Prices keep climbing, so I’m trying to pick my battles in the supermarket. Which items do you refuse to cheap out on, and why? Taste, health, longevity, peace of mind… I’d love to hear what’s worth the few extra dollars for you.
For me, it’s honey from local beekeepers—supermarket brands locally are known to sell fake or adulterated sugar syrup as honey.
Good ketchup Real butter, not reconstituted which should be illegal Good bread, fresh or at least not the cheapest stuff
Real butter for things where you can taste it. Store brand for things where the other flavors are more overpowering and don’t really notice the butter.
Having two butters to manage seems like a lot of work.
Huy Fong Sriracha. Just don’t even bother buying any other bottle of “sriracha” sauce. It’s not worth it. Your disappointment will be immeasurable and your day will be ruined.
While I also like Huy Fong Sriracha and was delighted when I first ran into it, I believe I remember reading about them changing the recipe at some point.
EDIT: Oh, sounds like they didn’t change the recipe intentionally, but at least the first batch they had after they had a fight with their pepper supplier tasted somewhat differently. I assume that they’re aiming to keep the flavor the same.
I’ve had a Sriracha from Yellow Bird that was absolutely amazing, they added in a little bit of agave, probably my top pick now.
That used to be the case because the peppers were specifically grown just for Huy Fong. However, Huy Fong screwed over their exclusive pepper grower to increase profits. The peppers they get now don’t taste the same.
This is it. The old Huy Fong is completely gone now, unless you have a connection to someone who’s been hoarding.
There’s a different sauce brand now that is produced by Huy Fong’s old pepper farm using the same peppers. But I’ve been told that’s not exactly the same either.
Nice try, Kroger.
Canadian maple syrup.
It’s all run by a cartel!
While I agree, the price difference between “maple syrup” (maple flavoured corn syrup) and maple syrup is way more than $5. A bottle of genuine maple syrup is $20+.
It’s not called maple syrup if it’s not real maple syrup. They’ll call it maple flavored syrup, pancake syrup, but never maple syrup.
Costco sells real Canadian maple syrup at a fair price (cost plus a few percent).
You can get real maple syrup in the states for around $15 (and that’s honestly NYC pricing). It’s not corn syrup, but it’s also not Canadian maple syrup.
But one of my favorite things about Canada absolutely is the abundance of maple syrup here. Maple syrup candies are my favs.
There’s nothing wrong with new england maple syrup, but yes, real maple syrup not “pancake syrup” with maple flavoring.
Cream cheese. The store brand might be okay for maybe baking with, but you can’t spread that excuse for caulk on a bagel and say it’s anything near as good as the Philadelphia brand.
Philly used to be reliable for not having gums added. Sadly they started using them, too, a year or two ago. Now I buy a local brand with nothing more than milk, cream, and salt for twice the price.
Seriously?! I need to go check some ingredients, brb.
Gotta check ingredients every so often. They love changing things without telling you.
Just had some of the worst “store brand” honey mustard. How do you mess that up? Tasted like they watered it down by adding extra vinegar. Watery. Gross tasting. Lesson Learned.
Came here to say Dijon mustard. A jar of mustard lasts me 6 months, so a couple extra bucks for the good stuff doesn’t amount to much.
I’m going to sound like a hater, but the food in season and local is what you should be eating, and that will always be the cheapest. If you’re talking processed food brands and shit in boxes in the middle of the store, I’d argue none of it is worth the extra money, its all bad for you, stop. That said, the frozen arby’s curley fries are bomb, and no one does cheesey things like cheetos or smartfood.
I’ve seen a few people saying that it’s cheaper to buy stuff that’s in season over the years but I’ve never seen prices drop on in season stuff before. Idk if it’s just a thing where I am but the supermarkets seem to just pocket the difference and leave the prices the same year round.
bummer…i see berry and asparagus prices down now…
Also melons, super on sale.
You’ll still probably get better flavors when things are in season locally. Also, you’ll need to check, but often the frozen version of produce is cheaper when the fresh version is in season, and frozen is easy to stock up on.
I’ve never seen prices drop on in season stuff
That means you forgot the ‘local’ part. Cheapest supermarket get their stuff from the cheapest sources worldwide.
You really have to look if you want to buy local, but then it’s worth it.
Have you had the smartfood popcorn with Cheeto flavoring?
Have to disagree on the last point. I greatly prefer Aldi Cheese Curls and Market Basket Cheese Crunches. Except the jalapeño cheddar flavor. Those slap.
Trader Joes are so much better than the Aldi ones IMO
But the parent company owns both of those brands though?
Aldi is two different companies, North and South. One owns Aldi America, the other bought Trader Jones.
This sounds like the beginning of a math story problem.
