Tonight I got some very odd looks while I was doing my shopping – It may have been because my trolley was filled with this little lot:
It’s for a community project at work where we’re donating toiletries to some local homeless charities. We’ve all been asked to take in a few things and encouraged to buy value products so we get more for our money, which ultimately means that we’re donating more to the charities. I bought 5 cans of shaving foam, 10 tubes of toothpaste, 5 packs of 4 toothbrushes, 8 bottles of deodarant and 8 packs of 10 razors – all things we’ve been told are desparately needed and for a total cost of nine pounds twenty pence (my pound sign isn’t working!).
The point of this post isn’t to make you all go out and buy things for homeless people (that would be nice though if you were that way inclined) but it’s to make you think about your own spending habits. I’m not saying go out and swap everything you buy to the value range but are there products you could swap for a cheaper one and really not notice the difference.
There are some things that I won’t compromise - I like to buy the best quality meat and eggs that I can afford and couldn’t possibly switch from Heinz tomato sauce or Hellmans mayonsaise or I’d have a mutiny on my hands but I’ve managed to save plenty by changing some thingss that I buy, these are just a small selection as you’d be alseep by the time I got to the end if I listed them all:
Shampoo – I used to buy Head and Shoulders which is 2.44 for a 250ml bottle (98p per 100ml) but now I buy Tescos own brand anti dandruff shampoo which is just 99p for a 500ml bottle (20p per 100ml) so I pay less than half the price for twice the amount. If I wanted to save even more, I could go for the Value shampoo which costs 31p for a litre bottle (3p per 100ml).
Mustard – I used to buy Colmans English Mustard which is 95p for a 100g tub but now I buy Tesco value mustard which is 33p for 190g – 60p cheaper for almost double the amount. There is a Tesco own brand inbetween the two which costs 49p for 190g jar but when I tries that, I couldn’t tell the difference really between that and the Colmans so I tried the value one next and I’ve bought that one since.
Cereal – We change every week depending on who’s week it is to choose (yes, we have a breakfast cereal choosing rota) and last week we bought Tesco Rice Snaps at 99p for 375g instead of Kelloggs rice crispies which would have been 1.89 for a 340g box – a pound less for 35g more. Again, we could have saved even more if we’d bought the value rice snaps at 70p for 440g.
Coffee – This is an easy saving for me as I don’t drink coffee so I can’t really compare the taste on this one but Mr Frugal has quite happily changed from Nescafe at 4.79 for a 200g jar to Tesco Classic coffee at 2.15 for a 300g jar. I have plans to buy the value coffee at 47p for a 100g jar and empty it into the coffee jar we currently have to see if he notices the difference but I’m not sure whether I’m that sneaky 
Wine – I love Mateus rose wine and at 4.48 for a 70cl bottle I didn’t think it was bad value for money but then I tried the Simply POrtugeuse Rose at 3.38 for 75c l and realised that I could hardly tell the difference and certainly not at all after the first glass so I’ve started buying either that or the Asda version which is even lovlier but I can’t remember the price (3.49 I think).
It’s all about swapping products to suit you and your family and to meet your shopping budget. If money’s really tight and you need to drastically save, try and find the value products for as many of the products you usually buy and buy them instead but if it’s a case that you would like to reduce your shopping bill but don’t have an urgent need to do so, just try one or two products a week. If you currently buy a branded version of something or the shops finest range, try the shops own brand and if you like that, you could try and save further by changing down to the value version or you could stick with the own brand knowing that you’ve already saved. If you’re already buying the shops own brand then try the value version, just once, and you may find you can’t tell the difference and are happy to stick with it.
Whatever you do – DO NOT try to fool your family by decanting own brand tomato sauce into an empty Heinz tomato sauce bottle. It will not fool them and it will cause them to revolt against trying further value products without the use of bribery and threats. At least that’s what I’ve heard could happen, not that I would know *cough*.
I used Tesco prices as an example as that’s where I did my last weekly shop online but all of the big supermarkets have comparable own brand products so wherever you shop you can save….
