How Different Are Store Brand Products Over Popular Name Brands?

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Whether your married or single living in the barracks, you probably do some form of grocery shopping from time to time. Many of us have our favorite snacks and drinks that we cannot live without. However, grocery shopping can be a big expense to your wallet. Just about every company out there devotes a lot of time and money towards the marketing of their product. They want to sell their product for as much as they can get away with and beat out their competition. Do not fall for these tactics when you go shopping. That great cereal that you buy may be available in a much cheaper brand that tastes exactly the same. Sometimes the taste isn’t quite as good but you need to ask yourself if your willing to tolerate the taste difference. If the generic brand is not as great as the name brand product then is it worth it to you to pay more for the better taste?

Let’s look at it like this, if the generic brand was all there ever was, to begin with, and someone asked you if you would like to pay an extra $2 for a better-tasting cereal, would you? If I told you that I could offer you a cracker similar to Ritz but it tastes better but costs $1.50 more than Ritz would you purchase it time and time again? It seems like a small price for better tasting food but if you add that up over all the many products you purchase in a single trip that could easily add up to $30, $40, or much more. So the question is it really worth paying more for something when the cheaper product is just fine?

The next time you go shopping try all of the cheaper generic or store brand products and decide which ones will be satisfying to your tastes. If you can’t stand one product then go back to the name brand but at least you will know what you are paying for.

We need to really think about what we are giving up in order to have a slightly better tasting product. If I can save $30 a week on groceries by settling with store brand products then that’s $120 more in my pocket every month. You need to decide what is the best use of $120 a month. Would you rather go to the movies a few times, go out to eat a few times a month, build on your savings account, go shopping, or eat slightly better tasting food. Just put it into perspective.