Update: in my area of CT, we only have Dollar Tree, I’d have to drive into NY for a Dollar General, llike the pumpkins but not that much!

I go to Dollar Tree because it's on the same street as my most oft shopped grocery store and it's also a true dollar store. I buy the dishwasher soap pods @ 10 for $1, things like toilet cleaner, drawer dividers, cornstarch baby powder, Dermasil moisturizer which I love because it isn't perfumed and it works, bandaids..... I've never bought food items there and stay away from things like dog or kids toys (although they are tempting) because not sure they are really safe. I saw a woman there once loading her cart with dishware for a party - lots of fun things to mix and match for a theme and some kind of cute glasses for her signature cocktail - I had to ask her because it was so unusual to see that kind of purchase!

You’re all giving me good ideas, thank you! :)

I buy greeting cards at our local Dollar Tree. It's been decimated lately. Not sure if it is a staffing issue or supply chain.

The older folk in my family love greeting cards, every card I pick up in Target seems to cost $5. To me, $1 is much more reasonable for something headed straight to the recycling bin.

We have a number of dollar stores, some seem to be independent. Then we have an "upscale" dollar store called "5 Below" where stuff is supposed to be $5 or less. What's amazing to me is how different the selection is in each store.

We have have an old school independent dollar store, complete with about 100 security camera photos of a rogue's gallery of people who shoplifted, passed counterfeit, tried to use a stolen credit card etc. It has everything under the sun including things that you can't find anywhere else with any assurance, like a plain potato peeler or a rubber wedge door stop.

We have THREE dollar stores in our little town of 6,500. ( I guess that tells you something about our local economy. ) We have no Walmart, Kmart, Target or anything like that. So I get my cleaning supplies, shampoo and other toiletries, paper and Rubbermade products, a few grocery staples like ketchup and mayo, greeting cards and gift bags, craft supplies, etc. at Dollar General.

Lately, they have been awarding a $5 coupon with a purchase which can be used on the following Saturday if you spend at least $25. (Oh my, I have turned into an old lady with coupon in hand.)

Haven't been inside a dollar store since before March 2020, but I do get certain things there: seasonal & craft items mostly.

I remember back in the early 80s, there were 88 cent stores in NYC. It boggled my mind that everything in a store could be 88 cents = D

I shop at Dollar Tree fairly often. I don't like other "Dollar stores" where things cost more than $1.

P.S. Those pumpkins are very cute!

P.P.S. I once found a cute wool Free People sweater at the local Dollar Tree - my size too - for $1. That was a one-time occurrence, of course.

Usually I pop in because I need a cheap timer for something, and I might find a gift bag or something seasonal. 5 Below is fun, too.

But I never find anything as cute as those pumpkins!

I am pretty sure I heard (on national news) that one of the major Dollar store chains will be raising prices to $1.25.

Pal, that sounds like an old local place we have, very similar to the old-time five and dime stores. It’s always nostalgic going in, fun to browse and find things.

Thanks, all, I’m enjoying my pumpkins very much. :) This particular store is involved and giving in our community, I’m happy to give them business.

I do love those pumpkins and if I thought there was a chance I could find something similar, I might be inclined to go in more. I will occasionally go in for gift bags or try for some craft supplies. Like any store though, I find I have to know prices. They often have cute seasonal ribbon, but if I compare to the seasonal ribbon at Wal-Mart, the price is often cheaper at Wal-Mart due to the quantity. Christmas cookie tins are often cheaper at the Dollar Store, but I have enough of those for now, too.

Yes I do go to dollar stores. As is typical though they are mostly up to $$$$4 dollars. No picture but I bought some Garden stuff fencing and a couple of trellises etc.

Jinx just to let you know I replied that I do see a number and I gave you a photograph on the other thread that you responded to me on.

Thank you, yeonnasky, I’m glad you let me know. :) I had no idea it was showing that way!

I have found that quite a few things are cheaper elsewhere, like at Target and Walmart.

Right now I can’t tell — everywhere I shop has raised prices on nearly everything.

Oh sure, they profit by raising the prices on some items up to $1, and if you do the math, it's not always a good deal.

And there are stores with 'dollar' in their name that sell lots of things for more than that.

We have a Five Below at the nearby mall. It's been there for some years now. IIRC, they have things for more than and less than $5. Most of it is disposable junk, of course but some things are worth it. The store definitely has a more 'upscale' vibe than Dollar Tree.

