Going to the grocery store can be a perilous adventure. You’re either going to come out having spent more than your bargained for or you’ll come home with loads of food that is more devastating than nourishing.
So becoming a savvy shopper is of the utmost importance. Buying foods that are nutrient-dense is critical. Nutrient-dense means that a food has highly nutritive qualities for every calorie it contains. Sure, we all buy foods that aren’t going to be high in nutrients, but if we can fill our carts at least 80% full of nutrient-dense foods we can get the most bang for our buck.
Nutrient-poor foods, on the other hand contain plenty of things our bodies don’t necessarily need like sugars, refined fats, and too much starch. Here is my top ten list of foods never to waste my money on:
Fruit juice.
Yes, it comes from fruit, but it is also not a whole food and is the equivalent of drinking a glass of fructose. Grocery store orange juice isn’t real anyways and apple juice often contains arsenic. Plus, it’s usually really expensive. Just buy the orange or the apple instead, my father always said.
Boxed or Bagged Cereal.
I know, most of my childhood breakfasts are already down with numbers one and two. You will pay dollars for pennies worth of grain when you buy a box of cereal. Not to mention that some cereals are nearly 40-50% sugar by weight. SUGAR. Buy some oats or other whole grains and make hot cereal or granola instead.
Margarine or anything else masquerading as butter.
For the love of pete, just buy the butter. Most everyone agrees now that butter is not the evil it was once touted as and that margarine or other butter substitutes are pretty much dangerous.
Jarred pasta sauce.
I recently bought a jar of tomato sauce for pasta and was floored to see the generic brand’s price. You can buy the equivalent in tomatoes for less than half the price. Then add onion, garlic, basil, and oregano and you have pasta sauce. For half the price!
Out of season fruit.
Fruit is really expensive as it is, but when it is out of season it is astronomical and it isn’t that great. I’ll wait until summer for good strawberries that don’t cost $5/lb and real raspberries that don’t cost an arm and a leg and can’t even make it home without molding.
These are just a few of the items that I simply will not buy at the grocery store, unless coerced for some unknown reason. No matter how yummy they are, they simply will not nourish your body or your pocket book.
What foods do you refuse to buy on the grounds that they are a waste of money?
I have to say that I am not going to mark any food that is too expensive to ever consider. If the difference between eating at home and eating out is a jar of pasta sauce, then you still saved money. Second, with coupons, you can often times buy pasta sauce for $1 or less. The canned pasta sauce is $1 on a fairly regular basis. (I think Hunt’s. As my family is picky about pasta sauce, I don’t buy the cheapest ones.) I do keep jarred pasta sauce in the house, as I haven’t perfected the best homemade sauce and it seems to me if I want a dinner I can throw together in 30 minutes, making homemade sauce isn’t the best of options. I am curious about the difference in price of a 24 oz. jar of sauce, verses two 14 ounce cans of tomatoes and additions for homemade sauce too. I don’t think there is a lot of difference.
Cereal, I keep cereal around, as again, I think eating breakfast is more important than a few cents. But I do not keep around the sweet kids cereals. I try to stock cereals people will eat and do it at a cheap price. IE I can buy General Mills and Kellogg’s for about $1 a box and buy 6 boxes and get free milk or free eggs, etc. I don’t see cereal as a bad thing. It can have a lot of added nutrients and be better than the waffles my son eats somewhat regularly. (At least he eats the chocolate chip without added syrup.)
For me it is more the nutrition than the cost… IE I don’t tend to ever buy pop tarts, as they seem to be sugar laden and have no redeeming features. IF they were very cheap though I might buy them for an occasional treat, as I do enjoy the toaster struddle variety. Pop tarts name brand, not as much. What I don’ t buy is cookies, but that is because I would rather bake them myself. I would still have to say if you can buy a box of cookies for a $1, then it might be cheaper than me making them myself, but I like to bake.
I guess how I will end it, is that I would set a price point, rather than say I will never buy as it is expensive. I won’t pay more than $1 for a 12 to 17 oz. box of cereal, I won’t pay more than $1 for a 2 liter of soda, etc.
You make some good points. My main point is not that these things can’t be bought cheaply, but that calorie for calorie you will most often get more bang for your buck with homemade versions of the same.
Good comment. Coupons make it reasonable and sometimes even extremely cheap to buy convenience food and I would never say never as far as any food goes. You can’t lump all fruit juices into the same category because there are some such as the Knudsen’s Just juices that are 100% juice with no added anything. The cranberry is very beneficial for kidney infections, but it needs to be watered down and sweetened some unless you can stand the pucker factor. The only thing I would say that I will probably never buy again is frozen entrees like Banquet, Marie’s, Healthy Choice, etc just because they are so tasteless. As for the cereal, it can be expensive, but oatmeal can be very fattening. It’s all in the perspective, I guess.
I refuse to purchase Cinnamon and sugar mixes. Why buy them when you can make them at home for way cheaper!!
I think the main point she is trying to make is that these foods aren’t good health choices, and by not purchasing them you will also save money. I have recently cut cereal almost completely out after reading Nourishing Traditions. After seeing the cold hard facts on WHY these foods are so bad for our bodies, I decided to switch to more homemade whole grain and eggs kind of breakfasts. It IS saving me money, and honestly I feel better. When I eat eggs for breakfast, I have so much more energy and don’t feel hungry till lunch time. When I eat cereals, I tend to get hungry again mid morning, and don’t have nearly the energy. I have noticed better behavior from my kids too since cutting out cereal. And I was buying “better” brands, with no artificial colors, preservatives, HFCS, and organic when on sale and coupons.
Nice of you to point these out. We have lived this way for quite sometime. : )
No matter if it is 100 percent juice, you SHOULD be eating the fruit instead of drinking it’s natural sugars. We don’t drink juice unless it is a special treat, and no cereals either. Cereal is fortified with vitamins in an unnatural form, making it harder for our bodies to take in. Even the Unsugar kind are a lot of process and little value to your body.
I personally pinch pennies t get afford real butter, and we have cut anything with HFCS or Partially hydroginated oils. I figured even though we have been in a VERY tight place this last couple years, I think my family is worth making some healthy rules for.
I make my own bread, and we eat oatmeal for breakfast every morning with a piece of fruit if we can.
I have been happier the more I realize we need to throw out the stupid food pyramid, and cut out most grains. Sticking to veggies, fruits, and meats we are all happier and healthier.
I can’t make from scratch pasta sauce, (yet) but I only keep diced tomatoes in the cupboard (they are nothing but salt and tomatoes) and make them into anything I want. I can get them for about 50c a can and make up my own pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, or add to hamburger for tacos any time quickly without the junk in the commercial brand sauces. Easily you can add oregano, basil, or cumin and chili powder. Though it took us some time to figure out how much of what as to our family taste.
I think couponing is crap, it is just one more way for companies to get you to eat there junk.
I don’t know where you’re buying your tomatoes but here, they’re between $3 – $4 a pound (3 – 4 medium tomatoes). I make my own gravy sometimes but I use canned when I do. Even then, it’s more expensive to make than buy already been jarred sauce ( 3 32oz jars of Classico for $6.50).
I am with you! We have not eaten cereal in years- after I read an article about the box actually being more nutritious than the stuff inside! I think you covered the bases on what not to buy. We also don’t buy meat, eggs or milk at the stores. We are lucky to raise our own. I always try to encourage people to spend a little extra and buy a big freezer so that they can buy meat by the half or whole- it saves so much money in the long run! And you get cuts that you might not be able to afford otherwise.