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Over at Cheap, Healthy, Good, they're usually pretty concerned with helping you find ways to lower your grocery bill. You can find posts on how to save, as well as how to make that inexpensive stuff into tasty meals. However, even a blog dedicated to being thrifty acknowledges that there are some things you just need to pay more for.
This post is about ten categories of foodstuff for which you simply must buy the top quality brand. The list includes cheese, with which I wholeheartedly agree, and store bought tomato sauce, which I'm in partial agreement. Never, in my opinion, get cheap cheese, but I find that I don't really use tomato sauce so I guess this one doesn't apply. Other highlights are chocolate and beer, both of which get an emphatic nod: both items are a luxury, so if you must indulge get something worth indulging in.
The post is interesting and amusing, but everyone has their own version of this list. What items do you absolutely have to have brand name for?
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7-24-2008 @1:56PM Rt said... HAHAHAHAHA,
It seems these people have never had to decide between food and rent.
My, how your loyalties will change.
My bad, this was just another advert. Sorry.
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7-24-2008 @2:20PM Melissa A. said... We have a lot of great and cheap beer in Canada, at least where I live. I can spend $11 on a 6 pack. If a beer costs a lot, it's probably imported ;)
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7-24-2008 @2:37PM KF said... If I'm not brewing my own tea, and I drink bottled cold tea, it must be Tejava. Accept no substitutes -- no Snapples, no HonesTeas, no store brands. At $1.19 per bottle, some think this is a luxury. I call it a necessity. I keep them at work and woe to anyone who thinks about nabbing my Tejava.
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7-24-2008 @2:44PM KF said... Two things. First, if I'm not brewing my own tea, and I drink bottled cold tea, it must be Tejava. Accept no substitutes -- no Snapples, no HonesTeas, no store brands. At $1.19 per bottle, some think this is a luxury. I call it a necessity. I keep them at work and woe to anyone who thinks about nabbing my Tejava.
Second, Best Foods (Hellman's) pure Mayonaise. There ARE no substitutes worth mentioning. I will buy it no matter what the price. Don't get me started on Miracle Whip. Just say no.
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7-24-2008 @3:35PM sarah h. said... Seconding Rt's comments. "Never" is a strong word, and I bet your tune would change real fast if you found yourself in dire financial straights.
And (now bashing the article) I love Francesco Rinaldi. At least it doesn't have HFCS in it like Ragu, a sauce the author likes. Then later on s/he bashes other food that has HFCS just based on that. And if I'm going to spend 8 bucks on Rao's sauce, I might as well make it from scratch. Or go out to eat.
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7-24-2008 @4:37PM heather said... I completely agree about the hellmans mayo.
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7-24-2008 @7:20PM kasey said... While I have bought cheaper items in attempts to save money for rent, in the end, it's not worth it because we (me and my bf) don't eat it. Case in point, cheese. I totally agree on that. If I can't afford to buy decent cheese (and I'm not even talking gourmet just you know, at least something not entirely plastic) it's better for me to simply not buy it at all because otherwise it will sit quietly rotting in the fridge until someone (usually me) has to do the "shame cleaning" in which all bad food must be thrown out. In the end, we didn't really save money by saving a few cents.
So I guess Cheese would be on my list and oh, bread too. Cheaper sliced bread seems to be smaller and less filling so we tend to buy the slightly more expensive stuff. It evens out in the end. :-)
It's all about preference though isn't it?
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7-24-2008 @8:28PM Rt said... @sara.h (I tried the Reply button but that didn't work).
It's not just "dire financial straights" sometimes it is your life. In my early life I worked in the construction biz. That didn't mean I didn't like good food, but it did mean I would gratefully accept anything someone would offer to feed me (bless the Christians, I did eat some good food - perhaps I was hungry :).
As we got older we migrated to careers 'on the other side of the window', we could afford to waste money. Some went to extravagance, others a more reasonable (thrifty) path. All of this is the basis of the waste today.
In hindsight I think more people should have been hungry once. I think things would be different now.
I don't want to disparage a discerning palate but "how to make that inexpensive stuff into tasty meals" is a joke in poor taste. Making spaghetti for a group of people because we were all too poor to afford it individually is an experience you may never enjoy (to your loss).
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7-24-2008 @11:39PM Sumara said... I'm not very fussy when it comes to taste. I buy a lot of the cheaper brands but my choices are mostly based on the practises of the company. I will only buy Fair Trade chocolate and coffee. More expensive but I aint going to participate in slavery thanks very much. I will not buy anything made/owned by Nestle, for the slavery and other unethical practises.
Cheap chocolate is sickening, in more ways than one.
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7-25-2008 @2:35PM Tamer Brad said... Rt, I'm not sure what you were expecting from a food blog. "Hey, this tastes worse, but it's cheaper so you should buy it"?
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7-25-2008 @10:50PM Rt said... @Tamer (I still can't make the Reply button work - probably my set-up).
I was just providing a perspective others may not have experienced. I can identify with many of the experiences posted here but that one was WAY too foreign. "Hey, this tastes worse, but it's cheaper so you should buy it" - one buys what one can afford.
Perhaps the 'by yuppies, for yuppies' blog isn't for me after all. Let me know when you pass the half century mark. We can talk about your perspective then.
I do enjoy the blog.
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