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I've seen a book that has the grocery lists. I flipped through it; it getting quite boring after a while. I don't think I could say that there would ever be a particular something that would never be on my list, because you just never know. But most things like junk food are never on my list, but that doesn't mean that I never get tempted to buy something once in a while. I am very opposed to margarine, however.

There is a site that posts grocery lists it's called grocerylists.org and the book is called Milk Eggs Vodka by Bill Keaggy. I have the book sitting on my coffee table as we speak. The book breaks down lists in chapters like "bad spellrs", "sad grocery lists", "eating wrong", "paaar-ty!" and my favorite "you're so vague".

i don't think that there will ever be country crock or shed's spread ( you know that fake butter in a tub) on my list.

JEP, I'm with you on margarine, Cool Whip, cream of wheat and fruit cocktail. I do use plenty of onions in my cooking though, so it's safe to say that I always have onions on my list:-). You'll also never ever find these on my grocery list:

beets
okra
oatmeal
granola
seasoning packets of any kind
any tinned fruit or vegetables (other than whole peeled tomatoes)
chopped (or as SL calls them, PRE-chopped:-)) onions
jarred garlic

Actually, it appears that the list of stuff that will never make my list is really long:-), so I'll stop here. And hey, I do shop with a list (at least, some kind of a mental list:-)), but as I said on another thread, it doesn't mean I never deviate from the list!

a lot of my Mom's recipes call for Crisco. that will NEVER be on my shopping list!

I never say never...because you never know how you might suprise yourself. Personally I don't use things like Cool Whip, but my crazy sister doesn't like 'real' whipped cream....so if she's coming over & I'm serving dessert that has cream on it, I might buy Cool Whip for her. That being said....those frozen chicken nuggets...no...they're not on my list. Neither is most processed foods, and anything with more than 1/2 of your daily sodium in it!
JEP...I gotta tell you though...jello is good for one thing....mixed with a little vodka, rum or tequila....it's makes some really tasty shots! ;-)

Liver

bologna

I feel the need to confess - and I don't feel quite as embarassed as I did when I first visited this site, because you only know what you grew up with right? Here goes: I never tasted real butter until my late twenties...AND at that time I remember wincing and getting upset because they didn't have "margarine" at the restaurant we were at. I was also upset that I couldn't spread it and it wasn't "yellow" like it should be. Ok...go ahead everyone...snicker, chortle...burst out in laughter. I definitely know the difference now and I have seen the light. I blame my dad...he grew up on a DAIRY farm in Canada!! How did he let my mom insist on margarine?!? Must have been love eh?

So, having purged my margarine shame...my list is:

margarine
lima beans
okra
olive loaf
circus peanuts (those orange evil things)

Anything else, I may buy for others, but these items above will never be purchased by me!
Over on egullet.com they have a topic that is called "Shopping Lists/Kitchen Notebooks, are you brave enough to share?" I am not great
at listing direct links (I'll work on it) but some actually take photos of their lists and it's pretty fun/interesting.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=108186

Canned carrots. Ewwwwwww.......I can see the point in putting some veggies in a can, because originally they didn't store well or had a short season. For that reason, I understand canned peas, while I continue to despise them. But carrots? Why, why why?

And speaking of canned peas, that's all mom ever used when I was a kid, and they were disgusting. The first time I had frozen peas at someone else's house, I couldn't believe they were the same thing. And I always LOVED Chinese peapods. My dad would grow them, and I'd stand at the vine and pick them and eat them. Mmmmmmmm....

Fruit cocktail.

Shredded coconut.

"Diet" anything. Unless it's specifically purchased for a guest.

Canned veggies, liver, any salad in a bag, any frozen fish filet in a bag (yucchhh), cooking wine, canned meat.

Seitan, cilantro, margarine, turkey lunchmeat, peanut butter, grape jelly, Coke. All things I'd really rather not put in my mouth if given a choice.

