# Score today!



## JustCliff (May 21, 2011)

Went about townthis morning looking for after Christmas sales on candles. Walgreens and CVS reduced the amount of candles they had this year a great deal according to the managers. 
Wally World on the other hand... Had a bunch left over!
I got 
60- 12" tapered
12- 2" dia by 4" high
48- votive
all for $44.


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

Good deal ! We did'nt get to the sales this year .:beercheer:


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## gypsysue (Mar 27, 2010)

Wow, great going, JustCliff! Nicely done!


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## kilagal (Nov 8, 2011)

We went to town this afternoon and bought Christmas M&m's as well as Hershey Kisses for 98 cents a bag. Will use them for baking and I don't care what color they are. But the price was better than chocolate chips.
On Saturday we found bags of flax seeds for $l at dollar tree. Which was a super buy. They were l pound bags.


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## Jason (Jul 25, 2009)

I just got some haloween candy for 50 cents. Big bag of candy corn. I just got the one bag, but the deals are out there.


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## Emerald (Jun 14, 2010)

A great find.. just a word of caution on candles.. I usually buy tons of the big candles after the holidays and found that when we had a power outage and I lit too many of the big "scented" candles that the scents can be overpowering.. so now I try to only find the unscented or milder scented ones. 
One scented candle is nice... when you have about 5 or 6 all over and lit at the same time.. not so nice at all!


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

My oldest daughter is going to scour the local grocery stores today looking for bags of left over Cranberries, usually can find them for $.50 to $.75 a bag. Grocery stores trying to unload em before they spoil. Will dehydrate as many as possible before the supply runs out for the year.


Apple/Cranberry Spiced Cider.

1 quart of Apple Juice/Cider heated to just under boiling, add clove to taste then half a cup of dehydrated cranberries(not Craisens). Let stand until cranberries are soft and drink. Good Stuff!


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## JustCliff (May 21, 2011)

Emerald said:


> A great find.. just a word of caution on candles.. I usually buy tons of the big candles after the holidays and found that when we had a power outage and I lit too many of the big "scented" candles that the scents can be overpowering.. so now I try to only find the unscented or milder scented ones.
> One scented candle is nice... when you have about 5 or 6 all over and lit at the same time.. not so nice at all!


I know what you mean. 1/2 of the tapers are unscented all the rest are scented. This is the 4th year of buying candles on sale. These are mostly barter items. I have totes full of candles!:2thumb:
My daughter got married the other day. She wanted lots of candles. My wife went and bought a lot of unscented white candles and holders. 
It's one of my top 5 barter items for the money invested against the barter value.


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

Have yet to be out and scour stores for markdowns yet. Overworked myself this year, spent three weeks just preparing for Christmas, and got completely exhausted (to the point of dozing off on the couch at 6pm..). So hope to get out today to some of my favorite haunts to see what can be procured. 

Had pretty much the entire family over, and my adult nephew, a really good kid, went into our garage where my beginning stores are (we have a small "beverage" fridge in there") and he came back saying he knew where he was gonna be when the apocolypse happened.....I just played it off as this was my family stores for my adult kids when they are going through tough times.

Unfortunately, these are people who live for the day and do not think much ahead, so even if I explained it to them, they would not fully see the point.

Candles and matches, yep, this needs to be my next thing to stock up on, we're coming into our storm season here and of course, for future uses too.


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## Possumfam (Apr 19, 2011)

We got a few candles from WM too, but my favorite score was from JCPenneys. I NEVER go to the mall, but my daughter was looking for a khaki skirt, so.... Anyway, they had katahdin solar hand crank flashlight radios on sale, marked down from $30 to 8.99. We picked up 2, spent $27, they had a sale - spend $25 and get $10 off, so it only cost $17. I know nothing about handcrank radio/flashlights, but for approx. $6, they're not bad.


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## lotsoflead (Jul 25, 2010)

Possumfam said:


> We got a few candles from WM too, but my favorite score was from JCPenneys. I NEVER go to the mall, but my daughter was looking for a khaki skirt, so.... Anyway, they had katahdin solar hand crank flashlight radios on sale, marked down from $30 to 8.99. We picked up 2, spent $27, they had a sale - spend $25 and get $10 off, so it only cost $17. I know nothing about handcrank radio/flashlights, but for approx. $6, they're not bad.


our favorite sales are tag and garage sales in the summer plus my wife has people saving her candles at all the local rumage shops, then we melt them all down and make our own,


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## Possumfam (Apr 19, 2011)

lotsoflead said:


> our favorite sales are tag and garage sales in the summer plus my wife has people saving her candles at all the local rumage shops, then we melt them all down and make our own,


We've only tried making our own candles a couple times, and we've only poured the wax into glass jars from old candles. We don't have any molds and haven't hand-dipped any. A few weeks ago, we obtained a good sized box of candles (some used, some new) from freecycle. Those will be melted down into new ones. I need to learn more about the different types of wicks. I don't know how to choose them.


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

I was just at the thrift store and saw large bags of candles, and saw that the wick was mainly lost on all of them, it did not dawn on me to melt them down and re-make them....duh. As for wicks, you can buy spools of them pretty cheap, always cotton. I have yet to look at molds, but figure they would be worth it since you could simply keep remaking more with your candle leftovers and that of others..

Speaking of candles...I remember a local lake, where as a teen my friend and I used to go and hang around in the summer. Lots of the local hippy types were there, playing guitars, singing and making candles in the sand....I guess if you did it close to the waters edge, it caused the wax to distribute strangley and left these gaps all around, so it had this fun look to it. Anywho, I am not doing that, and the park is closed permanently anyways, just a memory.


