Tag Archives: money challenge

Exceptions to the Dollar Store challenge

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Okay, so a few exceptions have come to light since I started the challenge a week ago.

1. Reddit gift exchange. I almost forgot that I had signed up earlier this month for the Reddit Secret Santa gift exchange. I go all out at secret gift exchanges because they make me super happy! So I will not confine my gift shopping to the dollar store.

2. Trader Joe’s wine. Aka “2 buck chuck”, although we frugal folk know it ought to be referred to as “3 buck chuck” since it’s $2.99/bottle and therefore closer to $3. Apparently The Beard thought that Trader Joe’s wine was not included in the dollar store challenge. I don’t drink much wine but The Beard enjoys a glass most nights so he has requested that Trader Joe’s wine be allowed.

The rest of our shopping is dollar store budget material. We’ve done okay the first week with just a few minor slip ups. May we keep it up for the next two weeks!

Dollar Store: Deal or No Deal

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I last posted about my Dollar Tree shopping trip the other day:

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It was a simple trip, only 9 items: 2 glasses of wine, a bottle of foot powder spray, a plastic soap saver dish, Blistex, Carmex, Vitamin C supplements, a splatter guard, and a two pack of ankle socks.

I left the dollar store feeling happy at the deals I got. It wasn’t until I got home that I felt a plagued by whether or not I was duped into a purchase because “Everything’s a Dollar!” so it must be a great deal, right?

And so I ventured to my local Target to seek out the exact same items and compare prices. The results were pretty surprising to me.

1. Foot powder spray. Yes, let’s start with the good ole’ foot stuff. I paid $1 for 3.5oz with the same 1% active ingredient. At Target:

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Target’s off brand sells it in 4oz bottles for $3.79. Which makes it 28 cents/ounce at Dollar Tree vs. 94 cents/ounce at Target. Savings by buying at Dollar Tree: $2.79.

Dollar Tree: 1          Target: 0

2. Vitamin C supplement drops. I paid $1 for a pack of 30 drops, each at 106mg of Vitamin C. That’s a little over 3 cents/drop. At Target:

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Target’s off brand Vitamin C drops sell for $2.04 for an 80 pack of drops. That ends up being about 2 and a half cents per drop. Savings by purchasing at Target: 62 cents, approximately.

Dollar Tree: 1          Target: 1

3. Soap saver. Make that bar last longer! Of course, it was $1 at Dollar Tree. At Target:

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1 cent cheaper is still cheaper. It’s worth noting that it’s the exact same soap saver in different packaging.

Dollar Tree: 1          Target: 2

4. Blistex lip balm. $1 for one Blistex lip balm stick at Dollar Tree. At Target:

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I didn’t see them for sale individually, but a 3pk is $3.04 which makes each one slightly more than $1.01. And so it goes…

Dollar Tree: 2          Target: 2

5. Splatter guard. In case you’re as unfamiliar with the concept as I was when I first heard about it, a splatter guard is just a convenient little wire mesh flat circle that you can place over a pan when pan frying food to help prevent oil from splashing all over and making a mess. I think it’s a little unnecessary but worth a $1 to give it a try. However, at Target, the only splatter guard for sale is this:

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A fancy schmancy one for $20 more than what I paid for mine. Of course mine is much lesser quality but it will get the job done for my infrequent frying needs. It’s tough to compare, given the huge difference in quality of product, but I say Dollar Tree wins this one for offering a cheap yet effective product at 20x less the price.

Dollar Tree: 3          Target: 2

6. Wine glasses. Having taken my Dollar Tree wine glasses for a test spin the other night, I can review with confidence that they are thick, weighted, and sturdy wine glasses. I’ll even bet that people would be surprised to learn that they’re dollar store material once they’ve handled them. Target had a pretty wide selection of cheap wine glasses:

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The above glasses seemed as close a comparison in quality as possible to the dollar store ones. These end up being $1.49/glass which isn’t bad. Alternatively, Target also offers $1 wine glasses:

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But they just feel so flimsy, lightweight, and cheaper quality that it just doesn’t seem fair to call it a draw. And so I’m giving this one to Dollar Tree for offering a better wine glass at a cheaper price.

Dollar Tree: 4           Target: 2

7. Carmex lip balm. $1 at Dollar Tree for a single 0.25 ounce pot of lip balm. At Target:

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Even ignoring the really great promotion for the gift card, the regular price for a 3 pack of the Carmex lip pots is only $2.79. That makes it 93 cents each at Target compared to $1 each at the dollar store.

Dollar Tree: 4          Target: 3

8. Ankle socks. 50 cents per pair is a pretty good deal at Dollar Tree. At Target:

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$1.50 per pair. A value pack on Black Friday is the only thing that brings the price down to the dollar store prices, otherwise the value pack just brings it down to $1.04 per pair. If the quality of the dollar store ones seemed despicable then I’d consider a draw, but the quality seems quite comparable. And so it goes…

Dollar Tree: 5          Target: 3

 

Dollar Tree for the win for this shopping trip comparison! I do think it’s worth noting that the price differences were so minimal that I’m sure utilizing sales and coupons at Target would beat out Dollar Tree prices by a long shot. I was quite surprised by how close Target prices were to dollar store prices.

