Are brand-name products worth the extra cost? Can you get the same results with generics and have a few extra dollars available for your next investment? US Airways Magazine writer Aviya Kushner answers this question with an affirmative yes. In her article Plain or Fancy? Should You Use Generics or Brand Names? Here’s What the Experts Say, Kushner argues that as long as the generic product contains the same active ingredients as its brand-name counterpart, consumers can save up to 50% by going with the generic option while getting the same results they are used to. However, Kushner warns that in some cases, the off-brand just won’t do. The present article offers some guidelines on how to determine which products you should buy generic so that you get the most quantity for your buck without sacrificing quality.

When it comes to both prescription and non-prescription drugs, it is usually okay to go with a generic brand. Dr. John Abramson of Harvard University Medical School says that “you need to know the active ingredient of the brand-name drug you want to buy the generic in… and you do have to be a good label reader.” (81). Dr. Abramson notes the importance of getting the chemical equivalent of the brand-name drug. For instance, “the chemical is the same, but the other components that make a pill or powder can be different… maybe that pill crumbles a litte bit easier, or maybe there’s a different texture to the powder” (81). In order to get the benefits of Advil, one can buy a store brand of Ibuoprofen such as CVS or Hannaford and get rid of that headache in the same amount of time. Yet, for other medical products such as earswabs, Abramson suggests that the brand-name may be better since there is no federal regulation stating that all Q tips must have the same amount of cotton (81).

As for food products, Kushner finds that at times it’s worth the extra money to buy brand name goods, especially if one is loyal to organic products. In an interview with Mollie Katzen, author of The Moosewood Cookbook and a consultant to Harvard’s Dining Services, the chef told Kushner that she is “conscious about… anything that needs USDA approval, [especially] dairy products and eggs because they can have growth hormone in them” (80). She is also aware of “package v. product.” Felder says that “nine times out of ten a generic product will be packaged by a brand name product and a lot of them come from the same source” (80). Eve Felder, associate dean at The Culinary Arts Institute of America tells Kushner that soy and corn oil are the only two generics she uses in her professional life, but at home she refuses to give up certain brand name products such as tobasco sauce and mayonnaise (80).

Ask Felder about the potency of generic olive oil and the consummate chef’s eyes light up. She says, “Olive oil is just like wine… it’s a fruit, and and a vintage. It’s not so much a brand, but which harvest. Did Spain have a really good harvest this year or did it rain a lot?” (80). Salt and honey are other products Felder never buys generic. She also recommends that people buy brand-name knives, although generic wooden spoons are permissable (80).

Kushner also discusses the viability of generic cosmetic and personal care products. According to Etienne Taenaka, winner of the Los Angeles Blow Dryer of the Year Award, given by Harper and Queens, it’s fine to go generic with blow dryers and combs, but not with brushes or shampoos. He enthuses, “brushes I’m very particular about, because many generic brushes are made in such high volume that the way they’re glued onto the base will pull the hair. With a well-made brush, the ball and the bristle is all one piece” (81). So next time you go to the salon, buy a Mason Pearson brush instead of a Goody brand at the drug store. It will last much longer and you’ll keep your hair longer too.

The bottom line: If you do your research and pay attention to the labels, you can be a smarter and wealthier consumer, but don’t be afraid to pay more for brand name products if the generic substitute is not a generic equivalent.

Sources:

Kushner, Aviya. “Plain or Fancy? Should You Use Generics or Name Brands? Here’s What the Experts Say” in US Airways Magazine, Aug. 2006 (Greensboro, NC: Pace Communications). pp. 78-81.

For those of you who read my article last week regarding my fall-out with my friend in Virginia, I am back to report that I spent my time off visiting a close friend in North Carolina. My friend Carrie lives in the “sticks,” about an hour’s drive from the Outer Banks, and her family confirmed my belief that people who are least able to afford life’s luxuries are also the most insistent on making their guests comfortable and meeting their every need. The principle of creating a hospitality savings account (see my earlier article) seems to apply to the majority of true Southerners, especially those who work hard for what they have and take pride in being able to share their modest, but well earned comforts with guests. Carrie’s mother told me that from the time she was a child, she was taught to make every guest feel like a “queen” even though her family was barely able to scrape by. For these people, hospitality is one of their greatest virtues.

Carrie’s family lives in the poorest county in North Carolina with the state’s (and for that matter, the nation’s) lowest ranked public school system. In order to offer their three children a chance at a better life, Carrie’s parents denied themselves luxuries many of us take for granted so that they could send Carrie, her brother and sister to parochial high schools and then to college. I was amazed at this family’s commitment to education, a commitment that on one level is even stronger than in the greater Boston community in which I grew up where 95% of the kids in our public high school matriculate at four year colleges. I was not considered successful for going to college- it was simply expected and to do otherwise was unthinkable. I would have only been a topic of cocktail gossip if I had gone to Harvard, and even Harvard is considered “normal” around here. Yet, for families like Carrie’s, getting into any college is a major achievement and their dedication to education is so pervasive because they can’t afford to feel otherwise. They have seen the alternative first hand, while the people I grew up around were hardly aware that most Americans were living a different reality.

