I bought two kid thermos on sale at the beginning of the month, thinking we could use them in lunches.  My oldest dd has been getting up a little early, making oatmeal with a chopped up apple in it, and bringing for lunch at college, after having some for breakfast.  I have used for beverages in another dd's lunch.  I think they have already paid for themselves!  I was worried we wouldn't use them, but it has turned out to be a very good purchase.

Have you bought anything recently that exceeded your expectations, either in preformance or saving money?  

 I bought several notebooks from Walmart at the back to school sales (10 cents each) with the thought that I'd stockpile them while they were cheap. I use them for everything! They're so handy to carry from one room to another with notes - grocery lists, to do lists, phone numbers, whatever I happen to be doing. When I sit down to make up a shopping list, I go back through two or three pages and have it all ready in a couple of minutes. I don't know what I'm going to do when I run out of them now. 

We bought 2 or 3 cases of the notebooks from Walart too. This is a hard subject for me, because we have been so lucky with some of the purchases for this house. One of my favorites is the living room drapes. I have never been much of a red person, per se, but over the summer I went into Lowes and they had a drapery sale. I had wanted some chocolate brown velvet drapes I had seen and they didn't have enough, so I looked at the red ones and decided to get them. We have 4 windows in all. The drapes were originally priced at $20 a panel and I needed 8 panels. I bought all 8 of them for $40. I still wasn't sure I hadn't made a mistake, but when I put them up I knew I had made the right decision. Now they are helping to keep the living room draft free and toasty warm and they look great against the green walls. I just bought 2 accent pillows for the couch, in a very similar red, for a total of $6 and now the room almost loooks complete.

Kathy

 Hi ... I purchased one red and two blue vinyl lunch boxes just after school started for about $2.00 a piece. I use mine every weekday, my hubby takes snacks to work/meals at on-call shifts and my mom packs tea and snacks for when she runs arrands or for doctor appointment.  They have a zipper pocket to put items into, like his badge-keys-pill case small wallet, ect ... and large enough to carry sealed container and small thermos in. My hubby's use alone has already paid for all three boxes and the knowledge that my mom now packs her snacks is a great mental relief.  

Hooray, I found the thread again!

I bought a vitamin E "lipstick" with no color for my lips, sold in the vitamin supplements aisle. The pharmacy was having a 50% off sale on their supplements, so it was $2.00 cut down to $1.00. Then I had a $0.50-off coupon, so it was $0.50 total. I figured I couldn't find name-brand chapstick for $0.50, so I bought it to try and I LOVE it. It feels much better than regular lip balm and has no color or scent.