Is there anything you buy that may not be the most frugal, but are picky about? I am not brand or store loyal, but there are a few things I must have. Of course, I ONLY buy when on sale/coupon!

Kraft mac and cheese
Dawn dishwashing liquid
Those clorox wipes you use and throw away, will buy generic, but a must -have for the bathroom
Good, more pricey spaghetti sauce if I'm not making scratch
Expensive lotion (eucerin,curel, etc) for dd eczema
Pine sol (I love the smell) it lasts me a looooooong time
Del monte canned vegge, but aldi brand is pretty good, and much better than the generic store brand here.
If I buy ground beef, it has to be ground sirloin. and I try and get to the farm place that sells local beef when I can.
Name brand canned tuna

Some of mine:

Dawn dishwashing liquid
Pine Sol
Pepsi, Coke
Name brand bacon
Heinz ketchup

I have to have these too:

clorox wipes you use and throw away, will buy generic, but a must -have for the bathroom.

Also, I have to have Hunts or Heinz Ketchup, no generic.

For me it's:
~Kraft Miracle Whip light
~Star Kist tuna (will buy store brand only if I'm completely out)
~frozen sausage patties at Walmart
~Aussie hair products

Bacon, that's another! Only like Sugardale.
And Pepsi for dh, I don't drink it.

For me, the only thing, and I mean the ONLY thing that I must have a brand name for are diapers. I use only Pampers or Luvs. I've used Huggies and Little Tykes and generic and store brands and they have always leaked. Perhaps I just have some heavy duty tinklers! :D

Anyway, other than that, there is nothing that I must have a name brand for. Generic works just fine for us in every other area.

I agree with everyone about the Ketchup. I only used Heinz, the rest are too sugary. Yuck.
I am the same way about Miracle Whip.
That's about it with food, although I do prefer Kraft Mac & Cheese

Now clothing and electronics on the other hand, I buy quality over price. I'd rather have a few nice things that last a long time rather than cheaply made goods that fall apart. Although quality doesn't always mean high price.

Onions
Canned mushrooms
Heinz or Hunts Ketchup
Ragu Chunky spaghetti sauce
Ajax dish soap ( love the red grapefruit kind )

Chicken of the Sea tuna
Kraft mac N cheese
campbells cream soups
Dove Nutrium or Oil of Olay bar soap

some of mine:

Tide
Downy (both bought on sale with a double coupon, of course!)

Hamburger Helper (the store brands - yuck)
Hefty garbage bags (Cannot STAND tearing bags)
AND Northern Toilet Paper (HATE that thin, wimpy stuff!)
Otherwise, everything else can be generic!

Velveeta Shells and Cheese
Campbells cream soups

Tide liquid
Downey
Dawn
Dove hand soap
Cottonelle toliet tissue
Kleenex
Campbell's soup
Twinings Earl Grey Tea [for Jim]
Miracle Whip
Hellman's
Good Seasons Italian Dressing mix
Ragu Sauce with meat or Emeril's
Albacore Tuna in water
Swanson's canned chicken breast...this is very nice tasting

























Yoplait Yogurt [for Jim]
Hunt's Ketchup
All other canned goods can be Aldi's--We find these to our liking and they are much cheaper
Oh...Ground Round or Ground Sirloin only--lot less fat content

Can't think of anything else right now :D

~ Heinz tomato soup -- all else taste like the tin can they come in

~ Kotex sanitary napkins -- I find the other ones chaff my skin. Though I'm trying to switch to the Diva cup. :eek:

~ Diet Coke or Muggs Root Beer -- they're my favorites. I rarely drink any other type of pop.

cottenell toilet tissue

I won't buy ground meat, I buy sirloins, chicken breasts, turkey breast or pork loin and grind my own.

dawn dishwashing liquid

Cottonelle toilet tissue
Twinings Earl Grey Tea

- Diet Pepsi
- Antiseptic mouthwash over the cheap stuff that may as well be minty water
- Heinz... there are no other kinds.
- Brita pitcher and filters to improve our lousy tapwater
- Partylite candles :toothy:
- Whole bean coffee
- I use an electric toothbrush
- Drug-free meat when I can get to the shop
- Farm eggs and local produce when I can get to the farmers market

I think that's it... everything else, I'm happy with whatever's cheapest.

What Must I have?

