I Ate Nothing But Dollar Store Food For 72 Hours

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💵 Did you know that the Dollar Tree sells steak?! I ate food from the Dollar Tree food for 3 days straight to try some of their lesser known items.

⚠️ As a quick disclaimer, I just want to acknowledge that 1) the business model of dollar stores can be disadvantageous for both employees and customers, and 2) a large percentage of folks in the US shop at dollar stores out of necessity (prohibitive costs of traditional grocery retailers, food deserts, etc.). I decided to take the total spent on this video ($96.96) and make an equivalent donation to a local relief organization that helps combat food insecurity. I intentionally tried to make more elaborate meals for this video, but if you’re looking for affordable recipes and tips, check out Dollar Tree Dinners:
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For the next 72 hours I’ll be eating nothing but food from the Dollar Tree and at first I thought I’d be surviving on things like Lunchables but as it turns out they have stuff like shrimp chicken kind of and ribeye steak so I’ll be trying all those things and at the

End of 3 days I’ll let you know how much I spent and whether the food is one edible and two worth trying for yourself all right let’s go grocery shopping I had scoped out the inventory at the Dollar Tree a few days beforehand so I had a rough idea of some ingredients I

Could throw together for some meals as a lot of you know the Dollar Tree famously increased their $1 price point to $125 in 2022 and they also introduced a $3 and $4 and $5 price point for certain items skipped right over $2 apparently but I want to say up front for the most

Part I stuck to the $125 items the only exceptions were the salmon the shrimp and the ribeye that I bought all right for my very first meal I got to work making some biscuits unfortunately I found a mix that was like a just add milk situation at first I didn’t think

They had milk because there wasn’t any in the refrigerator section but I found some on this regular shelf I guess it’s cool to just not refrigerate milk I don’t know as I was mixing the batter the consistency was a lot soupier than I had hoped so they didn’t really maintain

Their shape they kind of looked more like cookies than biscuits that cooking spray by the way also from the Dollar Tree I also started to pre-o these hash browns the instructions call for cooking oil which the Dollar Tree did not have as far as I could tell so I was just

Going to use margarine instead figured I’d see how it goes the bacon looked surprisingly normal like it was four pretty thick strips for a 25 the biscuits finished baking and were pretty Mound looking as I suspected I went ahead and melted some margarine to pour on top unfortunately there were no eggs

At the Dollar Tree and I’m pretty sure I remember seeing eggs there at some point but the more I think about it the more I’m like man maybe that was like a Mandela effect thing anyways I had to settle for some microwave omelets I tapped everything off with a little salt

Pepper and some Texas Pete and there we go a full breakfast I rate this meal a 7.5 out of 10 I mean it was pretty good I would have loved to make my own eggs but these weren’t bad I described the biscuits as good not great and I’m sure

The hash browns would have tasted better if I had used oil instead of margarine but the bacon was the star of the show when lunch came around I decided to make chicken tacos I was pretty surprised to find corn tortillas on the shelves the chicken was bagged and not refrigerated

And I guess the closest thing I’ve had to that is like canned tuna I’m just going to go ahead and trust that this is safe to eat it was like pretty gross looking as I squeezed it out of the bag but I tried to season it with some

Minced garlic some chili powder and some salon lime spice I feel like the canned goods really shined here so I had some beans and some corn and then I followed that up with some bagged items there were some reff fried beans and some Vita nacho cheese I tapped it with sliced

Jalapenos also from a can and some shredded cheese there was no salsa which was surprising to me I could have sworn they had some in the chips aisle but no dice well no that they did have dice in the game aisle but that there was no salsa finally I tapped the tacos off

With some crushed corn tortilla chips and for this meal I’m going 8 out of 10 I mean these were a lot better better than I expected and I would say the jalapenos really helped for dinner I went ahead and got started on some chocolate cake batter that I was going

To use to make some cupcakes the only issue is that there were two key ingredients that were missing eggs and oil I have some friends that work in the food service industry and they’ve mentioned that for people with allergies you can sub eggs with unsweetened applesauce so fortunately Dollar Tree

Does have applesauce and then for the oil I decided to try to sub margarine internet said that should be fine I also got some icing with Oreo crumbles to top the cupcakes off once they were done once those were in the oven I got started on the main course which was

Going to be jumbalaya got this big old sausage link from the refrigerated section as well as some diced tomatoes some Cajun seasoning some chicken broth and a little bit of hot sauce now most jumbal ey recipes call for additional ingredients like celery for example but

