I shopped at three popular grocery store chains to find out which store had the best deals on classic cookie ingredients.
Baking season is upon us, and ingredient costs are a concern for so many shoppers trying to balance a household budget. If you’re planning on baking your way through classic Christmas cookies for the rest of the year like I am, you’re probably wondering where to get the cheapest butter, sugar, flour and chocolate chips.
I embarked on a quest to find out which grocery store has the best deals on all the cookie staples. For comparison purposes, I used this Ultimate Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe to create my grocery lists.
I compared ingredients at Aldi, Costco and Trader Joe’s, and the results were quite eye-opening. Below, you’ll see the breakdown, ounce for ounce and pound for pound. Of course, some ingredients (like the best chocolate chips) are worth a little splurge, so I did take quality into account when doing the math here.
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Butter
Aldi: $3.49
The Countryside Creamery unsalted butter sells for $3.49 for a 1-pound box.
Costco: $11.89
Kirkland Signature unsalted butter comes wrapped in a bundle of four, 1-pound packages for $11.89. This calculates out to $2.97 per pound, making it the least expensive price per pound for butter on this list. In terms of both price and flavor, Kirkland butter is often my go-to choice for big batch baking.
Trader Joe’s: $3.99
Trader Joe’s brand unsalted butter sells for $3.99 for a 1-pound box.
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Brown Sugar
Aldi: $1.89
Aldi’s Baker’s Corner brand brown sugar sells for $1.89 for a 32-ounce bag. This comes out to mere cents per ounce. This is the best value on our list for brown sugar.
Costco: $8.89
Costco sells an organic brown sugar for $8.89 for a 7.5-pound bag. This comes out to about 7 cents per ounce.
Trader Joe’s: $3.99
Trader Joe’s organic brown sugar sells for $3.99 for a 24-ounce bag. This comes out to about 16 cents per ounce, making it the most expensive option.
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Granulated Sugar
Aldi: $2.89
The Baker’s Corner granulated sugar sells for $2.89 for a 4-pound bag. This comes out to about 72 cents per pound.
Costco: $6.69
Costco has several granulated sugar options sold in bulk. First, Pioneer has granulated sugar in a 10-pound bag for $6.69, which comes out to about 67 cents per pound. There is also a Pioneer 25-pound bag for $15.99, which is 64 cents per pound. Finally, there is even a 50-pound bag of sugar for $29.99 or 60 cents a pound. This 50-pound bag is the best deal overall, but it might be difficult to store such a large volume in a typical home kitchen.
Trader Joe’s: $3.99
Trader Joe’s organic cane sugar sells for $3.99 for a 2-pound bag. This comes out to $1.99 per pound. Like the Trader Joe’s brown sugar, the granulated sugar is significantly more expensive than the other stores.
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Eggs
Aldi: $2.33
Aldi’s egg prices change frequently, and at the time I was shopping at my local store, a dozen was selling for $2.33.
Costco: $4.59
Kirkland Signature Cage Free Eggs are sold in a package of 2 dozen for $4.59. This comes out to about $2.30 per dozen, making them the least expensive on this list.
Trader Joe’s: $2.99
The Trader Joe’s brand of cage-free, grade A large white eggs sells for $2.99 a dozen.
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Vanilla Extract
Aldi: $4.49
Aldi’s Stonemill Pure Vanilla Extract sells for $4.49 for a 2-ounce bottle. This comes out to $2.25 per fluid ounce.
Costco: $9.99
Costco sells pure vanilla extract in a 16-ounce bottle for $9.99, This comes out to about 62 cents per ounce, which is the best deal for vanilla extract I have found. I find it to be high-quality vanilla, and it is what I keep my pantry stocked with all year round.
Trader Joe’s: $7.99
Trader Joe’s has a few vanilla extract options. I chose the Double Fold bourbon vanilla extract selling for $7.99 for a 3.55-ounce bottle. This comes out to $2.25 per fluid ounce. There were other organic vanilla extract options retailing for $8.99 and $9.99, but I went with the cheapest option I could find at Trader Joe’s for comparison purposes.
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All-Purpose Flour
Aldi: $2.19
A 5-pound bag of Baker’s Corner All-Purpose flour sells for $2.19, which comes out to about 44 cents per pound.
Costco: $8.99
There are a couple of flour options at Costco: A 12-pound bag of King Arthur All-Purpose Flour sells for $8.99, which calculates to about 75 cents per pound. Or, a 25-pound bag of Ardent Mills flour costs $7.99, which comes out to 32 cents per pound. While that is the best deal on this list, it is definitely a huge volume of flour to lug home and store in your kitchen.
Trader Joe’s: $2.99
Trader Joe’s unbleached enriched all-purpose flour sells for $2.99 for a 5-pound bag. This comes out to about 60 cents per pound and is the most expensive on this list.
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Baking Powder
Aldi: $1.85
An 8.1-ounce box of Baker’s Corner baking powder sells for $1.85, or about 23 cents per ounce.
Costco: N/A
At this time, the Costco near me is not currently selling baking powder.
Trader Joe’s: $1.99
The Trader Joe’s brand of baking powder sells for $1.99 for an 8.1-ounce container. This is about 25 cents per ounce.
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Baking Soda
Aldi: $0.89
Baker’s Corner baking soda is $0.89 for a 16-ounce box, which comes out to about 6 cents per ounce.
Costco: $8.89
Costco sells an alarmingly large bag of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda. This 13.5-pound bag sells for $8.89, which works out to 4 cents per ounce. It would be quite difficult to use up this much baking soda in a home kitchen before it expires. However, it can be used for cleaning as well, so that would be the only reason I might buy this volume of baking soda.
Trader Joe’s: $0.99
Trader Joe’s brand baking soda sells for $0.99 for a 16-ounce box. This is about 6 cents per ounce.
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Chocolate Chips
Aldi: $3.75
Baker’s Corner semi-sweet chocolate morsels cost $3.75 for a 12-ounce bag. This comes out to about 31 cents per ounce.
Costco: $15.99
Nestle Toll House semi-sweet morsels are available at Costco in a giant 72-ounce bag for $15.99. This comes out to about 22 cents per ounce. Based on the high quality of these Nestle chips as well as the value, this is my go-to choice for chocolate chips.
Trader Joe’s: $3.99
Trader Joe’s sells semi-sweet chocolate chips at $3.99 for a 12-ounce bag. This comes out to about 33 cents per ounce.
Bottom Line
Overall, if you want to bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies, the cheapest ingredients can be found at Aldi.
I would definitely recommend stocking up on all your dry goods for baking at Aldi. The flour, sugars, baking soda and baking powder are all the best deals without having a ton of product leftover like you would when shopping at Costco.
That being said, I still find value in my Costco membership as a baker. I prefer to buy my refrigerated products like eggs and butter there. It’s typically the best deal price-wise, and the quality for the price is spot-on. And, honestly, Costco’s incredible deal on vanilla extract and chocolate chips alone is worth the membership for me.
While I am a big fan of Trader Joe’s and shop there often, it is not the best deal in terms of ingredients for baking.
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