Prepping for Under Ten Dollars

     I have mentioned before that I shop the discount stores.  I squeeze the life out of a dollar.  I test the products now, while I can still re-stock them and I make note where the products were found.  This is a suggestion of things you might try out for yourself.
     

     Of, course the Dollar Tree stores, over 1400 strong across the nation, are mostly made in China products.  This cannot be helped.  I don't like it, but when you find a long handled Bar-b-Que lighter for sale at Walmart for 2.99 and the same one from the same company made in China at say, the Dollar General for 1.99 and the exact lighter at Dollar Tree for $1.  Where would you buy it?  

     I bought mine at The Dollar Tree.  Also for $10 that trip, I bought eight other items and paid the $9.63.  I put the change of .37 in a special prep jar to roll into another ten dollar trip in the future.  This is how I can acquire the amount of supplies I have.

     At ten dollars a trip or this year's new commitment to $15 every week, the supplies add up to security and peace of mind.  I don't know if I mentioned it earlier, but my prep supply budget does not include my yard sale treasure hunting budget.  Yard sales are my personal crack and my personal joy.  I don't always find something I need or want, but I enjoy the hunt as much as I enjoy the find.  I will post some tips and techniques for better yard saling as the season for it returns.  

     But, for today's purposes, we have first aid supplies at Dollar General; a 100 tablet bottle of migraine relief, A 100 count box of latex band-aids, a bottle of daytime cold relief medicine, a bottle of 30 ct. ibuprofen,  an elastic bandage wrap, and a bottle of children's fever reducer.  That's ten dollars exactly.  There is no tax on medication in Florida.

     At, the Family Dollar Store, before Christmas, I counted myself lucky to buy the last of their garden supplies, marked down below their cost.  For $10 I got two bags of seed starting soil, a tray for starting the seeds in, 13 packs of seeds for the cold store, two one pound boxes of fertilizer, ( It is for flowers, so I have to wait to use it on the vegetables, when they are ready to bloom.) a watering can, two packs of plant twist ties, a trellis net, two packs of potted plant food stakes, and a wind chime.  That's twenty five items for $10.  That's twenty five things that would have cost forty or more at full price.  I can't tell you how much I love clearing the end of season shelves.

www.walgreens.com 

     For ten dollars at Walgreens, I bought a 100 count bottle of vitamin supplements with a store coupon buy one get one, a thermometer, and a tube of sulphur and petroleum jelly mix.
The sulphur is harder to come by nowadays and is usually suspended in a petroleum jelly in a tube or tub but is needed for treating impetigo and other skin ulcers.

     Ten dollars at a discount food store, like Save-a-lot,  can get you 20 -30 cans of canned vegetables or three cans of ham or two cans of corned beef.  It will also stock you up to 15 cans of chunky soup or about eight pounds of beans and rice.  There is another deeper discount store local to me that sells the dented cans and closeout groceries that I have been o\promising myself I would investigate.  So, looks like a busy week of shopping and exploring ahead for me.