Best Dollar Tree Foods REVEALED 💚 Which Dollar Tree pantry foods are worth it, and which to avoid?

hello my friends and welcome back if you're new here welcome my name is callie bransford and if you are new here you might not know but i do a lot of dollar tree content between dollar tree diys and dollar tree hauls and i also do a lot of tested and comparison videos you know best things that you can get at dollar tree and what's not necessarily worth your money and i decided today i would sit down and really go through what things that the dollar tree are worth it to stock up your pantry with so we're going to be looking basically all the dry goods that you can get at the dollar tree and sort of talk about which things are really worth it and which things are not and i did a ton of research here and a ton of price comparison like literally hours of price comparison price price comparison price comparing where i looked at stuff from the dollar tree and i'm comparing it to the grocery store as well as walmart and aldi um to really help you decide which things at the dollar tree are worth getting to stock up your pantry with okay we are going to start with cooking supplies and we'll start with some of the pre-packaged cookie mixes in general these are not a better deal at the dollar tree and it comes down purely to the size the cookie mixes that you get at the dollar tree only come in about seven ounce packages as opposed to the full-size bags so a few quick comparisons this funfetti cookie mix you're paying about 16 cents an ounce versus 10 cents an ounce for the same product at walmart these betty crocker chocolate chip and peanut butter cookie mixes are about 13 cents an ounce first spending only 11 cents an ounce at walmart the same goes for their frostings again these are not full size these are like mini sizes so you're spending about a dollar for a half can of frosting where you can get the full can of frosting same brand same exact one for only a dollar 34 at walmart but in general i find that with the baking mixes for like cookies and cakes and frosting is that unless it's a full-size product you're probably going to be paying more per ounce and it's better to just get a full-size one at somewhere like walmart also in the cooking section you can often find the boxes of domino's sugar both the white sugar and the brown light sugar and these are a good deal compared to buying them at the grocery store or at walmart they're actually usually a little bit more than a dollar for these 16 ounce boxes elsewhere however if you're buying a bigger thing of sugar such as a two pound or four pound bag you're gonna get a better price per ounce all right moving away from sort of baking and into cooking stuff let's talk about the spices dollar tree has so many spices and seasoned salts all for a dollar and you kind of have to wonder how can they offer all these different spices for only a dollar when places like walmart or the grocery store charge sometimes three five or even ten times more than that and i actually did a little research for a previous video that i did about the dollar tree on how there was such a range in prices between spices and what i found out is that many companies that make spices use internal regulations and some companies do not and these internal regulations include like all sorts of things like where the spice was harvested from what the harvest season was like how fresh it is how long it has been on the shelf for and in general less regulations means they can sell the spice for cheaper now what does that mean as far as you buying it basically long story short is that the one dollar spices aren't necessarily bad but there's a chance you may not be getting as good of quality and so it may just be better to spend a little bit more money getting a slightly better spice the spices that are worth it to stock up for at the dollar tree are things like seasoned salts or chili pepper flakes garlic powder onion salt that sort of stuff and they tend to steer away from things that tend you tend to want a little fresher or more aromatic things like rosemary basil oregano i just tend to find that they don't have the same potency that i would want so they're not really giving me what i need when i'm cooking again none of the spices are necessarily bad it's just are you really getting what you pay for moving along to cooking oil in general i just steer clear of the cooking oil at dollar tree and the reason i think this is just because the cooking oil that you get the dollar tree is a blend so they have these little bottles that says it's a soybean olive oil blend but what it really is is about 94 to 96 soybean oil and like a little dash of olive oil and so in my opinion it's really not worth it to spend that if you just want soybean oil you can get a big thing of soybean oil for a lot less per ounce let's move along to some of the breakfast stuff and we're going to start with cereal because i have a lot to say about dollar tree cereal in general you have two types of cereal you can choose from at the dollar tree they have the name brand stuff and then they have their generic like dollar tree brand cereal so we'll start with the name brand stuff obviously right off the bat you're gonna notice for