怎样才能做到在超市正确购物?为了追求更高的利润,超市会以更方便但同时也更贵的产品吸引你。这些产品包括现成的商品(自己在家做会更便宜)、农产品(最好买未经处理的农产品)和非食物商品(其它零售商卖的更便宜)。
I asked a couple of budget-minded bloggers to help me identify which supermarket offering scan blow your food budget - and then I ran the numbers myself. (To avoid having the results skewed by the high grocery prices in New York City, I used pricing from a Kroger supermarket in Mount Pleasant, Mich.)
我问了一些有预算意识的博主,请他们帮助我识别哪些超市商品会让你的食物预算超支--之后,我算了一下价格。(为避免纽约超市价格偏高的情况,这里使用的价格都来自于密歇根州芒特普莱森特市的Kroger超市。)
Here are the items to avoid.
应避免购买这些商品。
Precut Produce
切好的农产品
Let's face it: Cutting pineapples, cubing sweet potatoes, and peeling and slicing carrot sticks can be a temptation. The temptation to pick up precut fruits and veggies may save you sometime and elbow grease, but it will take a chunk out of your wallet.
面对这一事实吧:切好的菠萝、红薯,已剥皮并切好的胡萝卜可能十分诱人。拿起已切好的水果和蔬菜这种诱惑可能会让你节省时间和精力,但却会让你花一大笔钱。
Yet grocery stores charge you dearly for the convenience. Chop the veggies yourself, according to Amiyrah Martin, a blogger at Four Hats and Frugal: "They will up that price as much as possible," Martin says. "People are coming in because they really need [a product] - they're trying to save time, but they're actually spending way more money," she adds.
而超市也会因为这种便宜而向您收取高额费用。自己切蔬菜吧,Four Hats and Frugal的博主Amiyrah Martin说道:"他们会尽可能的提高价格,"马汀说道。"人们去超市是因为他们真的需要某个商品--他们想要节省时间,但实际上却在花更多的钱,"她补充道。
For instance, a 14-ounce box of celery sticks at a Kroger in Mount Pleasant costs $2.99, but a large celery stalk that could produce well over a pound, once chopped, goes for just $1.59. Wielding your own knife saves you more than a dollar and you wind up with more.
例如,在芒特普莱森特市的Kroger超市里,一盒14盎司的芹菜售价2.99美元,而一根大的芹菜的重量会超过一磅,一旦切好,价格会飙升至1.59美元。自己用刀切既可以节省1美元,又可以让你得到更多的菜。
Prepackaged Snacks
包装好的零食
Another similarly expensive time saver: purchasing packaged snack bags of nuts or pretzels, instead of bagging them yourself, points out Laurie Heiss at Passionate Penny Pincher. At Kroger, a package containing 10 small bags of pretzels, each just under one ounce, costs $4.29 - while the 16-ounce value bag costs only $3.23 and contains more than half again as many snacks.
另一个同样昂贵的节省时间的神器:Passionate Penny Pincher的劳拉·海斯指出,购买包装好的坚果或椒盐卷饼,而不是自己包装。在Kroger超市,含有10小包椒盐卷饼(每包不超过1盎司)的一大包零食售价4.29美元--而16盎司的超值装只售价3.23美元,几乎比小包装的多一半。