Butter, life is too damn short to cook with and eat shitty butter.
Also anything that goes between me and the ground, my bed, my shoes, and my tires.
Kerrygold
What grocery items are always worth the extra
butter … my bed, my shoes, and my tires
Hello, fellow Costco shopper.
Costco has sub par service at their tire center, but good prices. Recommend using their prices to price match at a regular store with better service to get the best of both worlds.
Maybe your warehouse has issues but Costco tire center is top tier
it’s just a bit slow. i’ve waited 20 minutes just to buy a battery before
I agree with every part of this.
A while back I was standing in the butter section, waiting for a couple to move so I could grab my pricey-but-worth-it butter, and overheard them talking about how butter is a scam and it all tastes the same no matter what. I had to hold back a chuckle. They of course grabbed the cheapest option and went about their lives in complete ignorance of the glory of high quality butter.
I still wonder if I should have said something to encourage them to try a better butter, but they talked about it with such blind confidence that I didn’t feel right about it at the time.
Ever double blinded yourself with Kerrygold (or w/e) vs. regular stuff? Always try to do this and surprise myself with some products
Not grocery but my opinion is anything that interacts with the world around you. Glasses, shoes, gloves, headphones should all be top quality for comfort and their respective task
Lunch meat. I eat sandwiches every day for lunch and I have tried all the discount store brands for various types of ham, turkey, and chicken, and it’s all pretty shit, so I’m quite happy to pay the buck for the Hillshire Farms stuff cause it’s the best.
If you really want to step up your game, try buying raw meat, cooking it, and slicing it for sandwiches. I do this with chicken and it’s served me really well at very low cost.
That sounds like a big increase in pain-in-the-ass for not that big an increase in savings. I’m happy to trade money for convenience on this one. ;)
There is also a potential health difference. Lunch meat tends to be loaded with preservatives and falls into the category of “processed meat”.
It is. What makes it worth it for me is the combination of extremely high quality and very low price. If I could buy deli meat of that quality, I probably would, but I haven’t encountered it.
Believe it or not, top-shelf bacon. It’s got more bacon in it. Less water. You’re not paying nearly as much more per ounce of actual meat as it looks at first.
Lots of “organic” produce has a significantly longer shelf life than the basic stuff too. Never mind whether it’s any healthier or tastier, I’m not saving any money if I pay a dollar less and it starts molding before I can eat half of it.
Yeah, the secret to getting good bacon is buying it at the
butcherdeli counter. You can request your preferred thickness, it’s much leaner, and it’s more flavorful. Unless you’ve got a local artisan cured meat hookup available, it’s the way to go.
Olive oil, although it’s not really 1-5 extra where I am. There’s a lot of advice to buy cheap oil for cooking, but that’s not really true. The truth is that a lot of ‘extra virgin’ oil is sold in an old, rancid state, and you have to upgrade into the mid tiers to get away from that.
Buy the best olive oil you’re willing to spend money on, even for cooking.
Good ev olive oil is something else. Once you try you can never go back to.
I lived most my life using and tasting the highest quality cause my dad works in the agricolutural field, writing contracts for farmers and etc. and, while not so good paid, the job comes with the upside of the presents from said farmers. Liters and liters of the highest quality oil italy can produce. I think we never (since he had this job) boight a can of oil, and its a pretty big save too considering that kind of oil easily goes for 20€/L.
When i was out for university, my tight budget meant i had to resort to just “Olive oil”. Not EV. Not 100% local. I though “how bad can it be, its still pressed olives!” Bad, very bad.
i was hoping someone would say this as well! heaps of evidence out there about tonnes of adulterated olive oils. usually with cheap hyper-processed seed oils
I like buying local California olive oils, then I know it’s real.
Yep. Read “Extra Virginity” and you’ll likely never buy imported EVO again.
La Tourangelle Extra Virgin Olive Oil. It’s my favorite.
Pasta made in Italy. (A recent ex-girlfriend converted me)
If you absolutely positively have to have a bottle of soda, then probably go with the Mexican Coke over anything made in America.
Theres a lot of craft soda or smaller soda worth your time. Also Fever Tree is fantastic for mixers/fizzy drinks
Forgot about this. Empire soda from Bristol, RI is the bomb.
I will add that I’ve yet to find a decent tasting store brand soda or sparkling water. I have no idea why it’s so difficult for them to get the flavoring right.
Kroger diet cola. It’s better than diet coke. Always fucking out of stock though around me.
Kerrygold
Silverware
The cheap metals taste like a magnet, have rough edges, and lose their appearance after a few washes
There’s plenty of good used stainless flatware out there. Older stuff found at estate sales is frequently better quality and cheaper than buying new at department stores.
