Try a new brand?

yes i have made a few changes ... i now buy a lot of shops own brands and find them just as good and saves me cash .. any other ideas to help us all save a bit ?

I use off brand everything...if it works! My dishsoap does just as good a job. Havne't noticed my hands anydrier than they are normally. That's what lotion is for anyways! I use the cheap laudnry detergent. Always have. As long as my cloths smell and look clean I am happy. Name brand things are deff. overrated.

For some months now, I've been trying out store brands and dollar store products. Most take a little getting used to, but they're essentially quite the same as the ones I used to get for much more money. Now I'm working on using one product, such as things for cleaning, for many tasks when I once bought several. I wish the cheaper paper goods weren't such trash, so instead of replacing those, I use far fewer. Cloth napkins can be thrown in with the other laundry, and paper towels are seldom needed when a variety of cloths are used. I'm loving not just throwing out worn'out sheets, towels, etc. Since it's been 15 years or more since I bought new linens, a lot are starting to fray or wear thin, and they're great for so many uses! It's actually a fun challenge to see how much I can cut household expenses, even though it's done out of necessity.

I suppose I'm lucky in our current ecomonic crisis, that my shopping list is relatively small as my kids are grown and the hubs is away so much. But even so, no matter how tight money was, I never compromised on certain brands for certain items. Especially when it came to food. I am and always have been a careful shopper and know how to make a dollar stretch, so hard times never really affected food and other necessities.

I think you are using the right strategy by using various brands. We can find some better brands by trying them. It also can be a better option with the market conditions getting worse day by day we really need to keep the budgets in place.

Really, there's only a few food items(for example peanut butter) that I am stubborn about and refuse to try an alternative, cheaper, generic or store brand item in it's place. Several members of my family are big fans of ALdi. From eveything to cleaning supplies to potato chips. Most of the stuff that they have purchased there is pretty good...some not as great as the name brand stuff, but when it only costs a third as much, it makes up for that most of the time.

Yes, I've been hitting the cheapest brands of just about everything. If it's terrible, I go for the next cheapest brand until I find one that isn't terrible. :-) In the case of some foods, the store brand or cheapest often tastes as good or better than some of the top brands. This is weird, but it works for my budget!

i have never heard of aldi's. palmolive has never agreed w/my hands. i use joy most of the time or whatever i have a coupon for. i buy store brands alot but have found out it's not as good as joy. i use soap powber all the time that is store brand.

I am not considering changing any brand. and the price doesn't go up or fluctuate except food.