I cannot imagine putting most tinned vegetables on my list, or prefabricated meals. I once would have also said 'margarine', but it is something that my boyfriend uses on his daily sandwiches, and although it mystifies me, he prefers it to butter, so I don't quibble.
I do sometimes wonder about the things in other peoples baskets, but it's usually 'I wonder what one does with that' (over an unfamiliar item) rather than 'what are they thinking?!' (one of the few exceptions is prepared cake frosting, because whenever I've had it, I could not believe how awful it tasted).

fake cake frosting (the kind in a plastic tub)
margarine
anything containing nutrasweet
the national enquirer!! lol

There is an auther/entertainer named Hilary Carlip that wrote what will be a very entertaining book. (It's avialable March 8). It is based on grocery lists that people found and sent to her or that she found. Then she imagined what the shopper would look like and then had funny photos taken. It's calle "a la Cart: The Secrt Lives of Shoppers". It looks really fun!

Maypo
Chun-King Chow Mein
Tang
Vanilla Junket
Ovaltine
Scooter Pies
Hawaiian Punch
Chunky

These do not appear on my grocery list, either:

bouillon cubes
corn flakes
melba toast
olives

Do you REALLY write out & take a shopping list when you go to the market?

We write out a shopping list when we go grocery shopping. Whether we follow it exactly without adding anything has yet to be seen. ;)

We shop in 3 dinner increments. We'll discuss what we want to eat, what goes in them, see if we have everything, and then he reads off what we need. I write the grocery list down as I see it in the supermarket aisles, so the item list is pre-sorted as one would go up and down each aisle, to reduce the chance of missing an ingredient or saying, "aww it's on the other side, forget it."

Papaya and bananas are no-nos. No, no, no. It's a smell and texture thing.

Reading the comments above, it's clear that the world sure is a funny place. I grew up eating wholesome food, yet I was the kid picking the neighbor's flowers and dancing in the aisles. Thank goodness for discipline, right? The smartest person I know ate s_ _t all of his life. Has a Chemistry degree from Berkeley, yet grew-up on Pop Tarts, Ding-dongs, Wonderbread, lunchmeat and Hawaiian Punch. Was (and still is) as shy and level-headed as can be.

We are what we eat, for the most part, but one's intelligence and/or disposition doesn't seem to be altered by processed food as radically as some people suspect.

You take your fav fruit juice or puree what you like and then make sure to follow the cold to hot and use gelatin sheets or unflavored gelatin.
raspberry, blueberry, mixed fruits just stay away from pineapple juice.
It is very light and refreshing and I want to bring it back sexy again. It is sooo good. You can add sparkling wine or water. You must try it. Gelatin sheets must be softened for five to ten minutes in cold liquid. Once the excess water has been wrung out of them, they will look and feel like wet plastic wrap. At that point, they can be added directly to hot ingredients without further warming to dissolve them, as is necessary with powder.

I'm a vegetarian, and health-food neurotic as can be, yet have many fond memories of pop tarts.

No, I wouldn't buy them now because my palate has changed. But as a tyke the molten hot center of a frosted blueberry, strawberry, and when the 'new flavors' came out (yep, I'm that old I remember when these were new, and only came 6 to a box) of chocolate or brown sugar really hit the spot.

'Nevers' are always a combination of taste, lifestyle, health goals, and culture--not purity.

My nevers would take to long to list, but I would say of things I have NEVER bought, EVER, even shopping for a sick relative or shopping to help out a busy friend with kids:

boxed mac n' cheese
cat food
pork rinds or pork of any kind
straight granola (despite my crunchy lifestyle)
coconut
fruit leather/fruit roll-ups
100 calorie packs (sorry Ed Levine, but I think they're a 'racket' ;)
Most recent 'kid food' including Booberry cereal, Dora the Explorer cereal, because I don't have kids...
olive oil (don't like even though I'm Greek so I'm definately going to bad Greek girl hell)
Ranch dressing
Sweet and Sour Sauce
more unusual cake box flavors, like carrot or banana cake

Funny but even stuff I wouldn't buy again I have 'tried once' like Cool Whip, or bought for someone else like instant mashed potato, Jello, Twizzlers, and so forth...just because something isn't on your grocery list doesn't mean it's a regular buy or even for the purchaser.

You will never see pork , ham or bacon in my shopping cart. That is for sure.

Hillary
Chew on That

Not seen on my grocery list:

chickpeas
canned bean sprouts
oat bran
capers