Brand shopping habits and you

I'll generally take a look at the generic brand and see how the ingredients compare to the original. If they're pretty close, then I'll go for it. If there's a pretty big difference (say, water being the third ingredient in store brand and first in generic) I'll stick with the original.

If you're fairly savvy about when you buy stuff you can often get name brand for the same price as the generic, often cheaper.

I think the big question is if you buy generic, which level generic do you buy. Like, there's the one that's a close imitation, the store brand, and then the below-dollar-store-quality. You know, the one that's in a white box and about 1/4 the price of the rest.

Also, anyone that goes to a supermarket owned by Ralphs/Kroger should try their store-brand bagged cereal. It's even cheaper than malt-o-meal, and I like some of their imitations even better than the originals.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Milk really varies from region from region. I like the taste of the milk in the Philadelphia region, found it alright in Pittsburgh, and the stuff out here in LA I've had has been atrocious. It pretty much got me to stop drinking milk entirely, so I just buy a big carton of soy milk from Costco to use while cooking. Surprisingly, the stuff works great and is creamier than the usual skim milk I prefer. Can't stand the taste of it, though. Blechhhhh.

How ya doing, buddy?

Not that I'm condoning the ridiculous prices that McCormick wants for their spices, but I've definitely found that some generic mexican-aisle stuff is really weak and doesn't flavor nearly as well as good stuff. Going cheap is fine, but you need to be sure that it's still fresh.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.