Choosing Name Brands Over Generics #236

We're gonna cover some of the different UH categories of products where we feel going generic makes a lot of sense, and we're gonna talk about when it makes sense to go with the name brand and how to just really think about it. Well, looking forward to talking with you about this, buddy. Yeah, man, I think some personal finance people who nerd out might be like store brand always

all the time. And you know, I think you and I were partial to to store brands, were partial to generics and a lot of instances, but not in every case. And so yeah, we'll kind of give those parameters on how to think about which one you choose. Matt. Before we get to that, I wanted to give a quick shout out to my seven year old. It's her birthday today. She listens to the show, right, Oh, yeah, of course, yeah,

and uh so she just turned seven. But yeah, I had a question for you because one of the gifts that I gave her today actually purchased at least a year and a half maybe two and a half years ago, and I just kind of had it sitting up in

the top of the closet soever around Christmas time. Cost actually has a pretty decent selection of presents for kids, and I knew when I saw this gift, oh man, seven year old son was gonna really love this, but five year old Talma, I can't really play with this yet, and so I ended up buying it ahead of time and just kind of storing it, holding onto that. And I feel like I've been doing that more and more

over the years. I didn't have something in our closet from this past Christmas that our ten month old just isn't ready to play with and might not be ready to play with for another year. So you're probably wondering, when is it old enough for my son to start playing with a little be Begun? The Red Rider be Begun not cool until at least eleven or twelve, I think. But yeah, so I just what's your take. Do you ever buy presence in advance. Do you ever see such

a good deal? But you're like, my kid is not ready for that yet, but I'm gonna hang onto it for a while. And this is one of the ways where you and I are so different. I feel like, like you're so good at thinking ahead like this, and it's a valuable trait, you know, to to know that, Okay, one of these days we'll get around to this. But

I just I tend not to think that way. Mine sort of default is that I'm focusing on the risk involved with that, right, I'm thinking what if what if they don't like it, you know, like or this is something that they may never get into. Uh. In this case, it sounds like it was something that was maybe more of a slam dunk for you, and so you thought, Okay, surely this is gonna be something that's gonna work out.

But yeah, like where my mind goes is that, well, I don't know if this is gonna be something that they would actually want two years down the road. Yeah exactly. Yeah, taste might change, something might go out of style, you know,

if it's something that's more timely. But I guess the argument can be made that this could be something you can give to any kid, right, and so like, even if your daughter doesn't like it, you could kind of put that on the shelf in the closet where maybe you have some other gifts or other books that you're planning to give other kids, you know, for their birthdays.

We kind of have a shelf like that in our closet where we we find a deal on something, or we find something that we really like, we buy a bunch of those and set them aside, and that's just something that we give to a bunch of kids that year until we run out. Yeah. I love kind of the idea of planning ahead with gifts for my my kids friends, in particularly when there's a sale on something and I'm like, yeah, I think people are gonna love that.

Then I don't mind stocking me up on a couple of copies of a book or a couple of board games or something like that, because you know, we love board games, um and and hopefully her friends do too. But yeah, and it keeps you from running into Target, you know, last minute, and dropping thirty thirty five bucks when you really you could have gotten a similar gift for twelve bucks on sale exactly. Yeah, that's what I'm fine.

I can get behind that for sure. Okay, cool. Yeah, so yeah, if I see something in the future and it's like heavily discounted and I think my kids are gonna like it when they're like eighteen nineteen, you know, I don't know. Maybe maybe twelve years down the road is too far to thinkin but uh, but yeah, Happy birthday to my my seven year old Salma. And um, I'm gonna keep buying year presence years in advance. Probably all right, man, let's go ahead and introduce our beer

for this episode. Uh, this episode, we're drinking a Spotted Cow and that's by a New Glaris brewing company. They're out of Wisconsin. The Big Things. To our buddy James for donating these to the show. I'm looking forward to enjoying this one with you, man and sharing our thoughts at the end of the episode. Yeah, James had some friends going up to Wisconsin and he requested New Glaris and then he shared someone in Love with us. New Glaris makes great beers. Man, looking forward to having this

one with you, my friend. But let's get onto the subject in hand. We're talking about name brands and generics. How do you choose between them and Matt, Private labels or generics are roughly sixteen percent of overall sales. In particular for talking about the grocery store, and we're gonna talk about grocery store, but we're also going to talk

about other decisions to write. Name brands are still more popular with people, but still that sixteen percent number, it's still a big shift from from years ago when store brands were even less popular, right, But but private label goods they're cheaper and often just as good as their name brand counterparts. That's one of the things that we definitely want to hammer home in this episode is that, especially today, Uh, store brand goods are not massively inferior.

