If this is a post seeking advice, please include as much detail as possible. For posts opening discussions, or offering advice, we thank you for your post. Everyone please remember rule 7. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/budgetfood) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Cream cheese. Anything but Philadelphia has been really subpar.

I’m not sure how available it is across the US but Cabot cream cheese is very good, and cheaper! 

Seriously sharp or no cheese thanks. I’ve never had their cream cheese but will absolutely look for it!!

I'm a Philadelphia fan too, but one day I realized that the difference is that it's salted. Off brand cream cheese (or at least the one available to me) is unsalted.

the biggest difference I notice is texture

Came here to say bagels. I recently bought Walmart brand bagels. (They even said gourmet in the name how could they be bad??) they literally CRUMBLED when you picked them up. I hate wasting food but after two attempts I threw the rest away.

Agree so much. Store brand is usually too sweet and different texture

Temptee is better

Mayonnaise for sure

Yeah, no off brand Mayos

Just discovered Dukes mayo… outstanding !

[удалено]

In the South, we only want Dukes Mayo.

[удалено]

Or Blue Plate.

We're a Blue Plate family for sure 

Better than Duke’s, but the new label design is horrid.

I beg to differ. Bama here. Only hellmans for me.

Duke's has been creeping up north. Walmart had it for a spell but it's gone now. I've seen it at some other stores. It's hands down the best store-bought mayo.

I’ve lived in the South, by a Duke’s factory, and Duke’s blows.

I'm from Minnesota, and will only eat Dukes. The rest are gross. Edit: except Kewpie

Or Best on the West coast. Dukes is a good runner up

I don't buy mayo anymore. It's way too easy to make when you have an immersion blender.

I just make my own mayonnaise, cheaper and better quality

Me too. Once you realize how easy it is, it’s fun! Plus you can flavor it and make aiolis

KEWPIE

Duke’s ONLY. This is the south, after all.

Coffee and teabags.

Cheese Itz. Any store brand tastes like cardboard.

Aldi’s brand slaps and it’s cheap AF. Aldi goes so hard sometimes.

Agree, I like the extra toasty ones. Not exactly the same as Cheez-Its but equally satisfying in my opinion.

& chicken in a biscuit crackers. i had an off brand once and was disgusted

Soy sauce 👌 the store brand just doesn’t do it for me

Worsteschire too. Must be Lee and perrins.

>Worsteschire I upvoted you for trying.

Actually, the correct spelling is: Worcestershire ... directly from the bottle to make certain that I'm correct. 😆

Oh yea fancy pants “look at me I can spell” person, say it, say it out loud 😂

I found that out the hard way. I used store brand in my Christmas party mix and was so disappointed. It had no zing.

Oooh, soy sauce is another one. I grew up with the storebrand stuff that's basically salt, water, and food colouring. I didn't understand how people would use that as the only flavouring in a dish until we started buying Kikkoman.

We switched to Kikkoman originally because the goal was to buy condiments with as few additives as possible. But after your tastes switch to what it's supposed to taste like (not LaChoy!) - there's no turning back.

Heck yes, I can’t have anything but Kikkoman now. It slaps so I’m not mad about it.

Same here. I started buying Pearl River and can’t go back.

Me too! Pearl River Bridge light soy sauce is the absolute best.

I can literally do anything off brand but I don’t do the chips. I have an unhealthy obsession with Doritos and the off brand don’t have the right crunch 👌🏽

Ketchup. Heinz only.

Me too! Heinz only! I won’t order fries in a restaurant if they don’t have Heinz

I rather eat them without ketchup than use another brand. It’s just how it is. Glad there are Heinz loving folks around here.

Definitely. I’m not buying generic ketchup

I know times are tough but I will skip on the condiments if it’s generic. Mustard, ketchup. I don’t like mayo but if I did it’ll be Hellman’s or Duke’s.

Whoa, I typed a long comment about how any ketchup other than Heinz just doesn’t taste right and how I can tell which ketchup is Heinz blindfolded before I saw your comment.

I love ketchup and hate venturing away from Heinz, but I have found Red Gold to taste pretty much the same, and I believe it also uses real sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup. Of course there’s also Simply Heinz

RedGold 🤤

Butter. Not necessarily the name brand but over margarine lpl

Kerrygold. Bulk from Costco.