one dollar you're not going to be getting a full-size name-brand cereal you get these like little mini pouches which is fine but it really comes down to what am i paying per ounce for the cereal and in general you tend to pay about the same per ounce for name brand cereal at the dollar tree than you would at your grocery store however walmart will meet them time after time you will always get a better price per ounce on name brand cereals at walmart so let's talk about some of the generic brand cereal the dollar tree brand cereal is this worth it i've actually done a handful of videos where i compare name brand to generic stuff and i've found that there are a lot of brands out there that are generic brand but when you look at the ingredients they literally are almost identical to the name brand but the name brand is just charging you like 25 more and i found that this holds true for a lot of the dollar tree cereals as well so we'll just look at a few let's start by comparing the cinnamon toast crunch to the dollar tree knock off which is called cinnamon toasters and when you look at the ingredients they're almost exactly the same the first five ingredients are actually completely identical between cinnamon toast crunch and the dollar tree version so you're almost essentially getting the same exact cereal you're just paying almost double for the name brand one so as long as you're good with the taste of the dollar tree one it's a way better deal and i actually have done a blind taste test of this exact dollar tree cereal versus a mentos and i'm gonna link that video down below if you're curious to see if i could tell the difference between the dollar tree version and the cinnamon toast crunch version and which one i thought was more delicious let's compare another one we'll look at dollar tree raisin bran compared to name brand raisin brands and if you look at the ingredients you're getting pretty much an identical product so again you're getting essentially the same exact ingredients but paying more for the name brand one so again if you're comfortable with the way that the dollar tree one tastes it's pretty much the same thing as far as what you're getting in the box so what's the general consensus on cereal one name brand cereal at the dollar tree not really worth it you're not going to be getting the best price better to shop at walmart for that as far as the generic cereal a lot of it is a way better price almost half the price for almost the same cereal but just know that it's not always the case it's not always black and white and sometimes you will just have to do some comparing between the ingredients to decide if it's worth it or not also in the breakfast department getting coffee mate at the dollar tree is actually a really good steal it costs only about 16 cents an ounce versus staggering about 40 cents an ounce at walmart for the same container of coffee mate the only way you're gonna get coffee mate cheaper than the dollar tree price from what i can find is if you buy like a big huge bulk 10 of it another thing that's also a great price at the dollar tree is actually swiss miss this is considerably cheaper you're paying about 15 cents a pouch versus 30 cents a pouch if you're going to get it at some place like walmart and i know swiss smith sells like big bulk boxes and i even price compared the really big bulk boxes and those ones only came down to about 20 cents a pouch and i just think this is funny i have a husband who loves swiss miss and we always get into an argument about it because personally i don't like swiss miss and just to like make matters even worse he makes his swiss mess with hot water instead of milk and so i always just joke with them i'm like you're not even drinking hot chocolate you're just drinking like hot chocolate water at this point like that's not hot chocolate he loves it that way he thinks when i make hot chocolate it's like too decadent so i'm really curious let me know in the comments down below one do you like swiss miss and two who else makes it with hot water besides just my husband all right moving right along you can actually get bread at the dollar tree so let's talk about the bread personally we don't really actually eat a lot of sandwich bread in our house but if you are a family that likes sandwich bread you may wonder if the bread at the dollar tree is worth it and the answer is kind of like eh not really i compared the dollar tree whole wheat bread to the walmart brand whole wheat bread and essentially you're getting the same quality bread if you look at just ingredients but at walmart you're getting 20 ounces of bread for 1.08 versus only 16 ounces of bread per dollar at the dollar tree let's move along to things like condiments first let's talk about the pickles and i just have to mention the pickles at the dollar tree because personally i've tried pickles from the dollar tree multiple times and i just have to say they're just not good which is not delicious again that's my personal opinion there's probably people who like them because i feel like dollar tree wouldn't just keep selling them but i just can't personally suggest you to get the dollar tree pickles because every time i've tried them i haven't liked them not to mention they're