Healthy Food From The Dollar Store? No Way!

I'd like to take a few minutes to talk about dollar stores.  I'm thinking about the ones that sell everything for a dollar.  By now I know you realize the Dollar Tree is my go to store even before I hit the grocery store. There's some neat things in that store, but not always the same items week after week.  That's precisely why I head there before the grocery.

News stories tell us the economy is improving, but most of this country doesn't see it nor do we feel it in our wallets.  I have just myself to look after, but I know there are young families across the country who are struggling to put food on the table for their little ones.  This is where I ask if you have ever thought of using the dollar store for some foods.

If you read the labels - just as in the grocery - there are foods with ingredients that can't be pronounced.  BUT, there are a number of foods that are pure.  Two of these items come to mind right away; packaged chicken broth and frozen veggies.  You can also get packaged milk that can be used for cooking and baking.  No additives to preserve it and no long words that can't be pronounced.

One of my go to snacks there is a bag of Bugles.  Reading the label is easy.  The product has three ingredients, corn being the first.  Some dollar stores have national brand breads of all kinds, along with bagels and English muffins. The spices are no different than the high priced ones in the grocery, they're just in a different container.  I know manufactures of name brands say there's no stems in their products, making us think stems are bad, but stems have as much nutrients as does the leaf.  Why wouldn't they?  And they grind up just as well as the leaf.

The dollar stores also carry name brand items like ketchup and mustard and other condiments.  The cake mixes have the same ingredients in them as the name brands do.  I add an extra teaspoon of baking powder in them so they rise a bit higher.  Also, I don't want to forget to tell you eggs are available there as well.

Next time you are in a dollar store check things out.  Research the ingredients of the food items you have an interest in, and some you may not.  I'm thinking the few minutes you spend doing this will increase your bottom line. 

Meal from Dollar Tree Items

Frozen perogies with parsley and salt and pepper (You'll need your own butter)
Frozen California blend veggies
Frozen strawberries
Oatmeal raisin (great source of iron) cookies made with packaged milk, sugar, and unbleached flour  (and sometimes you can find real vanilla there.)

I wish you good luck in this adventure, if you choose to accept it.  Let me know if you found any new item you didn't think the dollar store carried that interests you.  I'm sure other readers would be interested in what you've found, as well.

Three items that I have on hand that I purchased at the
Dollar Tree.  An eight ounce bottle of Donald Duck
orange juice.  A few years back this was a national
brand you found at the grocery.  Hanover kidney beans,
which in my grocery store(s) runs 1.39 to 1.69 and are seldom
 on sale for a dollar.  A treat is the can of plums on the
right.  The grocery sells these for around 3.00  On just
these three items I saved approximately 2.39 - 2.69
 that will stay in my wallet.  That's a savings -
on just three items- of $124.28 a year.