Name Brand Vs. Store Brand Foods

Cornflakes to Macaroni and cheese, peanut butter and bread. The staples of a frugal diet for most of us high debt, low-income wage earners. Is there a difference between name brand and store bought? Yes, there absolutely is. In price.

I was a brand-name junkie up until a year ago or so. Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, Kellogg's Cornflakes, which I have an eternal craving for cornflakes... Jif Peanut Butter and JJ Nissen bread. Cutting corners entered into my life, and at first it was quite a shock to have to give up my "names." After all, I had to give up all the other important things in my life, like gas for my car, hair and nail appointments, and every other frivolous thing I had come to enjoy. I was fighting with myself that I wanted to at least enjoy the little thing that comforted me in times of trouble, my food.

Down to the store I wandered... I winced when I looked at the store brand bread. This was the first on my chopping block of my new found frugal lifestyle. Surely, my family would reject it and I could happily prance back to the store for my old faithful, JJ Nissen. Lo and behold, the store brand bread was softer and didn't rip when I buttered it. Ok, so we can knock and extra $1.50 off a loaf of bread. That wasn't so bad! Next came the macaroni and cheese, then the peanut butter. One by one they surprised me, not only in better taste but also at the checkout. I was cutting several dollars a week off of my grocery list! The best thing about it, the family was asking me to never buy Kraft again! They loved the new Stop & Shop Macaroni and Cheese! Store brand peanut butter really tastes the same as Jif, so no big announcements there, other than 50 cents to take off the price.

Last, and most certainly not least, I had to ditch the Kellogg's. Corn flakes are my comfort food, cheap, soggy, everything I like... Don't ask me why, I don't know. Slowly I wandered the cereal aisle, looking for a sale on Kellogg's, unfortunately there was none. I hesitated as I picked up the Hannaford brand corn flakes and saw a good $1 difference in price. I prayed that I was making the right choice. Of course, in my depression of having to give up my name corn flakes, I immediately had to go home and pull out a bowl and drown myself in sorrow amongst my sugar and milk. Pleasantly surprised, they tasted just like the Kellogg's.

All in all, my shopping list was getting better by the day. So the moral of the story here is, don't give up on those store brand goods. You might be pleasantly surprised as I was, and the rest of my family. The store brand was not only similar in taste, but some of the foods were actually better tasting. The price certainly was better on the wallet, which in the end made it all worthwhile. I do have to admit though, I really miss that cute little rooster on the Kellogg's box!