Don't pay a premium for convenience. You can save a lot of money on groceries simply by washing your own lettuce, peeling your own carrots, slicing your own cheese, and chopping your own onions. I think people underestimate just how much extra they are spending for these small conveniences and at the same time overestimate how much time they are really saving. Foods also lose freshness and nutrients when they are pre-washed and processed.
Example -- A bagged lettuce mix that weighs 11 oz is often sold at $1.59-$1.99, but it costs up to $2.90/lb that way. The green-and-purple lettuce sold at $1.50 per bunch usually weighs around 2 lbs. That makes it about $0.75/lb, and at that price you could wash it yourself.
Skip the junk food aisle. Chips, sodas, and sweets are very costly; especially when you consider that they don't contribute any real nutritional value to your diet. You'll get more nutrition from your food dollar if you spend that money on nutritious treats like nuts, sunflower seeds, and dried or fresh fruit.
Make it yourself and save. You can spend $3 on a liter of ice tea or you can make your own for about 10 cents worth of tea bags. And, skip the meal kits. A pasta salad kit that contains about 80 cents worth of macaroni and a packet of seasonings may cost $3.50. Save over $2 by looking up a recipe on the internet.
Don't pay extra for individual serving sizes. Buy yogurt, applesauce, cereal, and snacks in large containers and you'll save big (plus, you'll put less packaging into the waste stream). It only takes a few moments to transfer individual servings into zip lock bags or reusable containers, either to pack in your lunch or to exercise portion control.
100-calorie snacks are convenient, but at what cost? Sales of 100-calorie packs of crackers, chips, cookies and candy have passed the $200-million-a-year mark. As a business concept, the idea is simple. Take an existing product, portion smaller amounts of it into single-serving bags, and sell several of the bags for about the same or more as a regular-size package.
Consumers do not seem to mind paying more even though they are getting fewer Goldfish. A report last month from the Hartman Group found that 29 percent of Americans believed that 100-calorie packages were worth the estimated 20% extra cost.
Pros
- Convenient, easy way to keep track of calorie intake.
- Help parents watch their children's intake of snacks or sweets in a lunchbox.
- Help dieters limit portions (cupboard/drawer stash).
- Positive sign of the food industry responding to robust science that shows large portion sizes
lead to overeating.
- Reduce the amount of guilt for snacking.
- Consumers can learn to visualize a reasonable portion.
Cons
- Excess packaging is wasteful.
- While these snacks are controlled in calories, they tend to provide few nutrients.
- You must eat your snacks slowly so they satisfy your snack craving.
- Costs may be double.
- Most 100 cal snacks are highly processed foods.
- Because many of these snacks lack fiber, they won't stave off hunger for long.
Convenient snack ideas
Instead of a high-calorie snack from a vending machine, bring some cut-up vegetables or fruit from home. The fruits and 
vegetables below all have about 100 or fewer calories:
- a medium-size apple (72 calories)
- a medium-size banana (105 calories)
- 1 cup steamed green beans (44 calories)
- 1 cup blueberries (83 calories)
- 1 cup grapes (100 calories)
Or, save money by dividing a full package into your own 100 calorie packs.
TIP -- One snack-sized bag of corn chips (1 ounce) has the same number of calories as a small apple, 1 cup of whole strawberries, AND 1 cup of carrots with 1/4 cup of low-calorie dip. Substitute one or two of these options for the chips, and you will have a satisfying snack with fewer calories or check out other.
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