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## stayingthegame (Mar 22, 2011)

those were called sand cast candles. you can make your own by taking wet sand packed in a box and pressing the shape you want leaving at least two inches of sand around the box edges. then heat your wax to 275 degrees, this may need to be done over direct heat. (Yes this can be very unsafe as the flash point, the point at which wax will burst into flame, is not much higher). pour into the wet sand shape. the wax will seep into the sand and form a crust, the thickness is determined by how hot the wax is and how packed the sand is. the temp of the wax can cause it to smoke. the wet sand can not be very wet only wet enough to hold shape. they are fun to make and when I do it I pour outside and in a place that will not be ruined if the wax should leak out. if you make these save a little of the wax as the wax will shrink down or cup some and you will need to refill the top to keep it flat. when you burn the candles you need to be careful not to burn them to long as the wax/sand sides will melt also if the metl pool reaches them.


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## lotsoflead (Jul 25, 2010)

Possumfam said:


> *I need to learn more about the different types of wicks. I don't know how to choose them*.


 I bought our molds and wicks here as I also buy some supplies here for my bees, Mann Lake LTD - Candle Making Supplies


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## lotsoflead (Jul 25, 2010)

stayingthegame said:


> those were called sand cast candles. you can make your own by taking wet sand packed in a box and pressing the shape you want leaving at least two inches of sand around the box edges. then heat your wax to 275 degrees, this may need to be done over direct heat. (Yes this can be very unsafe as the flash point, the point at which wax will burst into flame, is not much higher). pour into the wet sand shape. the wax will seep into the sand and form a crust, the thickness is determined by how hot the wax is and how packed the sand is. the temp of the wax can cause it to smoke. the wet sand can not be very wet only wet enough to hold shape. they are fun to make and when I do it I pour outside and in a place that will not be ruined if the wax should leak out. if you make these save a little of the wax as the wax will shrink down or cup some and you will need to refill the top to keep it flat. when you burn the candles you need to be careful not to burn them to long as the wax/sand sides will melt also if the metl pool reaches them.


 we melt all wax by putting it in a #10 can and then put thre can in a pot with boiling water, also have the can setting on some canning lids to hold it off the bottom of the pan


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

I'll pass on making candles with excessively hot moulten wax...I'll just do it to where it is maleable.

I have wanted to make soap for years, but think I should wait till the weather is nicer so I can use my gas grill to work the fat down (then I don't have a huge greasy mess in the kitchen). I have this book, which is an older one, but really good, and have held onto it for about 10 years now...I think it is time to use it.


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## Possumfam (Apr 19, 2011)

Thanks, lotsoflead, maybe I'll have to get myself a mold someday!


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## AlabamaGal (Dec 27, 2011)

Candles are fun, but I recently spent a week without power and they were near useless for light. Either we don't make candles like they used to, or our eyes are half blind from too much artificial light. My wind up LED lanterns and flashlights were *very* effective. The rechargeable batteries do die eventually, but if the power is out for that long staying up past dark will be the least of my problems. And by then I am hoping someone will have figured out how to make decent candles again.

Granted it was 70F the whole week, but a week without power was fantastic. Quiet. Dark. I slept like a baby. Not working and having the whole town on dawn/dusk curfew probably helped.  It wasn't until day 6 when I even thought that I could plug a lamp into the generator that was running my freezer and charging my smartphone.

I traded a hot shower at the neighbor's for a cell phone charge and a half bag of ice for two homemade beers. Barter is fun.


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

Alabamagal, I do think we are used to almost 24 hour artificial sunlight. Our modern lighting has also been proven, to have tricked our brains into thinking it is still time to be busy, so we naturally have a hard time winding down at twilight like people used to do (they had no choice). Candlelight was simply a way to see when you had to get up to "go" or do something minimally. They also think this is why people are either sleep deprived or what sleep they are getting is not good enough (go from "daylight" to night, it takes a bit to turn the brain off and relax into that really good sleep).

Now if you're looking for better lighting than candles, oil lamps. They can light up a room. I have been trying to collect these, plus extra wicks, and the oil of course.


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## tsrwivey (Dec 31, 2010)

HoppeEL4 said:


> Now if you're looking for better lighting than candles, oil lamps. They can light up a room. I have been trying to collect these, plus extra wicks, and the oil of course.


We love our oil lamps. Hubby even made holders so they can be put on the wall. The lamps are decorative so they can be part of a rooms decor. We don't store candles much, just lots of oil & wicks.


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## AlabamaGal (Dec 27, 2011)

HoppeEL4 said:


> Now if you're looking for better lighting than candles, oil lamps. They can light up a room. I have been trying to collect these, plus extra wicks, and the oil of course.


I recall we had some nice "hurricane" style lamps both for home (the power went out fairly frequently) and when camping and they did do the job. I haven't been able to find any that look that great any more, but I keep looking. What I do find is pretty much disposable decoration, not functional lighting.


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## HoppeEL4 (Dec 29, 2010)

Thrift stores....I have found a nice amount there, and noticed others were in there snatching them up. Also came across a couple when picking up something on Craigslist, who had a whole wall of them...wow....had to be collectors, it was an incredible array of oil lamps.


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## Possumfam (Apr 19, 2011)

tsrwivey said:


> We love our oil lamps. Hubby even made holders so they can be put on the wall. The lamps are decorative so they can be part of a rooms decor. We don't store candles much, just lots of oil & wicks.


We do a little of both. I don't love the smell of oil lamps, although they are more effective....and candles can also be a barter item if need be (anyone remember Selco?) Seems they bartered everything.


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