I think it's more of a psychological hurdle that we have to overcome. And some store brands have even developed like a cult following, and many people view them as superior to the name brands that cost more. Matt. Of course, you know, I like Costco and of course, and some of their Kirkland signature products actually really hit the mark on this. Uh, there's certain things that the Costco sells under their store label that are actually much better tasting

or much better quality. Oftentimes than the name brand counterparts that they sell right next to it. And it turns out too that in it taste tests from Consumer Reports, they did a study store brands taste just as good as their name brand counterparts. So it's nice to have that kind of factual information backing us up to that

Consumer Reports has provided. Yeah, the knots to mention the boost that generic brands have also gotten, man, just from there being less supply, you know, like when it comes to toilet paper, folks were just wanting to get some toilet paper in their house so that they didn't have to use paper towels, right, nobody wanted to use papor towels. That it didn't matter if you've got the name brand or just any toilet paper in your bathroom. That's a

good point. Yeah, some of us have been forced to try the store brands, even maybe when we never did before, because that's all that's left on the shelf for certain items right now. Yeah. Absolutely, um, And you know, so you mentioned that test that Consumer Reports brand. It also showed that your average savings from buying generic brands at the grocery store is over snagging the name brand equivalent.

And since groceries are such a large part of most of our budgets every single month, Like that's a big deal. But again, you know, it's not just groceries that we're talking about here. We'll certainly talk about the perks of buying generic or store brands in the grocery store, but also talk about, you know, how you can think about name brands verse store brand alternatives in your everyday shopping, you know, like like for clothes or for medicine as well.

You know, should you get that North Face rain jacket or maybe an off brain equivalent? You know, is it worth it to take a risk on some basic MASc era or maybe you should just stick without higher end stuff that you normally get. Sounds like a dilemma you faced before all the time, and so by the end of this episode, hopefully our listeners will be able to easily answer these questions themselves based on some of the

things that we're gonna talk about. Yeah, Matt, And of course we just already mentioned the obvious that it's more affordable to buy store brand items, right, But it's also important to note that most store brand products have the exact same ingredients that are made incredibly similarly to their

name brand counterparts. There are lists on the internet Matt, that you can easily hunt down on Google of items that are actually not even just equivalently made or similarly made, but that are the exact same item as the store brand. So like, for example, Kirkland Signature again Costco, their batteries are apparently from everything you can find on the internet, the exact same as Durstall batteries. There's no difference except for the exterior rapper on them, and a lot of

people don't know that that. Sometimes name brand manufacturers are actually making the store brand items themselves, so oftentimes there just isn't really much of a difference in quality. But but even still, it can be easy for us to spend too much money on name brands in the grocery store.

And and I think part of that, right is, is due to in store displays kind of drawing our eyes, drawing our attention, and it makes it easier to grab something that costs more and looks familiar because we've seen it on TV. Also, Matt, I actually dug up some fascinating supermarket stats that provided some helpful information kind of on this, and and they show that we tend to spend forty of our money on whatever the store manager

is promoting on the aisles and caps. That means we're susceptible to buying the most expensive products just because of where they're placed. And some of the name brands actually have paid lots of money to grocery stores throughout the years to be placed at high level, to be placed at the best spot for consumers to reach their goods, Like we don't even like to bend down to go to the lowest shelf and the grocery store to look for you know, cheaper items or store brand equivalents. Joel.

That actually reminds me of so Uh in King of Kong, you know that documentary. We've talked about this before. My favorite ones Billy Mitchell, the you know, like the bad guy. He has hot sauce and I remember there's this one scene when he's in the store and they're you know, filming him and he's talking about I guess this hot sauce. Were talking about video games, and he's like I remember him like pushing back the other hot sauces and pulling his forward so they like take up more shelf space.

