A Few Dollar Store Finds

A Few Dollar Store Finds

May 8, 2010

Last month I posted how  dollar stores are the new five and dime.  Some are a bit snobbish in that they feel dollar stores on sell cheap products and in fairness some products from China have really gotten a bad rap in recent months.  Despite this problem as long as you are an informed consumer there are a lot of excellent deals at the dollar stores. While a lot of products are from China a surprising number are from other countries including Canada and the USA.  Dollar stores are now carrying a lot more in the lines of groceries so they are quite popular with families trying to save a few dollars on their grocery bill.

Two or three times a year I check out a dollar store usually spending about $50 each time.  The times tend to be rather specific to spring when I'm gearing up for gardening, mid-summer before the busiest of the canning season and during the holiday season.  Of course a few other items find their way into the cart.  My recent dollar store shopping trip was to pick up damp traps (next post) and canning jar lids (the following post) along with a few gardening supplies.  I ended up spending $61.17 ($2.63 GST, $4.04 PST) total.

Pictured are a few of the extras I bought.  We have been using reusable cloth shopping bags for quite some time and we did splurge on a large insulated shopping bag that likely holds about 3 times the amount of cold foods as a normal shopping bag.  I found an insulated cooler bag at the dollar store for $1.25 that is about the same size as a normal shopping bag just perfect for bringing cold foods home from the grocery store when we aren't buying a lot.  This will help keep the food in the food safe temperature zone.  My cutting boards are getting to the point of needing to be replaced so I bought 2, one bamboo and one polyethylene.  Bamboo has natural antibiotic properties which is quite appealing but I want to see how the bamboo cutting board works with my knives before changing out the cutting boards.  This is an inexpensive way to do a kitchen test for performance.  I really like acrylic serving bowls for entertaining!  They have a nice sparkle while being functional indoors and out.  Since some of my serving bowls tend to develop legs throughout the year it seems I'm always replacing a piece or two.  I really liked the sparkly blue of the acrylic serving bowl that will look gorgeous on our dock!  I also bought a popsicle mold for when the grandbabies visit.  I can fill these with healthy juices for a summer treat.  The cost of the items pictured was $7.75 but they are are functional items that will last quite some time and save money over their lifetime.

Garden Gnome
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