The Sewing Mom

This post brought to you by PBM Products. All opinions are 100% mine.

I do surveys once in a while to add a few extra dollars to my pocket.  I have found recently that one of the most common questions asked during a survey is “do you buy store brand products?”.  Well, my answer to that is both yes and no.  It really depends on what item I am purchasing because I feel that some products are ok in a store brand and some I prefer in a name brand.

I don’t really remember at what point I began purchasing store brand products, but it was most likely around the time that my daughter was born.  You see, my husband had been laid off from his job and he was the primary earner in our 2 income household.  I had to find ways to save money and yet make sure that we met the needs of our newborn.  I remember vividly trying out store brand diapers and that was a disaster!  On the other hand, I found store brand formula to be not only cheaper than the name brands, but in reading the nutrition labels, they were, and continue to be nutritionally equivalent to name brands.

Store brands can be sold at a lower cost because they don’t pay for advertising and expensive marketing campaigns.  They also don’t give away product samples in gross, so they don’t have to recoup those costs by raising their selling prices.  Plus, products like infant formula, must meet the same nutritional standards set by the FDA whether they or store brand or name brand.

By the way, if you’re not aware, name brand Similac had a major recall of infant formula due to the fact that  a small beetle had found its way into cans of their product.  That grosses me out!

Anyway, while my daughter is now 14, I learned a valuable lesson back when she was a baby.  I can shop, save money, and still have quality products, even if I choose to purchase store brands over name brands.