I must have nescafe Coffee
I must have Vegemite (it's an Aussie thing)
I must have Diet Coke but only on occasions,
the rest I will settle for no name brand, we do most of our shopping at Aldi, and stock up the freezer weekly, with 8 loaves of .99 Cent bread, the .99 cent UHF milk 8 of those, we buy all plain lables whereever we can and shop for bulk meat from the meat factory once a month, we then package it into serving sizes we require and only ever spent $90.00 a month on meat, including steak, chicken breast fillets and wings, sausages, chops, and bacon(handy for fried rice or a quick easy dinner)

We buy our pet food in bulk a slab of dog food cans ( 24 700 grm cans) for $18.99 of the chum brand. Same with cat food and the duck food we buy in 10 kilogram bags. "Harry" also eats along with "ho-ho" (The Guinea pig) all the table/Vegie scraps and the dogs eat anything else.
Looking forward to seeing where I can save.
thanks
Kim,

Originally posted by AmyBoz
For me, the only thing, and I mean the ONLY thing that I must have a brand name for are diapers. I use only Pampers or Luvs.



I really liked Pampers and Luvs too.. could never seem to get many Luvs coupons. I was able to use generic diapers too though. No more diapers for us at this house though!! woohhooo.... 'cept for nighttime. Congratulations on your new baby. :tedblue:

It's funny--there are more non-food items that I'm particular about. I had never thought about that.

Cottonelle Aloe & E
Bounty paper towels and napkins
Playtex tampons
Kotex Longs panty shields
All Free and Clear
Woolite

Food items, DH eats only Campbell soup, and we use Heinz or Hunts ketchup.

I really never thought about this before.... here are the things I am name-brand loyal to:

Kraft Mac&Cheese
Dye & Perfume free laundry detergents- very few brands make this, so it's generally ALL or Tide
Diet Pepsi

Nothing. I will try any brand of anything!

Chicken of the Sea tuna
Kraft sandwich spread
Scott toilet tissue

My luxury is tea. For Earl Grey, nothing but Twinings, great even in tea bags. But my real indulgence is full leaf tea -- no brand here, but a company -- Uptontea.com has won my undeviating loyalty for price and quality, and there are several varieties there that are must-have's for me. May they prosper and never go out of business!

For the cats' dry food - Eukanuba (a really serious budget ouch!), mixed with Iams (a slightly lower ouch factor). But they love it and I try to think of it as an anti-vet bill investment.

Donna

~Campbells tomato soup or Progresso Hearty tomato
~Kraft or Velvtta mac & cheese
~Coke Classic...tried generic and they taste flat (at least the bottles do)

I'm sure there are more but can't think of them right now.

Love to have
~Hellmans light Mayo
~Stash brand double spice chai tea. I get a whole 4 c pot pluse a mug of tea out of one bag, lol.
~Barilla Pasta
~good cheese
~good bread

good, strong dark roast coffee from the co-op!
oh and soy milk.

Kicking Horse coffee (organic, fair trade coffee....man, this is mine & dh's weakness)

Heinz ketchup

Coke brand coke (but we have cut wayyyyyyyyyyy down on this so we drink it occassionally now instead of daily)

Yogurt....I will alternate between 4 brands only

Ivory soap only

Pantene shampoo & conditioner only

Sunlight laundry detergent (lots of sensitive skin here)

Campbell's tomato & cream of mushroom soup

This isn't a brand but I only buy extra lean ground beef or lean ground beef (when there is no extra lean).

I believe that pretty much everything else I buy is either generic brand or the cheapest deal.

-All shoes, sneakers, etc must be very good quality which generally = expensive.
-Goldfish crackers for DD (No trans-fat)
-Hunt's spaghetti sauce (which is actually really cheap, but we like it better than the more expensive brands)
-(TMI AHEAD!!!!) ob tampons/Always when using disposables
-Stride-Rite shoes for DD (we get them at cost, though)
-DH must have Hellman's mayo
-Boca burgers
-Minute Maid Kid's OJ for DD

I could honestly only think of two things I prefer:

~ Prego spaghetti sauce
~ OB tampons

But I don't HAVE to have those and everything else is subject to change. ;) I'll try anything once. It doesn't mean I'll always buy the cheapest thing but I try not to be brand loyal.

