Sometimes brand matters and sometimes it makes no difference at all. Decide which items you have to have purchased as brand name and then save on the rest by purchasing store brand. I prefer my toothpaste, baby formula, and spicy jalapeño refried beans to be name brand... just to name a few. (For some reason the store brand spicy jalapeño beans are to spicy for me! ...I know random item choice!)
I found a fun calculator at this site. I entered my age, projected retirement age, and projected age I will live to (as if I know!) I then choose simple canned fruit. Brand name is usually around $1.50 per can, store brand around $.99 per can.I typed in that I purchase this item 8 times per month. I pressed calculate....and up came the lifetime savings! $2,790.72! It then will go so far as to calculate the amount saved if the savings were put into an interest bearing account, and it gave me this nice summary: "If you were to permanently switch from the $1.50 product to the $0.99 product, and then invested the resulting monthly savings in an investment that earned 3.0% per year, between now and age 65, you would then be able to withdraw $18.43 from your investment each month...for the rest of your life!" Try the calculator yourself.