Great tips, we always try to get the cheapest we can. One thing I personally need to save on though, is coke/pepsi. I'll drink Diet Coke but, prefer Pepsi Max. And we usually get 8 bottles of Pepsi Max per fortnightly shop (so £8 if it's on offer at £1 a bottle, if it isn't I'll buy one or two to top up if need be and head out to one of the cheap shops -home bargains in this area where the price varies from 79p to 99p [if it was 79p consistantly and always in stock, i'd just do that but, it isn't always in stock]. None of the own store brands work for me. I used to only drink Asda's own coke but, they changed their recipe and it tastes horrible now to me. Not as bad as Morrisons though :p. I do need to try to find a cheaper alternative though as I either get 8 for £8, or 8 for £10 depending on the offer.
I know exactly what you mean – my husband drinks coke by the gallon and it\’s probably one of the biggest things we spend on but he doesn\’t drink or smoke so I guess he\’s allowed one thing lol. We shop around each week for it and try and stock up when we see it reduced (we buy cans rather than bottles as they\’re nearly always on offer somewhere).
The stores own brands just don\’t hit the spot apparently according to him.
Of course with some things you can mix the more expensive with cheaper, eg coffee
I never even thought of mixing this – brilliant idea!
Thanks very much x
I bet you save a fortune only buying own brand goods – well done x
Haha! I tried that with Heinz tomato Ketchup – did not go down well with the little one! He said it was yucky. I personally do buy the cheaper brands where I can, saves a fortune. Sounds like a great project you're doing.
Thanks very much – the ketchup switch never worked well here either!
I did once fill Mr's empty shreddies box with own brand shreddies… and he could tell! I find it's a bit of trial and error, some own brand stuff is great but some is awful (Lidl's mayonnaise!) but we eat it anyway and then never buy it again!
Ha ha hope you didn't have the same mutiny as me when I tried that with tomato cause – it was traumatic lol x
[...] makes money in How to be a frugal ebay seller Cass at Diary of a Frugal Family encourages us to Change how we shop you will see her photo and wonder what on earth she is up [...]
Yes, a lot of the bargain budget stuff is just as good as branded, about the only brands we buy are heinz tomato sauce (her) and Maxwell House coffee (him).
We have Morrisons, Tesco and Asda, and there's little to choose between them, either price or quality.
As a coffe drinker I couldn't get used to the bargain stuff, but Poundland has 100gr jars Maxwell House, so not too expensive.
I forgot about poundland – you're right they often have some good deals in there on branded goods don't they?
Thanks very much x
Youve inspired me to go and od a big shop like this with the kids for our homelss shelter. Top idea. Fab post for the Thrifty Families First Blog carnival being held at http://www.babybudgeting.co.uk on thursday.
That's fantastic – I couldn't believe how cheap it was to make a difference to some people – all that for the cost of a takeaway or a couple of bottles of cheap wine!
I totally agree about the tomato sauce, but I do decant Tesco Value vinegar (23p) into a Sarsons bottle, mostly because it is easier to sprinkle it that way!
I also won't compromise on eggs, or tea, but I get Value pretty much everything else these days.
I never thought of doing that with the vinegar and I certainly agree with the eggs and tea, they're another of the few things that I dont think you can buy cheaper and truly still enjoy them as much x
Great post and pretty much the same philosophy as I have on budgeting, In face I have switched pretty much the same products as you. Thanks.
Thanks very much x
We only buy own brands, thankfully none of mine are brand snobs! as long as it tastes good we don't mind who makes it.
X x http://pleasemayi.blogspot.com
Fab money saving ideas! We use generic cereal and some house brands for cleaning products too
You are the Queen of Frugal Shopping! xx I posted about how we save money on our groceries too http://utterlyscrummy.blogspot.com/2010/05/top-bu…
Aw thanks very much – you can be the queen of yummy soft squidgy brownies then x
OK then, I shall be the Queen of yummy choc brownies
) x
What a great post. I do buy quite a few supermarket brand names but youre right something you just can't change over. x
Thanks very much, some things are not worth the few extra pence are they? Not with my family lol
Great post!!
I've managed to change our cereal eating habits too. I bought a stash of storage containers in Ikea and decant the own brand versions of bran flakes, cheerios and shreddies – nobody's notice!
It's sneaky but I like it :0)
Things like cereal I don't think you can tell the difference with – Heinz tomato ketchup is a whole other mistake that I wont go into lol