A few groceries you just don’t skimp on

I’m all about buying generics and using coupons and shopping around, but there are just a few grocery items that you absolutely can’t skimp on.

Kitchen items worth paying for

1. Dish soap. Not kidding, buy the good stuff, pay some money for it. Use a coupon, sure, but get a good brand. Dawn, Palmolive.. doesn’t matter. Make sure it’s super thick, not that watered down generic crap. You’ll use less, so it lasts longer. The upfront cost is a bit higher, but it pays for itself in the amount of soap you don’t waste.
2. In the same vein… sponges. Get the good ones, the curvy ones with the scrubby side by Scotch Brite. This helps keep your expensive dish soap from going to waste almost as much as the expensive dish soap itself.
3. Cleaning wipes. Clorox wipes are the sh*t. Ask anyone. Also, Lysol wipes are pretty great too. However, those Kirkland Costco variety are not so great, same goes for any other generic we’ve tried. They usually have some weird thing about them, bumps or something that prevent proper cleaning, and sometimes they’re dried out.
4. Swiffer supplies. We’ve got the sweeper and the duster, nothing else compares to their awesomeness. The sweeper is great because you can use the dry cloths or the wet ones (ours is old-school, no batteries powering it). The duster is just such a time saver.
5. A decent set of pots and pans. For the every day cook, a person with things to do other than cooking all day, a good set of nonstick pans is the way to go. Make them last longer by keeping metal spoons away from them and don’t put them in the dishwasher. They’ll last a good long time and you won’t spend hours scrubbing off last nights dinner.

Bathroom items worth paying for

1. Scrubbing Bubbles. Those cute little smiling bubbles really work.
2. Drano. Got hair? Get Drano.
3. A nice floor rug. The nice ones have the right amount of soft mixed with the right amount of cushion. They’re absorbant, and ideally, not white. White never lasts.
4. Toothpaste, our choice is Crest 3D White. I’m sure I’ve tried dozens of different toothpastes over the course of my life. Find the one that works for you and stick with it. Toothpastes I can’t stand include: Colgate (cinnamon one, do they even make that anymore?), Tom’s (all natural, *shudder* sorry, it was awful), Crest Pro-Health (numbed my tongue for over an hour after brushing, every time).
5. TP. Not all toilet paper is created equally. And I’m actually ok with both ends of the spectrum on this one. I like Scott, they really cover their bases. You can get the thin 1000 sheets or the thick and luxurious “Extra Soft”. If you get the thin kind you’ll go through it faster (probably why they give you a remarkable 1000 sheets), but this one is sort of a matter of preference.