I’m definitely going to be more discerning about my dollar store purchases for the remainder of this challenge.

 

 

Day 2 thru Day 4: Dollar Money Challenge

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I semi-purposely chose to do this challenge during Black Friday week in order to tame my compulsion to get the BEST deal on everything. Historically, I don’t usually participate in black friday and the deals never seem to justify the early rising and pushing through crowds – but it’s all the damn online deals leading up to Cyber Monday that really get the better of me! It’s not without shame that I’ll admit that I’ve already cursed this challenge more than a few times in the handful of days it’s been active. I see things like a Real Simple magazine subscription for $5 or an Amazon deal that features a Kindle for $55 and I immediately start rationalizing the savings in my head. Real Simple magazine has a lot of coupons in it, even if I just use only 3 or 4 of those coupons then the magazine PAYS FOR ITS SELF! And if I get a Kindle, I can download books for only .99 or even FREE instead of wait for them to be available at the library or to go on sale – this will save me at least twenty bucks a year and in no time at all the Kindle will PAY FOR ITS SELF!

I have to catch myself trying to justify the spending, call myself out, look around and notice that I have pretty much everything I need.

That being said, I finally ventured out to Dollar Tree to peruse their dollar store deals and get a feel for what I have to work with for the next three weeks.

I kicked myself when I saw that they had the EXACT SAME thermometer for $1 that I had bought for $4 at Walgreens because I assumed that the dollar store wouldn’t have a thermometer. It’s these assumptions about the limits of dollar stores that make us little toads for paying more. But that’s a post/rant for another day.

I loaded up my basket with the following:

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Let me explain.

Two wine glasses: Although The Beard and I received about two dozen Riedel wine glasses when we got married a little over two years ago, all but one has shattered. Ya, we handwashed them and everything, I don’t know what their problem is. One even spontaneously shattered in my hand last year. It was weird. But these $1 ones are sturdy and thick. Plus they come in two of my favorite colors – green and plum.

Foot powder spray: Because we’re all out of it and it’s important to keep your feet dry when wearing unbreathable winter boots.

Ankle socks: Because when I asked one of my sisters what she wants for X-mas, her response was, “I don’t really need anything. Except I’m all out of ankle socks so send those.” Right.

Soap saver: It’s an elevated plastic thing that has holes in so your bar soap can drain. Yes, I use bar soap. What brand? Dial. It only took one hospital trip with MRSA for me to convert from sweet smelling shower gels to no fuss antibacterial bar soap.

Blistex & Carmex: Because I want my lips to smell like my mom’s did in 1989. And b/c I’m all out of chap stick and it’s getting really dry outside. Cracked lips, be warned.

Vitamin C drops: Because I have a real citrus candy problem. And didn’t I already mention that I’m a hypochondriac?

Splatter guard: Because although we rarely fry anything at our house, whenever we do it gets everywhere and then The Beard insists that we need to drop $10 for a splatter guard and I argue that it’s not worth it when we’ll hardly ever use it and so here I’ve paid $1 to appease The Beard whilst proving my point – I suspect we’ll only have the need for it once in the next year.

I had a fun little curious adventure at the dollar store and guess how much my loot cost me?! $9.77

I’m well aware that Dollar Stores can be terrible “value scam” places at times. (Case in point, right beside the 30 pack of generic Vitamin C drops was a 14 pack of Halls brand drops, also for $1. That’s like 7 cents per cough drop! You can get a 120 pack at Target for less than $6, bringing it out to a little less than 5 cents per drop which is clearly the better deal if you have an undying devotion to Halls brand drops!)

However, the same exact shopping trip would have cost much more at Target…I think. I’m going to test out this theory tomorrow.

Day 1 of Dollar Store Challenge: First Failure is Out of the Way

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Awoke this morning to The Beard hurling his poor little guts up. Poor guy has the flu.

Being slightly hypochondriac and a definite catastrophic thinker, I quickly took his temperature with my 6 year old $5 Hy-Vee brand digital thermometer: 100.6 degrees.

Then I dropped the thermometer in the sink and it broke. True story.

In an effort to monitor his temperature (and my own!) I whisked off to Walgreens and bought one of their thermometers to replace mine.

I spent a whopping $4 and thought little of it until I left the store and remembered the Dollar Store Challenge.

I thought about returning it to remedy the situation, but health anxiety got the better of me. How can I just NOT have a thermometer for the next three weeks while my poor husband has the flu?!

And so it goes. My first failure with this challenge is out of the way. Hopefully it will be the last!

Day 9 of Money Challenge #2: Everyday Listing/Selling for 31 days – Lazy LARP cloak day

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Ya, that’s right. I’m a little lazy today. After mowing the lawn, taking out the glass recycling, scheduling a hair appointment, taking a 3 hour nap, and eating a local burger, I’m exhausted in the wonderful way that late 20 somethings get exhausted.

To make my life even easier than it already is, I’ve decided to relist something on ebay that didn’t sell during my last money challenge.

