# When buying the cheapest is ok. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 7, 2015, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198 "2015-01-07T05:38:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/21 "2015-01-07T15:34:51Z")
Yeah, don’t cut corners on flour. Sugar is fine though. ---
**Author:** ![BeeGee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5a626/32.png) [@BeeGee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeGee)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/22 "2015-01-07T15:37:04Z")
> [@Macca26](#): > > White rice, the only difference you can tell is in freshness. Considering that the majority of rice is shipped in from overseas, we’re not really going to get much of a chance to taste rice that’s a week out of the paddy. So there’s a difference to be had…just not in the states. > > . According the US Rice Federation, 85% of the rice consumed in the US is domestically cultivated. Since it must be cleaned and dried after harvesting, I’m not sure anyone really eats much “fresh” rice. One of the reasons it’s such a popular staple is its stability and longevity in the dried state. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/23 "2015-01-07T15:53:59Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > I buy the cheapest tires…but I go to a reputable tire store, so I know they aren’t selling utter crap. Just…kinda sorta crap. I could probably go to Tijuana, or a junkyard, or get the cheapest possible… False economy. If there’s anything on your car that you SHOULD spend extra money on, it’s the tires. You don’t have to get Michelins, but not getting UTQG CC tires is probably a good idea. For foods… AP flour is pretty much fungible. My wife (who bakes like crazy) can’t tell a difference between “Bakers and Chefs” AP flour ($7.50/25 lbs) at Sam’s Club and KA or Gold Medal. Bread flour is a different story; the protein content is important there, and the name brands tend to have both a higher protein content and be more consistent. Sugar is sugar… but cheaper brands are less consistently sized, and may be larger crystals overall. Which doesn’t matter for a lot of uses, but for some it does. Rice, beans, frozen vegetables- these are all fungible, and there’s no reason to spend any more than you have to on them. Same goes for cleaning products- the cheapest that will adequately do the job is what you want, provided you like the scent. As for tools… if you expect them to be destroyed, and there’s not a lot of high performance to be had, there’s no reason to spend any extra. For example, when my wife is doing her jewelrymaking/metalworking classes, she gets tweezers at Harbor Freight, because the torches thrash the tweezers in short order, regardless of where they’re sourced from, and there’s no point in buying them from Rio Grande if you can get them from HF for 1/4 the price. But, if you expect to use the tool for a long time, or there’s a definite performance requirement, you would do well to buy the real thing and spend a few extra $$. This doesn’t mean you have to go buy a DeWalt, Milwaukee or Hilti cordless drill, but it does mean that getting the Ryobi, Ridgid or Kobalt instead of the Harbor Freight equivalent is probably money well spent for most things. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/24 "2015-01-07T15:57:24Z")
> [@BeeGee](#): > > According the US Rice Federation, 85% of the rice consumed in the US is domestically cultivated. Since it must be cleaned and dried after harvesting, I’m not sure anyone really eats much “fresh” rice. One of the reasons it’s such a popular staple is its stability and longevity in the dried state. We buy bulk Basmati at Sam’s, and it’s about the same price per pound as most domestic varieties. Well worth any small added cost. (NOT worth the huge markup in grocery stores…) ---
**Author:** ![Macca26](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/13edae/32.png) [@Macca26](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Macca26)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/25 "2015-01-07T16:06:01Z")
> [@BeeGee](#): > > According the US Rice Federation, 85% of the rice consumed in the US is domestically cultivated. Since it must be cleaned and dried after harvesting, I’m not sure anyone really eats much “fresh” rice. One of the reasons it’s such a popular staple is its stability and longevity in the dried state. Well color me wrong, then! I was under the impression that at least short-grain rice could have a detectable difference in freshness though. Get some within the first three months and it’ll be like eating gold if you love rice. Or so I hear, anyway… ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/26 "2015-01-07T16:08:02Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > Paying extra for a brand-name gasoline is just wasting money. Considering that the gasoline in the station across the street most likely came from the same refinery or out of the same distribution pipeline, you’d just be paying more for the same thing. Exxon stations don’t get their gas from the Exxon refinery. They get if from the wholesale distributor that purchases from various refineries nearby. The branded retailers just add additives to the gasoline purchased from the wholesaler so they can say stuff like “_with Techtron_” or other crap. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/27 "2015-01-07T16:10:26Z")
> [@BeeGee](#): > > According the US Rice Federation, 85% of the rice consumed in the US is domestically cultivated. And almost half of that is produced in Arkansas. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/28 "2015-01-07T16:17:32Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > The ultimate in “use once and throw away” is food. > > If you can stand it. > > No more Banquet TV dinners for me, though. Perhaps, but in the long run your body and health may suffer. Watch that fat, sugar, and salt. ---