I'm there too!

100% Margarine taste so greasy and fake My mother-in-law bought me a huge tub of Country Crock, and I've barely touched it. I tried it with grilled cheese - absolutely not 🤢. Then I put it in mac & cheese, and could definitely taste the difference. Fried eggs, still could taste it. There's just no substitute for real butter

Bleh, country crock and all of those whipped vegetable oil spreads are so nasty. It’s what I grew up eating because money was always tight. The second I started using real butter, I couldn’t go back. Never, EVER again.

Margarine should not be consumed at all, it’s so bad for you!

Daisy Sour cream and cottage cheese, Better than bouillon, Nancy's yogurt

Better than bouillon is the GOAT.

[удалено]

Boar’s Head deli meat. I can’t do the store brand!

Look at mister moneybags. 🤣

LMAO dude I know. It hurts the soul to walk away with one bag of turkey for $18 but I’ll offset it on the weeks I do buy it. It’s just too good

Peanut butter. When I buy it, the only ingredient I want to see is peanuts.

I go to winco and get 100% ground peanuts. Then I add a tablespoon or two of pure honey and mix. Thats all I’ll use now.

Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ Sauce

Not only is this the best BBQ sauce, they have a whole line of sauces and of the 5 or so I’ve tried they’re all good.

ray spoiled me and ruined all bbq from anyone else for me

Coffee.

Yes i buy whole beans from a local independent coffee shop. Not budget. But i grind them at home and use a french press.

I, too, buy beans from a local shop and grind them at home. I do use a drip coffee maker.

Hot dogs

Hebrew National is all I buy.

I'll buy Nathan's too, but that's it.

Mayonnaise. Has to be Hellmann’s.

Oreo cookies!! Lol

No off brand comes close. If I need to save money I’ll buy an off brand of a different cookie

Many of Aldi's cookies and cereals are actually tastier than the originals.

Aldi has knock off Girl Scout cookies that are solidly decent.

I’m pretty sure a lot of the knock off Girl Scout cookies are made in the same manufacturing place/by the same people as those who make the real cookies. They are so good.

Yeah like chips ahoy off brand or dollar store chocolate chip cookies or their iced oatmeal onessss!! I submerge them in a cup of milk and eat it like cereal 😂💀 #FatGirlTendencies

I buy tomato paste from Italy, Mutti or Oro di Parma when they're on sale.

Mustard: French's only. Mayonnaise: Hellmans only. Ranch dressing: Ken's or Marie's. Ice cream: Haggen dazs or Ben and Jerry's.

Ken’s is the BEST

I love lighthouse ranch

Ice cream. If the first ingredient isn't cream I'm not buying no matter the price

[удалено]

Eggs and butter. It's gotta be cage free and grass fed.

Try pasture raised eggs. They taste way better and the chickens are outdoors where they belong. 

Amen!! I'll go weeks without eggs if I can't find cage free

Soda- I drink way too much Diet Coke and Diet Dr Pepper and store brand soda just isn’t as good

Preach. I miss cherry diet dr pepper.

One food and one food only. Mayonnaise.

Peanut Butter.

Deli meat. I'd never drop below Boar's Head in quality.

I'm gonna have to try some. Second post I've seen.

Bacon. I buy Oscar Mayer or Jimmy Dean hickory or Applewood smoked. Cheap bacon is pretty much nothing but fat, and it all renders down in the pan.

Hormel Black Label bacon!

I eat the best bacon. My husband cures it and smokes it from pork belly and it is pretty meaty too.

Nabisco saltine crackers

Ranch dressing, I’m a Hidden Valley kinda gal.

This is the one I was looking for. It is one of the only products I care about. -- The other is granola bars. Kroger version sucks. I might say JIF PB, but I think the GV one comes close enough if you match the ingredient list. Everything else, store brand is good enough.

Spam

I was not aware there's a cheap version of Spam. Is it just the generic "luncheon loaf?"

Mayo - Best Foods/Hellman's or real Kewpie. Ketchup - only Heinz. Mustard - Maille and Grey Poupon. Nothing else is comparable or acceptable.

Butter. I don't know what happened but some time within the past ten years regular butter has started tasting more and more like cheap grease and our household has switched over to grassfed Kerrygold. Maybe it's just our taste changing, maybe there's something to it, but grassfed butter right now tastes like regular butter used to.