actually more expensive than walmart generic brand pickles which i think are a little bit better on that note i do find the big cans of black olives if you can find the full-size cans to be very good price you usually cannot find this size can of black olives at the grocery store or at walmart for less than a dollar so stay away from pickles but the black olives if you get full-sized ones are a good deal moving on to condiments still talking about the dollar tree brand um dollar tree does have their own brand of mustard called deli market i will tell you this is a delicious mustard and we like mustard in our house we actually went to france and we specifically went to dijon france well in france because that's where they make the dijon mustard that's how much we like mustard and let me tell you i like this one dollar deli market mustard so it's a total winner as far as looking at some of the name brand condiments that you can get the dollar tree and deciding if they're worth it or not my dollar tree had hunt's ketchup which actually was cheaper per ounce than at my grocery store and at walmart so this was a total steal if you're a hunt's ketchup user they also had some kraft dressings both ranch and italian these are definitely small bottles they're not like full size bottles that you would get but if you're comparing the price per ounce it was the same price that i would pay per ounce for a larger one at my local walmart so you're not losing any money by buying the smaller ones you're just getting like a smaller quantity in general good thing to grab at the dollar tree especially if you don't need big huge bulk things of dressing okay let's move on to canned goods right it's like one of the biggest pantry staples that there are my dollar tree has name brand hunts diced tomatoes for a dollar which is a better price than my grocery store which charges me a dollar forty however you can get hunts and diced tomatoes same size for 98 cents at walmart so walmart has beaten them out by about two cents and then moving along to canned vegetables i find in general the price of canned vegetables at the dollar tree are comparable to my grocery store i'm not necessarily spending more but i'm also not really getting a huge deal however i will say you cannot beat the price of canned vegetables at walmart or aldi so in general i don't stock up on the canned vegetables at the dollar tree because i know that i can get a much better price if i'm at walmart or at aldi the same also goes for beans they had big cans of goya black beans and chickpeas which cost about a dollar which is about what i pay at my grocery store but again if you're not stuck on buying name brand and you're okay with generic beans you're going to get a way better price on canned beans at aldi or at walmart last thing in the can department is actually soup and i will say that i had started to write off a lot of the canned products at the dollar tree because i just always found that canned products from walmart and aldi were cheaper but i actually found that name brand campbell's soups were actually a big outlier here because you could actually get them for cheaper than you could at walmart so first there was these chicken and rice ones they actually look like they're small cans it's actually just because they're short and they're actually three ounces bigger than a standard can of soup so at my grocery store i can get this exact soup only 10 ounces for 1.89 or for a dollar 48 at walmart where at dollar tree i'm getting over 13 ounces of it for only a dollar another example was this cream of chicken soup which a lot of people used to cook with it was 2 2.89 cents at my grocery store 2.62 cents at walmart but only one dollar a can here even the tomato soup was a better price browns here than it was at both walmart and the grocery store they also had the healthy choice brand soup which was 2.50 cents at my grocery store 2.67 cents at walmart only one dollar obviously at the dollar tree i was very surprised to find out that a lot of the name brand canned soups are actually a very very good price at the dollar tree and a great place to stock up next let's talk about mac and cheese this is just one of the things that i personally always keep in my pantry whether it's for me or for my toddler with my husband or foot i just we always have craft macaroni and cheese my grocery store tends to sell craft mac and cheese for a dollar 25 however they do often put it on sale for a dollar each so i'm not getting like a huge savings getting at the dollar tree that being said walmart still sells craft mac and cheese for 98 cents so you will always still get it cheaper at walmart all right let's move on and look at like some of the snacks that they have this is like a pantry staple when you're stocking up a pantry with all sorts of snacks the first thing was they have us potato chips these are actually not a better price you're getting very small bags and you're paying about 34 cents an ounce versus only 24 cents an hour if you get a standard bag somewhere like walmart right next to the potato chips you have some snyder's pretzels these actually are a better price than the snyder's pretzels that you can get at walmart or at the grocery store however you don't