beads - cheap and recycled

[Kate]

Does anyone know of a good way to get beads cheaply, besides recycling them?

I like threading beads, but not wearing them, so I have several strings of them strung across my ceiling. Because of that I amn't quite so worried about what each individual bead looks like, perhaps, so I have come up with a few things to recycling (apart from the obvious old necklaces and the like):

(i) Those cotton buds usually have plastic tubes which can be cut up quite well, and come in various colours. (But I end up with LOTS and LOTS of one colour for ages until I can get through them all...) (& you can use the cotton ends before cutting them off.)

(ii) The little metal things at the end of tealights to hold the wicks in place.

(iii) Plastic lids (eg for Haagen Dazs) if you can be bothered to cut it all up and make holes in the little pieces. (Drawing pins are good for this, in my experience.)

Does anyone have other ideas? I am not at all averse to buying "real" beads if I can afford them, as I do think the recycled ones are better interspersed among more of the former, rather than the other way around.

Thanks,

Kate