Before I became a frugal shopper, I didn’t even consider buying store brands. I stuck with the name brands – the ones I recognized and had always used. However, little by little I ventured into trying store brands and to my surprise I found that many were of the same quality as the more expensive brand names! Many times the store brands are packaged by the same processing plants where the name brands are produced but store brands are sold at a lesser cost because fancy packaging is not used. I found the best way to approach store brands is to try them little by little. Some products you will be very happy with and others you won’t like as much. Here are some store brands that work in our family:
1. Contact solution. We used to pay top dollar for the brand name contact solution. We’ve since switched to Target’s brand and are very happy with the product.
2. Hand lotion. We have several allergies in the family so we need to buy the hypoallergenic types of lotions. We’ve found that Target’s brand of hypoallergenic lotion works for us – and at a substantial discount too!
3. Pain relievers. Either Target or Walmart store brands of pain relievers work just as well as the name brands.
4. Oatmeal. I’ve found that store brand oatmeal tastes exactly the same as brand name and works just as well when baking oatmeal cookies!
5. Liquid hand soap. The large refills of the store brand soaps are a big money saver and work just as well as the name brand bottles.
6. Dental Floss. Target’s store brand of dental floss is comparable in quality to the higher priced name brands.
7. Saltine Crackers. We much prefer our store’s brand of crackers to the name brands.