To think there's nothing wrong with own brand stuff?

[AverageGayLad]

Was in the supermarket earlier and a woman asked her friend to get her some butter - but "a brand, none of that cheap shite".

What is wrong with own brand? :( Sometimes/Mostly that's all I can afford! Isn't it all the same food anyway?

For the most part we buy cheap. There are things we will buy from the basics range.
I tend to lidl or aldi for my meat whenever possible.
I DO use smart price things. IE tomato puree, tomatoes, mozzarella, bitter to cook with, batter mixes. The list goes on.

Husband put a stop to the smart price toilet roll!!

I have to have normal coke though!

I also prefer branded washing detergent and fabric softener.

I have realised that a lot of this depends on your water quality - we used to live in the Home Counties with very, very hard water and only the expensive washing powders and washing up liquids would get stuff clean. We also used to spend a bloody fortune on descalers and things like dishwasher salt. Since we've been back in Scotland though where the water is ridiculously soft, we can buy the cheapest value dishwasher tablets, no salt at all and everything is sparkling clean. We also buy own brand washing liquid for clothes - Formil at the moment (think that's a Lidl one) and we don't have softener at all as it's not needed.

I bought some malted wheats from aldi on Sunday-59p and they say "made by weetabix" on them

Cream cheese is cream cheese according to my bff's dh, he works for Kraft.

Refusing to buy own brand based on snobbery is idiotic. I work in purchasing and I assure you plenty of brands use the same manufacturers, albeit slightly different recipes.

Refusing to buy an own brand because you don't like the recipe is fair enough.

Since working in purchasing I very rarely purchase anything branded unless I'm convinced I'm not just paying for the branding.

Some value brands are fine, some aren't so great.

The quality in Aldi and Lidl is usually very good, at least as good as the main brand. There are lots of reasons why they are cheaper that are not connected to the quality of their products (simpler ranges, fewer staff, more basic stores, lack of home delivery, which costs more to provide than the delivery fee).

I usually buy value flour, and can't see the difference between that and branded.

Eat Well For Less proves that many people are brand snobs and can't pick out 'their' brand from a line up, and sometimes prefer a cheaper brand despite previously insisting that they could only possibly eat Heinz etc.

In theory I agree with you but when it comes to butter they are not all the same. It's not just about price but ethics. Dairy cows have miserable lives and personally I pay a bit more for an organic butter that I hope means a slightly happier life for the cows

Cream cheese is cream cheese according to my bff's dh, he works for Kraft

Aldi cream cheese is about a quarter of the price of philadelphia and exactly the same as far as I can tell.

What about butter? Is butter, butter? We usually get Kerrygold because it is softer and spreads easier and stock up when it is on offer, but for melting baking just get the cheapest real butter there is.

Surely it's all just personal taste? I don't think the woman should have said that because it implies to anyone around her that buying cheap means buying "shit". AGL, buy what you like to eat and don't let her make you feel lesser than her.

I want a tiny chicken! Anywhere else sell them cheaply?

This is an extremely interesting thread and has made me question what I buy. I tend to pick and mix and look for special offers (like the lurpak!!) I recently tried own brand mayo and didn't like it though.
Unnecessary of the woman to loudly comment though

.

cream cheese is not cream cheese I am afraid

I have tried with other brands but philly is the only one to give good consistent results for a frosting.

You can't beat Anchor butter spreadable
Heinz baked beans
Kellogs corn flakes
Birds eye cod fish fingers
Bisto gravy granules
Colmans mustard
Robinsons squash
Heinz tomato ketchup
HP brown sauce
Fairy washing up liquid
Douwe egbert coffee
Cadburys chocolate

I mostly buy supermarket own brand of foods, the exception being meat (from a butcher) and tinned tomatoes because the supermarket I use puts them in tetrapak which we can't recycle in our area, whereas the branded ones are in tins which can be.

Quite a list Heidi

I have dh and dds here to remind me lol...... I on the other hand will eat anything the cheaper the better lol

I prefer own brand rice crispies (except Aldi which are a bit strange) - Kellogg's Rice Krispies are too crispy .

Cream cheese is cream cheese according to my bff's dh, he works for Kraft.

I don't think that's true. Ds could tell the difference without seeing the packet when he was about 3. He hates own brand cream cheese and loves Philly. So there must be a difference.

On the other hand he prefers own brand chocolate hazelnut spread to Nutella. So it's not always the most expensive wins.

Rice krispies that are too crispy?

Its mostly the same stuff.

You see that whole aisle of washing powders etc? There are 2 manufacturers in the UK producing all of them.

Branded items often have more sugar and salt added because that's what your body is programmed to respond to. Check out the amount of sugar in branded jars of sauces.

Branded items don't cost more because they're better - they cost more because the packaging and marketing costs a fortune.

We buy a mixture of branded and unbranded but mostly we buy things unbranded and then buy branded stuff that is on special offer. There are a few brands we are loyal to but not many. They are:
Batiste for dry shampoo - tried a few cheaper ones before and they were all naff
Yorkshire Tea - simply the best tea lol
Tresemme for heat protection spray
Sunpat for peanut butter
To be honest...not much else.
We also always only buy free range eggs, preferably RSPCA Freedom Food Assured. We are vegetarian so no problems with meat/fish quality or welfare there.

There are some other brands we both really like but only buy if on offer or as a treat because of the cost:
Warburton's for bread/pancakes/crumpets etc
Heinz for baked beans, tinned soups, sauces
Lurpack for margarine
Ocean Spray cranberry juices
Yeo Valley and Onken for yoghurts
Probably more but we're not loyal to them because if we were our food bill would skyrocket.

I have filled my husbands box of Kellogg's cornflakes with tesco value and he didn't notice any difference.....until I told him of course!
We had tried them a couple of years ago and they were terrible so something must have changed.

I'm actually pretty snobbish about a lot of brands. I think the branding of eg Bird's Eye, McCain, Wall's, Cathedral City, Uncle Ben's is quite cheap looking. I don't have a problem with this, but I wouldn't think of these as being a more quality version than own brands and therefore wouldn't pay extra for these. I think the more low key packaging of own brands looks more classy. But on the whole I buy own brand goods, with some branded things if on offer or if they're more to my taste.

As others have said, it really varies, product to product (and supermarket to supermarket).

I would say 95% of the time, I buy brands, mainly because I usually only get to a Tesco or Morrisons as opposed to an Aldi/Lidl.

And most of the time, some branded product is on offer so can usually still shop wise with a brand.

Main reason though is because I like the PARTICULAR brand

Coffee - Won't entertain anything but Carte Noir
Tea - Absolutely has to be PG Tips (Yorkshire for DH)
Won't touch anthing but Fairy for washing up liquid. Also like mixing it up for different smells for clothes washing, so laundry detergent and softener is usually a branded one (although as PP said, Lidl Formil is excellent quality - even beating Ariel in a Which test).

So I go more for THE brand as opposed to just because it is branded

Had some surprisingly good own brand and some absolutely shocking own brand.

Different strokes......