to be annoyed with DHs obsession with branded food

[Fibilou]

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.

cheers that was funny!

I think it's the spontaneous Magnums and Pringles and snacking on cornflakes that's more of an issue?

DH is addicted to peanut butter. I only buy the posh organic no sugar added stuff because I worry that otherwise he'll overdose on sugar and go on a mass murdering spree! But because of his addiction, we've had to agree he's only allowed one jar every few weeks!

I agree with your DH.

Have you looked in the pound shops for stuff like ketchup? You get the brands at much cheaper prices than the big supermarkets - I go there just to get these & coffee etc.

I must say I'm the first person to defend expensive food against cheap food, but I am a complete convert to the chocolate you can buy in Aldi. I am a fussy customer where food is concerned but their chocolate is excellent value for money - not too sweet or too oily, very good quality.

I like the suggestion of giving him the cash and the shopping list, and sending him out to do the shopping alone.

I just remembered something-I used to as student many years ago work at a factory in Northampton that made sliced garlic bread (god the job was hideous-12 hours over night stuffing bread into a slicing machine-still it was £60 a shift) but we used to pack them into different boxes-we had no less than 5 brands going out of there and no different treatment- M&S, Sainsbury's, tesco, et al. All the same factory all the same bread.

Sometimes there is genuinely no difference.

Blind taste test. It'll be a fun game to play. Make sure you're playing 'what tastes best' not just 'which tastes familiar'. Then ask yourselves, does it taste £1.50 better, or only 50p better?

Oblomov, the people on that thread would hate us. I meet my husband and daughter at the supermarket on a Friday night after a few drinks work and I let her toddle around while we pick ourselves a nice no-cook meal for the evening and do the week's groceries. It's quiet on a Friday night, but still. It's an actual family outing for us. Last week I had a work commitment to go to and couldn't join them, and I actually missed it.

I am a sad, sad, tragic human being.

tortoise omg DH and I do that too! And when DC arrives, s/he will be coming along too! It's mega quiet on a Friday evening and they always re-stock their shelves then too so there's loads of stuff... I'll stop now before I embarrass myself further
OP, YANBU to put own brand cornflakes in there. The branded stuff you usually buy; midweek just sneakily sneak out in a sneaky fashion and grab some own branded stuff from the local store and slowly start to cut the branded products with it. Slowly so he doesn't notice the different, and so it's not so obvious. And then, when you get to the supermarket you can just say 'we don't need anymore ketchup/cornflakes, we've still got loads left, you've not been eating as much of it... oh DH, I knew you'd respect my economising measures in your own way, thank you so much for backing me up...' He'll be so stunned he won't say a word. You'll still have to buy the occasional new bottle/packet of Heinz or whatever, but nowhere near as much as you are now