Yes you heard me right! Grocery shopping at the dollar store! Seriously if you haven’t done this yet you really need to give it a try!
Today I’m making toaster oven pizza with some yummy dollar store items I found. Everything for $1!
Two small pizza crusts that fit the toaster oven just perfect! Now to choose what to combine it with… so many choices!!!!
A jar of posh lol pesto
A jar of mushrooms
A jar of artichoke hearts
A can of chicken
A jar of black olives
Lots to choose from!!!
Add Some cheese from the regular grocery store and a couple slices of summer sausage with some sun dried tomatoes (basically left over stuff I already had in the fridge from making other dishes)
Delicious! And for this personal pizza I have hardly any $ invested and it has yummy and (mostly lol) healthy ingredients for a quick lunchtime or dinner time meal. Using the toaster oven means I don’t even have to heat up the whole house to make a small pizza! Perfect! Less energy consumed too! I have less than a dollar invested per Pizza and I get to use up my left overs too 🙂
Seriously! Go to the dollar store and give that grocery isle a serious look. You will be amazed at what you find (always check expiration’s dates even if shopping in a regular grocery store!) and how much money you will save. I often find organic products and healthy items… so it’s not just junk food! (Read the ingredient labels).
But wait! There’s more! Check out your local bread thrift store! Yes many places have a bakery thrift store where you can buy the exact same fresh bread you get at the grocery store… but you can get 3 or 5 loaves (depending on what you like to eat) for the same price as one loaf in the grocery store! Yep totally worth a stop at these stores. I buy several loaves and stick them in the freezer 🙂 and I’m not talking cheap white bread. I can get several loaves for the price of one of the expensive healthy bread! I get 3 loaves of this awesome healthy bread for $5 and if I spend $10 I get to pick one free item at the bakery thrift store near my house. One loaf of this same brand at the local grocery store is often close to $5 (talking pennies here)… so yeah… I stop at the bakery thrift outlet store instead lol
Ok so I admit soda is probably not a healthy drink but what if I told you there is a way to make it slightly more healthy? And better for the environment? And WAY! Less expensive?
The answer is a soda stream. You can buy a new one, but I often see them in goodwill. We got this one at goodwill and all it needed was a new battery (which we had at the house already) and we already had cartridges because we have another soda stream (one for the house and one for the RV). The trick is to take your empty cartridges and exchange them at the customer service counter at Walmart or Target etc for another cartridge (half the price to buying a new cartridge). Basically this works just like Barbecue propane tanks. You pay for the first tank and then after that you exchange it for a new full tank for half the price.
You can buy sodastream syrup to make your soda of choice and honestly they taste good! However I’m not always in the mood for a soda and I just want something bubbly. I often use a squirt of MIO type water flavor or maybe some homemade fruit juice (lemonade style etc) as flavoring. Or just drink plain seltzer water. Using homemade “syrup” (and there are tons of recipes online and I have tried them and they are fabulous!) means you control the ingredients and sugar content making it a somewhat healthier alternative without preservatives and chemical colorings etc.
You reuse the soda stream drinking bottles which do have an expiration date on the bottles so be sure to check that out before buying the bottle. But this saves storage space (no more cans and bottles taking up pantry space), makes no trash (everything is reusable except maybe if you buy syrup/flavoring bottles but still less than a 12 pack in the trash bin!) and the cost is incredible! Which is awesome if you live in a small home or an RV where storage can be an issue.
So let’s talk about cost:
I got this one at goodwill for $3
2 new reusable bottles will cost you about $20
A bottle of syrup (which lasts us a really long time because we only use half of what the measuring amount says to use per bottle) costs about $5,.. or a bottle of MIO style flavoring or some ingredients to make homemade syrup is even cheaper!
We just use cold tap water or water out of the fridge so that is free lol (you put the syrup in AFTER you make the bubbles using the machine … trust me it will be messy if you don’t follow the directions)
The trade in canister price is about $15. I’m not sure what a new canister costs because I haven’t bought one in years but I’d guess about $30? I recommend having two canisters (one in the machine and one as a replacement to rotate until you get the empty one swapped out). Seriously!!!! Don’t buy more than two canisters! It’s unnecessary!
So after the initial purchase of the machine, bottles and canisters… you really are saving a bundle! If you can find a used soda stream system that looks like the one in the photo (square body) grab it! I’m not too impressed with the cheaper rounded body style as they don’t seem to work as well. But I like LOTS of bubbles in my seltzer lol and while you slowly wean yourself off the soda try moving over to plain seltzer. It really is pretty good once you get used to it!
Happy shopping!
Conestoga Chuck 