To ask your "same but cheaper" hacks?

[Fishface77]

I've read that
Blue tin Nivea is a cheaper version of creme de la mer so I've bought 3 tins!

Please can Anyone recommend anything that is as good as the branded version but cheaper?

I would never have tried Aldi nappies until pampers 'not so magic pods' made an appearance. I now use nothing but Aldi - cant believe how much money I wasted on Pampers. I don't like Aldi wipes though-or rather DD's bottom didn't like them.

Aldi caviar cream has changed my skin and is a total bargain - and I've used probably every high end skin care range out there.

Make up wise I love some of the cheap brands. Sleek for their eyebrow gel - the same as benefit brow zings but can't quite get the right colour match with the sleek one. Mua eyeshadow palettes are fab - as are the revolution ones. I've got another cheap palette just now from boots but can't remember the brand. I've never used Urban decay so can't compare but the Ones mentioned above have similar colours to the Naked palettes and application is a dream. I'm looking for a nice pale pink toned lipstick for my wedding and was veering towards MAC. Any cheaper suggestions?

I got this tip from Mumsnet and it is true, boots no7 Dolled Up mascara at £4.99 is the same as Benefit's Rollerball at £20+

ASDA crunchy nut cornflakes - made by Nestle.
Kellogs don't make cereals for anyone else. BUT they usually come below own brands aka Nestle in taste-tests

I'm really not on board with the 'LIdl perfumes smells like Chanel No5' shizzle. I wear Chanel No5. The Lidl stuff smells like drain cleaner.

Clarabel - what Beast said. The fundamentals of the cover can be quite different - it's not just down to claims service, customer service, branding etc. The whole point of my post was to point out that just because the same underwriters are behind Petplan and Sainsbury's, doesn't automatically mean that their respective pet insurance policies will be identical. In the spirit of the thread - this is to highlight that 'the same but cheaper' doesn't always apply in insurance. Only you know what your pet(s) needs are. If you have a good relationship with your vet then it's worthwhile asking them who they would recommend - as they will have practical experience of being on the 'claims' end of pet policies.

Lidl's desserts in the deluxe range is made on the same factory line as M&S equivalent desserts. The products ate then split in packaging area and labelled accordingly. Was a few years ago so may have changed now

The Lidl tiramisu is the BEST I've ever had, judgement made after extensive taste testing

"ASDA crunchy nut cornflakes - made by Nestle.
Kellogs don't make cereals for anyone else. BUT they usually come below own brands aka Nestle in taste-tests

"

This is just adding to the lists of cereal we can't have! We boycott Nestle!

Thanks for the clarification mrdacres
I know nothing about pet insurance.

You can get like-for-like travel/home/car insurance policies (same cover and exclusions) where the ONLY product difference is the cost of the premiums. There are other differences too though, such a customer service.

I was thinking along the same lines for per insurance but I stand corrected.

Great thread!

*pet

Picking up a couple of things said up thread
Making your own popcorn from kernels in a pan rather than buying microwaveable...you can pop plain popcorn kernels in the microwave - don't add anything to them, make sure you don't put too many in a bowl and it has a sturdy lid to stop them escaping - takes about 5 mins (depending on microwave), saves washing a pan. .. you can add salt/sugar/butter to it later.
A couple of possible false economies...
Be careful buying branded goods in poundland - in fact buying anything that is cheaper anywhere really - there was a program about it a while ago.
Apparently in poundland the branded things that seem cheaper are often slightly smaller sizes eg. 800ml compared to 900ml in supermarkets -so are the same price anyway. Or packets marked 6 for the price of 4 when you could get 6 for £1 elsewhere anyway. (One I realised was some cereal in Lidl - malted wheats maybe - a box of their own brand was cheaper than supermarket own brand - but the supermarket one comes in 750g boxes, Lidl is 725g boxes...) Also some things in poundland for £1 you can get exactly the same in eg homebargains for 80p...
Compatible ink for branded ink in printers ...for a start you should use genuine until your guarantee runs out or it voids it - but lots of modern ink jet printers have print heads on the printer (rather than on the cartridges which they used to have - why they are now cheaper to buy...HP cartridges I think still have print heads).
I've had problems with 'compatible' ink clogging a Canon printer print head (tin foil hat time - not sure that canon don't add something to their ink to make that more likely to happen...) On canon you can try and flush the print head or replace them (about £50) - on Epson it is fixed - the print head blocks- your printer is dead. So depends on much printing you do whether you save money with compatibles - I mainly use genuine on my (little used) printer. But I buy compatibles for somewhere that does a lot of printing and the printer is old...if it does need replacing now we have still saved money in the long run -if that makes any sense. (And on the same note - if your print head blocks don't do lots of head cleaning as that will cause another issue (waste ink pad problems) - just print lots of junk with genuine ink to try and flush it out. Or I think you can buy cleaning cartridges now you could try)

