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By Kelli B. Grant
Reporter, SmartMoney.com


Are your weekly grocery shopping and drugstore bills getting out of control? Don't fret. There are ways to trim those tabs by as much as 20% without shortening your shopping list.

The trick: switching from brand-name products to generic labels. OK, so some may not come in a pretty bottle or be as tasty as your favorite brands, but in many cases, the only thing that's not premium about generics is the price.

That's because most generic brands are made by the same manufacturers that churn out the products you know and love, says Joanna Pruess, author of "Supermarket Confidential." Take away the fancy packaging, and you've got identical breadcrumbs (4C Foods Corp.), tinfoil (Alcoa Reynolds Wrap) and frozen vegetables (Birds Eye).

Here are five types of products that you should always purchase generic:

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