All your basic staples: salt, flour, oil, sugar, pasta, pasta, milk, eggs etc. There's literally nothing to do better or worse, so for god's sake don't pay for the label. Fancy olive oil is nicer, and fancy butter for actually putting on bread is nice too - but for cooking, cheap the hell out.

Get your spices from an Indian / Asian / etc grocer - you can get a huge bag for the price of a tiny supermarket jar, and because they have so much turnover, they'll be plenty fresh.

Store-brand laundry detergent and dishwasher tablets work just fine for me (and dear god you can save a lot on those).

Smartphones. Most people don't need to buy the latest and greatest iPhone every year.

Generic meds vs brand meds.

Brands pay a lot for branding, and thus charge more. The formulas are moderated and regulated by the FDA, so unless you enjoy paying for ads, get the generic.

Medicine: the branded stuff is normally exactly the same but many times the price.

I switched to the store brand breakfast cereals. Never going back to Kellogg's again. The store brand ones near me are so good. And they're made with better ingredients like cane sugar over corn syrup and shit.

Tools you’re not sure you’ll need. Harbor Freight tools are super cheap and flimsy, but may be the right choice if you’re not using them often.

If you find yourself using a cheap tool all the time and hating the quality of it, then it’s time to buy something better.

Fashion clothes, if you're getting something that you'll wear for one summer and then never again then Primark is fine.

Salt, sugar, most herbs and spices, it's all the same stuff regardless of brands

Some snacks, often crisps are the same Aldi own brand as Walkers or whatever, or they're perfectly good. Yes we all want some kettle chips sometimes but it's all good, same for jelly sweets, a lot of chocolate, etc.

Hobbies for beginners, if you want to take up knitting then start with a cheap kit and upgrade as you get more serious.

Not sure if this applies to the US but for most things you buy from a supermarket the generic supermarket brand is usually just as good or even better than the big brands. And it's usually much cheaper.

Things which are commodity items, such as sugar, all-purpose flour, etc. I buy store brand. The main difference is marketing.

Oh, here's one: Power tools. Yeah I know, I know. But...

here's a Porter-Cable branded 6-inch jointer on sale for $365 at time of writing.

Here's a Craftsman branded jointer being sold for $299.

Here's a Wen branded jointer for $241.

Look at the three of them. They bear a striking resemblance, don't they? Makes sense for the Porter Cable/Craftsman ones, both brands are currently owned by Stanley, Black and Decker...but Wen has nothing to do with them, yet they're selling the same fuggin' jointer. Admittedly without the speed control, but what do you need a speed control on a jointer for?

It's the same tool made in the same factory in China, the cost difference is what logo you're willing to pay for.

Cell phone. A $200 android is extremely fast these days

Store brand foods are good a lot of times. They used to be garbage, but nowadays they're pretty good.

Frozen veggies instead of fresh is usually okay if you're steaming or roasting.

Automotive parts off Amazon have worked alright; Rebuilt my suspension for, like, $120. That's tie rod, sway bar, shocks, and struts. No issues for the two years since that repair.

A ton of hobbies have perfectly respectable aliexpress alternatives. Keycaps, Fountain pens, 3d printer parts. They rob intellectual property, but I like linux ISOs, so I don't exactly have a history of respecting that type of property.

Software in general can be cheaped out on; I don't think I need to champion FOSS on here.

Refrigerators and washing machines can be cheaped out on, as long as you do a bit of research about their reliability.

Lots of stuff is easy to DIY if you have some work space. Furniture, fish tanks, thermonuclear warheads. Learning to sew is valuable, not because you should make your own clothes -fuck that- but because you can mend the stitching on your current clothes.

Services can usually be cheaped out on. Youtube videos and a can-do attitude can get you through manicures and toilet repairs. Court clerks will sometimes be willing to walk you through basic legal stuff like name changes. Things you should educate yourself about beyond a short youtube video: Electricity, flammability (from heat sources), and anything involving significant pressure (pistons, compressed air, and power washers, mostly.).Also be a little careful with chemical reactions: cement hardening, for example, will produce a bit of heat. Usually this isn't a big deal and you can ignore it, but there have been idiots.The world's information is at your disposal. Provided you've got some common sense, and you never fuck around with the capacitor in a microwave, you should be fine.

Most people could cheap out on tools and they'd still last. The average person just doesn't use the ones they own very often or work them particularly hard. Really, you're going to know if your usage will require higher quality tools and it's not the average techbro posting on /r/buyitforlife.

Backpacks are similar. If you're just using one lightly loaded for an urban commute there is nothing wrong with cheaping out. Spending more is really for people who are wearing them hard and filling them to capacity.