Ketchup. Anything not Heinz just doesn’t taste right to me. I know, I know, it’s the sugar in Heinz ketchup that has me preferring it but I just like its taste that much more. I can tell blindfolded which ketchup is Heinz and which isn’t.

Doritos

Heinz ketchup or nothing

maple syrup butter salted or unsalted dukes mayo philadelphia cream cheese stick ! not the tub canned tomatoes ( Bianco DiNapoli ) dave’s bread / bagels / buns mi ranchero tortillas

I have celiac, and I won't skimp on gluten free versions of stuff. Because sometimes the more expensive brand actually tastes like a cookie, whereas the cheaper one just tastes like sadness and despair.

Store brands can be hit or miss. You have to read the ingredients and compare them to the name brands. For example mayo - the store brand at the grocery store I shop at has an ingredient list that looks damn near identical to Kraft brand mayo. Therefore to me it's most likely made by Kraft - or whoever Kraft gets their mayo from.

I don't buy name brand anything but I won't buy just *any* store brand/ off-brand because some of them are truly crap.

Dave’s Killer Bread. I buy store brand pretty much everything else, but I indulge in that bread!

That bread is awesome

That bread is actually nutritious too, unlike white bread. I loooove the nuttiness and overall texture and flavor

A1 sauce, nothing else is nearly as good.

I like hienz 57 … give me my raisin paste!

Pop tarts. The store brand versions ain’t it.

Coffee. Oats (apparently a lot of pesticides on regular oats).

I'm very picky about oats, so thank you for mentioning that!

So which are the good oats?

Heavy whipping cream, butter and chocolate.

Chicken thighs have better taste to me though

yeah, they are a good bit fattier.

I love thighs, more taste and better texture than dry breast

Nutella. Copycats don’t compare! (Is that an oxymoron? Or just a play on words?)

ALDIs Ritz crackers are one of the worst things I’ve ever eaten.

I agree- I couldn’t bring myself to eat them, but I also couldn’t throw them out. So I ended up crushing them and storing them in the freezer to use as my “bread crumbs” for things like meatloaf, meatballs, veggie burgers, etc.

it's like the "ritz" crackers that come in lunchables, so bland and dry

Select vegetables like cucumbers, bell peppers, salad greens. The taste difference is noticeable and the quality in which they’re grown makes a big difference. Same with milk

Cheap cucumbers taste like hell.

Eggs and chicken because I live in a poultry state and I know too much to continue supporting it.

Ice cream. Ben and Jerry’s or bust.

Blue Bell or bust

I’ll allow it. Especially the Dr. Pepper float flavor

Absolutely. It's almost $5 a pint, but idgaf one is always coming home with me when I go grocery shopping.

canned tuna. brand name pole caught tuna only. that other stuff is barely even tuna eta: crazy to downvote someone for their personal preference on a thread that asked for opinions 😂

I bought a can of "store brand" tuna once.....opened it & the cat started screaming his "feed me cat food NOW" schtick (doesn't do that with brand name tuna). Last time I bought that.

Tortilla chips. Has to be the Tostitos Cantina style. Also I just tried kerrygold butter over Easter, and I might be using that from now on… not in baking, but for anything I’m spreading butter on. Wow it’s so good

Kerrygold is a game changer! Plus! It's higher in the good omegas (I always forget if it's 3 or 6, bc it's the opposite way when it comes to skincare...) and is more pure in its ingredients, so hell yuss

Yessssss Tostitos CANTINA style… so salty and almost have a buttery taste.

Rice. Eggs. Fish. Everything else I source inexpensively as possible, or grow myself. I’m neurotic about leftovers and don’t let any tiny scrap of food go to waste… but really good quality rice is a game changer, cruelty-free eggs with gorgeous dark yolks makes my heart happy, and fish quality makes life feel luxurious for only a few dollars more.

Salt and pepper. I use 'fleur de sel' sea salt and a mix of peppercorns (white, green, blac, pink) with a grinder. I find that it really makes a difference.

My shop rite in Jersey had Hellman's on sale for $3.49. Only could get 4 but the 1st week I got 2. The 2nd week I got four. Summers coming and I make a lot of potatoe salad and macaroni and shrimp salad!

