Check out Shannon's site,  Rocks In My Dryer, for lots of great tips!

Budget is one of my biggest considerations on a shopping trip, but there are times where cheapest isn't always the best for us.  

1.  One of those times is when it comes to ground beef.  If I just need a pound or two for spaghetti, the fat content isn't the highest priority.  However, if  hamburgers or tacos are on the menu, I usually select a lesser fat content.  I nearly always purchase a 5.5 lb package of 93/7 ground beef in these instances.  There is anywhere from 1.50 to 2.00 difference in price from the next highest fat content.    With the lesser fat content, my hamburgers will not shrink as much, and my taco meat will cover two meals in our large household with a little left over for other use.   If there's a decent sale on 85/15 or 73/27 ground beef, I'll purchase these for other uses.  

2.  We enjoy hamburgers with sausage meat mixed in.  Again, it's better here to splurge on the lower (50% less) fat variety, though the price is greater.  Otherwise, the hamburgers shrink a lot.  

3.  Sunday afternoons are a nice time for a barbeque, and a nice time to rest up for the coming week.  A favorite option is to put some chicken tenderloins on the grill, because they cook up quickly and leave plenty of time to enjoy the afternoon.  These are a little pricier, but tasty!  

4.  Paper Products are very subjective.  The cheapest toilet papers and paper towels are almost always frustrating.  They run out more quickly, and aren't worth bothering with.  Likewise, cheap paper plates last half as long because they need to be doubled or tripled for some meals.  In our house, it's better to spend the extra money on something that won't frustrate.

5.  Generic disposable diapers have  usually worked well for me, and I've been changing them for 14 years.  There have been a few occasions when a new brand arrived on the scene with an attractive low price.  However, they have almost always been frustrating because they leaked.  Funny, I don't notice them on the shelves much anymore.  

6.  Generic salad dressings work for us, but occasionally I have purchased a name brand on sale only to find that nobody liked it.  Tried and true is usually the best choice for us, and better to skip the cheap sale price on something we don't normally use.

7.  Generic sodas and juices usually work for the kiddos (on the rare occasions that we allow them in the case of soda), and I can live with them, but dh has his preferences, so there are times where name brand wins out over the generic alternative.  Also, when it comes to root beer, a family favorite, generic usually isn't that great.

When I purchase something unappealing, or that results in a lot of waste and ineffectiveness, it's a frustration.  Trial and error are the best teachers, and these are some of the places that I've learned that skimping isn't worth it.