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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be annoyed with DHs obsession with branded food

85 replies

Fibilou · 25/05/2010 19:59

This month we have gone down to SMP from my normal wage, leaving us around £900 worse off. Therefore we have to seriously economise, the first casualty being the food budget.
DH refuses to buy own brand baked beans, cornflakes, tomato ketchup. We have spent about £5 more than necessary because of his blind obsession that "they taste different". Now, the only thing out of the above that I eat is the ketchup and I could not tell the difference between Tesco and Heinz, despite having worked in a fine wine merchant and therefore having a pretty good palate.

AIBU to expect that, when I have tried to keep the entire housekeeping shop this month under £100 (I am making my own cleaning products with lemon and vinegar etc, that is how much I am trying to economise) that DH could give up his infuriating obsession with brands and learn to love own-label ?

And furthermore,AIBU to buy a packet of tesco cornflakes and swap the inside into a Kellogs box then say "you've been eating the Tescos and you didn't notice" next month ? He didn't notice when I substituted Tesco salad cream for Heinz and we now buy own brand so I am wearing him down slowly.

£5 could feed us for 2 days on our current budget.

OP posts:
mumblechum · 25/05/2010 20:01

I'd tell him if he wants branded stuff it comes out of his pocket not yours.

Batteryhuman · 25/05/2010 20:02

My DH is the same. You just have to wear him down slowly (and not let him do the shopping)

WhereYouLeftIt · 25/05/2010 20:04

If it bothers him that much he could just do without. Toast probably works out cheaper for breakfast than any packet of cornflakes anyway.

mrsbabookaloo · 25/05/2010 20:05

...sorry to disagree, but they DO taste different. Not everything, but beans most definitely. I'm afraid I'm always looking at our food spending and knowing I should economise, but there I go again, buying the not from concentrate juices and the expensive bread. It's one of those upbringing things.

But having said that, you are obviously making sacrifices at the moment and so should he.

Original poster
Fibilou · 25/05/2010 20:06

He doesn't eat it for breakfast - he eats it in gargantuan quantities between meals. So it's just a snack which makes it more annoying.

OP posts:
Pattertwig · 25/05/2010 20:07

put the tesco stuff in a heinz bottle and totally confuse him

Igglybuff · 25/05/2010 20:08

YANBU.

I'd make the swap if I were you. Although somethings do taste different - cornflakes being one of them. However, I reckon it's partly all in the mind. If you see it come out of a different box, you tell yourself it's different before you even taste!

Loshad · 25/05/2010 20:09

i'd defiantely do the own brand cornflakes in the kellogs box but think i'd leave it ages before i fessed up

AmazingBouncingFerret · 25/05/2010 20:13

You can tell with corn flakes. We bought own brand once and I couldnt eat them. Just had to make loads of chocolate corn flake cakes so I could use them up. (woe is me! )

My mum tried to trick me into eating ASDA brand coco pops when I was a teenager. Didnt work, took one bite and I knew!

Other things can be just as good and better though.

radstar · 25/05/2010 20:13

I'd do the swap thing if you really think he is being silly over it. My friend's mum did this everytime her boyfriend came over, with him it was just snobbishness.

If it bothers your dh that much say he should choose just one thing, say ketchup, that he couldnt possibly change but the others he should at least try, especially if finances are that tight.

Original poster
Fibilou · 25/05/2010 20:30

If he really can tell the difference then that's fine, I am happy to pay the extra if it i that much of a deal. However I am not convinced that he would notice the difference if not told and not expecting anything other than the branded product he is used to

OP posts:
fabat40 · 25/05/2010 20:34

Buy a bottle of the named brand but in a slightly different flavour, ie, salt reduced, etc (they always have a dozen different flavours don't they????!!!!), so that the flavour will be a little bit different, and then swap the contents over with the store brand stuff and see what happens. But that's just me, and if you're economising then it's that or no snacks at all!!!!

Shodan · 25/05/2010 20:44

You could try cutting them half and half, see if he notices that?

So mix own brand cornflakes in with Kelloggs, or whatever.

Then increase cheaper brand proportions.

