$2 Grab Bag Revealed

In an effort to maintain some frugality, I didn't get crazy when I saw the bin of 25 or so grab bags at Michael's during a $.79 acrylic paint run this morning (in sub zero temps). That Claire is a trooper.

The acrylic paint is to spruce up and repurpose a mistake of a purchase in the As-Is section at IKEA. A little acrylic paint, some painters tape and kiddo help should keep that undesirable and regretful purchase from ending up on the curb for Tuesday's trash pickup.

My method is fairly simple when choosing a grab bag. Simply, peek and prod and try to use my Sherlock Holmes senses to find at least $2 worth of goods I actually would use to justify the purchase. It was mostly of the Christmas variety (makes sense) and there were lots of rolls of mesh fabric to create Christmas wreaths and coffee mugs which will forever and always get a big, huge heck no attached. Seriously, does anyone actually need more coffee mugs?

The one thing I knew was in this bag that I definitely use as a consumer product were a load of muffin liners. I made banana bread muffins for the kiddos for breakfast and then freeze them for easy mornings. I usually pay about $.50-$1 a pop for a 50-count, so getting 4 would make my money back. Obviously I'm blabbing way too much about a $2 investment, but this sort of thing totally geeks me out; stretching two single dollars as far as I can, but then blowing a bunch of cash on a totally overpriced shirt at Anthropologie.

Without further adieu... the moment you've all been waiting for (I'm sure). The reveal of Grab Bag 2016.

Come on... who is excited? Oh, just me? Hah!

The loot!

13 bags of cupcake liners (50ct!), 36 holiday party picks and some sticky holiday flowers

112 wine bottle tags (that's a lot of pinot!), 6 small burlap drawstring bags and 117 gift tags (closeup middle).

650 muffin liners should have me set for awhile. 

Verdict: My detective skills didn't even sniff out scoring THIRTEEN packs of those muffin liners! Those alone definitely made the grab worth it, as it values them at just under $.16 each. I definitely spend more near the buck range on these when I need them, so yup. Pretty thrilled.

Anyone else hit up Michael's for a Grab Bag recently? I think it might actually make me more crafty with these little gambles. I also posted about my 2014 grab when ironically, I went to buy two bottles of the same brand of acrylic paint (different colors, different project slated to tackle) and was suckered in to buying FOUR of those babies. And when Benjamin requested to work on "an activity" this morning, I broke into those miscellaneous supplies of crafty ...ehm... crap and pulled out the perfect mosaic activity for Benjamin and Claire to work on while I prepared the lunch they didn't want. As moms do, right? Oh, just me? Yeah, probably that too. ::insert side-eyed emoji with smirk here::