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It’s a LARP cloak. A vintage, tri-color leather Flinstone-esque LARP cloak. And I’m the kid trying to sell it. So I’ve put it back up on ebay and lowered the auction starting price by $20 because I’m desperate. DESPERATE, I tell you.

And I sold something else in this challenge! That weird vintage Springer spaniel belt buckle sold for 4 bones. It’s no fortune, but I’ll take it.

Day 9

Listed thus far: Sarah Coventry brooch, vintage candelabra, Springer spaniel belt buckle, Cabela’s socks, Avon necklace, vintage ice cube tray, viking like candelabra, and vintage Looney Tunes DEKA plastic mug, vintage knitting supplies, Vera scarf, The Bon-Ton vintage gloves, vintage leather cloak, 

Total sold: $7.49

Day 8 of Money Challenge #2: Everyday Listing/Selling for 31 days – The Bon-Ton

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It’s only been a week since I began this challenge and already I am sick of ebay! The process for listing items online can be so time consuming when you have to take photos, measure all sides and then draft a listing that markets the item. Oh, it’s exhausting on nights like tonight when I just want to curl up on the couch and drink beer and eat mac n’ cheese.

But alas! I listed something:

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Two pairs of vintage buttery soft leather gloves from The Bon-Ton in York, PA. The Bon-Ton has a pretty rich American history so I’m hoping it will attract a buyer pretty effortlessly.

In other news, I sold my first item today! The Sarah Coventry brooch I listed on Day 1 sold for $3.49. Not bad, chap, not bad at all.

Day 8

Listed thus far: Sarah Coventry brooch, vintage candelabra, Springer spaniel belt buckle, Cabela’s socks, Avon necklace, vintage ice cube tray, viking like candelabra, and vintage Looney Tunes DEKA plastic mug, vintage knitting supplies, Vera scarf, The Bon-Ton vintage gloves, 

Total sold: $3.49

Day 3 of Money Challenge #2: Everyday Listing/Selling for 31 days – Dog days of ebay

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So far there’s no buyers for my vintage candelabra or brooch so I found something random that is so random it just might sell!

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Behold! A vintage springer spaniel belt buckle!

Somebody has to be into Springer Spaniels enough to want to keep them near their button fly, right?!

I can only hope. I listed it starting at $4. We’ll see if I get an interest over the next 7 days.

Day 2

Listed thus far: Sarah Coventry brooch, vintage candelabra, Springer spaniel belt buckle

Total sold: $0

Day 31 of Money Challenge #1: $500 in 31 days – Final hours

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Last night, I came across a birthday gift from last year that I still hadn’t used:

I remembered that there’s a website where you can buy/sell gift cards: http://www.cardpool.com/

So I sold my $25 gift card for $18.75. Not a bad deal considering I forgot I had it.

So my ending total is $ 306.89

Exactly $193.11 less than my goal.

I’m a little disappointed. Yes, I could have sold my plasma twice a week, participated in a medical study, or made it a point to list something every day on Craigslist. But I didn’t. I’m a little regretful about it. I think I could’ve done better. Granted, I don’t have expensive stuff lying around my house to sell and I work both a full time job and a part time gig. So I made only an average of about $10 extra per day. I can live with that.

Now here’s a picture of my cat Bazzy with all the money:

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He wouldn’t sit still.

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Day 31

Total amount accrued: $306.89

 

 

Day 10 of Money Challenge #1: $500 in 31 days – Ebay Bidding Blues

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Last week I listed an expensive dress and skirt on Ebay in the hopes of seling them for a hefty profit to pull me ahead in the challenge. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen quite as planned. The dress and skirt sold for a profit of only $10. At retail price, they’d sell together for around $280. I guess that’s what makes ebay such a great site for bargain shoppers. 

But today I’m only $10 richer. I guess it’s a fitting number for day 10!

Day 10

Today’s gain: $10

Total amount accrued: $142.50

Left for the win: $357.50

Day 9 of Money Challenge #1: $500 in 31 days – Selling collections

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We all have collections, intentionally or not. Most of which can yield some profit if we’re willing to relinquish them. Some people have video games they can sell to a video game store for some quick cash, some people have antiques, others have a surplus of DVDs to resell. I have vintage clothes. I’ve spent the last 8 years selling vintage clothing for a profit. Sometimes on ebay and sometimes on etsy. Either way, I have a few plastic tubs of vintage clothing that I can always resell in a pinch. 

Today, desperate for funds, I called vintage clothing shops in my city for a potential customer for my lot. Finally, I found a buyer: 

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So I gathered two bags worth of my collection that I was willing to part with

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The owner of the vintage shop looked over the smattering of my collection and opted to buy one bag’s worth for the low sweet price of 

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That’s right. $40 cash. All for a few vintage dresses and handbags. This is the most I’ve made in a day of my money challenge. 

I’m still behind schedule to attain $500 in 31 days, but I’m getting closer. At least I’ve finally broken the $100 mark!

Day 9

Today’s gain: $40

Total amount accrued: $132.50

Left for the win: $367.50