Ha! Did you have pet chickens too? I’m from Petaluma, so no one thought that was weird. When I tell people in Chicago that I had pet chickens, it’s like I had a pet ewok, for the looks I get.
Yes, we had chickens until we moved to town (Cloverdale) when I was 10. It was my job to collect the eggs. Actually, I think most of our chickens got eaten by coyotes and possums and things and eventually we gave up.
My parents also had goats but they gave them away before I was born.
Because Cloverdale is too urban for poultry? < g >
Well, this isn’t so much a rule on WHAT I buy, but how I find it. I absolutely refuse to ask where something is in a store, unless I’m in a big hurry. This is not because I’m above asking for help: I’ll ask for help if I can’t reach something, or to see if something not on the shelves is stocked in the back. But asking where an item is would ruin the fun for me, it’s like a game to see if I can find what I want. A lame game, but an old habit anyway.
Otherwise, I buy cheap, mostly, with some exceptions–I’m a Coke products only girl, and some store brand groceries aren’t worth the savings.
I don’t buy store-bought ice cream or any other kind of dessert anymore. My husband and I were eating way too much dessert at home, and both of us were complaining about weight gain. So I decided that, unless we make it, we don’t eat dessert. It’s worked really well - although I make a pretty decent dessert (cake, cookies, whatever), I’m usually not inclined to make it, and my husband doesn’t bake, so we rarely eat dessert anymore. Dessert tastes much better if you don’t eat it every single night, and if, when you do, it’s homemade.
Of course, there are exceptions. We can have store-bought cake and ice cream if it’s for someone’s birthday and it’d be rude not to eat it, but those instances are pretty few and far between.
I buy locally-made wherever possible EXCEPT that I’ll never buy Australian rice. We’re a DRY country fercryingoutloud - we shouldn’t be wasting our scarce water on intensive irrigation.
Another vote for the free-range eggs too.
I stay away from low fat products. and try to also stay away from tranfat products.
Ok… I know there’s a difference b/w salt and potable water, but…
YOU LIVE ON A FARKING ISLAND. 
I’m 500 miles from the nearest ocean. And we grow rice here. Somewhere. I’ve heard that Arkansas grows rice. (c’mon, back me up here, guys?)
And looking at this, all caps doesn’t mean I’m yelling at you. I’m laughing at Australia’s plight.
I was raised on margarine, so butter tastes rather “off” to me in everyday use (although I prefer it for baking cakes from scratch). However, I will NOT use store-brand margarine. It has to be Imperial. And it has to be in sticks. Tub butter is horrid.
Also, no store-brand cola. I’ll drink store-brand orange, root beer, lemon/lime, etc, but I must have Coke or it’s not cola.
Actually, horrid store-brand margarines, macaroni and cheese, snack foods, etc. have forced me to swear off of store brands except for the most simple things. It’s not that hard to put milk in a bottle or corn in a can, so I’ll buy the store brand of those products, but for anything that requires processing or combining separate ingredients or anything, I spend more to get a brand I already trust.
I’m one of those horrible people who drops things off wherever it’s convenient. I never try to “hide” things and I don’t leave perishables (ice cream, meat) out on an open shelf, though.
I have to be hungry when I go food shopping otherwise I’d leave the store empty-handed.
Eggland’s Best, check.
Scott’s toilet paper, check.
Non-antibacterial liquid handsoap, check.
Liquid body soap/shampoo/detergent that doesn’t gag me, whoa, that’s a big check.
That’s it. Oh, and I have a tendency to put misplaced non-refrigerated items back in their proper place if they’re in the same aisle. Yeah, I’m not too anal. 
I take 3 or 4 big sturdy canvas tote bags with me to the grocery. “Plastic OK?” “Canvas. (pointing)” They never break, and I never have to cut the handles to get inside.
When I get ground beef, I go to the small store. They grind their own, so I don’t have to worry about spinal tissue. Those big E. Coli recalls happen to the mega-huge packing houses, not the local shops.
Only one store in town carries Sierra Nevada Porter, so I’ll make an extra trip for that.
I finally decided that fresh pears will get hand-carried, not in the main bag. Otherwise, they get all beat up before I get them home.
I do my best to avoid any food labelled as “organic” or “green”.
I am not fixated on buying locally produced items or foods. Taste/quality and price are what decides it for me. If the meat that I buy happen to come from Denmark, Ireland or Argentina doesn’t matter one bit to me as long as the quality-cost ratio is good.
lachoy soy sauce is colored salt water. check the ingredients, soy is waaaaay down there. i grew up on it, but quickly converted to kikkomans. it’s much better once you get used to the fact that it actually is soy sauce and has a taste other than salt.
i quit buying low fat stuff. i figure i’d rather get fat than suck down all those chemicals in the low fat stuff. and i try to buy as little processed-in-a-box crap as possible.
oh, and i never buy meat at my local krogers. that place sucks. i wish i was close to another grocery store, because that place scares me. on the weekends i go to a better market, but during the week i don’t have the time. half the vegetables are rotten, the meat looks disgusting, the place stinks… i could go on and on.
Akin to that: I will never, ever buy store-brand soy sauce again. I needed a large quantity to make a sauce, so I thought I’d save a buck or two. Worst decision ever. It was saltier than salt-baked fish from the Dead Sea, with a salt sauce.
I refuse to buy 2 Liter (or 3 liter) bottles of soda - becuase of my xenophobia regarding the metric system (not for the usual reasons one hears; they get flat, don’t fit in fridge or they’re too heavy).
I’ve never had a pet calf, so I usually buy caged veal.
I’m curious as to why. Is it price or principle?
I go by my taste biuds. La Choy doesn’t taste like salt, Kikoman’s does.
I refuse to buy if the name isn’t spelled properly. Qute Qountry Qaramels for example. Putting a jesus fish on your product will make me find an alternative, oddly enough. Also, it has to be a pristine box or can, no dents or rips.
I stay one aisle ahead of Biotop and switch the first two boxes of everything he’s planning on buying.
You need to learn which generic / store brand stuff is good and which is crap. It’s a process of trial and error.
Never buy generic versions of things like aluminium foil or cling wrap. Then again, there are other things like certain (you have to know which ones) generic cheeses which are the equal of very expensive branded equivalents. Obviously something like generic salt is going to be the same as a brand name cousin, but most are less obvious and you need to find out the hard way.
Generic stuff isn’t “always the same” as devotees will tell you, nor is it always inferior.