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I love to live life better for less. Buying many generic products at the grocery store will save you a lot of dough without sacrificing quality. People often think of store brands as being inferior to name brands. I want to challenge that idea.
I hit the supermarkets searching for store brand products that will make you ask yourself why you ever bought name brands in the first place.
Here are five:
Organic Milk:
Many people think they can't be healthy and use store brands at the same time. Not true! Safeway created their own brand "O Organics," now available in several stores. Their products are certified organic just like the name brands. Only for a lot less.
Horizon Organic Milk $3.99/half gallon
(Safeway) O Organics Milk $2.99/half gallon
Savings: $1.00/half gallon
Bleach:
When I think of bleach I think of Clorox. What's funny is that when I looked at the main ingredient of every bottle of bleach at the store it was the same, 6% Sodium Hypochlorite. Some were more expensive than others however.
Clorox Regular Bleach $1.94/3 qt. container
(Walmart) Great Value Bleach $1.47/3 qt. container
Savings $.47
Over the Counter Medicines:
I got this from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's website. It says:
"By law, a generic drug product must contain the identical amounts of the same active ingredient(s) as the brand name product. Drug products evaluated as "therapeutically equivalent" can be expected to have equal effect and no difference when substituted for the brand name product."
This says to me that since the active ingredients are "identical", you're throwing your money away if you buy the name brand drugs. They're not better for you!
Extra Strength Tylenol (acetaminophen) 24 caplets 500 mg. each $4.99
(Albertsons) Equaline Extra Strength pain relief (acetaminophen) 24 caplets 500 mg. each $1.49
Savings $3.50
(Albertsons) Equaline Extra Strength pain relief (acetaminophen) 24 caplets 500 mg. each $1.49
Savings $3.50
Margarine:
I have a hard time believing that one butter substitute is much better than another! These two options have very similar ingredients (both include sweet cream buttermilk) and very different prices.
I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! $2.59/15 oz. container
I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! $2.59/15 oz. container
(Frys) Kroger Butter It's Not! $1.50/15 oz. container
Savings: $1.09
Cleaning Supplies:
This is another case where it pays to look at the labels. I would be surprised if you found a big difference between these two products:
Clorox Clean-Up Cleaner with Bleach $2.54/32 oz. container
(Target) Up&Up all purpose cleaner with bleach $1.99/32 oz. container
Savings: $.55
Name brand total price of these 5 products: $16.05
Store brand total price of these 5 products: $9.44
If you bought the store brands you saved $6.61 (more than 40%!)
I don't think you'll even be able to tell the difference!
A few of my family's favorite generic products:
Trader Joe's O's
My kids like these better than Cheerios!
Safeway Refreshe Water Bottles
I know you should never buy bottled water, but for some reason, Safeway's water tastes better to me than any name brand!
Albertsons Store Brand Canned Cinnamon Rolls
These are by far the best I've tasted
Fry's Bakery Tortillas
These are made fresh in front of you at the store. They are so much better than the name brand tortillas!
Fresh and Easy Extra Virgin Olive Oil
I love EVOO and this one works really well for me!
Another thing to keep in mind is that stores really want you to try their store brand products. Ask before you buy, but most will let you return them if you're not satisfied for a full refund. Happy saving!!!
