To ask your suggestions what it's ok to cheap out on?

[lettymoo]

I recently saw a thread about things it's worth spending more on to get better quality, but I was hoping to start a discussion about what things it makes absolutely no difference at all with and the lowest priced versions are just as good.

Some of the things I'll buy the cheapest/value version of include:
painkillers
medications
tortilla chips
cleaning products (although I'm starting to wonder about this)
printer paper
disposable razors
cotton wool pads

Would love to hear your suggestions!

Pasta
Pasata
Cotton wool make up pads
Tin tomatoes
Panty liners
Liquid hand soap
Toothbrushes
Tortillas
Ready salted crisps
Bananas
Weetabix
Porridge oats
Grapes
Kitchen roll
Bubble Bath (adult)
Baby wipes
Shower gel (DH)
Mens body spray
Fizzy pop
Cordial
Vanilla ice cream
Cereal
Toilet cleaner
Stain remover like vanish
Spaghetti hoops (sainsburys own)
Washing up liquid
Instant coffee
Pasta Sauce
Hot chocolate (sainsbury basics is lovely)

I will not compromise on the following though:

Yorkshire tea
Taylor's ground coffee
Lurpack butter
Hovis wm bread
Heinz tomato ketchup
Heinz baked beans
Yeo Valley Natural Greek Yoghurt
Method cleaning products
Persil or Fairy non bio powder
Finish dish washer tabs or Fairy
Diet coke
Andrex white toilet roll

And

Kids bath products / body wash
Bar soap
Deodarant
My skin care
Foundation, powder and lip stick
Shampoo (myself)
Conditioner
Hair products
Sports bra
Trainers
Winter coats
Welly boots
Shoes
Tooth paste / mouth wash
Bedding

Bit of a tangent but when I was looking at spice jars in Tesco yesterday there were two types of cinnamon; one for sweet dishes and one for savoury. The main brand was boasting the cinnamon was at least twenty years old. Are they yanking a chain ?

Loo roll
Bran flakes (cheapo are actually nicer)
Kitchen roll
Washing powder- sainsburies non bio is great and cheap
Vinegar
Sugar, flour etc
Eggs as long as free range
Orange juice- Aldi’s is lovely
Aldi face cream also great

Got to be branded: jam (m and s!), Cafe Direct coffee, Yorkshire tea, crisps, shower gel (Lush, I hate getting up and it makes me feel slightly better), bread-cheap stuff is horrible, dog food (fussy git), Lurpak, ketchup, potato waffles!

Wilko's own brand household cleaners and toilet cleaners are cheap and very effective.

I also buy their painkillers, cotton pads, baby wipes, and those scrunchy things you output shower gel on with. I have had a few bits of Essence make up from there which were cheap and quite good.

Long lasting batteries from Poundland.

Nail varnishes and lipsticks from Primark. About a quid.

I have lots of high end makeup like Hourglass but reach for a lot of Revolution or Elf make up these days. I will not replace the expensive stuff when it goes. I am over expensive products.

dementedma the bottled water we buy is fizzy. HTH

Were you tempted to buy the 20 year old stuff, walchesterweasel? I bet they were differently priced.

Aldi is fine for nearly anything, apart from bread, rubbish bread so I make my own

Bin liners
Milk
Eggs
Sugar
Washing powder
Washing up liquid
Bleach
In fact most cleaning products

It would be easier to say what I don't go cheap on;
Baked beans
Marmite
Shampoo
Bread
Toothbrush heads
Shower shine.
Everything else I do own brand or value

Aldi crisps and mini oatcakes.
For Lurpak fans - try Co-Op slightly salted spreadable - you might just be surprised/impressed. I was. Also, doesn't contain Palm oil.

Cheap pjs are the best! My SIL got me a super expensive pair and they're uncomfortable and shrunk as soon as washed! Make up wipes. The boots £1 cucumber ones are amazing!

I'll happily go own brand on ALL food products bar bread. Cheap bread always seems to taste stale. Cheap cleaning products always work fine for me too. Thee only thing I won't skimp on are air fresheners/plug ins/reed diffusers, as the cheapest ones always smell even more artificial, and detergent, which I try to buy when it's on offer.

I'll buy super cheap shampoo but mid-range conditioner.

I would never buy cheap make-up because I definitely notice the difference.

And my MIL turned up with some Tescos own brand paracetamol for children earier. I know it's more than likely exactly the same ingredients as Calpol, but it made me feel a bit iffy, and I shoved it in the back of the cupboard. Silly really.

I will buy branded stuff on offer.I get tinned soup for lunch and wait until it is in offer as I am not a fan of many supermarket own brand.
I also prefer the cheap tortillas chips.
I fluctuate between whole and chopped tomatoes as DD likes to drink the tomato juice.I have no problem with the flavour as it is used as a base so has herbs&spices added anyway.

Lidl dishwasher tablets

Passata- open tin of tomatoes, pour in bowl, insert immersion (hand) blender, whizz, and, hey, presto-passata!
Always buy dried beans, pulses & long-cook brown rice, cook in my Pressure King, no wastage as rice, especially, does not stick.
Sainsbury’s contact lens solution cost£2.15; Renu costs £10 & is equal. And I am sensitive to contact lens solution- huge savings.