I "just" moved and now taking care of the garden. I want a small vegetable garden (again) in raised beds.

You have a lot of raised beds kits the cheapest ones are €40 and more expensive ones are €90. I however used pallet collar's at €5 a piece. You don't even have to screw them together just put them down. For some custom size beds I use free pallets. They do take some work however.

Give them one treatment with linseed oil and you can use them for years. They live longer then the cheap kits and just a bit shorter then expensive ones. (Hardwood probably out life them)

Kits for vegetable gardens are most of the time really overpriced. Raised beds kits, tool kits and so on.

If you want high quality tools buy them of course, but starter kits are most of the time just the cheapest ones at a premium. Want hardwood raised beds, just buy wood and not a kit.

I suggest start on the cheap side, see if it your hobby. Buy cheap tools they already least long enough and if they break you know that you maybe want to invest in a premium one. Because you use that tool really often. (Second hand old tools are sometimes a better option of course)

Mr. Clean Magic Erasers.

The "generic" name is melamine sponge. These work exactly the same and cost a fraction of the brand name.

I once took a cooking class and the teacher was always "it's not necessary to invest in expensive oils, the cheapest oil will always do for cooking".

-Any clothing/toys for children can be bought second hand, we have a very good site for that in Norway. For example, we bought 8kg of Legos, very reasonable price. Re-use is very popular in Norway.

-If you change food you eat often, it's very important to do some reaserch on the nutrition and sugar.

-Any locally grown food should be supported by bying, if possible.

-Much electronics can also be bought second hand in Norway, since we have strong consumer protection laws. Breakdown on electronic can be repaired within 5 years, usually. But, only if the seller has the receipt.

-Jewelry and stuff isn't nessesary, but buying cheap can be a nagging feeling and perhaps just buy something else for the person you love. Like an experience, trip to the massage/restaurant/etc. Spending time together is much more romantic anyways.

-Don't cheap out on the bed/mattress, you spend about 1/3 of you life there.

Some experiences/adventures can be had for little money. Not for free. But I'd prefer a walk through nature, or a visit to an Irish village at the coast over an expensive guided tour through Dublin.

Decorations, jeweleries, basically any nonfunctional items, things that you can live without it, things that you don't have to "use".

I'm not sure I'd call this "cheaping out" but unless you can't even afford that or you have a specific reason you need a more expensive one, you should buy mid-range ($200 - $400) phones. The early '10s are over and mid-range is more than adequate for the average phone user. Plus quite a few mid-ranges still have expandable storage and/or headphone jacks.

Buying previous generation products. I got something like a Braun series 5 instead of the newest series 9, as there isn't that much difference.

If you want a good printer, look for an ex-lease laser printer. It may not be suitable for a whole department to use any more, but good enough for an individual.

Decent T-shirts can be had cheap from craft shops. If bought on sale, can be less than $4 each. They come in the normal variations, and one can get various weights online. They also come in a wide variety of colors. Additionally, they don't have visible logos.

Sunglasses. There's very little difference in terms of UV protection between cheap and expensive glasses and at the rate I scratch or break them it would be idiotic to spend a lot of money on them.

Alcohol that you are supplying at an event. You should always have a good case of beer or wine, or spirits, or the appropriate refreshment for your honored guests, but anything beyond 1st/2nd round should be the cheapest hooch on the planet and it should run out fast. Every social gathering seems to attract booze hounds that will suck you dry, no need to pay premium dollar for their habit.

Buy used stuff and learn by doing. Computer upgrades, smartphone repairs, cars to some extent and a ton of other stuff

One of the big ones for me is non denim pants. I went through a phase where I got into somewhat more expensive clothes for a bit. Not like flashy stuff, but like just like presumably high quality stuff that wasn't so mass produced and in many cases, specifically made in the the US.

Well for some reason or another a bunch of the pants I bought in that period of time just did not hold up at all. Lots of various problems including buttons falling off, seams splitting, holes in pockets. And not just from one brand either.

Well I buy pants from places like H&M now and they all last me a long time. I've got pants I've owned for 5+ years and worn quite a lot and they're still in great condition. And I paid like $30 for them.

Maybe I had bad luck with the nice pants back then, idk. But the price/value equation does not work out for me whatsoever. I've had somewhat similar experiences with casual button down shirts. My Uniqlo shirts have held up a lot longer than shirts I've spent like 3-5x the money for. But it hasn't been as extreme as my experience with nicer pants.

Stuff like shoes and jackets on the other hand, I prefer to spend a little more for quality.