Smart shopping is a good habit, and it will quickly become second nature to you. Commonly, smart shoppers follow some rules in order to stay away from dilemmas（窘境）.
There are thousands of foods to choose from in a supermarket, so it’s easy to be attracted or forget something you really need. Making a list saves time in the store.. Also, plan the foods that you want to make in the next few days and list the ingredients(原料) you’ll need. But even with a list, you need to make some decisions at the supermarket. After all, you can’t get pumpkins if the supermarket doesn’t have them! It helps to think like the TV chefs (厨师). They make lists of the ingredients they need, but they also go shopping with a second important goal. They look over the meat and make a choice for what’s freshest and what’s a good deal. That doesn’t mean that chefs buy half-rotten red onions because they’re on sale! It means that if a recipe (菜谱) calls for red onions but they look bad, the chef chooses another kind of onion that looks best . Or else, if a certain fish is freshest or on special, the chef might choose it over the typeof fish on the shopping list.
A big part of smart shopping is selecting healthy foods. Food labels, also called nutrition facts labels, are printed on all packaged foods. These labels let you compare different foods to see how they differ in fat, calories, protein, and other ingredients. For example, you can compare the serving sizes of two cereals you like, see how much fat is in frozen pizza, or find out how many carbohydrates are in a bag of cookies. You also can check to see if a food contains important vitamins and minerals.

精明购物是一个很好的习惯，这将很快成为你的第二种特性，通常，精明的购物人遵守一些规则以避免窘境。
在超级市场里有几千种食品供你选择，所以很容易别（其他物品）吸引或者忘记你真正需要的东西。作一张购物清单以节省商店里的时间。同时打算好在接下来几天里你想做的事食物并列出你需要的原料的清单。但是即使有张清单，在超市里你也需要做一些选择。毕竟，如果超市里没南瓜，你就没办法从那买到了。这样能帮助你像电视里的厨师一样思考。他们列出他们需要的材料的清单，但他们去购物同时也有第二重要的目的。他们检查肉类并选择最新鲜的肉和决定最适合的数量。这并不代表厨师们因为洋葱在大减价就购买腐烂了一半的洋葱。这意味着如果菜谱需要红色的洋葱但它们看起来很烂，厨师就选择另一种看起来最好的洋葱。或者这样，如果一条鱼很新鲜或者特价，那么厨师可能会选择没有在清单里的列出的这条鱼。
精明购物的最重要一点是选择健康的食品。食品标签，也叫做营养情况标签，被印在所以包装的食品上。这些标签可以让你比较不同食品，了解他们在脂肪，卡路里，蛋白质和其他成分上的不同。比如，你可以比较两种你喜欢的谷物的每一份的大小，了解在冰冻的批萨里有多少脂肪，或者找出一包饼干里有多少糖（碳水化合物），你也可以检查了解食品里是否包含了重要的维他命和矿物质。