I buy generic products more than I do food...like toilet tissue, paper towels, cat food, cat litter, meds.  If I'm making chilli or sphaghetti sauce, I will buy generic tomato sauce, kidney beans and paste.  We eat mainly fresh veggies, fresh fruit and chicken/turkey.  And the other things we eat are not offered in a generic alternative...like my high fiber Kashi cereal.  I looked at every "high fiber" cereal in the supermarket and none have as much fiber as Kashi Heart to Heart.

 One thing I haven't tried is store brand fresh meats.  Right now buying Purdue chicken is affordable, but at some point, I may have to switch over to the store brand.

We buy store brand whenever possible. Exceptions are toilet paper, coffee and toothpaste. Oh, and Miracle Whip (but that's DH, not me, lol). But I'm not brand loyal so if Colgate is a better deal than Crest, I get the better deal.

Some recent things I purchased store brand:

• Target feminine products
• Target fruit snacks, granola bars and juice
• Target fabric softener
• Target shampoo (like Pantene) Target body soap (like Dove) Target lotion (like Vaseline Intensive care)
• Grocery store brand milk (friend works for Meadow Gold Dairy and says they fill several local store's supplies)
• Store brand whole wheat organic pasta
• Store brand spaghetti sauce
• Store brand canned mandarin oranges
• Store brand canned corn (both for different salad recipes)
• Store brand cheetos-type snacks for picnic
• Store brand dish soap
• Walgreen's brand Claritin and Sudafed type medicines
• Walgreen's brand infant tylenol
• Walgreen's brand dental floss
• Sam's Club Diapers and Wipes--the only diaper that won't give my baby a rash, except for Huggies.

I have bought other store/off brand things in the past. This was just a recent shopping trip. I think Target has great store brands and I have also been happy with Walgreen's store brands. My sister-in-law is a pharmacist for Walgreen's and says there is no difference in the Walgreen's brand tylenol, sudafed, benadryl, etc. medicines. They use the same ingredients.

It depends on the product. We buy the store brand canned tuna, some salad dressings and some other things I can't remember now. The store brand iced tea mix is better than Lipton's, but paper products are inferior quality so we don't buy them. I've noticed that the store brand frozen lima beans and corn have more fragments and plant stalk parts in them than the name brands so I don't buy them either.

For over-the-counter meds I look at the active ingredient label and can usually find a store brand that has the exact same ingredients for half or less cost than the name brands so I'll buy those.

sunshinetreva:

spaghetti sauce -- specifically, my husband will NOT eat Food Lion spaghetti sauce;

 

I don't blame him! I buy the hunts in a can and just add alil more garlic powder and parmesan. it used to go on sale for 79 cents a can, it's been a while since i bought any tho

I cant handle the food lion boil in bag rice, never turns out right for me, YUCK! lol

 

I buy Harris Teeter brand butter, canned veggies, frozen veggies, and milk. I do not like their brand of cream soups. I have tried other things by Harris Teeter, but don't buy them anymore.

I do not buy Food Lion's own brand of anything.

Toni B.:

Is there any item you won't buy generic in

I buy generic products, and alot of my prescriptions are generic. What I won't buy generic is cat food. After all the cat food recalls and cat deaths last year none of the food I had bought was effected. I stick with Purina products.  My cats eat the Purina One Healthful Life, and their canned food is Purina(Friskies), and sometimes they also get Fancy Feast which is also made by Purina.

I buy mostly generic/store brands of almost anything except for:

~ feminine products
~ deodorant (both mine & Brian's)
~ toothpaste (Colgate or Crest)
~ toilet paper (Cottonelle only; although I have been known to buy Kroger brand from time to time)
~ bologna (when I do buy it, it's only Oscar Mayer for us)