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?

Store brand products can be more affordable and, in many cases, better tasting than their name-brand counterparts. With some products, the larger national brands actually produce the store-brands, which simply receive different packaging before being shipped out to stores. Personally, I'm an open minded shopper and don't usually discriminate between name brand and non name brand food items. I buy store-brand sodas along with Diet Coke and do price and ingredient comparisons with products I haven't previously tried, often to discover that the store brand is almost identical to the more expensive corresponding brand.

That said, there are still some products that I won't buy if they're an off-brand. I prefer Heinz ketchup, for example, and approximations of Honey Nut Cheerios just don't quite measure up. It's probably because they're familiar flavors that I grew up with, and for that same reason, you probably have some, too. What store brand products will you not buy?

Many Manhattanites are looking forward to the new Trader Joe's in their neighborhood, but not everyone in the city is familiar with the options that the specialty grocer offers. In fact, residents of Madison, Wisconsin may not be sure what is in store for them when their Trader Joe's opens, either. To be sure, we cover a lot of it here at Slashfood, but there is a lot to learn about the way the grocer operates. The blogger at cardhouse has put together a frequent shopper's guide to Trader Joe's that outlines some of the high and low points of the store. Among the highs are some of their excellent products, like Trader Joe's Smokey Black Bean Dip and Trader Joe's Banana Waffles. Low points include their annoying tendency to replace name-brand products with store-brand clones. Is it worth it? Only time and experience will convince Trader Joe's newbies for sure.

[Via A Full Belly]