Items that I do not buy any more

Since I came to the U.S. in 1998, I picked up a few must-buy items on grocery trips:

1.  A plastic carton of milk and orange juice. Milk is expensive and still is; it cost at least three times as more in China than in the U.S.; orange juice is a treat, not a standard beverage in China. It becomes more popular in China now than in the 90s; but it is still not on buy-list of a typical family.      

   Both items are now dropped from my must-buy list. Not long after I happily picked up the habit of drinking milk regularly; I found that I constantly had to spit because of sticky saliva in my mouth. After about ten years of drinking milk, I bought a soy-milk maker. Soy-milk is the staple drink of the majority of Chinese. As a result, I bought milk less often. Soon, to my surprise,  I no longer had to spit.   After searching literature, it turns out that for the majority of Chinese have various degree of lactose intolerance.   Although I didn’t get diahrhea after drinking milk, the sticky saliva is probably the result of lactose intolerance!

   I quitted orange juice long time ago.   I do not particularly like the taste of sweetness. Not long I picked the habit of buying a carton of orange juice weekly. I found I had to toss spoiled orange juice often.  So I quitted.

2.  Paper towel and napkins.  Paper towel is not a household item in China, never.  Instead, we use rags–retired facial towels.  I fell into love of paper towels’ convenience in the kitchen. “Never would I have to wash dirty rags”, I thought to myself. However, paper towels take up shelf space despite that all American homes have tons of storage space.   Now I rarely use them; I revert back to rags–retired facial towels.  They can be washed and reused.  Paper towels come into play only if I have to clean greasy areas; since I clean oven surface often before it becomes greasy. I now completely eliminated it from my shopping list. 

   Napkins: I have three pretty hankies—-to be precise, they are baby mouth wipers. When I saw my sister used those soft and absorbent cloth to wipe my baby niece’s watery mouth, I bought six of them as my hankies five years ago. And, they are still serving me well today at every meal. When I go out, I always take one with me too.

3. Bottled water.  I don’t have the habit of buying bottled water in the first place.  and, practically they are too heavy to move when bought in bulk!   I usually bring a drinkable water bottle with me whenever I go out. 

4. Bath mat:    I used to buy bath mat. Soft mat makes bathing and showering enticing. However, bath mat is hard to clean. Though it washable and reusable, often after a wash, it looks ugly and has to be thrown away.  It is disposable just like paper towel. Now I use an old bath towel as bath mat. When not in use, it can be folded and put away.  

5.  Mass-produced sliced bread:  when I was new in this country I used to buy them often, and made French toast with them occasionally.  More often, I had to throw them out when they turned hard and not edible.  Now, I bought an expensive Japanese brand bread maker; and also own a countertop oven.  I made quick muffins or bake more own bread that contain no additives and adjust the ingredients as I like.

6.  Crispy breakfast cereal: I had crispy and crunchy cereal breakfast and cold milk as breakfast for over ten years until I got a soymilk maker. Cereal tastes good only in milk just out of fridge. They do not go well with hot soy milk.  It turned out that cereal is not health as its manufacturer claimed. It contains high sugar and all kinds of additives.  Instead, I bought a a pressure rice cooker to cook mixed all kinds of whole grains, beans, and legumes. They are now my breakfast. Sometimes, I will crack an egg into hot soup of all grains/beans. It is delicious.
   
7.  vegetable/canola oils: from many sources, I heard these types of oil are highly processed and contains ingredients that are harmful to health. I now buy only olive oil and sesamine oil for enhance taste and scent of food.
8. food clap film: I now use glass containers for leftover food. Some I have been using for lunch  and leftover for over a decade now. They are well worth it.
9. Sunblock and bug repeller: In the past, I were never able to use a tube of sunblock up before it expired.   The reason is probably the greasiness after applying sunblock.  And sunblock is not cheap. Now I live in Colorado where the sunlight is super strong, I still do not use it but rather cover myself up with tops with long sleeves and long pants and a hat.  As to bug sprayer bottles, the same occurs; they dried up before I ever used them. The reason is similar as to that for sun blocker.  
10. High-heeled shoes:  I rarely wear high-heeled shoes anyway. I had a few pairs of high-heels in my 20s, but I wore them only on some special occasions.
11.  Makeups: I do not wear make-ups. In my 20s, I bought lipstick a few times. They all had to go without much use. I use only skin-care products that I can find in drug stores.
12. CDs: I owned hundreds of CDs. In 2017 before I moved back to the US, I stored some of them in my parents’ house and gave some to my sister who has a child learning to play the piano. I scanned all into mp3 files, but it is somewhat inconvenient to play them compared with CDs. Again, you can find tons of great concerts on Youtube.
13. Books: I had book-buying habit. Now it is gone. I realize that only classical books that have gone through the test of times are worth reading. They are free, and readily available online! Many New York Times best sellers no longer interest me. Many of them somehow seem shallow and I wonder why so many people are willing to pay to read them. Perhaps I should write one.