Dollar Tree EDC (052/365)

I stopped by the Dollar Tree by school on the way home today.  DANG!  It's the biggest Dollar Tree I've ever been in!  They've definitely got more stock than any other I've been to.  I think I'll stop by on Friday since I don't bike to/from school on Fridays and will have more time to mosey around.

During this trip, I stocked up on a few dollar's worth of my favorite super glue bottles (all of my local Dollar Trees have stopped carrying these; see above photo).

There were a bunch of items there worthy of EDCing or for BOBs as well.  There's a 5-pack of Purell wipes.  I think these ones were foil wrapped, so I'm hoping that (though pricey) they'll keep moist a lot longer than others that I have used.  I also saw generic versions of those "Colgate Wisp" type things; those came four to a pack.

Check back on Friday for a more!  Since I'll be recycling some cans that day, I'll have some extra "play" money and will probably put aside about $10.00 to put toward that day's Dollar Tree trip.  :)

Christmas Round-Up 2011 :)

It's been an interesting Christmas season this year.  Here's a quick recap of what's gone down so far:

First up, I made my first gingerbread house with Sis.  :)  The first attempt proved futile, as our frosting cement was much too runny.  After tweaking the recipe a bit and creating a thicker sugar glue, our second attempt at building a house took but 5 minutes.

That blog of frosting in the front was supposed to be a snowman, but the piping bag exploded and we had to stop there before frosting got all over.  That to the far right would be my station wagon.  :)

Next up, I opened my gifts from sis early.  She'd made me a stocking and filled it up nice and neat, considering I'd never had a stocking before.  It was even written with "La La" on it.  :)  Yay!  It's now hanging in my room.  Within this stocking, I received:

A cuddly cow (that smells like tea!) that you can microwave and a brand spankin' new journal.  :D  Joy!

And a sriracha shirt!  She knows I love the stuff.  :)  Love herrrrr!

Not shown that were also in the stocking included neat little mitten/gloves and a fluffy purple bird pen.  The gloves are sitting in my drawer and the pen on my desk.  :)

And from my immediate family?  I got socks.  Regular ol' socks.  I thought that stuff only happened in movies.  :(  I'm not even an ankle sock person unless it's summer time and I'm wearing shorts...

At least the Pumas have purple stitching.  :)  I like purple.

For sis, I'd gotten her the Pro Mark II 9000 Canon printer and a boatload of photo papers.  I warned her that it'd be of apocalyptic proportions.  I'm not quite sure if she believed me until she'd seen them all.  :)  Thank you, Staples, for all of your FAR and almost FAR deals.  :)  I'd also given her a GIANT stocking, in which I'd thrown in little piggy items; USB flash drive, note pad, and an Angry Birds King Pig pen.  I don't think she'd opened it yet, but I sure hope she likes it.  It was hidden within a Choco Pie box, buried under Choco Pie and resealed to just look like regular 'ol Choco Pie.  :P

My brother on the other hand, received a Pop phone and a bunch of Hello Kitty items alongside random things I'd found from the Dollar Tree that reminded me of our childhood.  Our toys are making a comeback!  :P

Dollar Tree Finds - 13 December 2011

I'm getting really addicted to going to Dollar Tree at this point.  I'd stopped by after class yesterday to grab a stocking for my brother.  During this trip, here are the things I'd found interesting:

Holy cow.  1.0L of margarita mix.  Nice.  :)  I didn't try it though.  But margarita mix typically comes fairly cheap anyway, so I wouldn't think it'd be that bad.  

I found these by the cash register while checking out.  They were right next to the Junior Mints, and rightly so.  This is the first time I'd seen any other flavor other than the usual mint and caramel (Junior Caramels).  They're about the size of the theater candy boxes (4.0 ounces).  How weird though, I can't even find it on their site as a product.  The box doesn't state it as being limited edition, nor is it decorated as a seasonal item.  There's no expiration date that I could find on the box either.  Regardless, it's pretty good stuff.  I'm a big fan of those raspberry creme/chocolate items.  Yum.  :)  Same family as the Junior Mints, so it's got the same consistency and all.  Good stuff.  I may stock up on a few more, even though I'm not much of a major sweets person.

I randomly decided to pick up a bag of chips and have been in the mindset of trying "generic" items lately.  These aren't bad.  They're not the most flavorful, but they are quite crispy, as kettle cooked chips ought to be.  The flavor is indeed barbecue... but I think it's somewhere in between mesquite and sweet 'cause it's not really one or the other.  There are a few pieces here and there that I find to be too oily though.  But only a couple out of the entire 5.0 ounce bag (actually, of all the ones I'd eaten so far.  5.0 ounces is a lot).  Not bad.  Though, I'm not sure if I'd ever actually get a craving for these though.  I quite like the design of the packaging though.  :P  Generics that try to mimic name brands make me giggle inside.

This was probably my favorite purchase all night.  I'd picked up a giant stocking (over a meter long) for my brother and friend.  Not bad considering that all of their normal sized stockings go for $1.00 as well as their two-pack of the miniature stockings.  Imagine how many of those you'd have to put together to even come close tot his size.  I've only ever seen one stocking bigger than this one and it was from CVS - but that one costs about $10.00.  I'll stick with this one, thank you.

The stocking is actually filled with more junk I'd found in the "Stocking Stuffers" section.  We've never actually used our stockings in this household so I thought it'd be fun to give my brother a stuffed stocking this year with things he'd remember from when he was younger.  Apparently the same toys that he and I had used to play with when we were little (I'm the child of the 90's! - born in '89, baby~!) are making a come back.  Those toys are starting to pop up everywhere.

