Apr

29

Shopping New York — Native New Yorker Style (Part 2: Street Vendors)

Filed Under Making Extra Money, Shopping | 3 Comments

Day 2 — New York:  Went to see a show last night called “Sessions” an off-Broadway musical about therapy.  Good show, good price — $30 tickets through Goldstar events, which sells discount theatre and other tickets in California, Las Vegas, Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York or Boston.    Also, you can look into TDF, TKTS, and Audience Extras, all good for the same purpose.  

But I digress, although shopping for tickets is a fun bargain adventure in NY.   BTW, if anyone knows of a discount ticket 

clearout nyservice that’s offered elsewhere, please let me know!  

Up early on Day 2, first stop, financial district.  After a moment of silence at Ground Zero, I cheered myself by heading across the street to Century 21.  Now with 6 stores, all in the NY/NJ area, this is one of New York’s shopping landmarks. Though officially a specialty store since it doesn’t sell furniture, Century has arguably the best selection in the city of designer apparel and accessories, shoes, lingerie and home decor at a great discount. Picked up a pair of designer sunglasses (something I would not buy on the streets, as they are often knock-offs with headache-causing cheap lenses) for a song. 

 

Heading north and veering east, my next destination is the East Village.  Stopped along the way to pick up a piece of fresh fruit from a street cart, 

ny fruit

 beautiful and cheaper than any supermarket.  One of the things I miss about NY is the street food.  Better than anywhere except maybe Paris. Would have eaten more 

 

but I was on the way to meet my friend Joey for lunch at a trendy little vegetarian restaurant with a great lunch special, for roughly half of what one would spend in the same place for dinner. Delicious lunch for less than $10.  Wandered through Chinatown (Click here for a full report) and Little Italy, up to the West Village where I visited a small flea market where a building used to be (nothing exciting there) and into the East Village to meet Joey.

En route to the restaurant, I crossed St. Mark’s Place, which I think is one of New York’s prettiest streets, where I was assured to find a plethora of street vendors hawking everything from clothing to jewelry to hash pipes.  In the market for a gift for my sister, I found a beautiful embroidered shawl in her favorite color, purple.  Asking price was $12, already a bargain as in a store if would cost much more.  The man at the stand (Mr. Standman?) offered me 2 for $20 but wasn’t budging any lower.  I did, however, get him to do $10 for one. Told him I’d come back. (This is usually a good bargaining technique.)sale ny

After lunch, back to St. Marks.   Mr. Standman did remember me but still wasn’t budging.  I bought the scarf for $10, a win-win transaction.  Paid cash, tax included.  Mission accomplished.  

I dropped Joey off at the subway station, and again headed north up Sixth Avenue.  Outside a famous corner Hot Dog restaurant, I spoke with a street vendor and house painter called Fitz.

Fitz

We had a fun conversation, I bought a vintage Miami ashtray from him for a dollar, and I continued up 6th Avenue, with the purchase I couldn’t help but buy, to the Ladies Mile.  The Ladies Mile is a stretch of 6th Avenue known for its beautiful architecture and its shops.  In the early 1900s, the quarter-mile strip housed such elegant New York stores as B. Altman, Arnold Constable, Lord & Taylor, Tiffany, and Brooks Brothers.  The Ladies Mile got its name because in the old days of New York, it was where the rich uptown men dropped their wives while they visited their mistresses, whom they kept in the adjacent (and now very hip) residential area known as Chelsea.

Now, the beautiful buildings house a variety of big box stores, including Barnes & Noble, TJ Maxx, Bed Bath & Beyond and Filene’s Basement.  I walked into one, only to find lots of people with full shopping carts, and dozens waiting in line to pay.  No recession here, it seems.  But I have a promise to myself that I will NEVER stand in line and wait to give people my money.  I walked back out to the street.

 

Continuing up 6th Avenue, vendors lined both sides of the street, selling bags, belts, cell phone accessories, artwork, 

ny street artscarves, flowers, food and more.  I picked up two belts for myself ($8 for both), flowers for my host ($5) , a case and charger for my cell phone ($10 for both) and headed uptown to the home of a friend for a haircut and color for less than most people pay for a blow-dry.  (I can’t even say what I paid for that, but let it suffice to say that he hasn’t raised my price since maybe 1980.)

Out to meet another friend for dinner (less $25 from Restaurant.com
) and a movie (discount tickets from the Entertainment Book), and the Bargain Finder Extraordinaire (me!) winds up another day of living the good life for less. 

Next week we will talk about a shopping technique somewhat specific to New York but now spreading to the internet — Sample Sales. 

pict00141

Happy Weekend.

Apr

27

Live Free and Prosper

Filed Under Freebies | 2 Comments

One of the places I go to for bargain ideasfree sample sign is BargainBabe.com, where Julia (the Babe) gives more Tips for Savvy Spenders.   Here’s a link to Julia’s site, where she talks today about sites for Freebies: BargainBabe  

Thanks, Julia, you’re one of my favorites fellow                                frugalistas!