5 Things You Won't Find in My Grocery Cartby Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 26 Sep 2009 09:01 AM Why pay for overpriced groceries that don't add to your quality of life? You'll save significant money by eliminating these common items from your grocery cart. 1. Soda Look at food and drink in terms of how much money you spend for nutrition. Soda contains no nutrition at all, so why pay for it? Even some candy is better in nutrition than soda. 2. Paper products Why buy something to throw it away? Paper products can easily be replaced with regular products to save money (and be better for the environment). Use dish cloths and wash cloths for spills and real plates instead of paper plates. 3. Juice Yes, there is some nutritional quality to juice, but you'll get more for you money when you buy the fruit whole. Juice has a lot of sugar and calories. Eat the whole fruit to get the most for your money. If you have to drink juice, why not squeeze your own a little at a time. You'll use less that way, too. 4. Meal kits There are a plethora of meal kits available. Basically, you open the package and assemble the meal. They may seem convenient. But with an extra five or ten minutes, you can make three or four times the amount of food for the same price. Some kits can even be assembled yourself the night before or even while you are at the grocery store. One famous kit included a can of soup, a can of vegetables and a can of chicken. 5. Microwave popcorn I admit that I stopped buying microwave popcorn because of all of the additives in it. There is some pretty nasty stuff coating those bags. But one thing I discovered was how much money I could save by just buying regular old fashioned pop corn. It is so much cheaper. it is more fun to make it over the stove, but guess what, you can still microwave it. Just use a regular paper bag! You can read more blog posts by Mary Ann Romans here! Favorite Deal Websites: Related Articles: Eight Rules for Buying Groceries without Coupons Coping with the Grocery Shrink Ray Adjusting Your Price Book with Escalating Grocery Costs Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantfrugal tags User Comments annasmom07 (40) 26 Sep 2009 12:22 PMI have this microwave popcorn popping bowl, and it works pretty well: http://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Ware-Microwaver-Popcorn-Popper/dp/B00004W4UP/ref=sr_1_2/191-3409654-2175531?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1253992812&sr=8-2 I put a drizzle of canola oil (probably .5-1 t.) and 1 t. butter (the real thing, not margarine) along with the corn, and it makes delicious popcorn. annasmom07 (40) 26 Sep 2009 12:26 PMAs for soda, I generally agree with you, but sometimes you just gotta have some with your popcorn. So, I got a home carbonator (like http://www.sodastreamusa.com/catalog/fountain-jet-start-kit?oid=117). They sell syrup, or you can probably make your own. At any rate, having it means we recycle much less wasteful plastic packaging, and we are also saving on the cost of store-purchased soda or seltzer water.  Mary Ann Romans (26876) 28 Sep 2009 07:08 AMWow great devices. I never knew that a home carbonator existed. If you have to have soda, this sounds like a great way to have it. Anna, you are better than me with the butter. I have to have some on my popcorn. :) Community Tags frugal living, Food, groceries Discuss this article
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