More Ways Cheap Asian Stores Can Change Your Life

Let’s — per usual procedure — invoke the muse:

This song goes out to Lina, who sweetly invited me to the Vampire Academy premiere this week, where Iggy Azalea performed. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend due to Egg Timing.

The problem: It's entirely too inviting from the outside. Everyone looks to be having so much fun, and the colors are so bright!

The problem: It’s entirely too inviting from the outside. Everyone looks to be having so much fun, and the colors are so bright!

OMG. How did they know my official monogram?

OMG. How did they know my official monogram?

Even seasonal inventory for Valentine's Day!

Even seasonal inventory for Valentine’s Day!

Now that Deepak and I are both Valentine’s veterans (this will be our 4th) and soldered together for another 50 (knock wood/knock conversation hearts!), I humbly propose that we swap the showy gestures and presents of early Valentinin’ for the frugal/thoughtful charm of this Daiso section.

This wooden towheaded doll lady is capturing my heart the same way the random nutcrackers always do every Xmas at Target.

This wooden towheaded doll lady is capturing my heart the same way the random nutcrackers always do every Xmas at Target.

My new phone mount

My new phone mount

Finally, this product was what inspired this post title. As I gazed lovingly at my new mount — perfect for ease of navigation while scooting around to unfamiliar environs in the course of Egg Timing! — I had a thankful thought about cheap, readily available, useful products. It was just a few months ago that I had the custom-made ProClip phone car mount on my shortlist of gifts to buy Deepak for his latest birthday.

Those things are not cheap, but they come well-recommended on a variety of message boards. Deepak has a nice car, takes much better care of his phone than I do and uses his phone more frequently while driving due to better support of voice-activated features than my car has (extent of Egg’s features: Well, nothing, but I can pretend my car’s listening when I do something wrong then scream at it, “OMG! Work, you silly thing!”).

So I figured I might be able to get him a proper mount. Then, of course, I got itchy thinking about the dangers of spending so much on technology that is SURE to change, and fast. (For example, the ProClip is so customizable that you have to differentiate whether you use your phone with a case on or no — what about when you get a new, bulkier case — say, a purple suitcase-shaped on from Daiso, or get the new generation phone, or, heaven forbid, switch to a phablet?!)

Ultimately, of course, that idea was scrapped. I’m appreciative that the Daiso phone mount stepped in to fill the void. We also picked up such other “Why do you need to spend bank on this product?” goods as our new shower curtain — a veritable no-frills, yet effective, polka dotted tarpaulin. Because for $1.50 for the full curtain AND rod rings, why not?

Bringing it back around globally, Americans get pressured and deluded into paying an unnecessary premium for things. Wedding dresses, for example. Also: glasses. This is why I always push Zenni. Why in the HECK do people always tout Warby Parker as a good deal? I mean, it’s a good deal over the utterly mind-boggling optical fleece that we have allowed to happen since the dawn of corrective eyewear. But you could buy at least 10 pairs of Zenni glasses for far less than the price of 1 pair of Warby Parkers. Wake up, world!

This regular-type melamine sponge will be waiting to welcome you Daiso.

This regular-type melamine sponge will be waiting to welcome you Daiso.

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