I am a well-known spendthrift. My general motto is: "I like having stuff, I just don't care how nice that stuff is."

You're more likely to find me at K-Mart than at Macy's. I have no shame, and brand names mean little to me. This is another reason that I love the city. It's full of bargains.

Certainly, there are some things about the city that aren't cheap. The city income tax, for one thing. Property taxes, for another. Maybe your car insurance. But in many other ways, the city is a bonanza for penny-pinchers.

Real estate is usually pretty reasonable, even in "nice" areas. No one here is paying extra for the prestige of living in a certain public school district, or living in the newest or shiniest vinyl-sided house.

Our public schools have "issues" and everybody knows it. There isn't much housing that qualifies as new or shiny. There sure isn't a lot of vinyl siding (thank goodness), and there are very few cul-de-sacs. People come here for other reasons.

Groceries are pretty cheap here. You'll find more Schnucks (10), Shop & Save (four), Save-A-Lot (five), and ALDI (four) stores here than you will Dierberg's (zero), Whole Foods (zero), or Trader Joe's (zero). There is still a Straub's in the Central West End, for those of you with a more refined palate.

At Kingshighway and Christy Boulevard, there is actually a Family Dollar, a Big Lots, and a thrift store in the same plaza. That's like a holy trifecta of austerity there. (You can score some really awful Hawaiian shirts at the thrift shop for only three bucks. I'm the kind of guy who gets excited about such things.)

If you need a reasonably priced haircut and are allergic to beauty salons, the city still has plenty of good, old-fashioned barber shops.

If Dollar General sold beer, I would rarely need to shop anywhere else. And speaking of beer, it's pretty cheap in the city, too. Most every little corner bar will offer you some domestic beer selections on tap for next to nothing. Oh, they may not have an obscure beer menu spanning six continents and 16 languages, but your bar tab will never reach six figures, either. Or even two figures, sometimes.

Speaking of bargains, Cherokee Street is chock full of those. One can get lost spending a day just poking around on that one street. Places like Gringo Jones also come to mind. (Their basement may give you flashbacks to "Silence of the Lambs," but it's all part of the city charm.) The Soulard Farmer's Market is its own little world of good bargains.

I am only willing to spend "real" money on three things: coffee pots, gloves and sunglasses. Everything else is negotiable. And available here.

If anyone's wondering what to get me for a late Christmas present, a reasonably priced slinger at the Courtesy Diner (either location) would really hit the spot. Or, a $3 Hawaiian shirt. I'm easy to please.

Chris Morrill is a senior fraud analyst, who enjoys Hawaiian shirts, current events and politics and South City weirdness.