We recently took a trip to Vietnam to explore this historical country.  Some parts were very beautiful like the Mekong Delta and the tiny island we went to.  It was lush and full of pretty flowers and trees everywhere.  There was also fruit I had never seen before but boy did it taste good.  It was famous for its very little bananas which really are not bananas but something different.  They looked like bananas.  The best thing about this place though, was that a lot of the stuff you can buy was not cheap stuff.  There were a whole lot of very poorly manufactured things to buy in Vietnam.  The streets were full of booths of people selling everything you can think of.  I bought some toys for our son at one of these places and when I got back to the hotel they literally broke in my hands.  We were both very disappointed but we paid only a dollar in American money for them. 

Clothes too were cheaply made at times but they inexpensive to buy.  A lot of these things were made in China.  Tourists would shop all day but it was all cheap stuff.  Yes, the deals were good and we saw people from all over the world shopping there but I was a little perplexed that they were buying all these bad quality things.  Rolex watches cost under thirty dollars but they were not Rolexes.  I hope most people who bought them knew this, but many probably did not care because the name Rolex was on them.  I guess when they went back home they could show their friends a Rolex watch and brag about it. 

Some might have just liked they had a Rolex, real or not.  It was still cheap stuff though.  My wife and I after purchasing a few too many of this stuff decided to only but the hand made items in the street.  We examined the things we wanted carefully and were shown many hand made things.  I bought a couple of beautiful hand made wooden boats for a relatively good price.  One was pretty big and the other one was small.  It was quite the scene though, watching our little boy drag these two boxes through the airport.  When we made it home, the boats were slightly damaged.  At least it was not cheap stuff.  We also bought a lot of hand-embroidered items.  Blankets, handkerchiefs, and cell phone holders were very well done.  Most were only around three American dollars.  We bought quite a few of them to bring home to family and friends.  The detail was great and of course, we kept a few for ourselves.

We also watched candy being made from scratch from coconuts.  Breaking coconuts is no east task and wrapping up all that candy in little pieces of wrappers is a tedious job.  The candy tasted great and we bought several bags.  None of it was cheap stuff.

The trip to Vietnam was great and worth the very long plane ride to get there.  I do not know if I ever want to take another plane ride that long again.  I ran out of things to do.  I watched a few bad movies and slept a lot.  Great.

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With the downward financial economy many people think that it is impossible to be able to afford a vacation. People list money in their top five stresses and with such a high unemployment rate and the rising cost of living it is no wonder that people are troubled about their finances. Here are a few helpful tips to saving up for a cheap affordable vacation.

After you have decided on your destination do some research to find cheap or even free attractions at your destination. Many cities have free tourist attractions or events. Doing a little research before you get there will help you to know what the city has to offer in cheap entertainment. Doing your research on attractions will also help you to decide what you really want to see while you are there, many tourist towns have sometimes so many things to choose from it can be hard to decide which to pick. When you get to your hotel you should also talk to the consierge at the desk to see if they have coupons for local attractions or restaurants. Many places that are located near a hotel will advertise to tourists and may also include a coupon to help keep you vacation cheap.

Before you go on your vacation have a budget. Keep a notebook of all of your expenses so that you know how much money you are spending or charging. Many people overspend on vacation by using their credit cards and then have trouble making their payment when they return. Knowing how much you have to spend in cash or on your charge card and knowing how much you have already spent before you leave your hotel in the morning will keep you from overspending.

If you are going to use your credit cards while on vacation and are traveling overseas or across the border make sure you check with your credit card to determine if they have a international fee attached to your credit card. Some companies charge a fee that may lower your budget or help you to decide to use cash. Checking before you begin to use your charge card on vacation may help to keep your costs low.

If you are having trouble deciding where to go you may start out with a travel budget. Decide how much you will be able to spend on travel and lodging. Once you have a number to go off of you can begin to look for cheap travel options. Some online websites contain travel packages that include air fair and hotel accomidations. Searching for online cheap travel accomidations may help you to decide where you will be able to afford to travel to. Searching online you may also be able to find coupons for travel or hotels. It never hurts to look for a coupon to help you keep your travels cheap.

When you get your travels all figured out you should think about what kind of luggage you should take. Many airlines have a limit on the free number of bags that you can take. Finding out the luggage rules for your airline will help you from paying to take that extra bag.

These are just a few helpful tips to help you in keeping your family vacation tradition while still staying on a budget. Finding a cheap vacation can bring your family just as much fun as an expensive vacation.

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If you’re strapped for cash but still have certain needs and desires that simply must be met, you may want to consider shopping at second-hand stores where you can find a whole bunch of cheap stuff. Not only do they have stuff that is not expensive, but you can find almost anything you are looking for there. More so, you can find total gems in thrift stores that you can’t find in most other stores. Clothing items that will make you the envy of all who gaze upon your can be found. Also, if you are a good hunter and bargain shopper, you can find items that are actually quite valuable.