Slightly off tangent but I find shopping smarter saves so much money
Following on from unlucky one thing I always do in the supermarket is check the price per kg or price per item (eg toilet rolls) and compare that. It's eye opening when you start because you soon see that smaller packets of things like rice and pasta are actually more expensive per kg than bigger packs and things that appear to be on offer are still often more expensive than other items.

Haven't RTFT all the way through, so apols if I'm repeating.

By law, own brand pharmaceuticals have to be as good as the branded stuff, so no point in paying for Nurofen etc when Tesco's own are 32p.

Don't buy nuts and seeds from the tempting display in the fresh produce area - smaller bags and higher prices. Pick them up in the home baking aisle.

Formerly I agree check the kg price .... and the reverse is true too bigger pack doesn't always mean cheaper per kg .
And the classic buy loose fruit and veg is cheaper - I don't think is the case any more for some things - you do have to check (if you have the time and can make the effort) - my classic eg was brussel sprouts one Christmas - we only need a handful (I'm the only one who likes them but DCs/DP have one as it is 'tradition') but it was cheaper to buy a big pre- packaged bag than buy just what we needed loose...(I ate a lot of brussel sprouts that year - but I luckily do like them and rarely have them so didn't mind )

@LoupGarou where do you find Milani in the UK?

@kwick I'm not in the UK but I've just checked and they have almost the full range on amazon UK.

Clara - spot on. ALWAYS read your documents so you know exactly what you are covered for, because the last thing you want is to find out it's not covered when you want to make a claim! On a positive note, there are often fringe benefits to policies which you won't know about until you read your documents. For example legal protection can often be built in to more expensive policies (rather than an optional add-on). My home insurance has it and the legal cover includes employment issues and access to a 24-7/365 legal advice helpline. Pretty useful if you end up having work problems!

Coming from a skincare research background, Creme de la mer has totally different ingredients to Nivea, in addition to the massive cost difference in manufacturing the product, in all of the articles i have seen about comparing the two you can clearly see the la mer users. Do these Nivea users really think that so many people would continue to pay for a priduct that was supposedly no better than Nivea? Right oh.

In addition to this the M and S skincare user that thinks the product is made in the same place as Liz Earle, well sorry to disappoint but it isnt and the ingredients are very different!

Sainsbury's Wotsits are better than Wotsits.

Thanks loup! I am loving this thread!

Some great ideas!

Been to Aldi and spent a fortune!

Catwaving I promise I don't work for Nivea!

B&M loo rolls 18 for only £2.99 and they're thick and good quality.

Cheapest own brand pasta is horrible ime, it's like cardboard compared to the ones that cost slightly more.

Fairy liquid might cost more but than main supermarket versions but it lasts us a LOT longer and is more economical.

Worlds Best Cat Litter on Zooplus is still expensive but it lasts so much longer than any of the other 10+ other types i've tried over the years. Not only is it a better product it's cheaper over the month too.

World's best cat litter absolutely amazing stuff.
It costs me less than £15 a month for four indoor cats

My youngest child is 5 now, so this may no longer be true but - Aptamil and C&G formula are exactly the same. Same ingredients, same production line, same nutritional value. Different only in marketing.