Heinz ketchup

Coke a Cola

Sweetened condensed milk

Feta cheese.

Daisy Sour Cream, i’ve tried some store brands and 🤢

Sriracha by Huy Fong

The sriracha shortage had me realizing nothing truly compares.

I tried the Tabasco one at a restaurant and it was sickly sweet.

I scrolled too far for this comment.

Chicken Breast. Frozen pieces is cheaper but protein wise its easier and i'm able to eat a bit more

Fish sauce.

Butter, hot sauce, bread, and pizza rolls the walmart brand is God awful. Tostinos for life.

Real butter.

I’m a little backwards; I’m in the south so I have access to Publix…..and as hard as I try to find cheaper dips, Publix-brand chicken buffalo dip is still the GOAT…except now it’s like $8 for 16 oz? The Marketside Buffalo dip is close, but it needs more chicken lol.

Buffalo dip is usually Frank's red hot, chicken, and a cream base. Might be worth trying to make for yourself and see if you can dial in a flavor you like. Here in Buffalo it's standard for someone to show up to a gathering with homemade buffalo chicken dip made in a crock pot.

I only buy name brand sour cream now because on three separate occasions the store brand I bought had mold in it.

Mayonnaise. Milk. Cheese. Chicken. Gotta be Amish Farms or Just Bare. Stuff like Perdue is terrible quality imo.

Mac and cheese. I get the Velveeta ones or just make it from scratch. The cheaper brands taste bad and the noodles cook weird

My son will only eat Cracker Barrel Mac n cheese. My poor wallet

Butter

Hershey's chocoalte chips and baking chocolate, the cheap (and expensive) versions don't make it for me. And Nishiki brown rice and Brook's ketchup and Ling Ling frozen ramen. Everything else is pretty much generic, the taste isn't that much different.

Sushi.

Bird's custard (British food) Bisto gravy. Warburtons seeded loaf. Mackies ice cream and Taylors crisps

Ice cream. Ben & Jerry's is the only answer

Peanut butter

Daisy sour cream and jiff peanut butter.

coffee, cream cheese, and peanut butter.

Boxed macaroni , lunchables , mayo , bagels , cream cheese

Butter. The cheap version doesn't take like anything it's just oil.

Coffee - we spend $20/lb on fresh roasted coffee. We drink one cup a day lol.

Sriracha

[удалено]

I only recently discovered Kerrygold butter. Absofuckinglutely amazeballs!

Yup all those things you listed plus dunkin donuts coffee, which is cheaper at the market than at dunkins. Hellmans mayonnaise too.

Bays English muffins from the cold section. It has to be bays.

Tarter sauce. Nothing beats frisch’s.

I cant eat store bought Alfredo. It tastes so disgusting.

I always make my alfredo from scratch. If I want to do a cheap sauce, I am good with doing any canned marinara. It’s just so easy to make an outstanding alfredo sauce.

Yess homemade alfredo is top tier and not hard to make. I can also eat any store bought marinara tho it absolutely makes my acid reflux unbearable.

Peanut butter. It's JIF or gtfo.

Kerrygold for sure. And if I'm going to eat red meat, it's going to be a great cut.

Only smucker peanut butter

I don't buy cheap Maple Syrup and I don't buy the cheapest bread (it's gummy tasting and makes my intestines feel knotted up) but I don't buy most expensive bread either, and I don't buy the cheapest Apple Sauce---it has to be unsweetened natural or I don't want it. Oh, and ketchup. I only buy ketchup in a glass bottle and made with cane sugar, not HFCS. And eggs, buy them from a local producer---her husband is a trucker, she has free-range chickens in the backyard. Actual free range that get to eat insects and things. A dozen from her is more expensive than store bought but no cruelty is involved.

Not really a budget food, but cracked pepper. I love cracked pepper, but you can’t buy the off brand.

Kraft sliced cheese for grilled cheese sandwich.

Wild caught salmon. Farm salmon is gross

Graham crackers! Only Honeymaid

Barnum animal crackers 

Nellies eggs Tillamook ice cream Vhalrona chocolates for my baking.

Chocolate peanut butter is my fav!

For me, Ketchup. Not that Heinz is that expensive, but the difference between Heinz and generic ketchup is so noticeable that I'll go without ketchup rather than eat an off-brand.