Bob Evans Sausage
Arm n Hammer Laundry detergent (the kind with softner)
Always or Kotex ultra thin pads
Diet Pepsi
Clorox Bleach
Friskies wet and dry foods for my babies..that's their favorite
Tidy cats cat litter

Joy dishwasing liquid
cascade dishwasher gel
herbal essence shampoo
dial soap
tide clothes washing liquid
renolyds wrap

not too many come to mind. some are dh's requests, some are becuase nothing else works.
heinz-dh
pepsi-dh
cheer laundry det-dh
all free- only laundry det that doesn't make me itch
froot loops-dh he tried the maltomeal kind and didn't like them.
ragu pasta sauce- only one that doesn't give me a migraine.


other stuff, i'm not brand loyal, but have preferences such as tuna. i like water packed not oil packed. whatever brand of water packed is cheaper, i'll buy.

oh i also only buy tony's brand frozen pizza. it's dh's favorite, but as it turns out it's the cheapest frozen pizza i can get right now anyway.

I dont have any brand loyalty, the only thing I can think of that I insist on if at all possible is...

2 ply tp. Not two ply that looks and acts like one ply, but the real deal.

Dont much care about the brand as long as its fairly well priced (aka sale priced LOL).


:sun: ~Audrey

Let's see, this may be a looooong list! :D

Hellman's mayo
Heinz Ketchup
My cigs :blush:
Chunk Albacore Tuna in water only
Jiff Peanut Butter
Lipton Tea
Folger's Coffee (but am getting used to Wal-Mart Brand)
For my kids, strictly Sam's brand of Cat food (20 pound bags)
Also Sam's brand of Litter (35 or 40? pound buckets)
Arm & Hammer litter additive


I think that is about it, I also will try any store brand at least once, if I don't like it, I go back to my fav. LOL

Am I my mother's (duckduckgoose007) daughter or what? :laugh:

Bionaturae pasta
Organic Valley milk, cheese, cream, butter
Stonyfield Farms yogurt
Santa Cruz applesauce
Trader Joe's organic ketchup and mayonnaise
Trader Joe's chicken sausages
Coffee Bean Direct coffee

Always ultra thin pads
classic coke or pepsi

-My kitty will not eat anything but Cat Chow dry food (at least it's cheap!)
-OB tampons
-Good department store perfume - I buy one bottle for my birthday each year - I hate the cheap stuff
-Bath products and shampoos that smell heavenly
-Oxy skin care products for my oldest daughter, they work great!


Thats all I can think of, no people food product really stands out in my mind.

Okay my short list Is this:

Diet Coke - nothing else will do:applause:

I honestly can't think of anything else that I won't buy the cheapest!

*Kraft or Velveta macaroni/shells and cheese
*Cottonelle TP
*Beneful dog food (my dogs are allergic to other foods)
I can't think of much else I'm really picky about

Oh, I guess there are the other things I couldn't live without.
*Cable Internet
*My cell phone (my only communication with my family)

Let's see...

Hunts tomato sauce (all others seem so watery)
Downey
Tampax Pearl (TMI)
Tetley tea bags (although when I can't find I use Lipton, but I don't like as much)

Kraft mac & cheese, it's the cheesiest~don't ya know LOL :D
Joy with bleach alternative dishwashing liquid
Cascade

:yikes: it did not let me complete my post, it just automatically posted, very very stange......

Cascade Complete dishwashing detergent
Scott bathroom tissue
Gain laundry detergent and fabric softner
Chlorox bleach, the generics are all so watered down that they don't do a great job for me when I use them to clean with.

I always buy:
-Tide, I've found that's the one brand where I don't need other expensive pretreatment products. Tide ALWAYS gets out the stain I find. I have bought brand name stain removers before but they never worked and have made stains spread.
-Pepsi and other brand name sodas
-Arizon Sweet Tea is the best stuff ever
-Hellmans
-Lays chips or targets brand name is extremely good
-coffee

Basically the only cheap brands I would buy are for the cereal (malt o meal), canned goods, pasta, milk, butter, tp (white cloud- find this brand to be very good and cheaper then the real cheap stuff), and that might be just about it lol In most cases I like brand name I've found, just because it tastes better.

Magic Eraser. I love that thing (whatever it is!!).

Must be Hellmans Mayo....Heinz ketchup...Kraft Ranch dressing....Pantene for thin hair....palmolive dish soap....that's about it......

Painted sky, you made up my mind for me, I am going to start buying Tide....I have been buying Sun, but I have to add allfabric bleach and borax plus use a ton of shout to get the clothes clean...By the time you add up the cost of all the add ons , it is cheaper to buy Tide...Thanks :thumb:

Debby,

I KNOW what you mean about the magic erasers?!?!?! What is that stuff, we use them at the hospital and it gets out everything!!!:hero: