this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2024
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I often hear, "You should never cheap out on a good office chair, shoes, underpants, backpack etc.." but what are some items that you would feel OK to cheap out on?

This can by anything from items such as: expensive clothing brands to general groceries.

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[–] [email protected] 110 points 11 months ago (8 children)

All your basic staples: salt, flour, oil, sugar, pasta, pasta, milk, eggs etc. There's literally nothing to do better or worse, so for god's sake don't pay for the label. Fancy olive oil is nicer, and fancy butter for actually putting on bread is nice too - but for cooking, cheap the hell out.

Get your spices from an Indian / Asian / etc grocer - you can get a huge bag for the price of a tiny supermarket jar, and because they have so much turnover, they'll be plenty fresh.

Store-brand laundry detergent and dishwasher tablets work just fine for me (and dear god you can save a lot on those).

[–] [email protected] 45 points 11 months ago (5 children)

All your basic staples: salt, flour, oil, sugar, pasta, pasta, milk, eggs

It depends. Cheap salt is just fine. And flour, unless you're into baking. But some things can make a difference and you don't necessarily have to pay a lot more for it.

Pasta, for example. Bronze cut pasta absorbs sauce a lot better than "normal" pasta. It looks dull, rough, and pale as opposed to shiny and smooth. It usually only costs a buck or two more. I find it's a big step up taste and texture-wise.

Or butter. The ones without natural flavor taste better. Sometimes it's the store brand that doesn't have added flavor.

And eggs. Orange yolks are way better than the pale yellow ones. But those you do have to shell out for.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Wait wait wait. Your butter has flavouring added? Like, I realise I’m spoiled here in Ireland, but fuck mei can’t even picture what that might be

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

That was my exact reaction! But butter is literally nothing but churned cream and possibly salt added? If there's anything else added, such as water or any kinds of oils, it's no longer butter. I get more scared every time I learn something new about US food culture....

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Gotta check the ingredients on damn near everything here, or just make everything yourself :P.

Homemade unwashed butter = best butter (although spoils very quickly when not washing, like a day or two). I would eat that shit by itself if it wasn't so unhealthy lmao

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Irish butter is sold in a lot of grocery stores at least around me in the U.S. and my God it’s night and day compared to our shit sicks of fuck

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

diacetyl is typically used as butter aroma

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

For bronze cut pasta, De Cecco is the brand to look for

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

This has been my favorite dried pasta! I used to get it off Amazon before my grocery store carried it, and I can still get more shares online. I like three orrichetti and radiatorre(sp?)!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Eggs I always buy free-range because yeah it makes a difference to taste (and is so much kinder to the chickens), but in the UK butter is butter. I know in the US you have butter that's practically white but here's it's all yellow and tasty. Flour every brand has plain, self raising and bread flour and those categories are pretty similar across brands.

Milk, the filtered stuff (Cravendale or similar) is nicer but not much nicer so it's not worth the upgrade IMO

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Just to reply to "it's so much kinder to the chickens", I hate to break it to you but "free range eggs" is a scam. Here's a (very opinionated) article: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/30/free-range-eggs-con-ethical

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

"Free range eggs" at the grocery store is a scam.

"FREE RANGE EGGS" on a sign by the side of the road are the best eggs you'll find

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

TBF he said kinder, not kind. I don't buy eggs myself except for occasionally from rescue hens, but if I was I'd feel a lot better knowing they saw daylight occasionally.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I still pick those, even though I know it's a scam. When you have 9 chicken per square meter though, not sure they often find their way outside.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

When I did buy eggs I bought woodland eggs with a story on the side. Also a scam, but like, slightly better... kinda?

https://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/sustainability/plan-for-better/our-stories/2017/woodland-hens-roam-free-for-cracking-eggs

Like even in the ads you can see they're packed in, but I bet there's some bugs to eat there, and they can scratch dirt.

I dunno, commercialising animals is just all a bit grim really.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Oh I know it's not great, but I don't pretend to be vegan. It is definitely better than battery though

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

To be clear, it is kinder. Not much, but it absolutely is kinder. Pasture raised is what free range should have meant... But fortunately we have a word for it now.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Oh yeah, the yellow European style butter was a revelation when I found out about it. It tastes way better and is less watery than the pale American butter.

I never heard of filtered milk. Milk is milk for the most part, but once I made the mistake of buying it on clearance. Grabbed it without looking because the price for a normal gallon freaked me out. It wasn't spoiled, but it was super watery and had a weird color.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Agreed. The store brand pasta at my store sucks. It's sticky and falls apart. It used to be fine but something changed recently.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Eggs isn't true. The only thing you're buying is for sound of mind for ethically raised chickens and the orange color of the yolk specifically for things where you need that nice orange color.

Nutrients aren't statistically significant. Taste has no difference. Especially if you aren't eating them plain.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0YY7K7Xa5rE&start=930

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Chicken wrangler here. This may be true of supermarket eggs but should not be taken to imply that all eggs are the same.

Perhaps there isn't a huge difference between the different labels available at the supermarket.

However, I'm incredulous that there is no difference between an egg laid by a backyard chicken who is well cared for and has a varied nutritious diet, and that which you'll find at the supermarket.

I realise you (and youtube guy) are not talking about backyard eggs, but just because "pastured eggs" are not significantly different to cage eggs, that does not mean that it's not possible to buy proper eggs.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://m.piped.video/watch?v=0YY7K7Xa5rE&start=930

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 11 months ago

Agree no difference as an ingredient in some baked dish.

But if you are eating the egg by itself or as the primary item, there is definitely a difference in taste. Not a revolutionary change your life difference, but still a difference.

In my experience the difference is pretty small amongst the options in the grocery store, but fairly noticable for eggs I get from the farmers market.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 11 months ago

Flour - disagree. King Arthur for baking vs your basic supermarket crap is a tangible taste and texture difference in baking. While you're at it, get a mill and buy organic wheat berries and save money for higher quality l, more nutritious flour. It's literally cheaper to get better quality if you are willing to mill it.

Butter- Same for butter if you're using butter as a spread. It's ok to use cheap stuff in cooking but if it's the main complementary flavor, like butter on toast, treat yo self to some Kerry Gold.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Be careful with cheap spices, some of them (like turmeric) can be laced with lead and other nasty stuff to make them more attractive.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (3 children)

How does lead make them more attractive? The weight?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

It makes them sexy. Stupid, sexy lead-additives.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

I buy them exclusively so I slowly become leader.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'd hope this isn't a concern in any country with even a small account of regulation on what you're allowed to sell or on whether you're allowed to murder people

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Well, most of these spices are imported (in western countries), and it's hard to tell how often they're tested. There are some tests you can do at home (for example, turmeric should apparently not dissolve in water, so if you drop a spoonful in a glass and look at it after 20min, the water should still be relatively clear, or it means there are other additives).

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

I'd even suggest buying laundry detergent in bulk online.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Agree on spices, bulk and into the freezer. Cheap spices aren't just as good, they are better.

I used to agree on flour, got good bread flour but recently husband brought me store brand unbleached white flour and it near killed my sourdough starter, so my mind is changed on that - I'd still use it for cake, but cheap flour is low protein and won't work for everything.

Disagree on pasta too, good pasta is easier to cook, doesn't turn to mush as easily.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Bread, cake, and all purpose flours are different. It's not just cheap, they are almost different products.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yes. I'd always used whatever brand all purpose unbleached flour for the starter and figured it didn't matter. So I always asked for "Gold Medal Bread Flour and whatever brand all purpose unbleached flour". But the Publix brand all purpose unbleached wrecked my starter. It took almost the whole bag before I figured out it was the flour, because I didn't realize they varied.

It's actually quite good for pancakes. Maybe it's good for biscuits, that would actually make sense. But it's no good for bread; but Gold Medal or King Arthur unbleached all purpose work fine.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

https://watch.foodnetwork.com/video/good-eats-food-network/the-dough-also-rises

It gives a good overview of the types, what makes them different, and what they are good for and how they change what you're baking.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I always buy the cheapest pasta available and they've always been good. Just last week, the store brand (Complements) was cheapest for the first time I've seen, and it was also my first time experiencing bad pasta. I don't know what they did differently, but there's clearly a way to mess it up.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Great advice for the most part but I very much disagree on dishwasher detergent. Nothing works as well as finish pods for us. Could be our dishwasher of course but all the cheap brands leave our dishes dirty.

[–] jballs 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Same thing. I was considering buying a new dishwasher, until we switched to a good brand. I think cheap dishwasher detergent used to be ok until they removed phosphates around 2010.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Phosphates were the secret behind all good cleaners for sure.