Will you/have you stopped buying “branded” food?

[BabyofMine]

I remember a few years back a nice thread about what branded foods were good and worth the cost. I remember a lot of people thinking Napolina tomatoes were really tasty compared to “own brand” tinned tomatoes.

With the price of food going up and up, I wonder whether the devotees of certain brands will be still getting them because they’re worth it, or making sacrifices to save some money?

So if you’ve been a devotee of a name brand food, are you giving it up?? What would you be really reluctant to ever compromise on? What’s a false economy? I’m not asking if you are going to be making savings/changes overall, but if you were really dedicated to one particular brand would you give it up??

My favourite “branded” thing is Hellman’s mayonnaise and I’m not planning on giving it up but I am using a lot less and being more careful to only put a little bit on my plate so I don’t waste it.

YABU= I will NOT be giving up my favourite branded foods.
YANBU= I will be giving up my favourite brands to save money.

I already don’t/rarely buy any branded food products. Aldi for me the last 5 years or so. Tesco occasionally for toiletries some of which are branded.

I’ll stick to my brands for now. Napolina tinned toms are the best.
I use a lot of cheaper stuff already though such as the cheapest tomato purée from Tesco, I really can’t see the difference.
Funnily enough I needed passata the other day so sieved and mushed a can of tomatoes, then mixed in a good dollop of tomato purée. It was perfect, I won’t be buying passata any more.

This is what I wanted to say. I'm not in the UK but I'm sure it the same there.

Most of the no name items are the branded ones but in cheaper packaging. Sometimes the manufacturer has a 2nd line to make the items appear a little different, but essentially they are the same thing. Luckily I live near a lot of factory shops, so I get a lot of items there so I know who is making what line.

This is for locally produced items of course. When it comes to imported products, it's a case of try it and see. I never buy a bulk deal on something untested.

Cleaning products and loo roll, you are usually good to go on the unbranded version.

the vast majority of our food shop is unbranded. We use Lidl brands mostly, however there’s a few things that we won’t budge on!

Diet Coke
marmite
and for out cats Sheba wet and royal canin dry food 🙄

100% Aldi in my house

That’s interesting. It’s not so much the taste but the texture. Aldi one is dry for about 3 slices either end of the loaf. Not stale but I’m assuming it’s being frozen at some point.

weetabix
heinz salad cream
willow butter

Probably just marmite. Or Cadburys giant buttons, we do like the M&S giant buttons but they're probably more expensive.

Please don't ban it! I've got coeliacs and absolutely love marmite but can't eat it because it has barely in it.
It took a few weeks but I've weaned myself onto Aldi's yeast extract and now really love it!

It might be true for some items but I am not 100% sure it’s true for all substitutes - the ingredients on packaging are different

We’ll stick with the things we like, but in lots of cases we’ve already experimented with different brands/supermarkets so that isn’t always the most expensive.

E.g we prefer the ASDA own brand jalapeños to the El Paso ones. We tried all the ketchups and the nicest is Tiptree in the glass bottle. And so on.

Like previous posters, we are expecting to have to cut back on our shopping but instead of moving to cheaper brands we’ll keep the quality and go for less glamorous meals. Instead of making steak sandwiches with chips on Friday nights, we’ll have a baked potato.

My two must have branded were, Fairy Liquid and Birdseye peas. I've found the Aldi washing up liquid a good swap but nothing beats Birdseye Peas in my opinion!

The only branded I buy now is Fairy liquid, Ariel and Lenor.
That is it.
Everything else is Aldi own brand, even their mayo and I was a Hellmans fan (it tastes the same!!).

My cat will only eat Felix soups end of. I can imagine her disgust if I put down a cheap alternative she would probably rather starve than eat it!

Not that Felix soups are the high end of quality but after trying so many other brands/ cat food without success I am resigned to the fact that I will be buying them for the foreseeable as long as they don’t get discontinued!

Ages ago I made DH watch Shop Well for Less and he really took it to heart and started coming back from the weekly shop with own-brand swaps even though I was fairly adamant on certain brands. We’ve mostly swapped everything now except marmite, coffee and some tea. And once I get through the current own brand Worcestershire sauce I’m going back to Lee & Perrins but we’ll probably have had another boom and crash cycle by then!

I really want to see supermarkets go back to getting value goods on shelves, like they’ve done a few years ago. I don’t care about packaging for some things. Supermarkets are being really slow in getting this sorted, they seem more concerned about making smaller sized items and still charging more.

I also made that mistake

the only brands i buy are marmite
and pg tips or yorkshire

but i have bought shops own gold tea bags and can go back.

The only brand we buy is for the cat -as she turns her nose up at anything else.

100% Aldi here.
Except for Marmite, L&P, & chocolate Wheatabix (large size, when on offer)

We've been shopping in Aldi & Lidl for years & are pretty happy with non branded goods. We do tend to buy the more espensive versions of Jam's/pasta etc. However I've recently discovered that Mutti Passata makes the best pizza sauce & Caputo flour makes a fantastic pizza base. I'm fine with Aldi Passata in most other meals though.
Kids only like kelloggs crunchy nut clusters as well, as they say the cheaper equivalent is nasty. As are the cheap tins of reconstituted tuna.

@Gingerkittykat have you tried Aldi’s Nordpak? It’s much better than Lidl’s Danpak. I can’t tell the difference between Nordpak and Lurpak.

Can’t swap Cherry Pepsi, Heinz spaghetti/hoops, Yorkshire Tea bags or Weetabix (DH will have the cheap ones, DD doesn’t like the crunchy bits she finds in them)
Also laundry detergent/softener won’t be swapped.
Managed to change cats biscuits to Aldi’s but wet food had to stay Whiskas pouches - won’t even eat tinned 🙄

I think almost everything else we give store own brands a go.

i have remembered tuna,
only like princes/other brands,
but not shop and absolutely not lidl.

I won't give up Fairy washing pods.