COLD and flu season has come upon us and everyone is stocking up on necessities like vitamin c, cough drops, and, of course, tissues - but which store does them best?
After nearly two years of low stock of essentials like tissues and toilet paper, most people are buying anything they can get their hands on.
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Unfortunately, that means sometimes spending more money than you need to.
To help, The U.S. Sun tested four popular brands of tissues for our Bang for your Buck series to see which one was the most affordable without sacrificing quality.
We grabbed boxes of tissues from Kleenex, Puffs, CVS's Total Home, and Target's up&up.
The boxes ranged in price from $1.69 to $2.09 and offered quantities of 40 to 80 tissues.
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We rated the tissues in three categories: texture, absorbency, and price.
Each category was given a score out of 10, creating a total possible score of 30.
In order to test absorbency, we used a spray bottle to simulate a sneeze.
Not every store had single tissue boxes, so for the sake of the test, we'll be comparing the prices listed online.
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Below is how we rated them, from worst to best.
1. TOTAL HOME
- Price: $2.09 for 80 tissues
- Score: 20 out of 30 points
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The single boxes of Total Home tissues at CVS were unfortunately sold out, so we tested tissues from the travel pack.
These were definitely on the rougher side and had some subtle textures around the edges which made things a bit worse.
However, when we wet them with the spray bottle they held up very well.
The tissue didn't rip or even turn a bit translucent from the water.
The worst part of these tissues is the price.
A box of 80 tissues costs $2.09, the most of any of the ones we tested.
2. Puffs
- Price: $1.99 for 40 tissues
- Score: 22 out of 30 points
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While the Puffs tissues held up to their name and were "ultra soft" and absorbent, the cost was way too much for only offering 40 tissues in the box.
For context, this was the lowest count of tissues of all the boxes and the second most expensive option.
The tissues did hold up to the absorbency tests better than the CVS brand, which is what earned them their second-to-last spot on the list.
3. Up&up
- Price: $1.69 for 70 tissues
- Score: 23 out of 30 points
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These tissues were the same price as the Kleenex box, but offered 70 tissues instead of 60, giving it a big boost in the cost category.
They were also very absorbent and didn't rip or fall apart when they were sprayed.
Unfortunately, they were extremely rough.
These felt very similar to dinner napkins, just a bit thinner.
It was hard moving past the texture, but the price and quantity made up for it.
4. Kleenex
- Price: $1.69 for 60 tissues
- Score: 26 out of 30 points
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The Kleenex box had 60 tissues that were ridiculously soft.
They were easily the softest ones of everything that was tested.
As far as absorbency goes, the tissues held up just as well as the others, even though they felt a little thicker than others.
Since there were only 60 tissues in the box versus 70 in the Target box for the same price, it lowered the score to eight.
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FINAL THOUGHTS
The tissues were all almost equal in absorbency, leaving the texture and cost to be the big deciding factors.
Kleenex and Puffs were by far the softest, while the Target brand felt too rough to blow your nose with.
The Puffs tissues were too expensive for the small number of tissues that came in the box.
The tissues from CVS were also too expensive for the same reason.
All in all, the Kleenex tissues stood out from the rest in terms of value and quality.
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