My Favorite Generic Items
Previously I wrote about 9 Items That I Won’t Buy Generic and I wanted to look at the flip side of the coin and talk about some of my favorite generic items. No name brands here.
- Acetaminophen/Ibuprofen – Nope, I don’t buy Tylenol or Motrin, it’s always the generic. Same ingredients, same pretty little colorful pills, same pain relief. The savings is wonderful.
- Liquid hand soap – Although the name brands have such exciting scents, I’ve found some very lovely generic scents too. Two of my favorites are the vanilla and watermelon soaps from Walmart. No difference in how they work, but they are about 40 cents cheaper.
- Dishwasher Detergent – I swear to you that there is absolutely no difference between the generic and name brand dishwasher soap, except a huge difference in price. You can even make your own soap pretty easily, if you’re up for it.
- Lobster – Yeah, go ahead and laugh. I prefer imitation lobster to the real thing! And the savings is astronomical!!!
- Cereal – The only time I buy name brand is if it is somehow cheaper than the store brand. I have to yet to find a store brand that didn’t taste just as good as the name brand.
- Medicines – Whether it is for a cold, allergies or a stomach ache, generic is the way I go.
- Milk – Unless you’ve been under a rock, you know that the price of milk has gone sky high. I definitely buy the generic because not only is it cheaper, but you can get a two-for price on it.
- Ear Swabs – I almost put Q-tips, but that would be the name brand version now wouldn’t it? No, seriously, I can’t tell the difference between the walmart version and the real thing. I don’t buy any of them with plastic in them though, because that’s just…well….generic.
- Foil – Have you seen the price of foil? It’s ridiculous considering it’s just aluminum. Anyhow, again, love the generic, especially the price.
- Sugar -Sugar is sugar is sugar, right? There’s not some secret generic sugar cane plant that I don’t know about, is there? Oh well, regardless, it tastes the same, costs less and works for me.
While making this list, I came up with some more ideas for items I don’t like generic, so I guess that will be another post.
[...] a coming article, I’ll talk about the flip side and tell you some of my favorite generic items – the things will great quality and low prices! Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social [...]
I’m pretty much in agreement about all of these, with the exception of the dishwasher detergent . . . we find that Cascade Complete seems to make a difference in our cruddy dishwasher.
I agree with all of these, I usually end up getting name brands because they are cheaper with my coupons but overall I think generic tastes and works just the same in almost everything.
My husband swears by Q-tips though… if I bring home generic he complains about how they aren’t as soft… So we always spend the 2 + dollars more to get Q-tips, it about kills me but I guess he’s worth it
[...] No Dough recently posted her favorite generic things and things she won’t buy generic. I thought this was pretty interesting and got me thinking [...]
Generic is good. We buy some generic meds especially the Tylenol stuff. Not a fan of lobster, so that’s out for us however when it comes to foil we’ve bought generic stuff and it’s not very good. We found it’s very thin and the savings we thought we had went out the door becuase we used twice as much. As well, you can’t buy generic milk in Canada – atleast not that I’ve seen.
Some great tips!
Mo’s last blog post..Internet Business – Blog Carnival – Edition 12
My friend had a generic ear swab come off INSIDE his ear and get stuck there. The whole cotton end was stuck in there. He couldn’t get it out even with the tweezers.
From that day on… I only by name brand “cotton swabs”.