Brand loyalty

Hah. I wish we spent 60 quid a week.

I guess Im use to shopping in the states. I spent no more then £150 a month on grocerys for myself and then husband

DB and I are trying to figure out our budget on groceries, what we can reasonably expect. I've started buying store brand butter. I prefer Land O' Lakes, but only really notice a difference in how it sits in the butter dish.

I'm pretty much a brand name only girl. I really only buy store brand pasta. I MUST have Bounty paper towels. I guess I'm really sensitive to tastes, I can taste a difference in a lot of products.

I MUST have Bounty paper towels. I guess I'm really sensitive to tastes, I can taste a difference in a lot of products.

You're not supposed to eat your paper towels!! 

Once I thought Id save money and buy asdas own mince meat...never again! its just horrible. I only go to butchers for meat now

I buy turkey mince as its healthier - the only place I can find it though is Sainsbury's!   

As most of our food is freshly prepared, we don't have all that many brand names I guess. Which makes me wonder why our food bill is always so high!!!

I agree!  No fair!

Being raised by a mother who constantly stuck to a budget, I have now inherited that mentality.  90% of the time, in my opinion, store brand will do just fine.

We regularly shop at Tesco (with the odd trip to ASDA or Sainsbury's if life goes that way) and buy Tesco Value in lots of products, I will admit.  Some of it is from not having much money (and having lived as a student for the past 5 years!) and honestly not being able to tell the difference between brands!  We buy Tesco Value paper towels, tuna, tinned tomatoes, tea, stock cubes, ramen noodles, ketchup, brown sauce, mayonnaise, and various other bits.  I will not Value (but will buy store brand) in some things, because it's just disgusting.  Very few things, I buy name brand: dish soap, laundry detergent, and things like toothpaste/shampoo, etc.

I personally cannot tell the difference between something like Tesco Value tuna and John West.  Tuna is tuna to me.  The toilet paper IS cheap, but at the end of the day, we're not trying to impress anyone.  I have fairly low standards from growing up in a house of generic/store brands.  It's not appropriate everywhere, but I'm pretty sure that brand standards boil down to what you're used to and where your priorities lie.  I'd rather buy cheap(er) food and save for a nice pair of jeans or similar!

We spend ABOUT £30/wk for 2.  This varies widely, as some weeks involve stocking up at Iceland's (frozen chicken breasts and bacon, chiefly) or the need to buy expensive things.  We try and buy most our fruit at the local fruit stand that operates daily.  It's actually cheaper than Tesco (though quality is hit & miss, for all that people go on about the benefits of local produce vendors).

Same here for Heinz ketchup and Hellmans mayo.  I have all but given up on cokes, but on the rare occasion I do buy them, I only buy name brand.  We also only buy Rocks diluting juice.  Most others taste artificial to me, and I would rather go more natural.  We usually make our own pizza, well just about everything.  Like balmerhon said, most of our food is freshly prepared.  We really don't buy much prepacked stuff.  I try to keep it to about £60/week for our family of 4, but inevitably, I am at Tesco a few more times a week for odds and ends. 

This is an interesting thread. While I've been reading it I'm trying to think if I'm brand loyal. I think I was definitely more brand loyal when I was gainfully employed in the US. Now that I've been a student the past year I buy a lot more store brands. I think it was fairly easy since most of the branded items I would buy aren't available here, so it was pretty easy to just switch to the store brand. I am definitely more open to trying cheaper brands here. The only thing I can think of that I HAVE to have in the UK that is a brand name is Hellman's mayo.
When I'm in the US I'm definitely a Land o' Lakes butter girl. That's what my mom always used and mashed potatoes made with any other butter were not the same! Yuck! I learned my lesson and now buy name brand butter here, but I'm not loyal to any particular brand here. My mom always made strawberry jelly, so I refused to buy strawberry jelly as nothing else was as good. I would get it from my mom when I was running out. I'm also a corn snob. I wouldn't eat any frozen corn unless it was corn that we froze over the summer. Canned corn is an absolute no no. Now that I'm in the UK I've managed to wean myself from these necessities (although I haven't had frozen corn since I've been here), but I'm looking forward to having them over Christmas!

I buy some brand stuff, but for the most part try to buy the cheapest option.  Sometimes the brand stuff can be cheaper than the store stuff if it's a good offer.
I only buy brand name crisps, Biscuits are kind of half and half-Mcvities for Jaffa cakes and Digestives, but store brand if it fig rolls or ginger snaps or custard creams.  Soup I'm not to bothered, but I only buy Heinz ketchup and French's mustard. We only eat Heinz beans and Green Giant sweet corn. Chips I'm not bothered about. Or ice-cream.   Yogurt is another thing that I buy branded and not the stores. Coffee is usually the store brand but it has to be Fair Trade, tea bags are PG Tipps. I used to buy cheap washing powder because I didn't think there's a difference but since getting a giant box of Persil at Costcos I do think they come out cleaner and there's less sludgy left-over powder in my little drawer thing. The teenagers use brand name shampoo, the rest of us use Boots.

I've been trying to think of things that I am intensely brand loyal about, and having a hard time coming up with more than a couple!  Partly because some of them (Kraft blue box Mac & Cheese) can't be found here, partly because we are soooo broke I can't afford to be brand loyal! I just can't see paying 99p for a packet of pasta when I can pick up the store value brand for 19p instead!!!  I don't dispute that the name brands often taste better and/or are higher quality, but needs as needs must.  (Maybe when I'm gainfully employed or have won the lottery I'll feel differently...)

After DD was born and my maty pay ended we totally relied on child benefit and tax credit for out shopping.  It was £30/week, so there weren't really ever any name brand anything unless it was on special and worked out as the cheapest option.  A few name brands have crept in since then, but not too many.

We almost always bought Publix's brand when I was growing up, and here we buy Sainsbury's brand stuff for most things - including their not-from concentrate fruit juice which is great.  We also pick up a lot of pasta, rice and tinned stuff from Lidl, and name-brand stuff when it's cheaper there than at Sainsbury's (which isn't always the case).

We buy meat from the butcher and extra mature cheddar, as well as some lunch meats, cakes, chutney and fish.

It's a guess, but we probably spend about £60 per week for a family of 4 - two teenage boys, my husband and myself.  That includes alcohol and some non-grocery items, like loo & kitchen roll and cleaning supplies.

There is only one food item that I'm brand loyal on: French's American Yellow Mustard.

Everything else is just whatever is cheaper or on offer. We're not picky.

However, when it comes to my female products, I'm severely brand loyal. I've been using the same brand since I was a teenager.

normally we just buy whatever is cheapest

this thread reminds me of an episode of max & paddy's road to nowhere. big bob's bastard beans lol

You're not supposed to eat your paper towels!! 

LoL!! I didn't even notice I said it that way!!! 

Also, I only buy good toilet paper. As a girl, that's a necessity. Cheap brands hurt!