"Step Away From the Tylenol"

Since I love to save money, I found a new study about buying generic over-the-counter headache pills and even food brands to be fascinating. Done by the University of Chicago Business School, the study finds that we are all wasting a lot of money on brand names, while the people in the know -- doctors, nurses, and most importantly pharmacists -- are buying the generics.

Not only that, but professional chefs are much more likely to skip a brand name and purchase a no-ad brand when it comes to “salt, baking mixes, prepared food, sugar, dried fruit, dairy spreads and dips, bread, pickles, soup, and cheese... chefs opt for generics with what they call pantry staples, where they can readily ascertain that the generic salt or baking soda is the same as the brand-name alternative.”

So it turns out that, to the professionals, the cheap stuff is the good stuff in many cases -- a lesson we can all apply at home. You can read the full Slate.com article here: http://slate.me/14wPMYl