Dollar Tree Finds (07 December 2011)

Oh, the Dollar Tree... there's always something interesting to be found there.  This time around, I went to the "nicer" one by campus during lunch time.  This one's great because they've always got stock of everything and all of their products are very neatly organised.

Anyway, I think the first aisle I'd looked at was the toy aisle, just to see if there were any props I could use for my upcoming party, wherein I'll be setting up a "photo booth" for my friends to enjoy.  There, I found a deck of Tarot cards.  I've never done Tarot, but it just seemed like an interesting find.  I guess for a dollar and change, it'd be interesting to look into it.  But I passed.

Next up, I'd gone to the glassware/dishware aisle.  I was looking for some glass mugs to etch for Christmas gifts.  Instead, I happened upon some new Coca-Cola glasses.  I'm sure we've all seen these green ones at both the Dollar Tree and the 99 Cents Only store:

Your choice of 2 smaller ones OR 1 larger one for of course, $1.00.

But they'd just gotten some new stock, I suppose, for I've found 3 more styles that I've never seen before:

Neat huh?  But take note of the middle one.  It's my favorite!

How awesome is that?  It's a glass cup... in the shape of a Coca-Cola 12 ounce can! 

I ended up picking up one of these for myself, but gave it to my brother when I'd come home since he liked it.  I'll probably pick up another on the way home from school so long as they've still got them in stock.  There didn't seem to be very many.  I don't even see it on their site.  Though one of the other three can be found there.

Not shown, since I'd forgotten to take a picture... there's a whole end cap dedicated to Betty Crocker baking supplies at my local Dollar Tree too.  It's pretty hard to miss considering that everything's red.  But anyway, there's some good quality silicon gear to be had if you have a need for some new baking supplies.  The mixing bowls and such I can do without - they're all plastic and I have a preference for metal.

Happy hunting.  :)

Dollar Tree Saved My Heels

The other night, I found myself lying in bed, wide awake, but not wanting to do much more than browse the interwebz on my Atrix.  However, I didn't even know what I wanted to browse for.  Having bought a laundry bag from the Dollar Tree a couple of days ago, I'd eventually, I ended up on the Dollar Tree landing page.

I looked through almost all of the categories they had possible and eventually found myself looking at the "Health and Personal Care," and eventually the Medicine Cabinet > First Aid Supplies sub-categories.  There, I found Premier brand Heel Grippers.  There was only one review there which stated that they loved the product and gave it 5 stars.  The day prior, I had gone hiking with the members of DooyuwannaHike and G.I. Joe Search and Rescue in boots that hadn't been broken in yet.  And my heels hurt!  I figured for $1.00 I could give it a shot.

The next morning, I'd gone to the Dollar Tree with my shopping buddy and picked up a set.  They are a spongy rubber material and the adhesive on the backside is pretty tough, though not as strong as moleskin (I think the ones I'd used prior were from Dr. Scholl's).  At first look I thought they were too thin, but again, I'd only be out $1.00.

The package stated to wait 15 minutes after putting in the grippers before putting the shoes back on.  I did so and after waiting the allotted time, was surprised at how well they worked and how strongly the stuff stuck to my boots!  My heels couldn't have been happier.  Gone are the days that I have to uncomfortably wear two pairs of socks with these boots just to make them fit decent.

Thank you, Dollar Tree.  :P

Hand Sanitizer?!

Above would be all of the hand sanitizers in the house... that's not including the small collection in my car...

I've always liked hand sanitizer, but I've never really used it (as you can see, the majority of those bottles are still full other than the large one that sits on my desk and the orange one that's been in my purse for some time now).  Until now.  Why?  I don't know.  It started with all of the free little promotional ones.  Then I got the larger bottles for free after coupons.  Then I thought the little bottles were cute (I'm going after the 0.5 ounce Purell ones next!).  And then the Germ-X brand has the orange and green apple scented ones for kids (those are my two favorite scents).  The collection just built up from there.

Most of what I have are unscented.  Though I do have the orange and green apple as mentioned above as well as lavender.  My mom's a fan of the Bath and Body Works.  I find their scents too strong.  I'd once mixed the Bath and Body Works one with the generic ones from Dollar Tree in a 1:1 and found that it was still pretty strong.  So I guess that's one way of stretching your dollar if you really like the scent of the BBW ones.

A lot of people seem to not like the Dollar Tree ones (Assured brand), but I like them.  Most of the complaints revolve around the idea that it's too drying.  I've found that it works perfectly find.  I did notice that my lavender scented one feels more silky than the unscented one though.  But overall, I'm quite happy with the purchases.  If you want the more portable option though, go for the "bonus" 3-pack.  Each bottle is 2.0 ounces.  There are also 2-pack available, but they're also only 2.0 ounces each.  I don't know why... maybe it's a marketing ploy.  Same company, same volume per bottle, different packaging (the 3-pack ones look more stout, so I guess if you're not looking at the volume, you'd think the 2-pack ones were a better deal).  If you want the larger bottle for say your desk, restroom, or office, go for the "50% more" bottle (12.0 ounces), rather than the regular 8.0 ounce ones.

For the most part, I think I've always had it around, but never really used it because I would have to dig it out of my purse and I don't really like flip-top caps.  Then when I got the larger bottles, they had pumps on them so I would keep one on my desk and found myself using it before meals.

I've since gotten into the habit of using it after using public computers (namely the ones at school), when I'm out eating with my friends and there's no sink available, and after going into stores where I'm touching things that have most likely been touched by a million other people before me.  I don't think I'm addicted to using it as I am forming a little collection.  I think they'll be donated soon enough.  I didn't realise how my collection has grown until I'd rounded them up for that picture.  haha