永远别在超市买这些东西

There's a right way to do your grocery shopping. In search of higher profits, supermarkets try to woo you with products that are more convenient, but also more expensive. These products include ready-made items that can be prepared much more cheaply at home, produce you'd be better off buying in its simplest form, and non-food items that are significantly less expensive at other retailers.

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。