It seems to me that the working poor and working classes are more conscious of the value of money than any other socioeconomic group. They put in long hours to earn their small paycheck. Consequently, they value every dollar much more than a single mother on welfare whose monthly government check reflects tax payer’s dollars and not her own labor. Carrie’s father works at a paper mill and while I was down there this week, he was working the night shift every day so I barely got to talk to him. However, he asked me to let him know if there was anything he could do to make my visit pleasant. The working poor may not know the ins and outs of CDs, 401Ks, and IRAs, but they do know how to use a savings account and they put money away for things that have lasting value like education and a comfortable, welcoming home as opposed to saving up for an Ann Taylor suit as I did once in high school. If I had grown up like Carrie, there wouldn’t have been any Ann Taylors within a 100 mile radius and I probably would have been using my earnings at McDonalds to help pay for my private school tuition if that opportunity was within my reach.

So the next time you lament about not being able to afford a new car or a bigger house, think about families like Carrie’s who are struggling to afford their mortgage and the rising cost of gas. When I offered to pay them back for the cost of the gas to and from the airport, her mother said “don’t be silly. You are our guest.”

This week I had an emotional fallout with a friend I had planned to visit over something as simple as the following:
she wanted me to pay for my own groceries and half of her gas while I was at her house and I thought that was too much to expect of a guest. In fact, I thought it was downright rude. She in turn, thought I expected too much of her as a host. The end result is that we are no longer on speaking terms, but the cause of this altercation was so basic and avoidable had I been in an Aridni mindset when I talked with her: it all boiled down to money.

I was raised in a family where knowing how to be a host was essential to the success of my father’s business. When I was growing up, we regularly had visitors from other countries stay at our house and we wined/dined them, took them to see tourist sites in Boston and did everything possible to make their stay comfortable. Had I not been hospitable towards these guests, it would have hurt our family’s solvency and my father’s reputation. More importantly, as my mother always emphasized, it is important to treat your guests the same way you would want to be treated if you were in their home. It all boiled down to respect. Now, if I am visiting a casual friend, I don’t necessarily expect them to buy me caviar, but I do expect that since I am the one paying for the plane ticket, they will cover some of the other expenses of my visit.

Now, my ex-friend in Virginia has different financial expectations. As she put it, “friends don’t pay for friends… No one owes you anything and if kindness is given, it should be appreciated but not expected.”

I don’t see paying for groceries to be a financial trade- I see it as hospitality, a kindness that is reasonable to expect if you are visiting someone. If I want something special that she doesn’t have, then yes it makes sense for me to buy it myself, but should I have to pay her back for half the spaghetti and meatballs we consumed? What if I get seconds and she doesn’t?

Now, after my friend had explained that she is very poor and sometimes can’t even afford her own food, I completely changed my expectations to accomodate the new information. Our similar, yet contrasting backgrounds could provide a clue as to the discrepancies in our financial expectations of eachother as host and guest. We were both brought up in well-to-do families, but her parents never spent any of their wealth on her–my ex-friend always had to fend for herself. My parents on the other hand, made sure I was never wanting for anything and at the same time, impressed upon me the importance of giving to others who were less fortunate.

The result? My friend thinks that everyone should fend for themselves and I believe in the phrase “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” She says she is too proud to accept “handouts” from people (i.e. a host paying for her groceries) while as a host I would be embarrased to charge my guests for their food. Who’s right?

If the tables were reversed and I was the host, I would most likely not extend an invitation for someone to stay at my house for a week if I did not have the means to be a hospitable host. However, if my budget was really tight and I was close to the person, I might say something like “I really would like for you to visit, but I just want you to know ahead of time that I can’t afford food for two.” That is very different than what my ex-friend said which was “you have to pay for your own food. Every last bit of it.” In fact, as I told her, if she visited me and I was living on my own on a budget, I would pay for her food even if it meant that I had to save up for it because those are the expectations I have of MYSELF as a host. But was it right for me to impose my expectations of myself on her?

The bottom line here is whether it was reasonable for me to place my own financial expectations on my ex-friend and vice versa. Were my expectations of her too high? She certainly thought so; I beg to differ.

What’s really sad is that we were very close friends, but because our financial expectations of eachother were so different, we both percieved eachother as being rude and unreasonable.

My advice: If you are living on a budget, next time you go to the bank, make sure you open a “hospitality” savings account so you can be prepared the next time you have a house guest. Either that or don’t ask for company.

In a society where most people are paying for their goods with plastic, it is very easy to spend more at the “cash” register than we realize. Many of us throw our credit or debit card on the counter without paying attention to the strain on our pocket books unless it’s some ridiculous amount; however, each penny makes a difference. Imagine how much we could save if we paid closer attention to the total! One way to save is to buy store brands as often as possible. 90% of the time, they are the same quality as the name brand and are up to 50% cheaper.

Here’s an example: I was in the middle of a transaction at CVS today when the clerk said “8.75.” I stood there shocked since I was only buying one box of CVS brand trash bags and a Mead single subject spiral bound notebook. Cheap, right? “How did this get to be so expensive”? I asked him. “I thought that the notebook was 25% off.” Apparently, I was wrong. That bargain applied to a different notebook. I decided to not get that notebook and walked back over to the aisle to see if there was a cheaper option. It turned out that I could buy TWO CVS brand notebooks for just $1.00, assuming I had my Extra Care Card handy which I did. The clerk was just as surprised as I was. Instead of spending over $4.00 on one Mead notebook, I got 2 CVS brand notebooks for less than the price of a single brand name one. I only spent $5 something instead of $8.75 and I could either spend the difference on a coffee or put it in a savings account.

The lesson? Carry a small calculator when you go shopping and tally up the goods in your cart before you stand in the checkout line. This will help you “count the bills” and you will have hopefully selected store brands when available. When the cashier tells you your total, you shouldn’t be surprised.