105 yen bargains

I have months where I swear I will never go into the 100 yen shop on principle.  I have watched as my children broke toys from there and just threw them in the rubbish without thinking twice, knowing that they could get another one for just 100yen.   They lost concept of what actually cost a lot of money and what was very cheap.  Nothing was really valued.  Unfortunately I started to have the same kind of mentality....so I started to avoid the shops.

As I said, there are months where I won't go near there, but then... I always break under the pressure of needing some art supplies for teaching, or some cheap lunch box supplies and let's face it, there is actually some pretty good stuff in the 100 yen shops here if you can find it among the junk.  My latest breakdown yielded me a great buy - a "Carving knife for food decoration".  As many of you will know Japan is the capital of making food into different shapes for their lunch boxes and this knife is designed for cutting apples or eggs into checkerboard patterns or sausages into octopuses.... fortunately my kids are over this particular phase so my knife is being put to a different purpose.  As I hoped when I bought it, it turns out that it is perfect for slashing bread dough before putting it in the oven - and considering the price of the specialist tools for this job it really is a bargain!!  I tested it out on a loaf of spelt bread and ... I would have to say even I was impressed!  Tom asked where I had bought the bread and the kids both had seconds.  Perhaps I will have to go 100 yen shopping a little more regularly.....