I Heart Dollar Stores

I'll admit it. I love dollar stores. The wacky, cool, nifty, bizarre things you can find for just $1 is never-ending fun. You do have to be careful at times though, because dollar stores are not always cheaper.

However, for Halloween decorations, you just cannot beat them. My boyfriend and I have decided to make Halloween our annual big bash. Last year, I borrowed decorations from my parents (years and years of Halloween parties growing up means they have lots of cool stuff). However, my younger brother is throwing a party this year, so the decorations are in use. Time to start collecting my own.

With that goal in mind I stopped at Dollar Tree, Dollar General, and Family Dollar, along with KMart, WalMart, and Big Lots this past weekend. The variety of decorations at the stores was great (except WalMart, which had a pitifully small showing of Halloween stuff). Now, if you want sophisticated, noise-making, moving Halloween decorations, dollar stores are not your ideal. But if you are just looking for the basic tape-them-to-the-wall, hang them from the chandelier decorations and incredibly goofy prizes for costume contests and the like, check out your local dollar stores (especially Dollar Tree, if you have one).

As for the more sophisticated decorations mentioned above, I intend to accrue those slowly to even out the expenses. We will also be making some decorations as well this year.

And in regards to the Green side of things, I have every intention of reusing just about everything I bought this year for many years. Except the paper plates, cups, and napkins, which I feel guilty about. However, they were far cheaper at a dollar store than at KMart, which was charging $2.29 or thereabouts for everything I got for $1. At least I saved money, right?

Lastly, one of the many great things about picking a specific holiday for an annual big bash is that I can go garage sale-ing and thrift-shopping and keep an eye out for possible decorations any time of year. That means I can be green and reuse, as well as buying things when they are very cheap.