Michelle, thanks for looking for us, we are always looking for deals here! Judith, dh was amazed how much we spent on c-ap! My friend went to Christmas tree shops over the weekend, and called me from the store, She had gone upstate, neat Tam, (have you heard from her??) to visit an aunt, and I made her promise to go. I gave her a short list..She is coming back Wed. I hope I find my camera card which I lost,,or I will have to buy a new one!!!I want to take pics of the goodies!

I definitely avoid edible items there unless it's a name brand and I verify expiration. I do buy spices there. Started going to Dollar Tree and bought a lot of stuff. Bought some of the LA Totally Awesome cleaner there to try out but you can get a bottle twice the size at Kmart for $2 so it's not the only place. I saw some people said in other places that they carry Greased Lightning and *that* is a great cleaner. Wanted to get some but they only had one bottle left and it was damaged. I won't buy aspirin or the like there, read too many credible tests that said they were inferior. I'd be very careful on foods. Dollar Tree items ($1 ea) I bought some salt-free seasoning to try out, eyeglass cases and pouches to use for various things. Some claim they sell umbrellas but the ones I've been to don't have them. Possibly it's seasonal. I bought pill organizers even a 14 day one that is $6-$10 most places. Decent quality dishpans that I like for organizing shelves and even using in the frig. Bullseye BBQ sauce, Blue Ice packs, binder clips, pens and some other office supplies, The Works brand cleaners are good too. I didn't need any but digital oral/rectal thermometers are $1. They even carry pregnancy tests and marijuana drug test kits if you need them. Got a couple of the windshield cleaners - the microfiber cloth on a stick. Combs, hairbrushes, mirrors, Peroxide, alcohol, kitchen utensils, etc. Bought a 3 pack of toothbrushes with the tubular containers for traveling. I bought some cell phone cases there and they have chargers too. I wanted to get some more wooden kitchen utensils but the quality was SO bad I passed. Splintery and just cheap so I said no. The aluminum disposable pans were cheaper at Walmart so I passed on those. Their paper products weren't a good value - so few sheets on a roll of toilet paper or towels, nope, no good. A couple of the big grocery stores in the area have $1 areas too that I make use of. One picnic we decided to bring a watermelon but didn't have a knife so we went to a dollar store and bought a serrated knife that worked fine for cutting it and I didn't care if it disappeared, which it did. Also picked up some aluminum trays to put meats in and used two, one to hold ice then one on top with the meat so it wouldn't get wet and it'd stay cool. Also buy serving spoons to use and toss when you are pretty sure you won't get them back from a pot luck. There's different "dollar" type stores. Dollar General and Family Dollar are all different prices so you need to watch your pricing. Dollar Tree is $1 for everything, and they take coupons too.

c t - "I rarely shop at the dollar stores. ..." "The extra time to make the trip isn't worth i." --- I understand that for you (and perhaps many other people), it may be different, but for me, I live about 1/2 mile away from a Dollar Tree. I pass right by it nearly half the time I go anywhere. It is more convenient to get to than nearly any other place I might go. That said, I don't go there often... sometimes no more than once in a month or 2. "A lot of the food is junk food / dozens of broken plastic utensils...but they were a bargain ..." --- I agree (partly). Not everything at a dollar store is a wise purchase. Some things (including some food items) are low quality, cheaply made, and should be avoided. If "everyone" decided not to purchase these sort of items, and left them on the shelf, the stores (likely) would not carry them anymore (sadly, people do buy them). But, they do have many quality, brand-name items. Even some of those are not a bargain. For example, they usually have a small package of "Aleve" or "Excedrin" (typically 6 pills per package). Approximately 50 pills would cost $8.00, 100 pills for $17.00, and 200 for $33.00. This is more than twice what you would probably pay for the larger sizes, even at regular (non sale) prices at other stores like CVS, Osco, Target, Walmart, or K-Mart. Another thing to watch out for is "expire dates" (sell by/use by/best by-dates). It's common to find food items that are near or past their prime, and these are rarely a bargain. But still, you can sometimes find some brand name food items that are a good deal even if they are near their "best-by" date, if it is something that you use up fairly quickly. And many other non-food items can be found that are also good deals.

I haven't had success removing grease with any detergent using cold..what you can do if you feel you can't use hot water on a garment that has a grease stain is, flush the stain area only with some hot water to open the fibers, than pour a good liquid detergent with enzymes on ot, rub it in gently and let it sit over night than flush the stain with hot water again and wash. as usual. Have you had a bad experience washing in hot or very wsrm?