Rant #2,973: Money Honey (Bunches of Oats)

Today is Tuesday the 13th of September.
 
You look out the window, and it looks like Friday the 13th—with all the rain that has fallen outside—and you just have to proceed with your day as if it was a day like any other day, which it is.
 
I woke up, took a shower, brought in the garbage pail from the outside—yes, my ploy seems to have worked, and there isn’t any more dog poop in the pail!—got the newspaper, and poured my cereal into the bowl, with milk, for my breakfast.
 
I used up what was left in the cereal box, and now I am lacking cereal for the next two days before my wife and I go back and do our food shopping for the week on Thursday morning.
 
But then I got to thinking … now that I am without cereal and will have to buy another box of the stuff … what is it going to cost this time around?
 
Along with everything else, the price of cereal has risen to historic levels and even though we shop in a supposedly discount-oriented store—Walmart—the prices are outrageous for cereal.
 
Most branded cereal—such as from General Mills and Post—costs upwards of $4.99 to $5.99 for a full box, and I don’t know if you have noticed as I have, but the boxes are getting thinner, so there is less cereal in these boxes than ever before, even though you are paying for them at higher prices than ever before.
 
Yes, there are a couple of ways I have circumvented these prices, because there is no way I am spending $5.99 for a box of cereal.
 
Every once in a while, they will have a deal on a cereal, where the price reduction can be as much as $2 a box, so I do look for those.
 
Then, as a discounter, Walmart does have some cereal that is priced better than other places as a norm, so you can save money right there is you go for cereal that you know is priced higher elsewhere.
 
And, of course there is their own branded cereal, which I have found is generally every bit as good as the real branded stuff and costs anywhere from $1 to $3 cheaper than the real thing … even though it is generally the real thing, but without the true brand.
 
Store brands are a rising money generator during this period, because people simply cannot afford to spend top dollars on their grocery purchases, such as on cereal.
 
Writing about the military stores, I know that military shoppers clamored for store brands for decades, finally got them, and they are generating lots of interest, and lots of money, now that they are finally in place.

The acme thing is true of civilian stores, where store brands are very popular, whether you are talking about cereal or dishwasher detergent or tuna fish.
 
No, I don’t have statistics to present to you, but I do have two eyes, and I see more and more people looking at, and buying, these store brand items, and that extends to something like bottled water, where you can save about 50 percent by purchasing the store brand rather than, let’s say,, Poland Spring.
 
The problem is that not every store has a proper store brand—the supermarket that I do my mom’s shopping in does not feature such brands as part of their assortment—so in those stores, you simply have to use your eyes and look at prices and search for deals.
 
If you are too lazy to do so—or pressed for time—then you are sunk, and you are going to spend plenty more on your shopping bill than you otherwise would.
 
Look, I will always prefer Wise Potato Chips over any store brand potato chips and the same goes for Hebrew National Hot Dogs and Hellman’s Mayonnaise and things like that.
 
I wouldn’t ever purchase a store brand over those branded items.
 
But for 90 percent of what I buy, s store brand is good enough especially when I look in my wallet and don’t find too many big bills inside.
 
Buying at least some store brands—and shopping at a discounter—saves me at least $30 a week on my grocery purchases, so I have to say that including non-branded items in my shopping cart hasn’t killed me yet, and has made my wallet a little bit healthier in the process.
 
So when I go to the supermarket on Thursday with my wife, I will be searching out any store deals that they might have, but if nothing appeals to me, I just might buy a store-branded cereal, like I did this past time with “Rice Squares” or whatever it was called.
 
It tasted pretty much the same as Rice Chex, and since the box was about twice the size of the branded item, it provided to me more breakfasts, and at a reduced price.
 
You simply can’t beat that.
 
So my suggestion to you is that if you are feeling the pinch at the supermarket, just put your ego in the rear view mirror and purchase the store brand.
 
Your wallet will certainly thank you for doing so.