Second Hand Rules!

Since our arrival in the Bay area, I haven't been able to stop that internal exchange rate caluculator whenever we go shopping. PhP51=$1. So until this calculator runs out of batteries, I've found great shopping pleasure in anything second-hand!

My top favorites are Goodwill on Geary Street, downtown San Francisco, ebay.com, craigslist and Discovery Shop (benefitting the American Cancer Society). We also do regular rounds of garage sales but discovered most of the good stuff is already on-line. I've found brand new Osh Kosh and Carters outfits for my son at $1-2 each, old Navy fleece-lined jeans for $6. On ebay, I've won a Banana Republic suede leather jacket for $30. My favorite purchase is a second hand Fuji S2 camera for $600, which came with a 3 year warrantee and lots of freebies. And my husband was able to assemble an entire bike from parts advertised on craigslist.com, with a free toddler helmet and wheel thrown in. It's wonderful. I love it.

Of course, there comes a twinge of guilt that all my lovely cheap stuff is ultimately a product of a society of excess. But I get over it as soon as I think of the savings.

Now to finally win an auction on that gorgeous elusive Coach bag on ebay.