I love shopping at Aldi and Trader Joe's for my family's groceries.

Both chains carry unique specialty items, and the holidays always bring seasonal items that everyone in my house looks forward to.

Recently, I went to Aldi and Trader Joe's to compare each grocery store's seasonal and holiday offerings. I was surprised by which of the two felt more festive in early/mid-November.

Like most food writers, I get really excited about discovering new food products that my family loves. And when those tasty treats also work in a variety of recipes in my kitchen, I consider that to be a major win. So when I started seeing all of the things people were using Great Value freeze-dried strawberry fruit crisps for on social media, I knew I had to pick up a bag on my next shopping trip to Walmart.

Since it was founded in 2012, grocery delivery service Instacart has grown to provide shopping services to customers across the U.S. and Canada, employing more than 500,000 personal shoppers who scour stores to bring the products consumers need right to their door.

I’ve been using Instacart for more than five years, depending on its shoppers to bring me everything from my weekly groceries to Gatorade and cold medicine when I’m sick to printer toner when my printer has run out during the middle of a deadline. Instacart is fast and easy to use, albeit a little pricier than services like Walmart Plus. Still, there have been plenty of times I’ve found the service invaluable and more than a little worth it.

I've been an avid Costco shopper for most of my adult life but when my family relocated from the Northeast to Central Florida seven years ago, I was disappointed to learn the closest Costco to my beach town was a 90-minute drive away.

The trip seemed just a bit too far so my family and I looked for other warehouse-store alternatives. Sam's Club and BJ's Wholesale Club were only about 15 to 20 minutes away so, over the course of six years, I shopped at the two stores. However, I was never completely happy.

Any Target fan will tell you: There’s no such thing as a bad shopping experience at the bullseye-laden retailer, from the distinctive welcome of the big red spheres outside to the free coffee refills inside at Starbucks and scoring deals on favorite products. But they’ll also let you know that not all locations are created equal when it comes to grocery shopping. Some Target stores sell a few fresh groceries (like dairy products and minimal frozen items), some have a limited grocery selection that mainly consists of non-perishable goods, and others carry everything from fresh produce to high-quality meats.

As a mom of two, my relationship with Dollar Tree has changed throughout the years. A store I once only visited for birthday party favors or Easter basket fillers has become a place my tween likes to shop for makeup and hair accessories or, thanks to TikTok, a shopping destination I visit for supplies for the occasional DIY project. But in recent years, I've started picking up more and more of my weekly groceries at Dollar Tree as well.