I had to make do with what I had I also broke out the shrimp for this meal so I thaw it and then peeled it and then started cooking it the seafood in particular made me nervous I don’t know why but I’m just I’m skeptical finally I

Microwaved some bagged rice and you guys the sauce was actually looking and smelling amazing the cupcakes also finished baking around that time all right and much to my surprise the jumbal ey actually turned out so well I think I overdid it on the seasoning cuz it was

Actually kind of spicy and the shrimp Against All Odds was pretty good the sausage on the other hand was not it was not good it kind of tasted like a big giant hot dog but overall I’d give this meal a 9 out of 10 and keep in mind this

Is like a Dollar Tree adjusted scale this isn’t like a Gordon Ramsay scale tomorrow I’m thinking I’ll try some sort of pasta dish like maybe a chicken alfredo or some sort of stir fry Jerry’s still out whether eating at the dollar store is actually going to save me money

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Money.com samre or click the link in the description to get started for free that’s rocket money.com samre spelled re i d to get started for free all right I’m headed to a friend’s house I’m excited to see how these cupcakes turned out I iced the cupcakes once I got there so we’re just

Going to look right now you want to go ask your mom if you can have some here I can help you get down all right go ask your mom go ask your mom what’ mom say no she said no okay and then I dug in I’m guessing this has to do with the

Ingredient swap but they were super crumbly and stuck to the paper cups big time they tasted great they were just kind of hard to eat I’d go 8 out of 10 all right the next morning for breakfast I got to work on some blueberry muffins and thankfully that was a just add water

Situation I decided to pour the batter straight into the pan this time instead of using the paper cups to hopefully avoid the sticky situation from the cupcakes the night before i’ bought this bag of frozen fruit labeled smoothie starter and it just said to add your favorite liquid like milk or orange

Juice or whatever I tried going with some almond milk one because I was honestly really surprised that they had alternative milks and two turns out I’m soft and my stomach doesn’t handle Dairy as well as it used to and despite what it looks like from my novice technique

Here I have in fact used a blender before but I’ll just cut straight to the chase the Smoothie was was pretty bad like I guess just Bland I think it could have used way more strawberries and bananas and less spinach and whatever else was in there but Silver Lining I

Was thankful to work some fruit into my meal plan the muffins saved the meal though and were actually pretty good so overall 7 out of 10 for lunch I decided to go for some fancy grilled cheese fancy because I wanted to add in some lunch meat a little bit of ham and

Because I was feeling adventurous so instead of getting their sliced America cheese I got this block of pepper jack I guess block is maybe like too generous of a term it was too thin to slice but also too thick to just put right on there I tried grating it but it kept

Breaking into chunks so I went back to trying to slice it and in the end it was just kind of like a hodge podge of cheese honestly this would have been a perfect opportunity to use one of those Olive Garden cheese graters I sliced the sandwiches looking back probably should

Have used a diagonal cut but hindsight’s 2020 and then I served it with a side of veggie straws for dessert I made some chocolate chip cookies that were just made from some pre-made refrigerated dough I preemptively sprayed the baking sheet but when I read the instructions

It said to put the dough directly on an ungreased baking sheet so I had to go back and wipe it off jokes on me though because somehow I undercooked the middle of the cookies and they stuck to the pan still tasted pretty good though overall

An 8 out of 10 meal for dinner on day two I decided to go for that stir fry meal instead of the chicken alfredo I feel like for a chicken alfredo the chicken really needs to be a main character and after seeing the quality of the chicken the night before I

Decided that a dish that was a little more heavy on the vegetables might help balance it out they do have some pre-made meals in the frozen section like this beef and broccoli dish but I wanted to see what it was possible to actually cook using the ingredients available so I started boiling some

Spaghetti noodles started cooking that bagged chicken and then added a bag of frozen vegetables this stir fry mix plus some mushrooms from a jar that I found in a different section of the store and all of that was cooked in this teriyaki marinade I would say the finished

Product wasn’t bad like it wasn’t as good as the jumbal ey but still a solid meal so I’ll go 8 out of 10 for dessert I had some mokey ice cream balls which if you’ve never had it it’s a Japanese dessert that’s basically ice cream rolled in sweet rice dough I’d give that

A solid 9 out of 10 great portion size day three arrived and that was a big deal because day three was ribey day just as a side note here feeling great at this point zero negative side effects from the food I was eating for my final

Breakfast I decided it was a good chance to try out the waffle maker I got in case I get the opportunity to make some waffles for the Jonas Brothers as I was mixing the batter it took me a while to get the consistency that I wanted and

