Two HUGE budget discoveries!

[SalandJeff]

Sure... wait until they go on buy one get one free. Then you can use a coupon on each box. So 2 coupons there. Most places you can do a manufacturer's coupon and a store coupon, and some stores take competitor coupons as well. So if your cereal is $4.50 a box, you are already getting 2 boxes for $4.50 with the b1g1, then you take $1 off each box with the manufacturer's coupons, so that brings it down to $2.50 for 2 boxes. From there you have a couple of options. Use competitor or store coupons if available. Those will vary in amounts. A lot of times you can find different manufacturer coupons that you can use on the same boxes. Like $1.50 off 2 boxes is one I see often or $2 off 3, but for this purpose I'll just go with the first one. So that brings it down to $1 for 2 boxes of cereal. Now I usually can find store or competitor coupons for at least 50 cents so using 2 of those would bring me to $0, or less if I have better coupons, which I usually do. So, I actually make money buying them. And last month, there was a mail in rebate if you bought 5 kellogg's products, so I did that same deal above x 3, used same coupons, so paid $0 for them, AND got a $5 gift card...

Thank you for the explanation! Now I know why I can't figure out how to do things like this...this would not work in the stores around here. We rarely have any store coupons, and if we do, they are never on items that are otherwise onsale. And we can't use more than one mfg. coupon on an item, so if we took off the $1 per box, we could not then use the $1.50 off on two boxes. Thanks again for making sense of it for me.

 

[hambirg]

I learned something in college while working in a vegetable processing plant. Most of the time we were processing corn, and it was my job to fill up these big totes (800lbs) with frozen corn kernels. Those totes went off to all kinds of other companies to be bagged for retail. . .it was all the same corn!!! The only exception was the Pillsbury totes. They had to be heavier. . .1200lbs in the same size tote. Meaning that the corn itself was heavier=sweeter. So virtually every brand was exactly the same corn except for the Green Giant, that had to be sweeter.

I am not brand loyal, but I do have preferences. Canned and frozen veggies are usually the same, look on the label and see where it's packaged. Cereal I usually get free or close to it, but the bagged kind I think is comparable. The things that I will stick to the brands. . .Dawn and Palmolive. . the cheaper brands are usually just watered down versions. . .I can add my own water if I want. Same with Cetaphil. I bought the Equate version once. . ..just watered down! Diet Coke or Diet Pespi. . .even Diet Rite. . but the store brands are horrid to me. Chicken nuggets. . .not that I buy them that often, but they have run the gamut from completely inedible, "Mom, why are these green?" to not too bad, but I'll stick with Tyson. Trader Joe's orange chicken. . .I have yet to find another brand that even compares. And Tide. . .yes I'm one of those. I do use All and Gain and some of the others, but I still like my Tide the best, and have found some of the really cheap brands to be very watered down! The only one I found to be comparable, and I think really might be the same is the Kirkland liquid.. . looks like Tide, smells like Tide. . .is probably Tide.

 

[Green Tea]

A story on Yahoo just today about this very topic:

http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/426/taste-test-store-brands-vs-name-brands

 

[MTmomma]

In the store I work in, you are allowed to use one store coupon, and one manufacturer coupon per item. Usually our store coupons are twice the value, in essense doubles a coupon up to 1.00 (if the face value of a mfgr coupon is 1.01 or more, the doubler can not be used, but 1 or less is fine)
We also purchase the "bagged" cereal, because frnakly sometimes it does taste better!
As for Generic corn chex..... Albertsons has a decent tasting one, and Walmart does too. Safeway one tastes like cardboard.
Laundry soap? I use Gain, apple mango tango, and add in Borax.... Borax is under 8 a box at walmart (for the larger box) and it lasts me about two months.
I have done the whole fluff and fold job at a laundry back in the day, and when I was washing minor league baseball uniforms, we actually used kirkland linoleum cleaner in a short wash, then kirkland laundry soap powder, with disolv-all and liquid blueing. (white uniforms) under the lights, compared to a uniform washed "on the road" the ones I washed in that process literally glowed, while the others still had that dingy look to them....
Dont waste your money on pre-treaters for blood (my son gets bloody noses all the time) just get a walmart bottle of hydrogen peroxide, and saturate the bloodied area twice, and wash as usual.
Bleach, we use walmart great value, because it doesnt smell nearly as bad as some of the other generics... i think its just the additives they put into it.
Air pop popcorn is pretty good with generics, but be careful that you store it in an airtight container.... it "turns" pretty quckly to stale.