Many people have actually made an art form of finding cheap stuff in thrift shops. They know just which thrift store to go to on which day. Some thrift stores get new stock on particular days. So those who are in the know show up on those days and get first crack at the new stuff before other people have had a chance to get their grubby paws all over it and cherry pick the good stuff. But for the prime pickings, it might be necessary to get up early and show up to the thrift store when it first opens. But anyone who is a thrift store junky knows is that there is a great deal of luck involved with finding cool, useful, valuable or interesting things at a thrift store.

Only after wading through a bunch of cheap stuff that is worthless or otherwise not worth purchasing, even though it’s cheap, you just might find just the thing you’ve been looking for. Perhaps that jacket you’ve had in your mind for years was on the rack all of a sudden and you snatched it up in less than a second. That is what cheap thrift store shopping is all about.

For some of the best deals around, start frequenting thrift stores for some really cheap stuff. If you are lucky enough and sly enough to find valuable items that have been drastically marked down, then you can either use them yourself, adding a little class to your second-hand life, or you can find a buyer and make a profit off of the stuff. Second-hand store shopping can be addictive. There is always that amazing deal or perfect item out there. It’s the hunt that will put it in your hand. Get out and start hunting.

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When traveling to less-developed countries than the United States, many people are surprised by how cheap a lot of countries are to travel and buy goods. There truly is cheap stuff to buy in these places, relatively speaking. But in more touristy areas, travels are struck by how on par with U.S. prices some of these places are. This is where a person’s bargaining skills can come in handy. It is a ritual in some locations, and if you don’t bargain, it is considered an insult. Other countries allow bargaining but it may be less pervasive than in other parts of the world.

Because people who sell goods to tourists know how to spot a naive traveling in about a second and will try to take advantage of them as much as possible, it’s important not to let on that you may not know the particular customs or traditions of the location. Even if the color of your skin gives away the fact that you’re not from the place you are traveling to, you don’t have to let your bargaining skills reinforce that. Instead, practice bargaining with your friends and family before you go. This can prepare you for the sometimes tense negotiations that will undoubtedly ensue if you are trying to buy something, especially from a street vendor.

To get really cheap stuff, you’ll have to combine a little quick thinking with tact and suave and finish it off with a take-no-prisoners attitude. Of course you will not want to be offensive, but if the price begins to reach heights that you are not comfortable with, simply put your foot down and begin to walk away. More often than not, the vendor will drop the price and a deal will be made. This is how many people get cheap stuff while traveling.

If getting cheap stuff by bargaining is not enough, you might also want to use your new bargaining skills to get cheaper taxi rides. In some countries, when a taxi stops, you settle the price before you get in once you have established where you wish to go. You can bargain from there. Taxi drivers will usually inflate the price quite a bit if they see that you are a tourist. So, it’s best to get an idea of how much taxi rides are so you don’t get taken advantage of. That way you can have the peace of mind that you aren’t paying too much while on your trip.

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Dollar stores gained popularity in the 1970s and have remained part of commerce ever since. In fact, there are even 50-cent stores and 99-cent stores. However, by far the most popular and widespread of these cheap stuff stores is the infamous dollar store. The draw clearly is that nothing in the stores costs more than one dollar. It’s a pretty good marketing strategy, actually. Just because the merchandise is so ungodly cheap, people will by hordes of things they don’t even need. When that one dollar price tag is looking you in the face and you know you have at least a buck burning a hole in your pocket, you can easily rationalize the purchase. It’s just a dollar.

From household items like mops and dustpans, to candy and frozen dinners, to novelty items for birthday parties, dollar stores typically have everything anyone could want. The best part is that it’s all really cheap stuff. That will keep people coming back time and time again. In addition, perhaps not surprisingly, dollar stores make quite a bit of money. That’s because they get the merchandise at drastically marked down prices. So although people are purchasing the merchandise for a dollar, the store probably purchased it originally for about thirty cents. Talk about a mark-up. Yet the prices are still dirt cheap and people don’t mind paying those prices.

Some of the best cheap stuff found in a dollar store includes arts and craft supplies. In regular stores, these supplies, such as paint, markers, paper, crayons, color pencils, chalk and paint brushes, can be really expensive at normal stores. But at a dollar store, everything is one dollar. Go figure. With these cheap art supplies, you can host an arts and craft event and provide paper and paints for everyone to paint beautiful pictures. All of a sudden the dollar store is not only a source for cheap stuff. It is also a source of fun and creativity.

To find the cheapest stuff around look for your local dollar store and begin stocking your shelves at home with quality items that don’t cost an arm and a leg. In fact, they don’t even cost a finger or toe. They are cheap, and that’s what people want these days. Fortunately, people don’t have to give up the quality to get the cheap merchandise. The stuff might not be the best, but for a dollar it will work out all right.