care about the brand that you're getting generic like great value pretzel sticks at walmart are way way cheaper than the snyder's ones are dollar tree has tons of crackers in the snack department as well they actually have their own brand of wheat then which they very creatively call thin wheats which i love just like what we call it i don't know anyways obviously dollar tree thin wheats are much cheaper than real wheat thins however if you look at the ingredients the dollar tree ones tend to have a bunch of added stuff that the wheat thens don't and i've actually done a blind taste test of wheat thins first thin wheats to see if the dollar tree ones taste as good because they are considerably cheaper and not a big spoiler alert but this is what i thought about them i'm gonna try the right side first oh that tastes like garbage oh those are gross tastes like cardboard those are nasty these are wheat ends and these are garbage moving along to things like nuts and compared some of the generic like honey roasted nuts or just like regular uh roasted nuts i compared the generic dollar tree to the generic walmart to the generic aldi and in general these were all about the same price so dollar tree is a perfectly great place to get it the only difference is if you want to get name brands if you want like planters honey roasted nuts those are not cheaper at the dollar tree you're going to get a way better price if you buy slightly larger bags somewhere like walmart another example was other specialty nuts so like just like whole almonds um these were definitely not cheaper you were spending about 50 cents an ounce versus being able to get bigger bags of them at walmart for about 20 cents an hour just because walmart has much more variety at the dollar tree when it comes to whole knots it tends to be these like little grab-and-go bags um and they don't have a ton of variety as far as like the sizes and the kinds lastly in the snack department they recently came out with honey made graham crackers and oreos but they they didn't used to always have at the dollar tree but they are very small packages and i will just go ahead and let you know that these are not worth your money because they're such tiny portions you're paying about 30 cents an ounce first at the grocery store or walmart you're only paying about 20 cents an ounce so better to skip over those at the dollar tree our very last topic that we will talk about is all the candy because there's literally an entire candy aisle at the dollar tree and let's start with the movie theater candy this is like the candy that comes in the boxes in general it's usually a little bit cheaper than buying it at the grocery store but walmart still sells these boxes of movie theater candy for only 98 cents so they're still beating dollar tree by two cents moving right along it to uh packages like snack packs of candy i was actually surprised that many of these weren't the best price at the dollar tree for example reese's cups you get 12 for two dollars at walmart meaning it's 16 cents an ounce versus only five for a dollar at the dollar tree which is 20 cents an ounce and although you can get eight for a dollar forty five which is eighteen cents an ounce things like sour patch kids you're paying about 27 cents an ounce at the dollar tree versus only about 17 cents an ounce at walmart and if you look at things like hard candy in general i tend to find that those are about 10 cents more per ounce than they would if you got them at walmart so in general if you're looking for like more snack pack styles of candies you're not going to get the best price at the dollar tree and the only instance the dollar tree would maybe be a better price is if you don't need a lot you just actually want a really small bag or a small portion of them because a lot of the walmart ones tend to come in slightly larger bags all right guys that does it i sort of went through aisle by aisle all the dry goods and pantry items from the dollar tree did a ton of price comparing and basically try to tell you what i think things are worth it and which things are not worth it at the end of the day i think you can see it's sort of all over the place some stuff is very much not worth it at the dollar tree some stuff is about the same as walmart and then some stuff totally is like big huge winners again i will link some of those videos down below that i mentioned where i've done some taste tests of dollar tree brand stuff first name brand stuff this is sort of fun to watch and just sort of see what the ingredient differences are like and what the taste differences are like but that does it for this video thank you so much for stopping by and watching i hope you're having a fantastic day and i will see you all in my next video you

Channel: But First, Coffee

Views: 143,242

Rating: 4.9410982 out of 5

Keywords: what to buy at the dollar tree, dollar tree foods, dollar tree pantry, dollar tree food haul, buy this not that, dollar tree buy this not that, dollar tree kitchen, dollar tree food review, dollar tree food taste test, $1, what dollar tree food to buy, best dollar tree foods, dollar tree comparison

Id: 29Jm-WfJHLk

Length: 17min 36sec (1056 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 17 2021