Tiffany Raiford
Let’s see a show of hands from those who know they are spending too much on everyday items? My hand is in the air. What’s your reason for spending more on items than you know you have to? My own personal reason is simple; I have four kids and I work from home. When my big girls are in school and I’m out with my new twins, I like to be a quick as possible and not have to lug two babies in and out of the car all day long to stop at multiple stores. So I’ll go to my favorite store, spend more than I have to on things I could get a lot cheaper elsewhere and relish the convenience of only taking the twins out of their new ‘big kid’ car seats and buckling them into their stroller once instead of multiple times.
I know I’m guilty of overspending for convenience. What are you guilty of? If you’re not even sure that you’re overspending, perhaps you should consider the fact that the Dollar Store is a great resource for everyday items for a lower price. If you have the time and the desire to save a bundle, you could begin your shopping at the dollar store and save a lot of money on things you buy every single day. What are these items? I’m happy to tell you.
Office Supplies
We all need a stapler, tape and pens and pencils, but we overpay to a degree that’s kind of ridiculous when we go elsewhere. It’s time for us to stop overpaying and head somewhere we can get these items for a price that’s probably more reasonable and much less annoying. I vote we all office supply it up at the Dollar Store from now on. We can get things for dollars less (per item) here than anywhere else.
Home Décor
I love home décor as much as the next person, and I love that I can go into the Dollar Store and buy things I could get elsewhere for a lot less. For example, cheap picture frames I could buy for $10 at Walmart or Target are only $3 at the Dollar Store. Considering the fact that I like to purchase wooden frames and then paint them to match the décor in bathrooms or the kids’ bedrooms, it’s a great deal.
Personal Items
My favorite deodorant (Secret) is $2 at the Dollar Store. It’s $4.99 at my local supermarket. Where should I shop? Clearly, at the Dollar Store for items that are of a personal nature. I’ve been told things like shampoo, conditioner, body wash, soap and even tampons are also more reasonably priced at locations such as this.
Storage Bins
When you have a hundred kids (or four, but it definitely feels more like a hundred at times), you have to have a number of plastic storage containers for things like bibs and blocks and legos. Anywhere else, they’re $5 or more for just one bin. At the Dollar Store, they’re only $1 per bin. That’s a pretty nice bit of savings if you use the same amount of bins as we use in my household.
Gift Bags
Why spend $5 on a gift bag at another store when you can buy it for $1? It makes zero sense to spend money elsewhere on items like this when you can save four times when you would have spent elsewhere.
Basic Household Tools
Sometimes we need things like duct tape and gloves and maybe even sponges or dish rags to use when washing your car. When you purchase them at the Dollar Store, you’re spending a dollar on these items. The last time I went into another store and bought gloves (because I was making bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers…yum!) to clean the jalapenos out, I paid $5 for a package with three pair of gloves in it.
Tissue Paper
Anyone else here find that while tissue paper is always necessary, it’s also a pain? It’s something that makes you want to throw it all away when you’ve used it on one gift since it’s pointless? I do. That’s why I buy it at the Dollar Store. It’s $1. Even at Walmart it’s $3 a package. Ridiculous.
Cards
Flashback to Father’s Day, if you will. I walked into Publix (for those not from the south, that’s our favorite supermarket) to purchase Father’s Day cards. Now, I overdo it on the cards, but that’s how I was raised. I bought my husband a card from me, my dad a card from my me and my husband, and a card for my father-in-law from me and my husband. Then I buy my husband a card from our kids, and each of the grandfathers get a card from the kids. That’s a grand total of 8 cards for three men (I know, I know). That’s all I bought. Well, and half and half for my coffee since I was running low. Want to know what happened when I checked out? I had to swipe my debit card to the tune of almost $50. For cards. At the Dollar Store, I would have spent something like $12 or less.
Cleaning Supplies
You have to be careful with this one, as some cleaning supplies are actually priced higher at the Dollar Store than elsewhere. But when you know the prices you pay elsewhere, it’s easy to spot the cheaper items when shopping for them. Since you use them regularly, it’s a good idea to start here. For example, I can buy Swiffer wet jet pads here for almost $2 less than anywhere else, but I do not buy the wet jet liquid here because it’s actually a little more expensive.
Toys
Imagine my surprise when I walked into TJ Maxx a few weeks ago and bought a few wooden puzzles for my kids to play with as a little surprise. I thought I was getting a good deal paying $5 for them since it was TJ Maxx, and all things are less expensive there, right? Wrong. I then went into the Dollar Store on the way home to pick up the one thing I forgot when I was out, saw the exact same puzzles for sale and noticed that the price on the puzzle was $1. Darn it.
Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Comments
Loading…