CRAIGSLIST GEMS

I don't understand why anyone buys anything new ever. There is just too much good free and cheap stuff out there to spend your hard earned cash ever, ever paying retail prices, even if you are a bajillionaire. One great place to find cheap stuff is on line. I love perusing Craigslist. I find the site absolutely fascinating. Here are a few of today's "FREE ITEMS" hand picked straight offa Craigslist for you to benefit from on today's Bargain Master. Just bring a pal or two if you're going to pick something up or have a few pals around if someone's coming over. Another thing you can find for free on Craigslist, unfortunately, are serial killers. Happy free shopping!

Free Haircut at Crops for Girls short haircut store in the Lower East Side. This is for girls who want a short hairstyle to change it up for 2011

Six pairs of cute womens shoes, size 6, East Village, w pic, in case you have recently lost all your shoes in a fire

Free scrap wood, a whole mess of it, looks like it'd be good for burning, carpentry or carving into swords, Cobble Hill

Cap for a small truck so you can hide the bodies

Cute Pit Bull in NJ in case you have 7 hours worth of free time that you'd like to fill walking a dog

Free Claw Foot Bathtub - though these things are really heavy and require a truck and a couple strong people to move, they are so beautiful, typically quite valuable and are great if you are remodeling a home or if you'd like to slit your wrists in a bathtub but only have a standing shower

Sumi-e paintbrush set for the Japanese artist in you

White upright piano, lovely, Wilton, CT, for the Elton John in you

25 free printed ribbons for your event, great for a birthday party, event or AIDS rally

Jones New York Winter Coat - Upper West Side - those rich people are always giving great stuff away cuz money is no object

Why Buy Real Uggs?

Do Uggs support charitable organizations with the millions of dollars they are obviously raking in?
Do they help the planet in some way? Are they really the most comfortable shoes of the decade? Will someone please tell me
why I should pay $150 for these comfortable, utterly adorable slippers masquerading as shoes?

Up until a few days ago, I didn't even like the stupid things. I saw them on other girls and I thought to myself, "Yuck!" But as I was helping a friend wrap Christmas presents, I saw a pair of Uggs she'd purchased for a young lady. They were purple Bailey Button Uggs and they were really nice. I picked them up and whammo! I was bitten by the Ugg bug. All of a sudden, I had to have an exact pair. I searched online, I looked everywhere, trying to find the purple Bailey Buttons. Finally, I found them, at the reasonable and affordable price of $150. NOT!

I am trying to figure out why people will pay $150 starting price for a pair of Uggs. If they're lucky,
they can find a good deal on a website somewhere, say $105, or on Craigslist for $80 or $90 if they
happen to be a size 6, which for some reason, is the size of all the CL Uggs.

So, finally, I decided, screw it. I'm not going to spend that kind of money on these shoes. I'm not that materialistic. I'm not that rich. I'm a hard worker and money means something to me. So I caved and bought a pair of fakies.

My "Uggs" were $15 at Walgreens. They had one style choice in two different colors -- either black or tan.
And I think they are adorable. OK, so they don't say "Uggs" on the back. But take a zero off the end of the price I paid for mine. They are way comfy and so cute! They're like ugly stuffed animals on your feet. I didn't even have to wait in line. They will be trashed by the end of the season in this recent blizzard dumping of snow, so I figured, why not just make life easy on myself? We vote with our dollars and when we spend tons of dough on shoes and clothes, all we're doing is telling people, "Yes, please keep charging me up the yin yang for your dumb crap! Thank you so much!"

Not to mention, Uggs are made with Sheepskin which hey, guess what? It probably doesn't feel too good for the sheep.
No sheep have been harmed in the Walgreen's version. However, a friend pointed out to me that supporting Walgreen's
means supporting cheap labor and underpaying employees which I know about and I don't like. It's so hard to win in this world,
and it is of course, important to think of the impact our purchases make.