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Throughout many bigger cities in the United States, a trend has arisen that benefits the cheapskates out there who don’t like to pay a lot. They realized that cheap stuff or even free stuff at times is readily available on street corners. Instead of taking unwanted belongings to the dump or having garage sales or giving stuff to Goodwill, people have started to place their unwanted stuff by the curb in front of their house with a “free” sign in front of it. The beauty is a lot of the stuff that can be found in this manner is not junk at all, but actually nice, usable stuff.

To be sure, some of it is really cheap stuff that has no real use any more. But there are definitely some diamonds in the rough that can be found and, if needed, restored. Anything from clothes, to kitchen ware, to books, to CDs and cassette tapes, to furniture, there are several different items that make their way to free piles in front of people’s homes. Sometimes expensive stereo equipment can be in these piles. One good tip if you are looking for some cheap stuff, or especially free stuff, is to go patrol around college campuses, especially around the month of June.

June is a good month to go looking for free piles around college campuses because that is the time of year when college students are getting out of class for the summer. Many move home for the summer or go somewhere else. It seems to be a trend with college students that they thrown an astronomical amount of stuff away when they move. It’s often because they have waited until the last minute and don’t have time to find homes for valuable belongings but they don’t want to bring the items with them, for some reason. So, these items will find their way to free piles or dumpsters where the crafty cheapskate can find them and take them for his or her uses.

A good tip for acquiring cheap stuff in this manner is to get a bicycle trailer so you can haul all your new stuff around from fee pile to free pile and dumpster to dumpster. For the entrepreneur, this could even turn into a business. If you have a good eye and can tell what might be valuable, you can sell the stuff you find on craigslist.com, or even eBay.

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Some of the cheapest bargains out there come from the ones you love. Even though perhaps hand-me-down clothing may not be the ideal, they definitely make for cheap stuff. Think of it this way: the styles are tried and true. The clothing items each conceal histories of where they have traveled and who they have been on. If the idea of hand-me-down clothing doesn’t sound appealing at first, then wait and hear more about why they are so wonderful.

The primary reason that hand-me-downs are so great is because they are truly cheap stuff. In fact, they are free. That’s why most people wear these clothes, because they can’t afford new clothes. Typically, hand-me-down clothes start with the oldest child. They are purchased new for the first born because new parents typically don’t have baby or toddler clothes to dress their new baby in. Then with subsequent children and as they grow, the clothes are passed down to the next in line who has grown to be a size the clothes will fit. Although most younger siblings detest this process and find it to be unfair that the oldest child is the only one who gets to buy brand new clothes, the financial benefits are worth it

If durable clothing is purchased from the beginning, you can have a long life of hand-me-down clothing to dress your children in for years into the future. Typically, they will beg for new clothes. But it’s possible to explain why hand me downs are so great, mainly because they are cheap stuff. Even an immature mind can understand some level of finances and the benefits of not having to go out and purchase all new clothing for all the kids. Because kids grow very rapidly, if new clothes were needed every time they grew out of their clothes, it could get very expensive.

But as children grow and start establishing an identity, it’s possible that hand-me-down clothing will take on a new sense. Instead of thinking in terms of hand me downs as only for poor people who can’t afford new clothes, hand-me-down clothing can be for friends to share with each other when they no longer want to have a certain garment. Sharing clothing is what many young people like to do. It allows them to not only get cheap stuff, but it also helps them to express themselves with a batch of new, previously work clothes. It’s the way to go.

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When every penny counts, getting the best bargains is not just a nice perk, but a necessity. However, saving a buck while the cost of consumer items continues to rise can be a tricky proposition. The key is to shop more carefully, with a keen eye to price. For those who are new to the concept of shopping to save, it can be a bit overwhelming. To make the process easier, there are a few tricks to better navigate the retail market and come up with some remarkably cheap stuff.

The first thing to remember is that just about everything is cheaper out of season. This makes sense since most people like to buy items they can use right away. Most people do not need a lawnmower in January, so stores cannot afford to keep the prices of such items quite as high since there is no demand for them. However, smart shoppers who are focused on saving money will always think ahead, planning for the future and shopping the after-season sales accordingly. Looking for summer items in early fall or winter items after Christmas are excellent ways to find cheap stuff. The items may not be used right away, but the great deals certainly make up for the wait.

The second major tip is to look off the beaten track. While the regular sales floor may have the best selection, it also carries the items with the highest cost. After all, stores want to put their best selling products out in plain sight. However, looking for the clearance and sales areas is exactly where to find cheap stuff. True, the selection in these areas is somewhat limited because most of the time, these areas are stocked with items that have not sold as well overall. They could be out of season items or simply not as popular. Yet, this should not be a deterrent for the budget minded shopper. Many times, the items in the clearance section are just as nice and a whole lot cheaper than regularly priced items, making them a must to consider for anyone looking to really save.

These two tips are easy to follow and can yield fairly substantial results. By just knowing when and where to look, it is a snap to make shopping a cost effective exercise, perfect for anyone who is looking to save some money during these hard economic times.

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