I have noticed a proliferation of odd lots stores in our area. Some have been around for awhile, others are newer: Big Lots, Harbor Freight, Ollie's, Old Time Pottery come to mind.

I have only been in a dollar store once or twice. The ones I've seen are littered with trash - they look in a way as unkempt as a Toys R Us store used to look (those are gone, now) just before Christmas - junk all over the floors and all.

Never have bought a thing in one.

I do like one or two of the "job lot" stores - Ocean State Job Lot is really good - discontinued thins usually of great quality. Not as cheap as a dollar store, but I have always found something useful and made well, each time I've entered one of those. (They may only be in New England, but I don't know.)

Five Below - I've never been in one. I assumed they sold winter gear or something - y'know, 5 degrees below zero???

Last time I went to Five Below was a few years ago, and everything was indeed under $5. A bunch of us went there to get travel items for our kids.

I understand feeling sad about dollar stores for lots of reasons and probably 75% of the stuff is junk. But cleaning supplies, stationary items, school supplies....if I'm going to be buying them anyway and location wise it works for me it's just another purchase to me. They're all different and I'm sure location has a lot to do with that as well as the specific chain. I don't find the one I use sad - some of the people shopping there for food are truly sad to me - but the store is clean, employees are rigid about masking and stop shoppers who aren't.

Ours is really small, very neat and clean, and the sweetest woman has been a clerk there for about 100 years. She’s elderly, more fit than I am, and loves her job … I love her calling me honey and sweetheart the entire time I’m there. She’s everyone’s grandmother, and going in there reminds me of the old-time stores where everyone knew each other. I adore her. :)

Artemis, yes, exactly! That's why i inquired about kids' ski jackets when I called them! (no)

I used to go to 99¢ stores in the South Bay that sold Japanese items, and I would buy a lot of ceramic bowls, chop sticks, etc, but then they raised their price to $1.49 and still called themselves a 99¢ store. I haven't been back in quite a while, as I have enough Japanese bowls now, but it was a great place to buy rice bowls and other small bowls.

There is a Dollar Tree not far from our house in Cathedral City, but we have never been there. I did like going to the dollar store at Washington Blvd & Zanja St in Culver City when we lived in Venice, but I don't think it is still there. They had good bottles of red and white wine that we would buy, but I don't remember what else we bought there. This was back in the 1990s.

I was rather impressed by the dollar stores we went to in Santa Monica and L.A. I remember they had piles of terra cotta flower pots, many plants and bulbs and a good amount of organic foods - even fresh produce.

The one in L.A. was huge - the size of a supermarket.

I buy gift bags and tissue paper at Dollar Tree and a few other things but mainly because it is right next to Bath and Body Works which is right next to Aldi... Not a huge fan of regular dollar stores but they can be very convenient at times!

Very cute pumpkins! A friend bought a fabulous basket at a Dollar General recently so they are on my current hit list!

It is not a snob thing at all, for instance, I am very much a perfume connoisseur and have hundreds of bottles, am always smelling new things, etc, swapping, but one of my favorite can't-smell-it-enough is a current Bath and Body Works hand sanitizer.

We are Dollar General Central, right here!! My neighbor, across the street, used to be head of security for them. We have big ones, little ones, ”Market” ones.

Before I discovered Aldi, I would go to the Market type, and buy some small fresh fruit item, then use that $5 off of $25 to buy canned cat food. Yeeesss, crazy cat lady!!! My Dollar Trees are SO poorly managed that they are WORTHLESS for anything except maybe a box of Little Debbies knock-offs.

I wish I could see the whole living area. The snipites are very cool.

My small town doesn't have walmart, target etc. although we do have two good grocery stores. We also have a Dollar General Market which I started going to occasionally during the pandemic (once things opened up again). I still order groceries but occasionally you need to see something in person or pick up small items and I knew there would be fewer people in the market. It's kind of half and half. I'm sure there is alot of cheap quality items (housewares, toys, etc.) but I don't shop those areas. They have great prices on nuts, trail mix, crackers, even some baking items and name brands. They sell the only brand of milk we will buy and cheese, bread, etc. The Mr. says they have really good prices on oil (for our vehicles/lawn mower. I've bought throw-away baking pans and they have a shampoo I love and is hard to find. Brand name items such as tylenol, q-tips, etc. and ours does have a good card selection - and they are NICE cards (I absolutely will not buy a "cheap" looking card). I've bought a few cleaning products there and napkins (our grocery store was out for an extended time during the pandemic). I buy other paper products from Amazon. Our church is doing a fall festival as a safe place for kids to trick or treat and I will be buying a bunch of candy at DGS. All these items I have mentioned are at better prices than our grocery store.