There are lots of articles that say "Fake Uggs are bad for you" hmmm...I wonder where that rumor started?
Can anyone say PR / marketing that Uggs certainly paid big bucks to put out there? The truth is, these boot
types (including Uggs) have no arch. So get one of those pair of gel arches, while you're at Walgreens, or
at Duane Reade, Rite Aid, what have you, and stick them in. They are $10 / pair, bringing the total cost of
the boots up to $25, still a huge bargain and surely my most comfortable pair of shoes.

Dollar Deals

The other night while I was trying to catch some zzzzs, my mind started wandering and I began thinking about all the places in the Lower East Side where you can get things for a dollar -- good things. And I decided to make a list. They say you can't get anything for a dollar, but check out this haul.

1. Dumplings. You can get the most kick ass dumplings for $1 at Vanessa's on Eldridge between Grand and Broome. Everyone knows about Vanessa's, but ever been to Northside Dumplings? It's on Essex just south of Hester and you get 5 dumplings for $1, that's one more than Vanessa's. It's hard to say whose are better, the service and ambiance are better at Vanessa's but when you're paying one lousy dollar, does it matter?

2. Sparkling (seltzer) water. At the giant Pathmark at the very south end of Allen / Pike St. you can get liter and sometimes 2 liter bottles of Vintage sparkling water for usually .40 to .60 cents in about half a dozen flavors such as lemon, orange, raspberry, plain and cherry. You can also get big potato knishes at the deli for .60 each. The only catch is that the place is sometimes full of food stampers who have 2 and 3 carts full of frozen pizzas and ice cream so choose your check out line wisely.

3. At Malaysian Skyway on Allen / Canal, you can get a lunch special for $4, including soup and tea or bottled water. I usually opt for the Young Tofu soup which is enough food for 2 people. If you only have $1, you can get an order of coconut rice which is tres delicious. I prefer to order out but it's a nice cheap place to bring your tourist friends and has a huge good luck dollar wall, which is incidentally, another dollar bargain, if you believe in that kind of thing, which I do.

4. New 99 cent BJ at Allen and Grand. No, you can not get what you might think the name suggests for .99, or who knows, maybe you can, I haven't ever asked, because I don't have a penis. But you can get 3 CD mailers for $1. Beat that, Staples.

5. Hot chocolate, $1 at the little deli on the SE corner of Delancey and Ludlow. They call you "my friend" if you go in a few times, after they start to recognize your face. So for a buck, you get a hot chocolate and a friend. Beat that, Starbucks.

I had so many others but I didn't write them down and now I can't remember. Anyway, enjoy these great dollar deals and check back here again for more bargains and steals, if that's your thing. Living in NYC, the most expensive city in the world, it's certainly mine.

All You Can Fill for $4

I'm in Western NC for Thanksgiving and we spent the day shuffling around thrift stores. My favorite finds were a long denim Christian LaCroix coat for $2 and at Caranet in Franklin, NC, I got a pair of vintage tan hashed shoes for $2. They also had an "all you can fill" bag sale for $4. I filled it with a few sweaters and dresses from the 80s, one covered in bright sequins. Cute and cheap -- just the way I like it.

Haul: 2 pair shoes, 2 dresses, 2 sweaters, 3 jackets and a hat (J. Crew, Lord & Taylor, Christian LaCroix, etc)

Grand total: $12

This is why I love thrift stores. Why would anyone shop anywhere else? Oh, because they don't want to wear dead people's clothing. I get it, but WHATEVER. When I am gone, I hope that people will enjoy my classy ass threads.

Pizza Crust

Whole Foods -- not my favorite place to hang out on your typical Tuesday evening around 5 PM, but when you can bag a whole wheat pizza crust for $1.69, that puts the pizzaz in your pizzas.

Compare to Pannoli, which is usually about $3.50 each, and not whole wheat.

Not to mention, you can cut that whole wheat baby into two and line a square pan pizza with it for two evenings of pizzas. It takes about 20 minutes to bake up right. Can anyone say YUM and WHAT A DEAL at the same time?