"to buy ALL STORE BRAND OR CHEAPEST ITEMS THEY OFFER"

Sorry to disagree, Cathy, but one of the two biggest myths of food shopping is that house brands are cheaper.

Putting aside questions of quality (and yes, Virginia, there are differences), if you compare price per volume or weight than house brands often are more expensive.

For instance, a name brand is selling for $1.48. The "same" product in a house brand is only $1.35. Sounds like a deal. But it turns out the name brand is 15 ounces and the house brand only 12.5---which actually makes the house brand (with the likelihood of it being lower quality) a penny an ounce more expensive.

So, rather than automatically reaching for the store brand, or the stuff that's identified as being on sale, the trick is to only compare cost per ounce, in order to level the playing field.

And in all due respect to those who favor the idea, the fact is there is no convenience product sold as cheaply as you can make the same thing yourself.

The most important aspect of living frugally (and this might be a problem for your friends, Kevin, being as she's going back to school) is a willingness to exchange time for money. It certainly takes longer to make mac & cheese from scratch than it does to add water to a box of chemicals.

Let me amend the "convenience products are always more expensive" comment to say a lot depends on the definition of "convenience."

The most dramatic instance is milk. When you buy "fresh" milk you are paying to transport somebody else's liquid. Water is both bulky, and weighs 8 pounds per gallon---making it relatively expensive to ship.

What this means is that instant powdered milk actually is a better buy.

There are probably a very few other examples. But, in general, I stand by my statement.

You make a good point there Brook! I guess I naturally assume everyone knows these differences and will read the label as carefully as I do to make sure I am getting the same exact amount, type and hopefully as good a quality as the more expensive brand name products.

I learned a long time ago that for instance: oatmeal packaged by Quaker Oatmeal the most expensive brand, was also packaged at the same plant, the same product but produced for a store brand at a more affordable price to the consumer & is in almost every respect the same product, just a wee bit cheaper because it was wrapped in a different label. I of-course use common sence and the taste test (try a product 1st before I purchase more). But you can & will save if you are aware and read the labels. I know because I do this even to this day, a name brand label does not fool me!

"Until they come out with a new way to mess with can sizes as they have done with plastic containers, most cans usually hold the same amount."

Not so, IC. The net weight content of canned goods is all over the map.

A #2 1/2 sized can, which used to contain 16 ounces, has gone steadily downwards since the '70s when the canning industry universally dropped the standard to 15 ounces as a way around price controls. Nowadays, in the same size can, you'll find contents ranging from 12 to 15 ounces. And the unknown question is, how muc of that net-weight is water rather than product? You'd have to do a series of weighing experiments to find out, because the canning industry ain't talking. Having done such experiements, however, I'll give you a hint: the water/product ratio has improved in water's favor.

"The quality isn't as good though....It' again is a poorer quality but, a pound of pasta is a pound of pasta."

As to quality, everyone has to make their own decisions on this. But if you read labels, and see the nutritional differences between one brand and another, it has to impact your choice.

This, however, gets us into the difference between price and value.

"Many store brand items are even packed and shipped in from the plants of the name brand companies."

Absolutely! And the inference has always been that it's therefore the same product with a different label, which is most emphatically not the case. The store brand is put up on a contract packaging basis, and, more often than not, uses a lower grade of the product. If you think not, go buy a can of any house brand of green peas and one of a major brand. Pour each of them into a bowl, and look at the differences.

The question becomes, are those quality (and nutritional and taste) differences worth the difference in price? Obviously, they are to you. Others might not think so. Which again gets us into value versus price.