Thanks, all! Interesting to read what everyone looks for.

Thanks, Terrilynn! It’s nothing special, I promise …. this is our little sitting room in the front of the house. It’s intended to be a formal dining room, but we don’t need one.

We sold our bigger house (and formal dining room furniture) and are renting this one for now, so I can’t do anything about the carpet or chandelier. 😬 The main living room is just a few steps away. I love to read in here.

Ghost chair:

I just got the rug a few weeks ago and love it. I had a vintage (my Dad’s) cowhide there, but the cats started destroying it, so it’s in storage.

It’s an indoor/outdoor rug, but very soft, and so far has been cat claw resistant. We’ll see.

Oooh, I love your style Jiinx! You are really good at mixing😊

Thank you so much! ❤️

I’ve found some nice items at the Dollar Tree and Dollarama ..solar turkeys which flap their wings and nod their heads, decorative boxes, wooden items for crafting, blue circular rattan type placemats, glass candle holders, journal books/notebooks, gift bags, landscape staples for pegging down paper barriers in garden, little plastic cups which I drill holes in and start my seedlings in (which I reuse)

Jinx, I love that room! And the rug!

There is a dollar store of some sort a town over. I buy plain glass vases to use when giving friends my ”yard flowers!” I adore sharing my flowers & using $1 vases is awesome bc no one has to return the vase!

I also buy helium mylar balloons and cheap party decor for random things (not like a grown up party😂.) Oh, and plain brown craft bags!

Thanks, Mtn! ❤️

Ok, I’m going to have to try Dollar Tree, several of you have mentioned it. I’m pretty sure we have one across town.

I forgot to post the rug link — you can see they dialed up the saturation on the pictures. :D It’s much more muted in real life.

https://www.rugs-direct.com/Details/LioraManne-Marina-TribalStripe/140280/225896

I like the green one, too, for outside, I’m thinking of it for my patio. I cannot speak highly enough of Rugs Direct … I’m always happy with the rugs and the customer service is top-notch.

That rug, and the whole room, are beautiful!!

Thank you, Springroz! ❤️

Jinx, love the color scheme and your eclectic style! it’s not easy to achieve such a great result when you are working around two large elements (floor and lighting) not of your choosing. Well done! We also have a small sitting room at the front of the house as you come in and it’s my favorite reading spot, too.

With respect to dollar stores: I took my kids there when they were in elementary school and gave them a budget for Christmas gifts for their friends. The gifts and wrap and tape and tags all came from the Dollar Tree (i think it was called) near us. They loved shopping for their pals and the presents were always very well received by their friends and their moms. The most popular gift one year was a decorative pen or pencil and a receipt pad for playing restaurant (to write down orders). The accessibility of price and variety made it a great place for them to test drive the whole shopping experience. Today, two out of our three kids are smart shoppers. The third just doesnt buy anything, he has the first penny that went into his piggy bank 🐷 I don’t shop at dollar stores except maybe once a year to replenish gift bags and tissue paper. I don’t avoid them but my regular buying habits just don’t include them.

Thank you, Kswl! ❤️

What a great teaching lesson for your kids! Enjoyed hearing what they chose. :)

I've been in a Dollar Tree and $0.99 store before, but haven't in quite a while (even before the pandemic). I have been to what start in Japan as a 100 Yen chain (basically $1) called Daiso. It's a totally different experience but the prices are things are usually well above the $1 mark (just like the rest, really, but worse) .

Our local dollar store had Lysol spray at $17.00 a can during the pandemic.

Wow! 😳

I've shopped at Daiso in CA. It's a fun store - they have a lot of really cool stuff!

We have some Dollar Tree stores too - more in the metro area and Dollar General more in the rural areas. I don't think I've ever been in a Dollar Tree. We used to have the Dollar Store and many years ago when we first bought our lake cabin I went there because I had so much stuff to buy and on a limited budget. I still have some of that stuff 22 years later and it's still going strong.

I have another deal to share if anyone needs hand towels — Rejuvenation has Turkish ones for $7 and free shipping. I just ordered two ‘natural’ ones for our hall bath.

https://www.rejuvenation.com/catalog/collections/organic-400-gram-cotton-terry-dot-towels/products/5de6af23fc1ebc1157c48c4f