I like listening to Clark Howard on the radio, but don't care for the commercials and the whiny callers, "I have $10,000 in credit card debt and I can't stop buying stuff...help!" It is much more efficient to read his daily show notes at his website and be able to read the week's highlights in 5 minutes. I found this little blurb particularly gratifying, especially after unpacking 30+ containers of shampoo and shaving cream acquired for pennies by combining coupons with sales. Somehow I didn't get any conditioner, but now am glad because I will just get the big bottle of Tressame, which works wonderfully on long straight hair like Mary's and mine.
Procter & Gamble is soon to bump up prices by as much as 16% on brands like Tide, Ivory, Gillette shaving cream, etc. (diapers are going up in price too) That means there's never been a better time to try off-brands or store brands; in many cases, the quality of the product is just as good. For example, there's little difference between cheap and costly shampoos. In his TV work, Clark once interviewed a professor who chemically analyzed different shampoos and confirmed their sameness. Conditioner, however, is a different story. So if you must blow money, buy a cheap shampoo and splurge on a nice conditioner. But Clark's message stands: Ignoring store brands is risky for your wallet. You could save between 30% and 60% by going the generic route.
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Private label (aka store brand) is often the way to go. Especially when your local grocery store will not allow combining coupons with sales (our one grocery store does not)
It is not uncommon for the private label product to be EXACTLY the same as the big name manufacturer, made in the same factory.
Aside from gourmet imported product all US produced sauerkraut comes from the same factory, there is only one. Doesn't matter if it is store brand, packer brand, big name brand. All the same.
Many of the private label macaroni and cheese has the identical powdered cheese packet that Kraft does, comes from the same factory.
Sure, some private label product is inferior. I have yet to find decent private label fish sticks but most of the time it is just as good and not infrequently BETTER than name brand.
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