Deals in China

I’m finally finished my China Trip expenses. At the same time I got to look over my personal spending courtesy of my spending excel spreadsheet. Here are some of my best deals.

Cross Stitch patterns: these came in a kit with the pattern, cloth, and strings. Cost about $10-$20. This may not be super low prices but there was a lot of selection. I could also reuse the patterns. This saved my sanity in China when I moved into the apartment with one English Channel and no Internet. I heard someone say that people sell these on eBay. Maybe I could do that. Right now I’m making a set of decorative pillows as gifts.

Camera Case: I was going to buy a camera case from Amazon.com for $14.2 using my Amazon Mechanical Turk earnings. However, I got one in China for $4.

On a side note, I’m glad to see that the camera (Cannon SD850 IS) I bought in October is still about the same price I bought it for. Of course I had to do a lot of work getting it price matched back in October but it’s worth it. I hate it when I buy electronics and it drops dramatically in price right after.

Hiking Sticks: I found perfectly good hiking sticks with shock absorbing springs for $9. They are nothing fancy but meet all my needs just fine. I told my friends about them and ended up buying a couple for them as well.

Hat: This was a spontaneous buy. I love hats, have lots of them, and probably don’t need any more. I was looking at this hat (similar to the one in the photo but black). The price was 40RMB. I didn’t bargain because I really wasn’t planning on buying. But the owner lowered the price to 20RMB so I caved and bought it. It’s such a cute hat for less than $4. At Urban Outfitter this hat (Deux pointelle beret) is selling for $28!

Murano glass pendants: I got 3 for $5 each. I found them last time I was in China and bought one for Sis. She wanted 3 to give as Christmas gifts. I saw them in the mall during lunch on Friday and they were going for $19.95.