Brands

I do a mix as well. The things I will NOT buy store brand, toilet paper, cottage cheese, hotdogs, dish soap, body soap, cereal, syrup this is all that comes to mind. Otherwise, I will buy what ever is cheaper. Sometimes store brand is not cheapest.

If I can get away with buying the store brand I will, but there are certain things that I just cannot do the store brand! Like instant potatoes, sorry, have to have a name brand. Usually I'll try a store brand at least once though before deciding against it.

These days I tend to avoid the more expensive brand named items and go for the store brands instead. Some of the store's own value brands are just as good as the higher priced alternatives and I can save money by shopping around.

i typically buy the store brands because more often than not, they are manufactored in the same company that the brand names come from.

I buy store brands when it comes to just about anything. Like you, however, there are some things that I just won't buy store brand. Mac and cheese, as you mentioned, I like Kraft. Sometimes I buy the store brand, but it tastes kind of funny, so I usually buy a couple store brand and a couple kraft as a treat. Toilet paper I'm very picky about, so I always buy a certain brand. It's not too much more expensive than store brands, but I like it and it works well. For almost everything else, though, I buy store brand stuff unless I prefer name brand that's not too much more than store brand. ^_^ If there's a big difference in prices, though, I always go for the store brand. My husband was raised to always buy name brand things and it took me forever to break this habit. I couldn't let him go shopping for the longest time because he would always come home with name brand items and would spend an extra $10 - $20 on each shopping trip buying them. He never complained about eating the store brand products I bought and so I finally convinced him to buy those whenever he shopped, too. xD

In the food lines, most of the store brand foods are processed by one of the better know national brands. And more often than not the quality of the product is actually better. I remember when my sister was in high school, she had a marketing project to do on store brand vs national brand. She would ask people which one they normally bought and why, then she would have them do a blind taste test. Over 80% of the people in her study chose the store brand for quality and taste over the national brand. (She was testing canned fruit) My mother who worked for a food company at the time said that this should not come as a shock because store brands are more closely monitored for quality than are the national brands. So with that abundance of useless information (LOL) when I was old enough to start my own shopping I always selected the store brands of canned food. As for paper products, cleaning supplies, and so on, I choose the ones that are on sale or that I have coupons for. My family will laugh because one time I will come home with Tide and the next time it is XTRA. The only thing they have asked that I never bring home again is the store brand tissues. They said that it took about 10X as many to make 1 good tissue.

I buy mostly store brand, but like most, there are some name brands that I prefer. Toilet paper, tea, laundry detergent and dish soap mostly. Since I need to eat organic as much as possible, I buy some brand names when I can't grow it myself or get it from local organic growers.

Like you, I buy a mix of national name brands and the store brands. Mostly I get the store brands to help save money. Some things I definitely prefer the name brand though. I agree with you on the Kraft macaroni and cheese. The store brand just does not compare and it's worth it to spend the extra money for the name brand. I usually get Angel Soft toilet paper. That seems to be a good compromise between the store brand and the more expensive name brand like Charmin.

I buy both. Some store brands are just as good as the big name items, but then some big name items just can't be touched by store brands. I try both, and see which one I like better.

It depends on how much things cost and if I have coupons. Most of the time I buy name brands because I have noticed that they are cheaper than store brands (this is usually the case at Walmart). I do use name brands for toilet paper and paper towels. I use name brands for detergent because my husband is allergic to most brands so I have to use Arm and Hammer because it does not bother him at all. I have some frugal recipes that do not use a lot of ingredients. I will email them to you here via prvate message.

I buy a mixture, it depends on sales, like if they are buy one get free, bulk shopping at like sam's club, or if it worth the item. I try to keep my money close lol. I hate to spend it because of a name. Mind I do brand name merchandise. Like at whole sale clubs , some of the brand names make the same item for the store and it costs a lot cheaper. Bakery items are a lot cheaper at wholesale clubs.

Buy always the branded items please visit the registered stores to buy a branded items. As I'm a victim of such item I bought an ipod which I thought it is branded but it scared me and also check the warranty

i bought both branded and not, well for me sometimes if i don't have enough money and the item is good even if it is not branded then why not buy it, but if i have money i choose an item with a known brand because i'm sure that i will be able to use it for long because it has a name its protecting one major complaint from a customer and the whole company will surely collapse

I buy a combination of national and store brands. Which I choose really depends on the product. I normally choose Coke products over store brands. I don't mind store brand colas, but my husband's extremely picky. It's sometimes possible to get really good prices on them. I found a bunch of $1 off coupons that are good towards the purchase of any 24 packs of Coke. The 24 packs were on sale at Wal-Mart earlier this week for $5 each, so I ended up with 3 of them for $4 each. For the rest of the food items I buy, like pasta and spices and canned veggies, I stick to the store brands unless I have coupons that make the national brands cheaper than the store brand. Why pay more for the name when we can't tell the difference in the products? The one real exception besides the Coke products is Safeway's Lucerne milk. I won't buy it because I ended up with a bad gallon while I was pregnant. Other store brands of milk are fine, but I can't stomach the Lucerne anymore. It all smells off to me. I have memberships to both Costco and Sam's Club. I buy a lot of household items in bulk there, including paper towels, toilet paper, and dish detergent. I've found Costco's Kirkland Signature brand of toilet paper to be pretty good. It's less than $20 for something like 36 rolls, and much better quality than any of the other store brands I've ever tried. A single package can last us about six months.

hi dorannmwin I always shopped with a mixture of both, sometimes'the store brand is fine but in things like cheese I stick to national brands, mostly kraft, and for chocolate it is Lindts or Ghiradelli I know that is misspelled but best I can do.I finally found a store brand of toilet tissue that is decent before I always bought Scotts. Also in pasta it has to be bertollis plus pasta. And the same for spaghetti sauce too.

Ha - I just took a survey on a similar topic! I also buy a mixture . . . it depends on what the item is. I would definitely try the store/generic brands, just to try . . . sometimes it's the best thing you'll ever buy - other times it's just second rate and a waste of money (even though it was cheaper than the national brand). I don't know which category the items at places like Trader Joe's or Fresh & Easy would fall into . . . is that considered store brand or maybe specialty brand? I buy both their stuff too . . . it's cheaper and it's pretty darn good (most of the stuff anyway). I like Whole Food's store brand as well. Toilet paper - we use Costco's generic brand (Kirkland) and that seems to work for us.

As far as I am concerned, I think when it comes to brands, it all depends on what I am going to buy. If I am going to buy some clothes that I just wear them in my daily life, I think I will choose to buy some not so famous brand ,which can be cheaper and in good quality. But if I want to buy some techology things in daily life, I think I may choose to by the international brand from other countries. What matters most is its quality and service.