sainsbury's basics tomato soup is my most fave soup, and at 24p a can, how can i jutify paying more? most these items are made by the big brands'anyway. shop around there's bargains and tasty thrifty treats to be had. i'm also a queen of the "OOPS" (or reduced sticker in anywhere other than asda!)

On the whole, I'm not a brand slave but you learn to trust certain brands that have been around a long time - longevity and popularity does normally mean the product does have a degree of quality over less popular products.

This!! Some things like coffee, tea and bread are things I refuse to have the cheap own brand versions of (I'm not responsible for the food shopping BTW). Most of our fresh fruit and veg comes from the market. But yes there are certain brands that I will make sure of when getting things, simply because over the years I've gotten used to the taste and the quality of the product has been consistent.

Depends on what it is. I agree cheap tea/coffee is awful! However there is a factory up the road from me and I know a lot of people that work there. They manufacture lots of food and I have been told that the Tesco Value pies are exactly the same as the Waitrose pies that they make there, same line, people working on them and everything (this goes for most of the products they produce) although apparently M&S has a separate production line and use different ingredients and recipes. The difference usually is the packaging and the price you pay!

As for cereals, I actively seek out supermarket brands. I have always had them, until one time a few years ago they were out of stock and I had Kellogs Rice Crispies - they were disgusting and ended up in the bin. They were so sugary I couldn't bring myself to eat them.

I stick to shops own brand food almost all the time, but like others I always buy 'proper' coffee and baked beans!

Have to say I've been shopping a lot more at Lidl and Aldi recently and some of their own brand stuff is excellent and so much cheaper than the big 4 supermarkets.

Aldi have some surprisingly good food. Their rice pudding pots are as delicious as Müller Rice; ditto their yoghurt. Their ice cream lollies are tastier than Magnums (and have more almonds on the coating!) I also love their Alpenmark Bavarian range of cold meats and the Wiener Schnitzel is remarkably low in cals for what it is.

Moreover, although not food, their dishwasher tabs have been voted #2 by Which? and are half the price of even Tesco's own.

Of course there are lots of things I would't even think of buying in Aldi, but they tend to be the things I don't buy anyhow.

Soup, if not home-made, has to be Baxter's although I also like New Covent Garden and M&S and Waitrose do similar soups that are very delicious.

I prefer Waitrose own low-fat cottage cheese and smoked salmon slices to any other brand, although I'm not sure I've seen any non-Supermarket cottage cheese.

Coffee - I buy whatever's on offer. I don't think there's much difference between Douwe Egberts/Gold Blend/Tesco Gold.
Tea bags - I get Tesco's mid-range as Jem thinks they're ok. (I don't drink tea)

I don't think there's any hard and fast rule - some own brand goods are great, some are pants - and ultimately, it's a question of value for money (24p spent on value beans is 24p wasted if they are all cheap sauce and sugar and no beans, so I'd rather buy Heinz reduced sugar/salt snap-pots are they are more convenient and about a penny dearer than small tins).