Just when I thought I had it perfect I saw some fine prints saying that there were different instructions if you were making waffles instead of Pancakes it called for eggs and oil classic so I added some applesauce instead and then I had to go through the whole song and

Dance again to get the consistency see back where I wanted It I was nervous about messing the waffles up but I think I did a pretty good job the sausage was just microwave sausage and the orange juice was like a Donald Duck brand but it looks pretty fancy once you put it in a mason jar I topped the waffles off with margarine

And syrup and they were delicious i’ would say maybe not as crispy as waffles should be they were just kind of floppy but still super tasty sausage was decent orange juice was great this was a 9 out of 10 breakfast for lunch I decided to cook up some salmon people kept asking

Me if I trusted salmon from the dollar store and I think the answer is like I don’t know I mean I think it should be fine right I made a garlic lemon butter sauce to cook the salmon in and seasoned it with salt and pepper while I was

Cooking that I microwaved some frozen asparagus and you guys honestly pretty solid the lemon butter glaze helped a ton it’s pretty good asparagus was pretty solid as well I’d give that meal an 8.5 out of 10 and for dessert I had a little ice cream sundae in a cup when I

Opened it they had one of those like flat Wooden Spoons and I immediately tossed it to the side cuz I had a real spoon so it was almost laughable that I would use that jokes on me though because on closer inspection you actually needed that spoon to open this

Second layer of paper to get to the ice cream ice cream I’d say 9 out of 10 wooden spoon zero out of 10 all right y’all and for my final meal it was time for banquet night for night three I was having ribeye steak mashed potatoes and

Green beans the steak was 5.5 Oz and I’m pretty sure it was in the $3 section but you just get the one steak as opposed to the salmon where you get three of them I’m in there I decided to break out the cast iron skillet for this one as a

Disclaimer here I am not a cast iron skillet afficionado so I’m sure there are things people would do differently all I ask is that there are no debates about how to clean a cast iron skillet in the comments section once again no oil here so I resorted to margarine and

Garlic I used some steak seasoning that I picked up from the Dollar Tree so this one was a little tricky for me so I wanted to leave it tender and cook it medium rare but I also wanted to make sure it reached a safe internal temperature especially cuz I feel like I

Kind of rushed the thawing process meat thermometer also didn’t really seem to be working but I’m sure it’ll be fine though like what could go wrong and I always do this but I ended up filling my kitchen with smoke as I cooked the steak the mashed potatoes were a mix that just

Required boiling water so I assembled those and then microwaved the green beans I topped the steak in the mashed potatoes with margarine for good measure and then I also added some crispy onions to the mashed potatoes cuz I thought it would look fancy all right the moment of

Truth I cut into it and it looked like a pretty good color like not too overcooked when I tasted it I realized that it was pretty over seasoned and looking back I do remember something on the package about it being pre-seasoned so I probably didn’t need to season it a

Second time it had a pretty peppery taste anyways I’m not going to sit here and say that you could serve this thing in an Outback Steakhouse I think that would be offensive to my Australian viewers but I definitely couldn’t believe that I’d gotten this thing from the Dollar Tree the tenderness was good

But not great like there was a fair amount of Grizzle on one side that I couldn’t chew through but it wasn’t enough to ruin the experience overall I’d give this meal an 8.5 out of 10 and again before you get mad this is a Dollar Tree adjusted scale not like a

Michelin star rating the mashed potatoes were delightful and the crispy onions did end up being a nice touch green beans I probably should have seasoned and to cap off my 72-hour experiment I had a few scoops of cookies and cream ice cream fairly freezer burnt but by

The end of the bowl it had gotten pretty melted and smooth all right after 3 days and nine meals from the Dollar Tree I spent a total of $969 if you want my take on it I feel like I ate like a king it came out to be

Just under $11 a meal and that’s actually a lot more than my normal grocery budget on the other hand I do have plenty of leftovers and ingredients that I can continue using and you can spend way over $100 on a really fancy dinner for two at a nice restaurant if

You want to try any of these Foods I’d say shrimp salmon go for it steak it won’t kill you but you also won’t be missing out if you don’t have it all right that’s it for this episode let me know in the comments where you think I

Should eat from exclusively next and hey for those watching in the United States Happy Thanksgiving I’m super thankful for you and just remember that even when it doesn’t feel like it it’s going to be okay I’ll see you soon Going grocery shopping at the Dollar Tree my eating food from the Dollar Tree