I have to admit, the call of the branded cereal (and pretty much every other item on the shelf) is a powerful force a parent has to overcome, both for their kids and for themselves.
We used to do the 50-50 mix of store knockoff and branded cereals. Cap'n Crunch, Cocoa Pebbles, Lucky Charms, and Life did have acceptable off-brand bags of cereal manufactured by Malt-O-Meal. The kids could never tell the difference. Some cereals were noticably different, including Raisin Bran and Quisp. For the Raisin Bran, the knockoffs have fewer raisins and the bran flakes have a terrible aftertaste. The ingredients are different as well, whereas the good store brands or knockoffs are the same formula or made on the exact same machinery.
This translates to other things like sweetened condensed milk and cream cheese (we discovered this over the Thanksgiving weekend when we couldn't tell the difference between two pies). When it comes to coffee creamer and spaghetti sauce, the off brands are obviously inferior in taste and texture. Life's too short for shitty coffee.
If you do find the brands the kids can't tell are the cheaper versions, you really can save a lot of money as mentioned by realplayer. The same goes for store brand instant flavored oatmeal. Kids don't eat it often enough or see enough commercials during their Saturday morning cartoons to have the branding stuck in their head.
Parents can also use branding to their advantage. A good friend in high school detested liver but loved his mother's Spanish steak. She just renamed it and got around the built-in yuck mechanism he picked up in grade school.
Iron Noder 2017