What A Deal!

zip ties galore

One day, about three years ago I found two 4'x8' pieces of dark green,  free plastic lattice on the side of the road in a junkpile. I pulled the Malibu over and fought the lattice from under trash. I got both pieces sort of stuck in the trunk of my car, put some thing like a gallon of antifreeze on top of it. That did not work! So, I put them on top of the car and held them on with one hand! Then, I drove about 4 mph home, three miles through city streets, downtown, and on two major highways. Yes, it was a busy time between the trash and home. I was rescuing $50 worth of lattice.

I have used various methods to try to attach it to the side of the hens' pen, a dog pen that has 10 foot wide sides that are 6 feet high. The lattice sags and I try again. Finally, I decided that zip ties held the answer.  I fancy that I am camouflaging the chain link, spiffing it up, adding a little class. I am oh, so deluded. But, I persevere in that mindset. Indulge me. It is pretty.

At Lowe's last week, I purchased 11" zip ties, 20 for about $3. That made 10 ties for each piece of lattice. The lattice needs to be secured all the way down because the wind blows it and leaves accumulate behind the lattice near the ground. The protruding lattice interferes with lawn care and might be broken by a lawn mower or rake. Overall, I had a good idea but executed it poorly. So, the day came when I purchased zip ties.

Several days later I was in Kmart. There on the shelf marked $2, was a container of various sizes of zip ties. Hooray for me!

 $2

There are about:
75 7.5-inch black ones,
75 4-inch blue,
75 4-inch green,
75 4-inch white,
75 4-inch red.
Also are a half dozen 7.5-inch white ones.
Then, 25 white, 7.5-inch ones did not make it into the photo.

According to the canister of nylon cable ties aka zip ties, there are 650 ties in the container:
400 assorted 4 inch cable ties (18 lbs. tensile strength);
150 lbs. natural 7.5 inch cable ties (50 lbs. tensile strength);
100 natural, 4-inch cable ties (18 lb. tensile strength).
I see no natural anything unless that is white.  Yes, white=natural. 

There are about 500 zip ties in the container.

On the canister is a sale sticker--$9.99. I looked on the Kmart site and the price there is $8.69. No matter--I got a good deal.

The canister zip ties seem not as thick as the more expensive ones. However, I doubt I will ever need these for anything that needs gorilla-strength holding power. The little ridges are on both sides of the cable and they are deeper than on the cheaper ones. Will that matter?

20 for $3

Lowe's will get these back and I will get a refund.

See what Kmart has reduced in your area. They just finished inventory last week, so they have various items on sale. Do you have a Kmart?

Your turn
Have you ever purchased an item at the going price and found something drastically reduced that will work? Do you take the more expensive item back to the store? Have you furnished your yard with curb shopping? What is the best yard find you have dragged home?