canned tomatoes, kitchen cloths, etc. They have the best price for Ak-Mak, a whole wheat/sesame seed cracker. And of course, really cheap wines.
At WF, I get loose jasmine tea, to-go salads, and about once a month a great brie burger at their burger bar (hold the bun).

Trader joes-peanut butter,tea,frozen fruit,rice cakes & trail mix

Whole foods-coconut water,green veggies & bulk oatmeal.

Hope this helps!

just look through the produce section for sale and in season stuff, there's bound to be some deals.
if needed, its easy to google what's in season now.
lots of spring stuff still like asparagus. green veggies.
with may sometimes you can start seeing good melon,
but ohio's won't be ready yet.

I am a Trader Joe's fan.
I get frozen Indian meals for my husband.
I just discovered their balsamic vinaigrette (not in the refidgerated section) and love it. It is not "light" but only 80 cal for 2 TBL.
The frozen fish section is good.
I got some spicy jalapeno chicken sausages the other week and really enjoyed them.
Frozen flatbreads, I think it was carmelized onion with ham and gruyere.
mini beef tacos
Lots of good salsas......

Trader Joe's - Plain Greek fat-free yogurt, Kashi Go-Lean cereal, Lite shredded mozzarella cheese, oven roasted turkey breast, broccoli slaw, packaged salads for lunch (citrus chicken, lemon arugula chicken, low-cal chinese chicken ---without dressing all around 200 cal or less), lentil curl chips ( new favorite in my house), and so much more. I also buy all my meat there - organic chicken breasts, mostly and ground turkey.

Whole Foods is only for things I can't get anywhere else (Bob's Red Mill Quick Cooking Oats, Amy's Light and Lean frozen meals)...and fresh fish

I love TJ. I'm with everyone else on their frozen Indian meals. I buy light coconut milk there because I use it in cooking a lot, their honey greek yogurt is the best I've found, their red bean and quinoa chips are fabulous, they have a to dye for sparking sake, and the honey goat cheese is so good.

Here in Phoenix, AZ we have Sprout's Farmers Market. The prices, quality and selection are incredible. I buy all my fresh and organic produce there. They also have bulk grains, nuts granolas, etc.

oooh bump! no TJ yet but we do have Whole foods which I love

Trader Joe's has some good stuff.. but it is NOT CHEAP by any standards, compared to shopping in a regular grocery store. Unless there is something specific that you can only get at Trader Joe's, I wouldn't bother. They do have some good stuff though - I get Better n Peanut Butter there, and I like their mini oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

Where do you live? Here, it's so much cheaper than our grocery stores, with the exception of Walmart, but we call it "ghetto Walmart" for a reason and tend to not go there...

Trader Joe's:

Soy Chorizo
Cheddar rockets (best toddler snack ever)
Wine.... I always buy 2 cases there
Their version of GoGurt
Cherry Tomatoes
Basil
Mini dried cheese ravioli's (best toddler lunch! ha!)
Maple Syrup
And all of their frozen foods are awesome

I love the WF peanut butter, both the one you do it yourself at the machine, and the ready made store brand, "365" the crunchy variety. It is salty and runny, yum. They have many vegetables that TJ does not have. Prices depend where you are. I live in an area with multiple TJ and WF locations within a 4 mile radius so many items are similarly priced in both stores, and considerably below the prices in all the other supermarkets.WF has great fresh meat and bread, and a variety of cheeses to splurge once in a while.

Here in Phoenix, AZ we have Sprout's Farmers Market. The prices, quality and selection are incredible. I buy all my fresh and organic produce there. They also have bulk grains, nuts granolas, etc.

We just got these here near Houston and I LOVE them!

Bump. I like their creamy basil pasta sauce and coconut oil.... from Trader Joes.

Favorite item from TJ's is the pre-portioned garlic and basil in the freezer section. They also had cilantro (which I can't use since I'm one of those that thinks it tastes like soap). These things are nice to have when you don't have fresh options or can't use all of a bulb of garlic before it goes bad/forget to do something with it.

Goddess tahini dressing is great for a quick hummus, too.

Love both but tend to do more of my weekly shopping at Trader Joe's. I think the TJ stores can vary based on what part of the country you live in an I'm in SoCal and here are my favs:
Organic arugula
Organic tuscan kale
Pomegranat seeds (pricey but I put them in vanilla yogurt or just eat them as dessert)
TJ unsweetened white and green tea (already prepared)
LOVE their hummus - eggplant and spicy are my two favs
Reduced Guilt multi-grain pita chips
I like a lot of their dressings - this one is a favorite, Sesame Soy Ginger Vinaigrette
Frozen foods - great to have on hand when you don't have much time:
Reduced Guilt Mac n' Cheese
Grilled Eggplant Parm & the Spinach lasgane (not in a box but in a red & white checkered "boat" with cellophane wrapping)
Mahi Mahi burgers
Trader Joe's whole wheat waffles
Brown Rice Medley - this is frozen rice and takes 3 minutes to prepare - they have the same rice in the regular section but like to have this on hand when I'm short on time.
"veggie" breakfast patties
TJ salsa - both the red and the green are good
Vanilla bean non-fat yogurt and if they have it, the pumpkin is really good!

Good luck!