 

[JB2K]

We also buy Great Value paper towels, laundry detergent, yogurt, grated cheese, bread, hot chocolate mix, drink mixes and lots of other stuff. The only thing I have found that I do not like are their version of Pop-Tarts.

Ditto on Target's store brand equivalent (Market Pantry) of Pop-Tarts -- which leads me to think that both must be made by the same manufacturer...

 

[pixiewings71]

My girls don't like the store brand Pop Tarts either, not that we buy them often but they won't even eat the Target or Wal-mart brands so I wait until they are on sale and then buy them. Our stores don't DO BOGO sales on cereal...I wish they did, then I could get those killer deals on cereals.
We buy store brands for a lot of stuff unless I can use a coupon and combine with a sale to get a better deal. I shop at Raley's and we really like their brand of food.

 

[Aggiegrl]

I went to Target today and didn't buy a single brand name product. I got Up & Up anti-fungal creme, diapers, wipes, and formula and Market Pantry frozen chicken nuggets.

I had multiple coupons for brand name diapers (both in store and manufacturer). Luv's came out to be slightly cheaper, but I still bought Up & Up brand. Huggies wipes were just a few cents more with my coupons, but still, I chose Up & Up. The generic is just plain better with those items!

The frozen chicken nuggets are really good, better than Tyson, IMHO. They are 100x better than Banquet.

The baby formula is my biggest savings. It's half the price of brand name formula. Plus, the generic is exactly the same at Walmart and Target (made by the same company, just labeled differently) so I can buy it very easily no matter where I'm at.

I've really tried couponing, but honestly...it's not working for me. I go to the store with a stack of coupons and never use them.

 

[Jen_in_NH]

I know, amazing right? Yep, clear bowl with a heavy enough lid or cover that the corn popping won't flip the cover off.
Clear bowl so you can see when your corn is almost done. This is like air popped only it's not quite as dry...in fact I can nibble on this popcorn before we even butter and salt it!

I think you can pop corn in brown paper bags too but I don't want to set the bag on fire, which as I understand can sometimes happen.
I just stick to my bowl and lid and it works well.

I set the timer for just a bit over 5 minutes but my microwave is very old so it may not be working at full power. Maybe start at 4 1/2 mins?

I do it in the paper bags, and it works well. Take a lunch bag, add about 1/4 cup of popcorn and a tsp of oil. Fold the top over twice, shake it a bit, and microwave for about 3 minutes.

I love popcorn now! I hate the bags of microwave popcorn, but this is really good.

 

[MSSANDRA]

Sometimes you just have to take a chance if a store brand is on sale and see if you will like it . I am the bad mom that buys poptarts. My boys hate to eat breakfast and I figure it is better than nothing. I only buy name brand ones, ever! Well in our local food lion this week DGS sees the store brand of a new sprinkle one he HAS to have. They were on sale and really cheap so I gave in. They were REALLY good. Almost better than the name brand and much cheaper. Went back and got more. You just never know. Most things I will try an off brand. Only use tide however!

 

[I Believe In Magic]

Then the Cheerios...dang that stuff is costing more and more each trip. Anyone ever notice how gross the Cheerios box smells these days? Takes my appetite away when I open the box. Ick.

I laughed when I read this!! We just said that yesterday, something is wrong with the Cheerio boxes!! The smell is awful. If that is their version of recycling no thanks!!

 

[dumplebugs]

I don't post often, but have to add my 2 cents here. Have you tried the GV brand of Quik! It is so disgusting. I can't even get it to mix into the milk. I use mostly GV products for everything else. In fact, sometimes I think we should be called the GV family.

 

[*BTMRR*]

I don't post often, but have to add my 2 cents here. Have you tried the GV brand of Quik! It is so disgusting. I can't even get it to mix into the milk. I use mostly GV products for everything else. In fact, sometimes I think we should be called the GV family.

Ew, I haven't tried that. But I bought a box of Safeway store brand hot chocolate mix packets for a treat and they were just terrible--they would not mix in at all. I will stick to the name brand.

 

[Green Tea]

The GV puff "cheetos" were inedible. They just collapsed into oily piles of grossness, according to my kids who will usually eat anything.