This weekend I was reminded that you can sometimes get the best beads without paying a lot of money. I stopped in a local dollar store and was amazed at how wide a variety of beads and general jewelry and craft supplies they had on sale. They actually had an entire row filled with things I could use to make jewelry with.

In most stores you’d expect to get nothing more than a few kid’s jewelry beads or a little bag of plastic seed beads for a dollar, but I actually found a lot more than just that in the dollar store. For a single buck I could get a bag full of some sort of turquoise looking glass beads, a large bag of some very nice wooden beads or a fairly good sized package of silver colored seed beads.

They also had a small collection of metal pendants with an oriental look to them and there were a bunch of bags of mixed charms and trinkets of various shapes and sizes. The dollar store even had some off brands of jewelry wire, but I refrained from trying it. I did pick up another cheap pair of wire cutters and pliers that I could keep handy for when I wanted to put together some bead jewelry while I’m working a craft show.

You might have better luck finding some deals on cheap jewelry supplies and beads at the national dollar store chains as opposed to the local mom and pop dollar stores. Some of the chains even offer bulk buying, so if you need a case of wooden beads or want 10,000 seed beads for next to nothing you may be able to buy them directly from the store! Buying this many beads at one time for such a low price almost feels as though you’re buying your jewelry beads wholesale!

Dollar stores are great places to get jewelry supplies and beads at a discount but you still have to be careful about overpaying for things, even in a dollar store. I’ve found that you still have to consider the cost-per-bead to really make sure you’re getting a good deal. Sometimes you can still get some better deals on your jewelry supplies using online coupons and I’m always amazed at the cheap beads and jewelry making supplies you can find at Amazon.com.