Kiwis reveal their favourite budget grocery purchases

Kiwis are sharing their best "bang for your buck" supermarket secrets. Photo / File

From Homebrand nappies to the Pam's version of Milo, Kiwi savvy-shoppers are sharing the secrets to stretch their dollars in the supermarket.

Members of the "Cheaper Living (NZ only)" Facebook group have been talking about which brands give the best bang for their buck, and some house brands get a lot of praise for being better than the original product.

One of the group members said she decided to swap Bisto gravy mix for the Homebrand gravy mix once, as she found it had no artificial ingredients and was a lot cheaper. As a bonus, she found it to be a lot tastier too.

A number of Facebook users say they'll take Homebrand or Pams tomato sauce over Wattie's tomato sauce any day.

"Homebrand baking chocolate bar is as good as the Cadbury ones but much cheaper," a member commented.

Another person said she started buying cheaper coffee after a blind taste-test rated it the winner: "I bought different coffees each week and didn't tell my partner which one they were. He rated then and the winner was the cheap $2 packets from Countdown. Saves us $4 a week."

Below is a list of some of the cheaper items these frugal Kiwis say are just as good or better than the big-brand version:

• Homebrand nappies
• Necessities range of cleaning products from The Warehouse
• Pams cocoa
• Pams mayonnaise
• Budget tomato sauce
• Homebrand chopped tomatoes
• Budget Coco Pops
• Homebrand ginger beer
• Homebrand porridge
• Nutino hazelnut spread

A member of the group also pointed out that a lot of these items are made in the same factory as their more expensive branded versions, "in the same factory, on the same line".

"One season I remember them importing tins of Spanish peaches opening and recanning as Wattie's as it had been a bad year in NZ for peaches. Consumers are so misled," the person posted.