WFMW: Why I Spend More on Tide

In keeping with the brand-loyal theme of today's WFMW, hosted by Shannon over at Rocks in my Dryer, I bring you my recent rant about this exact topic, direct from my favorite frugal forums, Frugal Village:

Arrrggghhh. I found a great deal on cheap detergent a while back-- buy one huge jug at $12, get two for FREE. I figured that was easily a year's worth of detergent. I'd never tried that brand, but hey, detergent is detergent, right?

WRONG! This stuff is terrible. It does not get any visible spots out of clothes unless I pretreat them with stain remover-- even regular dirt like on the kids' knees or whatever. The worst part, though, is that it leaves blue stains on at least one or two items of clothes in every load I wash, no matter the temperature. (It's liquid, and the way my washer's dispenser is set up, it comes out in the middle, after the water fills up to the sensor's level. I can't prefill the washer with water & add detergent that way due to the high-tech sensor it has.)

I am so frustrated with this. I have to go through every load of clothes and rewash things, either because I missed pretreating something or because the detergent itself made a new spot. I'm seriously thinking of trashing this stuff and buying some Tide again, despite the wasted money-- I'm probably wasting just as much doing extra loads.

So there you have it, my own version of why I think it's worth it to pay more for Tide. And wouldn't you know it, just a week or two after my rant above, my friend Lori gifted me with a warehouse-sized jug of Tide with bleach alternative. It seems she'd bought it and it made her itch. I was so thrilled to have it, you'd have thought it was Christmas. :)

Check out what brands work for other people in this week's edition of Works for Me Wednesday!
P.S. A friend suggested that I donate the evil blue-staining detergent to an animal shelter, as the animals won't mind a few blue spots. I'm planning to do just that!