Never Put These Popular Grocery Store Items in Your Cart

Unless you're dealing with unsafe drinking water, bottled water is an unnecessary expense that can add up quickly. While it's portable and convenient, it can also cost both you and the environment dearly over time.

Your best bet? Buying a reusable water bottle and keeping it filled with tap water.

More: Be Even Smarter Shopping With These Grocery-List Apps

If you can cut and prepare your own produce, paying a premium for packaging and convenience isn’t worth the cash or the toll on the Earth.

Need a new spatula or cookie sheet? You'd be better off heading to a department store and stocking up, as these items have a steep markup.

Not only is a grocery store's selection of greeting cards lacking, but you're going to be paying upwards of $3 or $4 for even the cheaper brands. It's best when it comes to picking the perfect card to peruse a department store to pay less and have additional options.

It might be far easier to go ahead and pick up your medications while doing your weekly shopping, but grocery stores charge higher premiums for even the most common prescription drugs. If you find you're routinely paying more out of pocket, you might want to find a dedicated pharmacy.

It's far easier (and cheaper) to prepare your own dressings for those nutritious salads that you're making yourself. Plus, you're ditching all the added fat, sugar, and calories that come in the bottled brands, which essentially make eating salads in the first place a waste of time.

Don't trust the food dates on packaged meat. It's not uncommon for workers to simply repackage the products that are about to expire and simply replace the sticker date, meaning you could be buying meat that's just about to go bad. Just ask for fresh cuts if you have to buy it there, or head to a real butcher shop instead.

Grocery stores know that exhausted parents still have to get supplies for the week. That's why, among many other items, they mark up diapers, since it's far easier for shoppers to buy things there instead of making multiple stops with a crying baby in tow. Grab your baby supplies elsewhere.

Buying a block of cheese and grating it yourself is cheaper — plus, there are countless additives sprinkled into the pre-shredded packages. It's best for your health and wallet to go ahead and just shred it yourself.

Sometimes you can count on a decent sale to pop up on your favorite beer or wine, but buying booze at a grocery store can cost you far more than simply heading to a liquor store or buying in bulk at places like Costco, which has all the brands you love.

Unless you're keen on paying cover price for magazines you'll read once and fling into the trash (or have the kids use for projects), stick to a subscription. You could alternatively use your library card to read the latest issues online or on your favorite device for free.

If you must stock up on personal care items, it's best to skip the grocery store unless you want to pay twice as much for smaller sizes. Grab your toiletries and other necessities at big-box department stores to pile on the savings.

If you really want to grab supplements, they can be obtained much more cheaply elsewhere, and in larger quantities. Their effectiveness is still very much up in the air anyway, so they're really something you should be wary of buying — period.

Most produce that's labeled "organic" at the grocery store is typically marked up, with a price to match. If you're really concerned about the label, consider checking out a local farmer's market for the freshest, most organic fruits and veggies you can get.

It might be tempting to toss that new tube of lipstick in your cart while at the grocery store, but you'll save money in the long run by opting for a trip to the drugstore instead. Plus, you can stop there and grab your prescriptions like we mentioned earlier, too.

Sure, walking past the bakery section is tempting — those cookies and perfectly decorated cupcakes are calling your name — but you should skip the sweet stuff. It's far cheaper to make your own, plus you can shave off some of the extra sugar and calories that grocery store bakeries stuff their own products with.

Sometimes you might not have the extra time in the day to make a healthy, delicious dinner. But even as easy it might be to grab a Banquet family meal to delight your household with at the end of a hard day, in the end you're spending too much money on meals that are rife with salt, fat, and calories.

We all know we should probably be avoiding soda so we can get away from the myriad health problems it causes (yes, even diet sodas!). But the way it's priced, even when it's part of a sale, just isn't worth buying into.

Purchasing a water filter once is way cheaper and far healthier than reupping your soda stores every couple of weeks.

You're paying a premium when you purchase packaged tomato sauce. Considering it's mostly crushed-up tomatoes and spices, you could easily skip the plastic or glass container and make your own with very little trouble. That way, you're doing your part for the environment as well as creating less waste!

Most grocery stores are stocked with pet food you can give to your furry best friends, but it typically isn't the high-quality chow you might expect. Your best bet would be to pick up your typical brand from the pet store so you don't upset your pup's tummy with lower-quality food.

Like many other non-food items in the grocery store, batteries are overpriced — and they're also not available in bulk, so you're paying more and getting less. Instead of grabbing batteries when food shopping, buy them at a warehouse store where you can get them in bulk, or order them from Amazon for a better price.

Spices and fresh or dried herbs can be super pricey at the grocery store, but you do have options. You can purchase dried herbs and spices in bulk at a warehouse store for a cheaper price.

Instead of buying fresh herbs, you can plant them yourself (they're low-maintenance and easy to grow) so that you always have an abundance. If there's an ethnic market near you, you may be able to find spices for a much lower price as well.

It's really convenient to pick up balloons, candles, and streamers at the grocery store where you're also getting supplies to bake a cake, but these items are going to marked up. Instead, make a quick detour to the dollar store, where you can find really cheap party supplies that get the job done. Or order them in advance on Amazon for a lower price.

It seems obvious to buy coffee from the grocery store, but it's often expensive... and they don't always have the best options. If you're purchasing Keurig or Nespresso pods, you're better off ordering those from the brand websites, where you can get a discount and other offers. Warehouse stores have great deals on bulk coffees, and you can even find inexpensive coffee at office supply stores.

Sure, boxed baking mixes for items like pancakes or cakes seem much easier and more convenient, but in reality, they're really not. Most just contain a mix of things like flour, sugar, and baking powder (along with a slew of preservatives and other difficult to pronounce chemicals), and you can very easily mix that up on your own at home.

The healthiest and cheapest way to bake is to buy baking staples like flour, sugar, and baking powder separately, then mix them up yourself. Plus, they taste better!

Don't be fooled by the bottles of cooking wine in the grocery store aisles. They don't taste great, and the cost adds up. You're much better off using an actual bottle of wine that you have laying around your house.

Using old bottles of red or white to cook is a great way to use up wine you're not going to drink (just don't let it sit for too long, or it will get vinegary).

Minced garlic in a jar isn't exactly expensive, but it is more money than just buying fresh cloves of garlic. It's also not as fresh and comes packed with other ingredients to keep it from going bad. Mincing your own garlic is incredibly simple, and fresh garlic is super cheap.

Grabbing a salad for lunch at the grocery store is probably not the best idea for several reasons.

You're probably paying close to $10, if not more, for something you could very easily throw together on your own. The quality is questionable, you don't actually know how old those fruits and veggies are, it's a waste of plastic, and there aren't many safety regulations stores have to follow with these.

Instead, buy your own ingredients and make several salads with those.

In the spice aisle, you'll find tons of different seasoning blends: garlic and herb, taco seasoning, cajun seasoning, Italian seasoning — the list can go on forever. These are often pretty pricey, and they're really not worth it. If you have a basic array of spices and dried herbs at home, you can easily mix these together yourself for something that tastes more fresh and doesn't include any additives.

It's also a great way to use up spices you may not normally use that much so you don't have food waste.

Those little prepackaged snack size bags of chips and cookies make it easy to grab a snack and go, but think about it: They’re pretty much a waste of money. You're spending more on these small packages than you would on a regular size bag of chips, when you could easily buy the bigger bag for a lower price, then divide the chips up yourself.

If you insist on buying the smaller bags, at least go to a warehouse where you can buy them in bulk for less money.