LittleMissHissyFit · 25/05/2010 21:22

I'm funny with ketchup, beans and cornflakes. To me it has to taste exactly like Heinz or Kellogg's or I won't touch it.

I swear that Lidl's versions are perfectly acceptable. Shop at Lidl, it'll be cheaper across the board and the food there is really very good quality.

BritFish · 25/05/2010 21:32

dont know why it tasting different equates to it being bad!
yep, definately switch all the stuff you can to basics stuff. sainsburys taste the difference range is good for biscuits, cakes etc. lidl is good for anything. have fun economising and teasing him after a month when you tell him what youve done. even if he says 'oh well i could taste the difference' if he's eating it and you have to stick to a budget, he has no excuse to be on expensive stuff.
i prefer green&blacks white chocolate to any other white chocolate, but will DH buy me vast quantities of it to keep for emergencies, noooo.....

MrsC2010 · 25/05/2010 21:35

'Upbringing thing'?

whatwasthatagain · 25/05/2010 21:37

Different, not a problem, cheap alternative- pants. Remember having this argument years ago on a 'joint'holiday when I put Carr's Water biscuits in the trolley and another woman took them out and substituted with own brand. Huge argument discussion ensued followed by me buying my own packet and having a blind taste session, which I won, in that I correctly identified the Carr's. Personally I would rather not have something than have an inferior substitute. However if my DH was pissing me off in this way then I would definitely substitute - I might care what I eat but not what he does

SalFresco · 25/05/2010 21:46

I definitely think branded cereals are nicer, I'm afraid, and there are a few other items I do now buy branded, and have had to admit to DH that they do in fact taste loads better.

For him, it is also an upbringing thing though, in the sense that his family NEVER had branded items, and he hated having "crappy" versions of things which weren't as nice (his words!!) whereas we had a mix of things depending what was on offer, and what we liked.

For evidence that branded stuff is sometimes greatly superior, look no further than Coke, versus own brand cola

kitcat1977 · 25/05/2010 21:50

It's the budget lines that taste minging (I'm referring to cereals.) Own brands really don't taste much different IMO.

marriednotdead · 25/05/2010 22:09

There's at least one cereal in Lidl's that tastes better than the branded equivalent- think it's called Mastercrumble something, one of those crunchy ones with freeze dried strawberries- yummy. Their cornflakes did well in a blind taste test. Recommendations for cheap alternatives here too.
Started shopping in Lidl when DHs work started drying up. Do about 50-70% of shopping there now, especially fruit and veg. He won't give up the Heinz ketchup though and it's got to be charmin cushelle for my ladybits

thisisyesterday · 25/05/2010 22:21

you do the shopping, you have the budget, you choose what you get

if he doesn't like it then don't buy it and he can go without
just because it tastes different doesn't mean it is bad. unless he is claiming that it tastes so disgusting he can't possibly eat it- which i'd find hard to believe

Original poster
Fibilou · 25/05/2010 22:44

unfortunately thisisyesterday, I am unable to do the shopping alone, he always comes with me. There would be world war 3 if I did the food shop alone (which I couldn't manage anyway as we only have one car) as he can't bear the prospect of me shopping without him - probably because he knows there would be nothing remotely interesting in the trolley.

Today my £62 worth of shopping turned into £93 due to DH's impulse buys. I was so angry by the time we left the store that we ended up having a row.

I have suggested doing online shopping as it would work out cheaper to have it delivered than driving 8 miles to Tesco and spending 1 - 15 hours in the shop then all the time unloading and putting it away. And we wouldn't have to traipse round the shop with our 15 week old DD. But no, he doesn't want to spend the £3 on having it delivered. He would rather spend it on pointlessly buying branded cornflakes

OP posts:
Original poster
Fibilou · 25/05/2010 22:45

And unfortunately I seem to have married a man with opinions on everything. My Dad wouldn't give a sh*t how Mum did the shopping, as long as he got dinner. If only I'd married a Yes Man

OP posts:
Original poster
Fibilou · 25/05/2010 22:46

And the emoticon should have been not . Don't know how that happened !

OP posts:
baloothebear · 25/05/2010 22:46

I actually prefer the taste of supermarket own brands now as I have lived off them since becoming a student.