Chocolate, coconut milk, tea, coffee, mustard.

From my shopping, there is just about none. Arguably sausages but then there are cheaper alternatives I go for instead usually. Pork shoulder is cheaper per kg than all but the lowest meat content sausages.

Typically been spending £10-15 each per week on shopping at Aldi. But it also depends on how far you go. You could say everything is paying extra if you are spending more than £2 as that could get enough rice for the week. Got several herbs growing in the garden too so it wouldn't even be completely plain.

Instant noodles. I live in South Korea and there are gazillion options, from little more than a quarter(USD for your convenience) to almost $1.5 a pack.

Huge difference. I eat 2 packs per meal almost always and yes, it's often 2x more expensive but I'd just not eat cheapest ones.

some people at WF, will only go after certain honeys, even if they are more expensive. i will still buy different flavor sparkling waters, from different brands. but the key is to know which ones are shrinkflationed, some will only sell 8packs, while others will sell 12cans per box. stevia, i specifically only look for the ones that dont have sugar in it, more often than not most brands of stevia has sugar in it, in the form dextrose/maltodextrin. its pricier but worth it for a brand that has pure stevia powder, also one thats not mixed with ethyrthiol.

certain organic veggies are better , if you dont want to know which used the most chemicals, like org celeries.

Real parm instead of the canned stuff.

Chicken breasts - you can get massive pumped up chicken breast for the same price as "normal" chicken breasts. The problem is when you cook the big ones, they just leech out all their liquid.

Fresh corn tortillas.

Tequila.

Haircare stuff

Husband bought "the good eggs" once and has not looked back since. I used to keep chickens and the bougie store eggs are much closer to those than they are to the factory farmed thin shelled light yolked ones.

Honestly a lot of stuff I like to get the nice version. Most packaged products you can get away with cheaper, but paper products you wanna splurge on, and produce you wanna get from a local store with good stuff rather than your local megamart when possible. A farmer's market or even just a neighborhood grocery store is usually gonna have fresher, tastier veggies in my experience. A little more expensive, but worth it.

Butter, life is too damn short to cook with and eat shitty butter.

Also anything that goes between me and the ground, my bed, my shoes, and my tires.

Coffee. It's something that I refuse to compromise on. It may be especially important to me because I like to drink it black. If it doesn't taste great without adding anything to it, it's not with drinking at all in my opinion.

Good ketchup Real butter, not reconstituted which should be illegal Good bread, fresh or at least not the cheapest stuff

Paper Towels and Trash Bags - the cheap ones just don't hold up as well

Farmer’s market tomatoes. I went through my whole life thinking I hated tomatoes. Turns out, I hate grainy tomatoes that taste like nothing, and real tomatoes grown nearby and picked ripe are wonderful.

Canadian maple syrup.

Local
Whatever the product is, I'll pay an extra dollar for domestic (and especially within the province)

Eggs. I bought the expensive ones once just for laughs and they taste great without the weird funk. Now I have my own chickens, and the eggs are better than anything in the store. It’s probably more expensive though!

Carrots and celery I always buy organic because they seem to take on the flavor of whatever they were watered with. It makes a difference there for me.

And tortillas, I get the local boutique ones instead of the national mass market ones. Big difference there.

Pasta. It takes pasta dishes from "eh, it's food" to "this is really good".

For purely economic reasons, the less often I need to buy it, the more I allow myself to splurge.

So vegetables and my go to drink I consume everyday are bought the absolute cheapest, but that spice blend for those veggies lasts me months so I really don't care if there's a cheaper alternative.

Of course, expensiveness is measured per kg/litre, paying a bit more up front is always worth it if it means a lower price per kg (if you can consume it before it goes bad).

I'm going to sound like a hater, but the food in season and local is what you should be eating, and that will always be the cheapest. If you're talking processed food brands and shit in boxes in the middle of the store, I'd argue none of it is worth the extra money, its all bad for you, stop. That said, the frozen arby's curley fries are bomb, and no one does cheesey things like cheetos or smartfood.