**Author:** ![slash2k](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@slash2k](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slash2k)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/29 "2015-01-07T16:17:33Z")
> [@Macca26](#): > > Sorry to be a naysayer… > > The end result using your flour will taste the same, but I’ve found the quality of flour affects the texture and rising qualities. Whether this matters depends on what you are using the flour for. For example, one of my close relatives buys flour primarily for use in greasing/flouring pans for making boxed cake mixes. I’m pretty sure she’s never baked a loaf of homemade yeast bread in her life, so how well the flour rises in that scenario is irrelevant. The qualities useful in bread making don’t matter so much in thickening sauces, so we come back around to utility for your particular application. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/30 "2015-01-07T16:18:32Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Their was another thread which discusses paying more for quality. > > But I want to ask, when is it ok to just buy the cheapest? > > For me its stuff your only going to use maybe once. For example I’ll go to Harbor Freight and buy a cordless drill for $20 if I only want to use it for a couple of days on a project. Better than a $120 Dewalt. > > So I’d vote for items your only going to use once. That’s a reasonable strategy, but for one potential issue: what if your $20 cordless drill fails while you’re using it? The first project? Or, even, in the middle of the second project? That aggro and delay isn’t worth the savings. Life’s too short and annoying as it is to waste any of it replacing shoddy tools and rectifying any damage they may have done (cheap socket wrenches, I’m looking at you). ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/31 "2015-01-07T16:36:05Z")
Tea Towels. I manage to stain or ruin them pretty quickly, and just buy more. The trick is to find cheap ones that are not hideous. Also, throw rugs for doors. Again, I’m going to ruin them, largely with washing, and with snow salt and general muck. And again, the trick is to locate non hideous ones! Craft brushes, definitely single use, also glue in small bottles because it’s cheap and always dries up too quick in larger bottles. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/32 "2015-01-07T16:47:24Z")
I always buy unbranded OTC drugs. e. g. in one store here in the UK, unbranded 200mg ibuprofen tablets are 6 times cheaper per mg than the Nurofen branded equivalent. I’d like to think that regulations and controls would dictate that there’s virtually no difference between the two. With expensive tools that I might only use once I go for hiring them. That way I usually get a good quality tool and don’t need to worry about breakdowns, storage or maintenance. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/33 "2015-01-07T16:54:18Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > We buy bulk Basmati at Sam’s, and it’s about the same price per pound as most domestic varieties. Well worth any small added cost. (NOT worth the huge markup in grocery stores…) I was a little shocked the first time I had rice in an American restaurant and discovered it was the same rubbery shit we used to get at boarding school. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/34 "2015-01-07T17:06:53Z")
Baby formula. As long as you’re not importing it illegally from China or something - it has to be nutritionally equivalent by law. Get the Target brand. As long as you don’t need prescription or something. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/35 "2015-01-07T17:12:22Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > Baby formula. As long as you’re not importing it illegally from China or something - it has to be nutritionally equivalent by law. Get the Target brand. As long as you don’t need prescription or something. Ditto for any USP drug. While some formulations might use additives (coatings, binders, etc.) that make them easier to take or such, USP aspirin is USP aspirin… ditto for every other staple OTC medicine. (Just make sure it’s not a counterfeit - which, if you don’t buy at dollar stores and the bottom tier of grocery stores, shouldn’t be a problem.) (ETA: Brand names are more often counterfeited than generics, too.) ---
**Author:** ![oft\_wears\_hats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@oft\_wears\_hats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oft_wears_hats)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/36 "2015-01-07T17:34:12Z")
> [@Lacunae\_Matata](#): > > Most bulk-type foods, like **dried beans or rice** , and sugar, salt, and the like. It’s the same, whether it’s packaged with a brand name or scooped from a bulk bin or packaged under a store brand name. I can’t tell the difference between the 1.50 box of Morton's salt and the .50 box of Super Saver salt, nor the grocery store cheapie brand of sugar versus Domino or Dixie Crystal. Bolding mine. This is usually true, but not always. I’ve run into a brand of brown rice that frequently contained small pebbles, usually discovered while eating. I had never encountered rocks in my rice before, so that was a bit of a surprise. As for lentils, some brands tend to have more rocks than others, though I always check them carefully before cooking because they always seem to have a few pebbles per bag. I’ve also run into large bags of sesame seeds that ended up yielding live moths when opened. My guess is that’s more of a “time on the shelf” issue than a quality control one, as my understanding is that it’s pretty damn hard to ensure that no insect eggs make it into a product like that. I still go for the cheapest I can, but sometimes different brands matter. Granted, if one cheap bag of whatever has problems, I go for the next cheapest and so on until I find one that works. As for my two cents: I was going to mention A/V cables, but I see that **boffking** beat me to the punch. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/37 "2015-01-07T17:38:32Z")
How much difference can there really be between different brands of sugar? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/38 "2015-01-07T17:41:27Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > And almost half of that is produced in Arkansas. And the rest is from California. Some of the best hot sauces out there are also the cheapest. Bufalo is an absolutely delicious sauce. It is also $.85/bottle. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/39 "2015-01-07T18:30:24Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > And the rest is from California. About 46% comes from Arkansas, 21% from California, 13% from Louisiana, 8% from Mississippi, 6% from Texas and 6% from Missouri. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198/40 "2015-01-07T18:46:28Z")
Sugar is always exactly the same no matter what brand. Some cereals are OK in generic, others not. Eggs are always OK except if you really want to make deviled eggs for a party and want them to look perfect, splurge and get the Eggland’s Best pre-cooked eggs. Gasoline is the same no matter what the brand. I get no-brand motor oil for small engines but not vehicles. Furnace filters I buy the cheapies, you can spend 10x as much on fancy ones. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-buying-the-cheapest-is-ok/709198.md?page=3)