"Those old ladies at the grocery store who hand out free samples of pizza rolls are wiping their asses with those things before they hand them out"- Walter T. Pratt
There are a lot of things that suck about being an adult. It's really a shame too considering how badly I wanted to be one. To be honest, I feel like it was only yesterday that I was throwing my feet over the side of my twin sized bed, slapping on some Covergirl and tossing a messenger bag over my shoulder to get to high school. Looking back now- had I realized what was waiting for me- I might have tried to slow down and absorb more of my carefree childhood. But what does this have to do with old ladies using pizza rolls as toilet paper? Nothing really, but it's my blog and sometimes I like to be a little self indulgent when getting to the point.
The meat and potatoes of it is this; when your an adult you get stuck doing mundane and time consuming chores like laundry and cooking. You have to pay the bills and buy the groceries, all while maintaining a budget and stretching a dollar. When I set off on my own and had to start setting limits for my finances, the one thing I never cut corners on were groceries (and shoes). I don't know why, but I have always felt that food (and shoes) cost what it cost and if your working your ass off you deserve to at least eat what you want (and rock a bad ass pair of Steve Maddens)...Right?
Well, after a few years of throwing good money away at my local grocer, I had a kid and made some bargain savvy mom friends. These woman opened my eyes to a new world of food shopping corner cutting that has allowed me to still buy the things I love to eat without having to sacrifice that extra pair of patent leather pumps I'd been eyeing at the mall. Normally I'm not one to hit up the local Walmart for anything other than underwear, but these ladies have shown me what fist fighting white trash for a carton of eggs could do to help my budget and truthfully, it's worth it. Frozen foods, cereal, milk, and other household staples are dollars cheaper than the chain grocery store and that's just on the name brand stuff. If you want a real deal check out their store brand food.
Now before you turn your nose up at store brand food- as I always did until recently - hear me out. I did a little research and found that a lot of the things that are labeled store brand are actually the real deal with an uglier label. It wasn't easy to find the truth. In fact, Walmart was the only one remotely willing to admit to what they were using and it still took me a few hours of digging to come up with the few items I found. I guess it's some kind of conspiracy. That in mind, you may want to get your foil helmets out before you take a look at this list of products.
The Bargain List-Store Brands and Their Makers
FACT- "60% of name brand manufacturers produce store brands"-Private Label Association
Natures Own bread= Walmart brand ( the only difference is that they use a thinner bag for the store brand)
Hidden Valley makes all the oil and salad dressing for Target, Walmart and Winn Dixie
McCormick= all store brand spices
Pampers = Target brand diapers
All of the following are Walmart brands
Canned beans= Con Agra
There are a lot of things that suck about being an adult. It's really a shame too considering how badly I wanted to be one. To be honest, I feel like it was only yesterday that I was throwing my feet over the side of my twin sized bed, slapping on some Covergirl and tossing a messenger bag over my shoulder to get to high school. Looking back now- had I realized what was waiting for me- I might have tried to slow down and absorb more of my carefree childhood. But what does this have to do with old ladies using pizza rolls as toilet paper? Nothing really, but it's my blog and sometimes I like to be a little self indulgent when getting to the point.
The meat and potatoes of it is this; when your an adult you get stuck doing mundane and time consuming chores like laundry and cooking. You have to pay the bills and buy the groceries, all while maintaining a budget and stretching a dollar. When I set off on my own and had to start setting limits for my finances, the one thing I never cut corners on were groceries (and shoes). I don't know why, but I have always felt that food (and shoes) cost what it cost and if your working your ass off you deserve to at least eat what you want (and rock a bad ass pair of Steve Maddens)...Right?
Well, after a few years of throwing good money away at my local grocer, I had a kid and made some bargain savvy mom friends. These woman opened my eyes to a new world of food shopping corner cutting that has allowed me to still buy the things I love to eat without having to sacrifice that extra pair of patent leather pumps I'd been eyeing at the mall. Normally I'm not one to hit up the local Walmart for anything other than underwear, but these ladies have shown me what fist fighting white trash for a carton of eggs could do to help my budget and truthfully, it's worth it. Frozen foods, cereal, milk, and other household staples are dollars cheaper than the chain grocery store and that's just on the name brand stuff. If you want a real deal check out their store brand food.
Now before you turn your nose up at store brand food- as I always did until recently - hear me out. I did a little research and found that a lot of the things that are labeled store brand are actually the real deal with an uglier label. It wasn't easy to find the truth. In fact, Walmart was the only one remotely willing to admit to what they were using and it still took me a few hours of digging to come up with the few items I found. I guess it's some kind of conspiracy. That in mind, you may want to get your foil helmets out before you take a look at this list of products.
The Bargain List-Store Brands and Their Makers
FACT- "60% of name brand manufacturers produce store brands"-Private Label Association
Natures Own bread= Walmart brand ( the only difference is that they use a thinner bag for the store brand)
Hidden Valley makes all the oil and salad dressing for Target, Walmart and Winn Dixie
McCormick= all store brand spices
Pampers = Target brand diapers
All of the following are Walmart brands
Canned beans= Con Agra
Ketchup= Delmont
Canned veggies= Allen
Sugar= Imperial
Flour= Gold Medal
Ice Cream= Blue Bell
Frozen potatoes (french fries)= Orieda
Frozen veggies= Pictsweet
Pickles= Best Maid
Thick sliced bacon= Tyson
Worcestershire sauce= Lea & Parris
Tuna= Star Kist
Can ham= Hormel
Non-stick spray= Pam
Can tomatoes= Hunts
Chili sauce= Heinz
Vienna sausages= Armour
Pudding cups= Snak Pak
Popcorn= Pop Weaver
Yogurt= Yoplait
Coffee creamer= Nestle
P-nut butter= Peter Pan
Refrigerated biscuits and rolls= Kraft
Cookie dough= Nestle
Pot Pies= Banquet
Chocolate syrup= Nestle
Hot chocolate packets= Swiss Miss
Tea bags= Luizianne
**I want you all to know that during my research I did take a moment to check around and make sure that these store brands were not just retarded second cousins of the real deal. It turns out that not only are they from the same factory, but they also contain the same ingredients and quality. Like my mom friend told me; "It's not like they have strange little Mexicans growing tomatoes in their bathroom, so that Walmart can have cheaper ketchup." And she right, but you don't have to take my word for it. Go out and see for yourself and if you find some brands along the way that I missed, please add them in the comment section below.
**I want you all to know that during my research I did take a moment to check around and make sure that these store brands were not just retarded second cousins of the real deal. It turns out that not only are they from the same factory, but they also contain the same ingredients and quality. Like my mom friend told me; "It's not like they have strange little Mexicans growing tomatoes in their bathroom, so that Walmart can have cheaper ketchup." And she right, but you don't have to take my word for it. Go out and see for yourself and if you find some brands along the way that I missed, please add them in the comment section below.
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