Ditto supermarket own brand tortillas, taste way more authentic

I use the rule of "second shittest" for thing like loo roll, squash, butter etc

This is a brilliant rule and great name! I agree with all three of those things. I'd add ketchup, because sainsburys/tesco basics ones are awful, but aldi/lidl 45p bottles are really nice! See also their lemonade - not sugar free, the normal one.

Most cheapest value dark chocolate can be really nice. As can milk and white, I use them for cooking with - just avoid sainsburys and lidl's white.

I'm lol at all the tinned tomato snobbery here 😂 I only use then for cooking into stews and not, say, as an accompaniment to a full English like some weirdos. I have tried expensive ones and really don't notice a difference in a casserole or stew, no. I add a pinch of sugar to anything tomatoey, it makes a big difference. If I want more tomatoey flavour I'll add tomato puree (39p aldi!). I generally prefer cooking with passata, which I do think the more expensive ones taste nicer but there's such a massive price difference and the more expensive ones often have extra unwanted ingredients to enhance their flavour anyway, that I tend to stick to cheap.

Sidenote but have you seen some of the ingredients in some tinned veg?!?!?! You'd think they'd just be in sugar or salt water, right? There are colourings and artificial preservatives and "flavour enhancers" in some - an innocent tin of peas, for instance! Sometimes I buy cheapest to avoid them, sometimes cheapest are the culprits! Take peas for example cheap lidl peas - full of colouring, branded mushy peas (batchelors I think) colouring and shit, value mushy peas just peas and salt!

Ive noticed a huge difference going from Sainsburys to Aldi shopping but I won't go cheap on;
Baked beans (has to be Branston)
Marmite
Bread
Heinz Ketchup
Teabags (has to be PG Pyramids)

I hate shopping now though.. i used to just go to the nearest shop which was Sainsburys but within the last few months there has been an Aldi, B&M and Home Bargains open up the same distance so i shop between all 4 which drives me mad but its saving ne quite alot!

Another tinned Tom fan. Had to be the better brand.

Not much point spending tons on San Pro, basic veg, store cupboard staples I. E. Chick peas, lentils, coconut milk, etc.

The only problem with the really cheap squash is that it's already really diluted. a 1-litre bottle will make you.... 1.5 litres of squash.

Agree with veg - if buying from a supermarket (and farm shops - proper ones, not artisan lifestyle/touristy ones - tend to be cheaper still), how under earth(!) does a carrot know to make itself less tasty because it's a slightly comedic shape and thus going to end up as Morrisons Wonky Veg?

Definitely second generic medicines. Whilst there may be some cause for debate or personal preference over food and other household products, the law demands that it be exactly the same as the expensive branded versions advertised on the telly. I think there's a code number on them that matches the branded ones and proves it's no different.

You get what you pay for - and if you buy most of the big brands, you've paid for the endless adverts on prime-time commercial TV. They spend many millions each year on ads - how would they not need to charge lots extra purely to pay for those ads, long before any money goes anywhere near improving quality or taste?

I won't go cheap on....Baked beans (has to be Branston)

I agree with you there, although they're nearly always on offer at Asda (confusingly the 3-packs usually work out much cheaper than the 4-packs) and don't cost very much more than the own-brand ones. The basics ones cost a bit less, but they tend to be mostly sauce and a few nauseous-looking beans.

Interestingly, I can't remember seeing an advert on telly for Branstons for many years now. Do they not need to advertise and sell on the basis of genuine trusted quality - or do I just watch the wrong commercial channels?!

On the subject of fizzy water, I'd love it if there was a genuine cost-effective alternative to bulk-buying it from supermarkets. Does anybody know of one?

I stock up on the 17p for two-litres stuff and store it in the shed, but it does obviously create a load of plastic recycling.

I've looked for alternative options, but they all seem to involve having to regularly buy expensive small gas cannisters (which, tbf, probably do get recycled) - and the main brand that's easy to get supplies for brings with it some very controversial ethical dilemmas - or to haul in massive cannisters as big as your fridge and rig up the pipes to make your kitchen like a pub.

The cannister options still seem to work out at something like 50p a litre, which may compare favourably with Perrier or San Pellegrino, but is 6 times more than the nice cheap-jack stuff, which requires no preparation or equipment.

And my MIL turned up with some Tescos own brand paracetamol for children earier. I know it's more than likely exactly the same ingredients as Calpol, but it made me feel a bit iffy, and I shoved it in the back of the cupboard. Silly really

Now that is a bit silly, and makes it sound as if you have MIL issues rather than paracetamol issues!

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll soda stream, they often sell the machines on special offer. It does work out more expensive than the cheapest sparkling water in bottles but less expensive then the dearerest brands, and there no going flat as it's fresh every time. And obviously no disposable plastic, and the gas canisters are recycled.

Sorry, just read your post properly I shouldn't post before coffee - is it SS there are ethical issues with?

Snap madvixen, I tried Norpak but Lurpak is one of those things I just can't scrimp on.

Rolla Cola