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?

I love eat well for less, love it when they say , I hope they won't change my X, I don't like the other brands, and they can't tell, this week she thought her bottled water was tap water& it wasn't.

goose What channel is it on?

BBC One. They are VERY careful to replace with own brand from a wide range of supermarkets and don't usually name check the big brands, so Special K becomes "Donna's usual branded diet cereal". 😊

I tried Basics tinned tomatoes but I went back to Sainsbury's standard ones. I used to keep two - the Basics ones in a chilli or curry and the standard ones for something like pork or veal in a tomato sauce. Then they put the price up and I thought for a few pence a tin more I could get the better ones,

I've tried lots of Basics items and stick with:

plain yoghurt
honey
eggs
kidney beans
toilet roll
kitchen roll
cling film (used to buy basics foil but they stopped it)
dishcloths
salt - I found out today they don't do that any more
tinned fruit - mandarins, pineapples or mixed fruit salad - that I put on own-brand muesli with honey, yoghurt and semi skimmed milk.

And Basics bags of peppers but only if they have red or yellow ones. I avoid the green ones.

They used to do Basics aubergines too but have discontinued them.

I buy basics most things - but Heinz bakes beans and daddies ketchup. Think that's about it.

However we don't really eat meat at home and when I do buy meat I get really good quality stuff.

Actually I tell a lie - I am a committed Kleenex balsam tissue buyer. They are worth it.

Heinz Cream of Tomato Soup is non-negotiable

Everything else is up for grabs Waitrose own brand puddings are lush

I was the pp who put Lurpack first followed by Kerrygold. I think it was because the Lurpac tasted the same as the loose, cut from the block butter we'd been used to. Kerrygold is indeed saltier , I like it on scones and toast.

Lurpak is great on toasties

Got some nice Mozzarella slices earlier, two packs £3 so will make something nice with those :)

And yes they were own brand

all the people who are "non-negotiable" with Named Brands. Have you ever done a blind taste test?
Watching "Eat Well For Less" is a real eye opener. The swap out foods for a brand up/down, but don't tell the family if they have swapped any at all or what they have swapped. One guy was convinced his muesli was dry and boring and horrible, it must be some crappy value brand. Turned out it was Alpen, that he had been eating every day for 10 years!

Sainsbury's fruit and nut muesli is really nice. Lots of whole hazelnuts and almonds, dried dates and coconut. DH was a dedicated Alpen fan but he prefers it.

I never thought I'd have a positive opinion on muesli.

Exactly Binary. Same with the woman last week who only drunk bottled water and was convinced they had given her tap.

They hadn't, it was her usual brand that she spent hundreds of pounds a year on and generated a fuckton of needless plastic waste. They were in Scotland too, which is supposed to have lovely tap water.

The most common thing I see on threads like these about a preference for brands over Aldi and Lidl products is tea and especially, coffee.

I am the same a little bit, and I realise it is totally irrational – about 80% of our shopping comes from Aldi, and I think the quality of almost everything is at least as good as the main brands, often better, but one thing we usually get branded is tea and coffee. I did buy Aldi red label tea bags once and they were fine and I need to go back to doing that once we have run out of massive Costco sack of Yorkshire tea.

I would be really interested in seeing a proper blind taste for coffee, both ground and instant – like they do on Eat Well for Less with the group of people and range of products – they have done sparkling wine, jelly, crumpets and cola that I can remember and the top two have usually been a big brand and then either Aldi or Lidl, but not necessarily in that order.

Interestingly, Waitrose has often done poorly in the tests and the bottom two have usually being a main brand and Waitrose .

I haven't read the full thread but I have noticed that when I scan some supermarket own-brand barcodes on the My Fitness Pal app, it registers them as branded goods (eg, I scanned Asda own brand Almond Milk yesterday and it registered the bar code as Alpro Almond Milk). Under these circumstances I assume that it is exactly the same product?

Also to add that we are arable farmers and watch our grain go off in a lorry to be tipped in with the grain from loads of other farms at the mill, so with the exception of some small, independent artisan producers, there isn't much difference between value flour, own brand etc. I had a conversation with a grain merchant about it all once and he confirmed that apart from the raising agent used, they are exactly the same product. The price difference is down to packaging and marketing.

Own brand everything except coffee that must be Nescafé no matter how skint we are must be own brand peanut butter way creamier mmmmmmmmmmmmm!!

Oh and Heinz ketchup lol

What always bemuses me is when people prefer branded products of things like vegetables when there is literally nothing that the brand suppliers can do to make their offering superior. With sweetcorn, for instance, you get sweetcorn; if there is a difference at all, it is that the size might be a bit more uniform, but who cares about that?

I'm happy with own brand for most things, but Marmite has to be Marmite!

Pixie I've noticed this too!

On a slight tangent about the grain. I sometimes think about milk. When I'm having a bowl of cereal, that milk might have come from 200 different cows!

Green Giant sweetcorn is crisper IMO. I have tried supermarket own brand and basics ranges. Neither of them was bad, but they were softer than Green Giant, so that's why I prefer it.

It's the same with Bird's Eye peas but I still buy the Sainsbury's ones because they're nice too.

Tinned sweetcorn and frozen peas are far superior to fresh stuff unless it's from your garden. And cheaper

Daucy tinned beans - flageleot, cannellini, chickpeas and kidney - are the best. I don't know what they do to them but I eat them cold from the tin JudyCoolibar

Because I don't eat them from the tin that often, I buy supermarket own brand and prefer Basics kidney beans, though you have to simmer them separately for 5 minutes before adding them to a chilli because they are tough.

limited 18p for a jar that'll last me two/three meals!