CNN saves you some money

Watching CNN today at lunch, they had a 5 minute segment on how buying store-brand food can be an effective money-saver during the recession. For some reason, however, they kept dwelling on the potential savings from buying store-brand ketchup over Heinz. Apparently the average bottle of store-brand ketchup costs $1.19, vs. $2.19 for Heinz. Percentage-wise, this is indeed a great savings. However, even if you're a particularly ketchup-intensive household, it's unlikely that you're buying more than a bottle a month, which means that CNN's vaunted savings are going to get you an extra $10-12 a year. On the other hand, that $12 will now get you about a 5% stake in Citigroup.