No Frills Vs. Name Brands

One day my son came to me and said, "mom can you start buying the real Cocoa puffs cereal? I just had some at my friends house and theirs taste much better" I was floored and shocked. I had been buying generic brand cereals for years up until that time and no one ever complained until that moment. I instanty turned into my mother who was frugal in a good way as she would always say, " When I buy the name brands I'm paying for whats outside of the boxes, and when I buy no frills brand cereals, I'm paying for whats inside of the boxes and both brands have the same things inside" she would always say this. And at that moment I found myself telling my son the same exact thing. He was a good sport about it though and just responded with a shrug of his shoulders. Well now that left me thinking and I came up with something to try that I still do til this very day. I went out and bought those plastic see-through food storage containers with the lids that have pourable spouts. I stored our cereals in them. This way there would be no boxes to compare to because truthfully speaking, all those sugery cereals taste the same when eaten. Several weeks went by and I heard no complaints and the cereal was still being eaten. I even watched my son go into the kitchen and make a huge bowl of the generic brand cocoa puffs. He ate every chocolate morsel and even turned the bowl up to his mouth and drank the milk, which totally proved my point.

4 Comments | Post Feedback

There is often a difference between brand name and generics. the only way to know for sure in the case of the cereal would be to buy both brand name and generic, hide the identity in two different plastic boxes and then see which your son likes the best without his knowing which is which. Of course, for cereals it makes no difference what it tastes like just so long as you son gets fed.

I am a Kroger shopper. There is a definate difference in the taste of some of the Kroger brand and the great value (both generic).

(smiling at the first 2 comments)...no, it was definately the box that dazzeled my son at the time. My children are now adults and we talk about that incident from time-to-time and he says thay tasted the same but just didnt want his friend to see that he ate generic cereal (lol), I understand your points as well and agree as everything I bought was not generic, but that particular thing was. But what I attempted to point out was the solution I came up with to keep peace of mind for me and my son (who was the only one that complained), and put a halt to these types of comparisons at a time when my budget just didn't allow many choices if you can understand. Thank for sharing your thoughts guys.

...but if you switched the cereals into each others box, i'd still have to throw out the generic stuff...some generic stuff is ok, but NOT cereal (to me), it's all tough and taste like cardboard.

Post Feedback:

You need to be a registered ThriftyFun user post feedback. If you are registered, login using the form at the top of this page. Click here to register.