Dollar store deals and disasters

[Okanagan]

Anybody else check out Dollar stores?

My wife cringes if she finds out I'm going to a Dollar Store.  “Don't go there and don't buy anything there!”  is her mantra.  My young grandsons love it when I take them there and let them spend $3 each.  It can take them an hour.

Experience has taught me that Dollar store food products are probably not a good idea.  The only two exceptions in years of trying have been a particular apricot jam and a cookie that they don't carry any more.  Even top end brand name food is so bad I decided that it must be factory thirds, or maybe fifths.  Candy bars excepted. 

But I have a (discardable) ball cap, a fleece neck gaiter, a small tackle box, a fake wasp repellant nest for a dollar that is $10 elsewhere, some super handy plastic tubs, zipper pouches of sizes from maps to marbles, and some useable fishing spoons.  Stay away from their steel leader for fishing, however.  I bought some thinking, “What could go wrong with a steel leader?”  A lot, is the answer.

In Saskatchewan fishing with a friend a year or two ago we got into the hottest pike catching I've ever seen, with big spawning pike hitting every cast at the outlet of a lake into a river.  For five consecutive casts I lost a fish and my lure and had to retie while my partner whooped and landed fish.  It took me two or three lost spoons before I realized that the clamp on the steel leader was not holding and was letting the loop slip open, releasing the spoon of course.  Can't recall what happened on the other two but it was leader failure. 

I was smarter on the Dollar store spoons.  I kept the spoon itself and replaced split ring and hook.  What can go wrong with a stamped metal spoon?

Wife took off today for a few days.  I need a small jig box for a specialized upcoming fishing trip...

[Hawks Feather]

a fake wasp repellant nest for a dollar

Does this repel wasps or people who think that they might be stung?

Jerry

[Okanagan]

The idea is that wasps will not build a new nest near an existing nest, maybe not within 100 feet.  We had trouble with wasps building on our deck, so I hung the realistic looking nest under the eaves and it has worked for two years to keep wasps away.  Or at least something is keeping them away from the deck now. 

It looks real enough that it might work to keep people away, though it might attract the wrong kind of kids.  My cousins and I used to look for wasp nests to shoot arrows into, and one time a 30-30.

[Hawks Feather]

I am very allergic to bees so I might opt for a .223 to shoot the nests. 

I didn't know that they were territorial but it might explain their absence from the fish and game building.  There had been a nest built every year close to the building and every winter I would torch the old nest.  About two summers ago they were just starting a nest at the corner of the building so I took the wasp and hornet spray and soaked the nest.  I didn't remove it and even though this one is only about four inches there hasn't been another started.

Jerry

[pitw]

I bought a few fish hooks in one a few years ago and quit when a small jackfish straightened out the treble hooks to look like a freakin harpoon.  Have not been in one for years.  I'm sure there has to be some things one could buy when you need them and there isn't one in a garbage can handy.

[trailtwister]

IK go to the dollar store and buy $5.00 worth of dish washing soap at a time. I find it is as good any any thing for a buck on the market to clean greasy, oily hands. Also works well in the hose end sprayer when a bug is eating the garden plants. Just hose them down with soapy water. I also buy the disinfectant stuff like pine sol. Works great for mopping out the dog kennel pens. 

All the bees wax I sell and ship I wrap it in wax paper works way better for me than the cling wrap stuff.

   Al

[bambam]

I buy lots of stuff at our Family Dollar store : Cleaning supplies, bleach, canning jars, motor oil, pop, spices, first aid stuff, lamp oil, batteries ,  charcoal, etc.etc. Great deals and just as good as the more expensive stores.

[FinsnFur]

I buy stuff from them once in a while. Not real often. Usually it's something I dont need to really have so since I'm gonna buy it anyway I wanna buy it cheap so it's less of a strain on my wallet. lol Did that make sense. If it's expensive and I want it..I'm gonna find a way to buy it anyway.
I bought a turkey baster there once for sucking power steering fluid out of the pump. I bought cheap ass kids toys for the beach there once cause I knew they'd be lost or trashed in the fist trip.
Katie moved out a few weeks ago to live with her BF on the farm. She says Dad I need some cheap drinking glasses and a colander and some cheap pans and stuff. I said I'll help ya, you know I will. Go to the dollar store and load up. Shes says, Oh my god, thats a good idea!
She did, and spent very little doing it.
I buy Halloween candy there.

[Hawks Feather]

I buy Halloween candy there.

Hey, great idea.  You give it away and don't have to eat it.  I will suggest this to Becky for this year.

Jerry

[pitw]

I buy Halloween candy there.

Hey, great idea.  You give it away and don't have to eat it.  I will suggest this to Becky for this year.

Jerry

You plicks.

[jaspr1]

I confess I am a Captain at Dollar General and a Sergeant in Ollie's Army...............when I was a kid my entire income for a year was as low as $26.00.....so you had to be frugal.....this entitled generation should try that shoe for awhile....I don't go in Dollar Tree to often, cause their dollar is more like 78 cents.....lol

[Okanagan]

I confess I am a Captain at Dollar General and a Sergeant in Ollie's Army...............when I was a kid my entire income for a year was as low as $26.00.....so you had to be frugal.....this entitled generation should try that shoe for awhile....I don't go in Dollar Tree to often, cause their dollar is more like 78 cents.....lol

Good words and true.  It is going to be a hard wall to hit for many of today's people, and good times cannot go on forever this side of heaven.  If you are old enough you remember when the minimum wage was 75 cents an hour, and I bucked bales of hay, weeded mint fields in the sun (OK, I'll add the cliché -- and walked three miles in knee deep snow to get to the job  ).  My folks had it tough during the depression and never got over it.  A fair bit of that rubbed off on me, which is why I check out dollar store stuff, eat all of the food on my plate, make my own items sometimes when I could afford to buy, etc.   That has helped make me fat and frugal.

You gotta use some judgment.  I wear $200 rain jackets and $3 thrift store pants when hunting.  Each does the best job for my purpose.  I wouldn't buy a climbing carabineer from Dollar Store to hang my life on, but the dollar wasp nest works as well as the $10.00 one from Home Depot.   

[Carolina Coyote]

My wife loves the Dollar stores and visits them too often, but the one around here have good stuff and competitive .
Now about the wasp nest, someone forgot to tell the wasp in this part of the country that they supposed to be territorial as I went out last week and under my Deck and sprayed 8 nests, the Deck is 16 x16, Down in Georgia at the Wanderosia in the Deer stands about 4 x 4 sometimes 3 or 4 nests, go figure! cc

[nastygunz]

 I get some good fly tying materials from the dollar store!

[pitw]

I get some good fly tying materials from the dollar store!

I get them from Jim.

[nastygunz]

 I always wanted to get a good snip of that mustache of his and tie a streamer, I would call it the Green Mountain Champion   

[FinsnFur]

I get some good fly tying materials from the dollar store!

I get them from Jim.

huh?