When you’re on a budget, there’s no mistaking the pull of the lower six inches of the cereal aisle. Above, at eye level, beautiful boxes of Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and Honey Nut Cheerios stand neatly aligned like hardcovers in a library, commanding six or seven dollars for just twelve ounces. But look down … Read more

Almost everyone remembers the grocery store speech, even if families disagreed on how to give it. Depending on where and how you grew up, consumer frugality took on different forms. In genuinely poor rural households, store brands were often viewed with deep suspicion. When every dollar counted, buying an unproven off-brand was an unacceptable gamble. … Read more

There has long been a sense of humiliation baked into how most of us remember buying Little Debbie snack cakes. Instead of finding them in the primary bakery aisle next to the rows of Wonder Bread and Entenmann’s, they’re often marooned on the grocery store perimeter. They sit stacked in freestanding corrugated cardboard shippers, crammed … Read more