(Dollar Store) Deal or No Deal?  

small food items i've found to be a deal,ours has name brand spices and things like hamburger helper that would be more pricey elsewhere.

i pass on the extension cords too-the ones ours sells..ah,no.i doubt they'd run a can opener safely.
they look flimsy.

I'm in school to become a early childhood teacher and have started using the dollar store for my teaching supplies. The Dollar Tree in general has some great flashcards with numbers, words, and some small games on them for a dollar. They also have workbooks with great teaching ideas in them. Some of the teaching materials they have are sold at stores like Walmart and big name bookstores for pretty expensive prices. I can get them all for a dollar.

Modestah, as frugal as I try to be there are things I would never by at dollar stores. Toys, because most of them do come from china and they are so cheap they break easily. Clothes, they never stand up to the washing machine.

What I do buy are name brand items, laundry soap when on sale, Pyrex dishes and Christmas ornaments....Not lights. I was buying cat food, but then every bag they sold was on the list of tainted pet food. The dollar stores give us options.... we have to be smart shoppers and discern what is a good buy for us and what is not.

I always find my stocking stuffers and easter basket items at the dollar store. There are alot of good deals but then there are some that aren't so good too, like you mentioned. Although I didn't know about the vitamins, toothpaste, or the vinyl food containers. I will have to keep that in mind.

I usually buy a lot of my sons art stuff from dollar stores - mostly paper, paint, glue, scissors, stencils, crayons, chalk, and other artsy stuff. On occasion I buy envelopes and the occasional hair bands when I need them.

I love to buy there bath stuff like bubbke baths and shower gels. I also love their body sprays they are cheap and smell fairly good most the time.

we buy a lot of great scrap booking stuff at our local dollar stores and we also get some food (sometimes it is cheaper at the grocery stores, so you have to be careful of that!) but a no deal would be candles from the dollar store (i have heard some stories about them in regards to not melting properly and fires!)

This is a great list to be aware of. Thank you.

We take the kids to the dollar store and let them but small toys before we go camping. The toys get broken so fast when we take them out in the dirt so it is nice to have toys that we can throw away when they get beat up and still have our nice toys at home. The store by us also has a great supply of gift wrap.

I do like the dollar stores too..for artifical flowers etc...they are way cheaper then JoAnn's or Michaels. And they are just as pretty! I also get my napkins there....in the grocery store they can well be over two bucks for the same amount...it's that they are brand names.

Yes, Shopping at the dollar stores can be a Fun and great thing to do. Sometimes like you have said I have seen Food or other things there that I know are a bargain, and other times I have seen it cheaper elsewhere. We tend to sometimes get items that can be used as small gifts for people and such all of the time there, as when you spend only $1 on someone compared to $5-10 the savings can sure add up.

So all I can recommend, is when a person decides to check out the Bargains at their local Dollar store they need to check Dates, and try to remember not everything is as good as what they might be elsewhere. But we found some Shower Gel one time at the Dollar tree that was some of the best we have ever had, and are out, and really miss that kind.