c/cheap-dinner-wins

My neighbor swore by frozen broccoli, I laughed, then I did the math

So my neighbor Carol, she's the type who clips coupons for things she doesn't need, kept telling me to buy the big bags of frozen veggies instead of fresh. I rolled my eyes for months because I thought fresh was always better and cheaper if you shopped sales. Last week I finally added up what I actually toss: I bought a $3.50 head of broccoli, used half, and the rest went slimy in the fridge by day four. Carol's bag was $2.89, I used exactly what I needed for three dinners, and not one bite went to waste. She was right, and I hate that. Has anyone else found that frozen stuff beats fresh for certain meals even when the price per pound looks higher at first glance?

0 comments

olivia_rivera88•1d ago

I finally read the generic label on canned beans and had to sit down

Last night I grabbed a store brand can of black beans for my usual under $3 burrito bowl setup. The nutrition panel showed 380mg of sodium per serving, but the national brand sitting next to it had 290mg. That extra 90mg doesn't sound bad until you eat beans three times a week like I do. I checked three other pantry staples and the generic versions all ran higher on salt and sugar. Has anyone else compared labels on store brand stuff and switched back, or do you just rinse everything and call it even?

0 comments

lunakim•3d ago

Store brand canned tomatoes vs name brand, the cheap ones won my pasta night

So last week I needed crushed tomatoes for a quick sauce and only had 4 bucks to my name. Grabbed the store brand can for 99 cents instead of the 2.50 name brand. Figured whatever, it's just tomatoes right? Wrong. The store brand was actually thicker and less watery. My sauce came out better than when I use the fancy stuff. I've been loyal to the name brand for like 5 years and now I feel kinda dumb. Anyone else find that some store brand stuff just hits different depending on the item? Like maybe canned goods are safe to cheap out on but other stuff isn't.

0 comments

lopez.oscar•4d ago

That $4 jar of minced garlic turned on me after 3 weeks

Bought the store brand jar at Aldi last month, figured it'd save me chopping time. By week 3 it had this weird sour taste, ruined my whole spaghetti sauce. Anyone else stopped buying pre-minced garlic and just goes fresh now?

1 comments

river_davis•10d ago

Dollar store cornbread mix beat my fancy bakery version

Last Tuesday I grabbed the 99 cent cornbread mix from the bargain mart on Maple Ave because I was out of flour, and it came out fluffier than the $4 artisanal bag I usually buy from the co-op. I added a can of creamed corn and some cheap shredded cheddar to stretch it into a full dinner with chili, total cost about $2.75 for three servings. Has anyone else had a store brand beat out the name brand on something they thought was untouchable?

1 comments

bettys51•14d ago

Boxed mac and cheese beat my homemade recipe for 30 cents a bowl, fight me

I spent 45 minutes making sharp cheddar sauce from scratch last Friday and my kids ate two bites, but the 99 cent blue box with powdered stuff vanished in 5 minutes, so what's the point of pretending fancy is better when the store brand elbows are just as soft?

1 comments

barbaraw47•15d ago

Tried the $1.99 frozen pizza from the discount bin, got a rock instead

Last Friday I grabbed one of those deeply discounted frozen pizzas from the salvage grocery in Tulsa, thought I was being smart. Price was $1.99, but the crust was so hard it cracked my ceramic dinner plate when I tried to slice it. I lost the pizza, the plate, and my appetite, so I ended up spending $4.50 on drive-thru tacos anyway. That's over $6.50 for a meal that was supposed to be a steal, and I'm still mad about it. Has anyone else had a discount frozen item that was just a total waste, or did I just pick the worst one possible?

1 comments

grantadams•16d ago

Store brand canned tomatoes beat my fancy ones in a blind taste test

I was fully prepared to hate the generic tomatoes from the discount grocery on 12th Street. Did a side-by-side with my usual $3.50 brand last Tuesday, making the same pasta sauce for both. The cheap ones had way more depth, not as watery, and my wife picked them without knowing which was which. I mean, maybe it's just this one store, but I'm thinking of switching for good. Anyone else had a store brand surprise them like that?

1 comments

umamartin•17d ago

Overheard a guy at the Aldi brag about his $4.50 chili, I had to try it

He said the secret was store brand kidney beans and a can of cheap diced tomatoes with green chiles, not the name brand stuff. I made it last Tuesday for my family of 4 in Columbus and it honestly beat my usual recipe that costs close to $9. The only thing I'd add is a spoon of brown sugar to cut the acidity. Anyone else found a random stranger's offhand tip that became a regular rotation?

1 comments

emmaj33•19d ago

Store brand pasta vs name brand, blind taste test at my house

I usually grab whatever pasta is on sale, but last week I decided to actually test if the $0.89 store brand penne was any worse than the $2.49 name brand. Cooked both boxes same way, same sauce, served to my roommate without telling her which was which. She picked the store brand as better. I honestly couldn't tell either. The only real difference was the name brand took a minute longer to cook. Anyone else done a side by side with cheap staples and been surprised?

1 comments

olivia_harris19•20d ago

My aunt's $2 cream cheese shortcut made me sick for a full weekend

My aunt swore by buying the off brand cream cheese from the dollar store and using it in her mac and cheese recipe, said it tasted the same and saved a buck fifty. Last Tuesday I tried it for a pasta bake, figured what could go wrong, it's just cream cheese right? Big mistake. The texture was grainy and it never melted smooth, then around 2am my stomach started doing backflips and I spent the next two days glued to the couch with the worst food poisoning I've had since a bad gas station sandwich in 2019. I checked the package after and the sell by date was three weeks past, and the store didn't even have a price tag on it, just a sharpie mark. So yeah, store brand can be fine for some stuff like canned beans or frozen veggies, but dairy is where I draw the line now. Has anyone else had a bad run with dollar store dairy or am I just cursed?

c/cheap-dinner-wins

My neighbor swore by frozen broccoli, I laughed, then I did the math

I finally read the generic label on canned beans and had to sit down

Store brand canned tomatoes vs name brand, the cheap ones won my pasta night

That $4 jar of minced garlic turned on me after 3 weeks

Dollar store cornbread mix beat my fancy bakery version

Boxed mac and cheese beat my homemade recipe for 30 cents a bowl, fight me

Tried the $1.99 frozen pizza from the discount bin, got a rock instead

Store brand canned tomatoes beat my fancy ones in a blind taste test

Overheard a guy at the Aldi brag about his $4.50 chili, I had to try it

Store brand pasta vs name brand, blind taste test at my house

My aunt's $2 cream cheese shortcut made me sick for a full weekend

Store brand pasta sauce beat the fancy jar in my five buck taste test

The day I stopped rinsing my rice after cooking it, I finally got fluffy grains instead of sticky clumps.

Tried store brand canned tomatoes for chili last week and it came out way better than the name brand

Store brand pasta is fine but the sauce is where they get you

Question about store brand canned tomatoes for pasta sauce

My neighbor swore by adding sugar to spaghetti sauce to cut acidity. I thought she was nuts.

Store brand pasta was a hard no for me until a blind taste test in Akron

Just tried store brand canned tomatoes for chili and it was a disaster

Store brand frozen veggies saved my stir fry game

Switched to store brand pasta after a taste test with my neighbor and I can't tell the difference anymore

That week I tried to live on only store brand pantry staples

Store brand cheese is actually better than Kraft in mac and cheese

My grandma's store brand trick I keep seeing people forget

Store brand canned tomatoes saved my pasta night in Pittsburgh