It's such a dirt bag. But yeah, you're in a much greater advantage if everyone could see your stuff, and it makes a huge deal. That shell space makes all the difference. And you're talking about the studies. They also showed that the average visit to the grocery store that it lasts about thirteen minutes, and of that thirteen minutes, we dedicate at most of our time in the store to actually selecting things to buy. Uh, and the rest of the time turns into just this quote unquote in

effective wandering, you know. And so from the marketer standpoint, this is valuable time that they have to position their products in front of our eyes, you know, hoping that they end up in our carts. Uh, And we're gonna end up spending more money on these name brand products. And this can suck when we're not even aware that we're even doing that. Yeah, I think the worst possible way to go in the grocery stores to go in Hungary, and then the second worst way to go into a

grocery stores to go in board. Yeah, you're you're looking for stuff to buy. In both ways, you're susceptible to buying a much of stuff that you don't need. But in particular, we're more susceptible to buying the name brand items that are specifically shoved in front of our faces. But so much of the time when you brand name items, you're paying for clever branding and advertisements. We all know that, but still sometimes we get hooked. That's not always the case.

Of course, some name brand items make more sense for us, and they're worth the additional money. Right For example, maybe some name brand running shoes. You might not want the ten dollar shoes the bargain baseman price. Yeah, I will not wear ten dollar bargain basement tennis shoes to to go run. Yeah, I don't gonna do. I wouldn't do it either if I like to run wreck my knees.

But of course there are a lot of times where it does make sense and you want to save more money by going with store brands and generics, and it's gonna be a big help to your budget. And later on the show, we're gonna talk about kind of some principles for how you make the choice, But before we get to that, we're going to talk about specific items that we think it makes the most sense to buy generic or store brand equivalent, and we'll get to some

of those right after the break. All right, Joe, we are back from the break, and let's go ahead and talk about some of the best items that we think folks should be buying generic. And I say we think because I'm pretty much any one of these categories. I feel that someone who's listening could say, no, you guys are being way too cheap. That's not something you should go generic on. And so I guess I want to preface with that because it all comes down to the

things that we value. Obviously, there's certain things that you and I would like to spend good money on. We spend good money on quality local craft beer, not just local, but just nice craft beer from all across the country, all across the world. And that's not something that a lot of people would do. And so there are certain categories where you're gonna want to spend more money on

than we are. So that being said, let's go ahead and name a few, you know, categories, a few things where you know, we feel that you should almost never be buying the name brand version. All right, let's talk about beer real quick for a second. Matt. While we're talking about alcohol, dive into it. That is something that I think a lot of people would be happy to buy generic of to buy just kind of store brand Aldi beer, Costco beer or whatever it is. Trader Joe's

has their own beers that they sell. Well, some of Trader Joe's beers are actually good. Uh, they're okay. Yeah, there's there's a couple that are made by specific brews, but you gotta kind of dive deep for those. Yeah, And I generally speaking, you're talking about just like the

light loggers sitting on the shelf. But even sometimes they try to make like a porter or something like a decent style of beer that I enjoy, and I just find that they're never as good as the beer that I typically get from better known breweries and local brewers that make just really really good stuff. So that's something I'm not willing to compromise on. But I think some people would be happy and and are typically happy with

the generic beer equivalence. But what about spirits, Matt, I think that's actually, at least in my mind, maybe someone who's not a connoisseur that I'm more than willing to go generic on a whiskey or a vodka or something like that. It kind of depends on on which spirit you're talking about, because when it comes to like scotch, like there's a type of Scotch that I like to drink, but pretty much everything else that I'm willing to cut

some corners on for sure. Yeah. Well again Costco for the win here, man, They've got some Kirkland signature like vodka and uh and tequila products that I've actually enjoyed throughout the years, but those just starting things I drink very frequently, so I'm probably not the best person to judge on that. Yeah, but I've read stories and like heard podcasts actually on how like the high end like top shelf vodka, it's not any better than the cheap stuff,

you know, when you're going for something tasting like nothing. Uh, well, like it's all the same and you're talking about a discount typically Yeah, he's from the high end stuff. Yeah. Well, while we're on the topic of alcohol, we may as well talk about drugs as well. Yeah, yeah, name brand over the counter drugs and medicine. Man, they make no sense to me, you know, like when the active ingredient is exactly the same as the store brand, I think

we should all be reaching for the generic. I think One of the ways that name brands kind of get you when it comes to purchasing their medicines over the generic the store brand is because a lot of times I think when you're sick, you don't really care about like saving fifty cents. You're you're just thinking, oh, like no matter what, I want to be better, you know, like I want the best thing that money can buy. But like you're not really taking the time to realize

that like this is really the same stuff. Yeah, that your money is not actually going further and making a difference in how quickly you're going to recover. Those medicines that you're buying have the same active ingredient there, they're almost same. They might have, like at least for kids, like a slightly different flavor or a different packaging. Yeah, yeah,

you're paying for nicer, shinier packaging. Yeah, pretty much a better designed label for sure, But that's a you know, it's also better to get generic prescription drugs too, if you know they will work for you as well, Like these will save you a ton of money, So make sure to check in with your doctor, you know, when they're prescribing something, ask if there is a generic equivalent or even once you get to the pharmacy, check with the pharmacist and see if there is an equivalence that

could potentially save you a ton of money. Yeah. Sometimes I've showed up the pharmacy and I've gotten the quote on how much it's gonna cost, and my first question is is there a generic equivalent? Because the sticker shot can be so great, and typically there is. Um If there's not, obviously there are other workarounds, but I agree for a lot of prescription drugs there are generic equivalents that are just as good and that cost a fraction of the amount that you would otherwise pay. All right,

let's talk about baby formula. That's one of those things that is a big money saver that you're feeling right now by buying generic instead of bout the name brand. Right, we're definitely spending a large portion of our monthly allotted budget towards grocery just on baby formula because that stuff

is expensive. Yeah, for sure, we're not doing formula right now, but I know that the last time we had to, we were able to get it from Costco, and I can see the equivalent name brand product sitting right next to it in the same size, packaging, same serving size and everything, and it's twice as much money and you're getting gears from all the similar story really where it's a whole lot less than the name brand, and really it's not all that different of a of a product.

The same ingredients are involved. Yeah, the biggest thing when it comes to formula specifically is to look at you know, what they compare it to, because you know, like all different instance, they've got three or four or five different kinds of formula and on each one of them they say compared to a different name brand, similar pro formula or whatever. I don't don't even know what it says, but uh, that lets you know that you know if your baby does like a specific brand because of formulas

are different between some of the different makers. Right, we're not saying that they're all the same. But when you're able to get apples to apples, you know you've got that name brand Apple and you're comparing it to the generic Apple. The formulas are almost identical. And so if that's something you're considering, you're considering switching to the generic. Look specifically for that name brand kind of written on there that you're supposed to compare it to that'll get

you far. Yeah, and babies typically once they've kind of gotten started on a specific kind of formula, they don't like to switch. They don't take to it super easily. So yeah, finding the most direct comparison that you can it makes it more likely that they're actually going to

make the switch. Well yea, yeah, we're not saying to go super cheap and just to switch your baby to the cheapest, most easily accessible stuff because you know, yeah, it's really important to keep the baby happy exactly, making some of that sanity, especially if it means they're going to sleep through the night or not. Yeah, all right, so WHI we're talking about babies were place, Let's talk

about diapers, Matt. Have you found any difference in name brand diapers versus store brand diapers or even just kind of more generic brands that aren't the ones that you see on TV? Ye. I mean this is an area that where I can say that the store brand was, in our opinion, was stinking better than the a couple of the different name brands that we were trying out.

You know, a lot of times when you have a baby, people will give you a lot of different random stuff, including diapers, and so I remember specifically having some of the fancy diapers, you know, like Pampers or whatever the other brands are. I specifically remember how you know they would leak, especially overnight, and so like you get up in the morning, get the baby up, and you kind of have to like change the onesie, change the sheet

because everything's wet. It wasn't so after we ran out of all those diapers that we started trying out Targets up and Up. Dude, those diapers were way better than the name brand. And so ever since then we had stuck with uh Targets brand, which was the up and Up. This is just an instance where I feel that going with the store brand was just way way better. Yea, So we actually did cloth diapers with the first two kidtos, but I think we got really lazy with number three,

and so we're doing regular diapers. And we tried one of the cheaper name brands for a while, and then we switched to a store brand, the Costco store brand, of course, and we promised this is not just a sponsored episode for Costco. Even don't though it sounds like it is. I'm just in love. But yeah, so I need to give all the more love. Yeah, I mean all the rocks too. But the diapers, the Kirkland signature diapers were just so much more absorbent. They were way better.

All right, let's talk about water. Yeah, you should probably just be drinking tap water, I think, and maybe filter tap water if you're into that. But it's so incredible to see the differentiation that's happened in the water category. Man, they're super fancy name brand water. There's kind of like we'reunning the mill name brand bottle of water. Now, it's

just kind of all over the place. It's crazy to think how much more you could pay for certain brands of bottle of water that really aren't that much different. And actually, when you read up on bottle of water, so many different varieties of bottle of water are actually

just tap water put in a plastic bottle. And so yeah, I would say try to remind yourself when you're buying water, when you actually do need to buy bottle water, which should be rare, that it's just marketing and Jedimi tricks trying to get you to buy something that's more expensive that you don't actually need. Yeah, so le, let's kind of get out of the grocery store a little bit and a category where I feel there's such a huge disparity between you know, going with something that's a little

more generic and something that's name brand our glasses. Man, this is something that I have to deal with every few years when I purchased some new glasses. But check out sites like Zeny Optical, which is my favorite, or even Goggles for you in order to get your prescription glasses at a massive discount over some of those different designer name brands. You should make sure that you're going into the epometrist, you know, to ensure that your prescription

is correct and up to date. But then you know, take that information and order your glasses online to to save a ton and also, you know, from personal experience, I promise that you'll see just as well too. I mean I've been using Zenny for years now, and every few years I'll put a big order where I'll order like three or four different pairs just to try out some new ones. Maybe to get an updated pair of sunglasses, because you can get prescription sunglasses as well and have

them tinted. Just get a fresh look, you know, yeah, I just get a fresh look. For sure. My my my regret. With my most recent sunglass purchases, I wish I would have gone with the mirror coating on the outside. I forgot what the up charge was for that. But you know, more I see people with the with the mirrored sunglasses, I'm like, dang it, I should have done that route. You don't want people looking in your eyes. That's what it is. Oh, you got sunglasses on people

can't really see anyway. But I don't know. I feel like when you have sunglasses on them that have the mirrored look and it's like kind of colored, it's got a nice gradient, it just it doesn't matter where you are, but you look like you should be at the beach. You know, No, I understand, But yeah, I think you're right on the on the glasses front, and that's a place where you can save eighty or ninety percent, right, Yeah, easily going with Zenny or goggles for you or something

like that, you're gonna save a ton over money. Dude walking into your local optometry's office and picking out whatever is on the wall. Yeah, well, specifically, like my first pair of glasses I ever got were a pair of ray bands, because you know, I was just like, all right, I want some thick frame ray bands. I want to kind of look like Ira Glass a little bit. Sure, I look cool. I end up spending so much money

on that pair of frames and they look cool. But I've got framed man that look just as good that I get for twenty bucks for a pair of frames from from Zenny, So I highly recommend them. Yeah, that's

a good one. All right. Let's talk about gasoline for a second, And that's not something that people normally think about buying a generic or buying a store brand, but it happens, and there are significant price disparities between different gas stations, and typically the difference is kind of name brand versus off brand, or like a warehouse club or one of those gas stations that has like twenty pumps

that does a lot of business. And some people are are convinced of buying gas at the major stations is better for your car, and the advertisements kind of trying to sell you on that as well, but it's just not true. Right, Buying cheaper gas will not harm your car, and as long as you're getting the proper octane that is meant for your vehicle, then you're fine. Again, so much of it comes down to branding saying that they have included special detergents in their gasoline. But there's just

no discernible difference in any of that stuff. It's it's really just marketing mumbo jumbo. And what about organics, organic foods? If if eating organic is important to you, it's gotten a lot easier to eat organic. But on a budget, you know, you can definitely get store brand organics now on the reg so it doesn't have to come down to, you know, whether you're going to fork out the money for the name brand individually wrapped single serve of Kiwi

that you might they pick up from Whole Foods. You can easily pick up some great organic foods from you know, stories like Aldi from Walmart. Last I checked, Walmart is actually the largest retailer of organic foods because of the number of stores that they have all across the country. And in my book, Walmart isn't considered name brand, no, no, for sure, And yeah, just organics in general, the prices come down so much, and so much of that is due to store brands creating a line of organics and

pricing them competitively. And so yeah, we've seen Kroger, aldi Walmart get into the mix, and it means that buying organics has just gotten so much easier, and it's gotten so much cheaper. And Matt, you and I, well, when it comes to shopping in the grocery store, we're not banking cuponning. Some people really like that and they find that a good way to save money, but you and I, we we kind of find that to be more of a hassle. It's cumbersome my style. Now, I'm not into it.

But it's important to note that actually coupons have an effect that can sometimes make the name brand items a whole lot cheaper than the store brand items. So if you're into coupons and sales shopping, you can potentially save by sticking to name brands. So this is kind of counterintuitive, counter to what we've just been talking about, but if you do like to shop sales and use coupons, you might actually save more if you time things right by

taking those tactics in order to buy name brands. Just felt like that was worth bringing up because some people are like, no, I want the name brand oreos, not the fake ones, and you might do better if you

hold out for the coupons to to rolling in the paper. Yeah, but I mean at the same time, though, sometimes those coupons will just bring the name brands down to the same cost as the store brands, right, And so in that case, you're spending a lot of time and effort just to save a little bit of money to get you know, a product that might be better but just at the same price. And so in my mind, the

way I see it, you're just wasting a lot of time. Well, those name brand oreos are better, I think, right, That's one place I think a lot of people would say, I'm drawing the line we never buy oreos. I don't either, but like, I know that I've had both kinds, and I know that the name brand oreos are better than

the fake ones. Like, they're just certain things that we've had experience with, and we know we have a line that we draw and and we're not going to go past that when it comes to buying the off brand fair enough, I just use that as a deterrent to keep me from buying the things that I shouldn't buy. Well, Joe,

I'll not know. We're gonna take a quick break, but after that we're gonna talk about how to go about thinking through whether or not you should go with a name brand, how you should go about making that decision. So we'll get to that right after the break. All right, we're back from the break, and let's talk about when it does make sense to go with the name brand. We just gave kind of a bunch of categories where we think the store brand or the generic makes a

whole lot more sense. It's going to save you money, and it's gonna be just as good as what you would have bought except for the oreos. But when does it make sense to go with the name brand. Well, if there is a type of product that you're looking for and there just isn't a generic equivalent, Right, Sometimes with certain items, in particular, Matt, from what I hear from my wife cosmetics, there just isn't a generic available

that has the same formula. Uh So, these, of course would be instances where the quality just isn't the same and the product is different enough that it makes sense to get the name brand and not trying to hold out for a generic that just isn't nearly as good. Yeah, certainly, man, if the quality of the generic isn't up to snuff, then that's something you want to avoid completely, otherwise you'll be branded as cheap for bringing home that cheap stuff. Dude,

don't do it now. You'd rather be frugal. And you know, that kind of leads us to talking about like quality and guarantee of products. That's certainly consideration as well, especially when you're looking at items that cost a bit more than your standard grocery store purchases. You know, Like I'm thinking of the fancy tool company snap On, where they have like a lifetime warranty on their tools. You know, I think they'll even come out with their truck uh

full of tools to to make replacements for you. But that's something where you're gonna be paying more. You're paying a premium for the products, but you're also getting an amazing guarantee of just quality tools. I'm also thinking of a clothier LLL being. They used to have their lifetime warranty, but man, that's something that they discontinued a couple of

years ago, so good well last due to people abusing it. Yeah, I'm not gonna accuse you, but no, no, it wasn't mean I don't actually don't wear l L being but I love that that they had that policy. Um, but you know there's other outdoor companies as well, like Osprey.

They have guarantees on their backpacks for life. A good buddy of mine, I know, he's worked with them before to actually make a documentary about hiking the A Team, but they were a sponsor and he was really happy to have them on board because they had such an amazing guarantee on on a lot of their equipment, specifically their their backpacks. Yeah, of course, I think, especially when it comes to clothing or outdoor products, name brands can

oftentimes have a huge leg up. I feel like in the grocery store, it's a different conversation, but there are lots of other areas of our lives where it does make sense to buy something that is more expensive, in particular to get something gets of higher quality. Matt. That just reminds me of something that you and all my other buddies made fun of me about. I bought in Atlanta, United Jersey on eBay that was not legitimate. I guess

it was not legit. Yeah, colors were even off. That was actually how you could tell is because it was like it was a brighter red. It was like a candy apple red versus like this rich dark red. Yeah, no, it's pretty obvious. I think I got it for eighteen or twenty bucks or something like that, and you know, the the real thing costs more like sixty bucks, eighty bucks whatever. And so yeah, that Christmas signed up asking for the real thing from my parents from for saying

it brought it for you exactly. But that's one of those things where it is worth it so much. So many times that was a wasted twenty bucks for me because I just never really wore that. Think again, not because I was ashamed or I didn't want people to make fun of me, but just because once I got it, I was like, oh, yeah, this is not great quality.

It is cheap. It sucks. And so yeah, I think that is something that we do need to take into consideration and not just necessarily assume that something is higher quality, but maybe do a little bit of research. Uh. That's what is great about the Internet. You can do research so easily and you can find out, well, okay, what is the difference. Does this item actually provide a better guarantee or higher quality? And if it does, then I think it does make more sense in many cases to

spend more money and the name brand. Yeah, you know, sometimes it makes sense to go with a name brand because you are sticking with what you know. You know, if you currently maybe have more money than you have time, and sometimes it makes sense to stick with a product that you know that will work for you. In this case, it's not even a generic versus a name brand thing, but like you're just paying for the ability to not have to make another decision and even potentially having a

product that you're not happy with. An example I'm thinking of is Kate and I we were this is several years ago, but we were going to repaint our dining room, and like, quality paint is expensive, specifically super paint from Sherwin Williams. It can be pretty pretty pricey, even when you wait to one of the four times every year that they just kind of off sometimes those are those are beautiful days. But even still, like that's some really

expensive paint if you get the higher end stuff. And so Kate and I we talked about this for it's

way too long. We spent way too much talking about whether we should stick with what we knew or if we should go with like some of the more you know, some of the more affordable kind of contractor lower grade paint, and at the end we ended up going with the with the cheper stuff, which ended up giving us crappier results, and so we had to go back and put multiple coats on it in order for it to stick well

enough there in that dining room. So I guess in that case, that was an example where we knew that super paint was really good stuff, and we knew that like it went on really thick, it's stuck to whatever you you know, you painted, And for us at least, that was an example where we should have just stuck

with the tried and true. Yeah, and in particular in regards to paint, I always think about the time that it takes in order to do it, and if you have to repaint after three or four years, as opposed to it lasting ten years, definitely worth it to get the name brand, right, Yeah, we're just the time that it takes to put that second code on because that first code didn't stick so well. Yeah, exactly, all right,

So let's talk about two name brands. Sometimes it makes sense to get the name brands if they have a specific value or mission that they are trying to accomplish and you want to support that, right. Patagonia is always an easy example here because they've pledged one percent of their sales to the preservation and restoration of the natural environment. But there are all sorts of companies now that do similar things. Kota Paxi is another one that comes to mind.

They sell really great out to work gear stuff and they've got a really cool mission too, and also I just love the way they design stuff. But that's the case for a lot of companies now, where they might sell you something and then donate a similar item to somebody in need. I think that's when it might be worth it to get the name brand. It might be worth it to pay more if you're supporting a mission,

you're not just spending more for no reason. And one other instance where we feel that it makes sense to to be able to buy name brands, it's just when you love a specific product, where you love a specific company, you know, like you don't necessarily have to have a reason, right, why why it makes sense for you to support this company? Uh, Sometimes you just go with a certain product because you

love it, you know. In our case, it's like craft Beers is always the example that we give, but it might be a completely random company that you just happen to like, I guess I want to just put that out there, because you don't have to necessarily have a defense for buying a specific name brand as long as you just don't allow that line of thinking to work its way into everything that you buy. You know, you can't say that like, well I really like this and

I really like this. It's like, well, you have to pick and so make sure that you are spending your money where it counts. Yeah. No, I think you're right. I think sometimes it can be as simple as I want to support small businesses and I'm willing to spend more in order to do that, And I think that's a great reason, Like it doesn't have to be one of the other reasons that we mentioned, or even like you don't even have to choose a small business because

it's a small business. You can just choose them because you like them, you know, like like just like what they're doing, like they're cool. Yeah. No, I I agree. I think just being thoughtful about it and maybe running through some of these filters can be helpful too. So all right, let's talk about some tips for deciding I would say, first, give it a shot as often as you can right try the store brand equivalent, or test something out, and specifically in situations where it's not going

to make that much of a difference. For instance, like All the has this double guarantee on most of their items. What do you have to lose by going with one of the all the products versus one of the name brands when you can take it back and get your money back, you know it's just not that and will replace it, and they'll replace it. Yeah, you don't not only have nothing to lose, you just have everything to gain. Yeah.

So I think there's so many instances where people can try out the store brand or the off brand or generic, whatever it is, and really the biggest thing you have to gain is a bunch of savings over years to come, and the biggest thing you have to lose is that one time purchase of something that you ended up not

liking and you're not gonna buy anymore. Yeah. So, if you are trying to decide between generic versus a name brand, you know you kind of mentioned this earlier, but look to reviews, having lots of people kind of weigh in on your decision, like that knowledge can help you to determine, you know, if that generic brand is lame, you know

before you click by. This is where online reviews are great, because I mean, oftentimes there are hundreds and even thousands of people kind of weighing in and helping you to decide. But you know, like on the other end of the spectrum too, like sometimes it can just come from a personal recommendation. If if there's someone who you know, you trust, or or maybe they have a little more experience than you do in a certain area, then by all means, like I feel that can be an instance where you

look at somebody else. Yeah, Matt, Randomly, I was looking for a bottle of tequila at Costco and I saw lady with Costco again two bottles of it in her cart, and I was like, hey, dang, two bottles. She's going big. What's your take on that she had two bottles? I've sleep you know, She's like, I just trying to the other night for the first time. I'm into it, and

she didn't stare me wrong. So yeah, sometimes that individual review can be helpful, but oftentimes the aggregate, larger amount of reviews on a website or something like that can really help us know whether it's smart to even give an off brand or a generic a shot before we buy it and sink our hard earned money into a purchase.

