Tuesday’s Tips and Tricks: Shopping at Dollar Tree

 

Welcome to the new Tuesday’s Tips and Tricks party.  Same rules, only the day is new.  This is your opportunity to share your great ideas.

We all know Dollar Tree is a great place to find craft supplies and seasonal décor, but what about everyday household items?  Is $1 really a good deal for these things?  I decided to do a little sleuthing and find out.  I used Walmart as my price comparison store, because in general, they have the lowest prices on pretty much everything.  Turns out there are some great deals at DT, and some that really aren’t so great.

One thing I usually buy at DT is Softsoap.  Obviously, the 11.25 oz refill is a better deal than the 6 oz pump, so I buy the refill.  As to how it compares to Walmart:  6 oz Softsoap is $1.47, so that’s a significant savings.  However, W. has a 56 oz refill bottle for $4.47, which works out to about 8¢ per ounce.  The 11.25 oz for $1 works out to about 9¢ per oz.  So in the long run it’s actually a little bit cheaper to buy the larger refill at Walmart.

 

Next item:  cotton balls.  One hundred “triple size” 100% cotton balls, $1 at DT.  One hundred jumbo size at W, $2.04.  DT is a better deal, unless you are really picky about your cotton balls.  I’ve noticed that DT’s tend to unroll a little bit, but they work fine for my facial toner and nail polish remover.

 

Movie candy is the same price at either store, but DT had a much larger selection than my Walmart.

 

 

After you eat all that candy, you’ll need to visit the dental care aisle, where you can get a package of 50 Plackers flossers for $1.  I find these make it easier for kids to floss, and I’ve started using them too most of the time (no more cutting off the blood flow to your fingers as with regular floss).  That’s 2¢ a piece.

At Walmart, 90 Plackers are $2.76, or 3¢ each, but another brand, Dentek, is 90 for $2.44.  That’s just over 2¢ each, and rounds up to 3¢ each.  Either way, DT is not a huge savings.

 

A 3 oz tube of original Colgate toothpaste is actually cheaper at Walmart at 97¢.  But on this trip to DT they had the 4.6 oz stand up tubes of whitening Colgate, which are $3.16 at Walmart, so that’s a great deal if that’s what you like to get.

 

I personally don’t care for any of the shampoo brands they have at DT, but I get the cheap stuff for the kids, who go through shampoo like crazy.  V05 is under $1 (84¢) at Walmart, and while my W didn’t have White Rain, a 22.5 oz bottle of basic Suave was $1.38 (6¢ per oz) as compared to 5¢ per oz for the White Rain at DT.  Negligible savings.

 

DT has some cute hair accessories,  but I’ve found that some of the elastics aren’t the best so it’s kind of hit or miss.  But here’s a pack of 27 Goody elastics for $1, which sells for $3.27 at Walmart, so that’s a good buy.  In fact, I’m not sure why I didn’t grab these.  You can never have too many hair elastics with a little girl in the house.

 

Dollar Tree has their own sock brand (Max Gray), which I don’t buy because they are usually synthetic, and I prefer cotton.  However, DT often has cotton socks that originally came from Walmart, usually in packs of 2, and lately I’ve also found Froot of the Loom cotton socks for Pinkerbelle, cotton with cute ruffled ankles.  Two pairs of nice socks for $1 is a pretty good deal.

 

Well, this certainly didn’t cover all the bases, but you can see that while it is possible to get a deal at Dollar Tree, not everything is a money-saver.  It’s always smart to comparison shop.

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