Comments on: Reducing the Grocery Budget - Buy Generic

By: Coral Clarke

Coral Clarke — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 14:24:01 +0000

When I was fostering teenagers we were going through milk faster than I could earn the money to pay for it-foster allowances weren’t based on the appetites of my boys ! Half fresh milk/half powdered milk, icy cold, in fresh milk 2 litre containers, passed un-noticed, I always pre-mixed generic cordial, encouraged the use of LOTs of ice cubes in the glass (something most kids love, anyway), and had a set of tall narrow glasses that looked like BIG drinks, but held no more than my cheese spread glasses ! New generic items like coffee I decanted into old “branded” containers, 25% new/75% old to begin with, and upped it a little at a time. Another huge saver was cheap day old bread, whether as a meat loaf stretcher, toasted sandwich maker, or for a roasting dish full of bread & butter pudding (fruit or raisin bread was great for this), and French toast was always popular also. Cheap desserts each night meant every one felt extravagantly fed, even when the main course
was not as generous as I’d have liked.

By: Maggie

Maggie — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 12:48:57 +0000

link as per requested : http://creativeportal.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!FFBBD55BC99AC368!638.entry

By: lightening

lightening — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 08:42:17 +0000

Why Maggie - of course you are special! I think there are *some* store brand organics. The market here for organics is slowly growing although the laws aren’t really clear enough in terms of what qualifies as “organic” so there is still some confusion amongst consumers in this area.

Bettina - sounds like your position is pretty much similar to mine.

Trish - I would dearly LOVE to give Aldi’s a try as I’ve heard many good things about them. One day maybe….

By: Babyamore (Trish)

Babyamore (Trish) — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 09:15:58 +0000

great idea - I have tried and taste tested a few brand vs no name stuff . Aldi’s is good for value on a lot of things without the no frills packaging and interesting names instead of generic.
I can’t wait to see what people come up with.

My Little Drummer boys

By: Generic Grocery Brands |

Generic Grocery Brands | — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:03:16 +0000

[...] Lightening Online brought up an interesting topic this week - generic grocery brands. Her post reminded me of trudging my way through the ‘no name’ snackfood my mother occasionally bought because we couldn’t always afford the better stuff. We lived about 25 minutes from a small country town and we couldn’t always nip down to the shops for a treat, so Mum learned to keep a stocked pantry - and because of my parents’ limited finances at the time, there were always plenty of generic products - things like tinned peaches (a cheap dessert), long-life milk (UHT shelf-stable milk) and all manner of baking supplies. [...]

By: Bettina

Bettina — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 03:31:53 +0000

Often it depends. I have no problem with trying the store brand version of a product. In some cases we prefer it. Hubby prefers the woolies brand pasta sauce over dolmio’s for exampe. Sometimes we’ll find one generic brand better than another. I find the coles brand peach slices better than the woolies ones.

These things, I think, are all just trial and error but if I can buy a product that is as good or better for less because of a label, I have no hesitation in doing so.

By: Maggie

Maggie — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 23:03:36 +0000

My favourite topic — food!
And thank you for including those of us who are overseas. I feel special And yes, generic brand is the same thing as store brand. I will stew on this over the weekend. There are many store brand items that I purchase. I’m curious, do Australian stores carry store brand Organics? Grocery stores here in Canada do.