Totally man, And you know, we kind of just gave this example with all the how they have that you know, double guarantee, but when you know the return setus of your purchase, that can give you a lot of confidence as well when it comes to looking to, uh, you know, a more generic brand instead of a name brand. For example, ARII they have an incredible return policy, So checking out, you know, one of the r I branded items, it's gonna be less of a gable considering the satisfaction guaranteed

return policy. When the sticks are low like that, and you can kind of mitigate any of the risk that you might realize, it makes sense to try the generic where you can potentially save money every single time you

were to buy that item in the future. Matt, I mean we still in our family, we there are a few name brand items that were fans of and we stick to those and I think it's okay, right we found a few things that we like better than the store brand equivalent, but we try to be as flexible as possible ultimately, and we try store brand or generic equivalents as frequently as we can to see if there's something better out there, and honestly, that's kind of our

default at this point, Like we typically go to the store brand because we assume that it's going to be just as good and cost less, and oftentimes we do find that we like the store brand even more than

the name brand equivalent. But it's so helpful to do our best to stretch ourselves to try things that we might otherwise avoid for the sake of saving money on groceries or in other areas of our life, because these all have an impact on our budget and on those recurring monthly expenses, and we all know that the more that we spend on the recurring monthly expenses, the less we have to save, the less we have to invest

in the future. And so yeah, that's why I think store brands and generics are something that people should be considering more frequently, and especially as they've just gotten better and better over the years. I feel so much more offinite today that I did, like five or ten years ago picking up store brand items because of quality, I feel like it's just elevated across the board. Yeah, man,

that's right. And so let's now stead of talking about Generic's name brand, let's talk about our beer for this episode, name brand beer. This is not a generic. This is a real company that made his beer. Uh New Glaris Brewing Company. They made it. And this one is called Spotted Cow. This is out of Wisconsin. Joel, what were your thoughts on this beer, Buddy, dude. Spotted Cow is

an institution in Wisconsin. You see a whole lot of Miller Light when you go to Wisconsin, but you also see a ton of Spotted Cow, and I feel like it's a light beer that is is pretty clean, but it's also got like a little bit of that funky farmhouse going on, not over the top with it. It's a lovely beer that I feel like almost anybody can enjoy. It's not gonna be abrasive like a lot of the I p as that we tend to drink on the show, or a sour, but it's high quality at the same time.

So yeah, I like this beer. Yeah. I'm looking at the bottle here and it says that it adheres to the Ryan Heads Gabbat's purity law. Is that how you say that is that the German purity all that means you can only have four ingredients yeast, hops, water, and malted barley. I would say, yes, those things are in this beer, Like this is just a classic beer. It makes me think like on the Simpsons, like they're always drinking duffs. I feel like this is the equivalent to dust.

And that's not like an insult. It's just to say that this is like a tried and true, timeless classic beer to me. If someone's like, hey, what does that taste like, I would just say tastes like beer. You know, it tastes like a classic ale. I'm glad that you and I got to share this one. I don't think I've ever had this one before, and I'm thankful that James that he or his friends at least brought some back for us to have on the show Man. So James,

thank you. Yeah, thanks for sharing. All Right, Matt, that's gonna do it for this episode. And for folks who want to see the show notes for this show, just go to our website how to money dot com. And for listeners who have not left us a review yet, that would really help us to get the word out for folks who have not heard of our show before. The reviews really do help. And I'll issue a little challenge.

If there's a beer recommendation you have for us, head over to Apple Podcast, let us know that you've enjoyed the show and let us know what beer you enjoy. Maybe that could be a fun little way for us to discover some new breweries out there. Man, there you go. It might break the Apple podcast review algorithm, to which I'm totally fine with. Like, why are people talking about beer here? This is personal finance? But little did they know that we mix both of them together. Yeah, we

do so, buddy. That's gonna be it for this episode, Joel. Until next time, best Friends are Out, Best Friends Out.