Some cheap brands don't cut it

Since my family has been on a budget, we’ve been doing our grocery shopping around town at a few discount stores. At first, it was weird buying the off-brands, foreign-brands, and questionably legal brands that are sold at these locations, but like any necessity, we’re adjusting.

For years I told my husband that I refused to eat cereal out of a bag because it reminded me too much of dog food bags; though, much smaller and easier to open. At this very moment, there is a humongous bag of cereal in our pantry that is quite tasty, but it is making a liar out of me. Chips are exempt from the bag prejudice because, unless you have a tube of Pringles, they all come in bags.

I must say that I have been pleasantly surprised to discover that most all of the products we now purchase are equal to, if not better than, our brand name originals. Having said that, there are two exceptions to this revelation: certain types of chips and dish soap.

The original Doritos Nacho Cheese Flavored Tortilla Chips are unmatched by any imposter brand. I’m so devoted to this particular Dorito taste that I don’t even like their alternative products and consider all of their flavor experiments to be epic fails. This list includes, but is not limited to Pizza Supreme, Spicy Sweet Chili, Cheese Burger, and my least favorite, Cool Ranch. I just cannot comprehend why Frito Lay would tamper with something that is the perfect combination of flavor Heaven.

Frito Lay has cornered the market on all my chip needs by also producing their Classic chip, Ruffles, Cheddar and Sour Cream Potato Chips, and Scoops which are unmatched when it comes to cradling chili con queso dip.

Discount chips simply do not cut the mustard when it comes to palatability. The plain chips are too salty and their take on nacho cheese tortilla chips is laughable at best. There exists in those off-brands a sweet, alien flavor that leaves an unfulfilling residue on your tongue and finger tips. Whatever Frito Lay is doing, they have one loyal customer who would rather go without than settle for a reduced copy.

Dish soap is a mix of chemicals that I had mistakenly thought was readily available to anyone who wanted to make the concoction. There are several major brands I’ll purchase depending what is on sale, but last week we paid about a dollar for a 2 liter-sized (exaggeration) container of bubbly degreaser. The problem being, it is neither bubbly nor a degreaser.

To get the suds, it requires about 1/8 cup of liquid to make any noticeable difference in the dish water outside of tinting it the color blue which does nothing to clean cutlery. I tried washing a pan that had earlier been used to cook bacon only to smear artistic circular ridges on the bottom.

I come from a frame of mind that figures more has got to be better so, after squirting the dyed gel directly onto the pan, I tried again. There still remained a greasy film. I pondered the low cost of the huge jug compared with the higher-priced brands and figured that I’m getting my money’s worth sticking with the well-known products.

Before I started school and catapulted our family into financial ruin, I always thought we were being frugal. I now know how erroneous my thinking was at that time. Still, I think I’ll splurge on those two particular items.