More Bang for Your Buck at The Dollar Tree

Today I made my pre-Christmas grocery list and because I was dying to get in the holiday spirit even more, I added the items needed to make some of our favorite Christmas staples, plus some good food gifts.

I knew I wanted to make my boss his favorite linzer tart cookies, they were a big hit last year and his sweet tooth has only gotten more ferocious in 2014.

The old fashioned apple stack cake I made for Thanksgiving was requested again for our employee potluck on Wednesday.

There's no rain in sight, so the humidity is just right for J to make the old family recipe for delectable peanut butter fudge.

And it's just not Christmas until we break out two of my mom's classic recipes - peanut butter sandwich cookies (gluten-free and only 4 ingredients!) and spiced hard candy.

Mom's hard candy takes a certain touch - no candy thermometer used here, just the "feel" of the molten sugar - and is not for the faint of heart. We used to make batch after batch after batch when I was a kid and I'd pass it out to all my classmates and teachers. But as often happens, time got in the way of tradition and we haven't made any in years. So we had to initiate J into the cinnamon candy cult. 

At the "hard crack" stage

Cooling on a marble slab on our coffee bar (more on the "Dream Kitchen" later)

Our final product!

All of these projects made for quite the grocery list of ingredients, tools and containers. And I knew today's haul had the potential to be a bank-breaker; but we were able to save a ton at our local Dollar Tree.

I've been a devout customer since I started getting an allowance as a tween and realized I could buy 10x more tacky, glitter makeup there than at Wal Mart (the early '00s was an awkward time for girl fashion). But I was completely converted in college when DT started renovating their stores to carry a wider variety of higher quality goods - that were all still a dollar. I don't know if it was a stroke of genius or by necessity (what with the recession forcing more people to shop on a budget) but stores expanded to offer more food (even frozen items!), party supplies, bake wear and huge seasonal departments. Our town just renovated their location within the past two years and I couldn't be more grateful. 

DT offers great savings for so many aspects of my life: 

• As a DIY wreath maker, I'm able to get good quality silk flowers and wire ribbon for, you guessed it, a dollar. 
• I still write letters and the stationary at the Tree is wonderful and truly inexpensive; greeting cards are 2/$1! They even carry shipping supplies for when I send care packages to my adorable nieces.
• Their kitchen department carries a number of handy items, from decent dinnerware to utensils perfect for taking to the office to disposable aluminum pans in a variety of sizes (these are perfect for pot lucks!); and even legit cake pans. 
• I can't say enough good things about their food section. You can get name brand items for only four quarters! Most of the items are full-sized and obviously, a great deal - like cans of Hunts crushed tomatoes, bags of walnuts or packs of Hormel pepperoni. But, some of them are in smaller portions and are incredibly helpful for cooking-for-two or new recipes. For example, J's fudge recipe only needs 3 T of corn syrup, so there's no point in buying a giant bottle of Caro that will just make everything sticky; DT carries a little 8 oz. bottle. 
• And the seasonal section is filled with adorable containers. Tins, snack bags, pails and boxes - for all your Christmas goodies! Just look at what we bought for our hard candy. Plus, I bought a snowflake-themed cardboard box for cookies. 

Today, we were able to buy over a third of the items on our list (plus some extras) at the Dollar Tree for only $16!

If you're looking to save some money, or just looking for quality, adorable items for almost any occasion, pop in to your local Dollar Tree and explore! You'll be amazed at how much you can get for your money... but also how quickly you'll fill your cart!