Shoes, $2

There's a woman I sometimes have coffee with, a single mother to eight-year-old twins, who says she doesn't have time to shop. She’s at work while the boys are at school, and when she takes them shopping with her they apparently won’t let her look for things for herself. So she wears falling-apart shoes and the same top most days. Needless to say, this doesn't sit right with me. No time to shop! So I found out her shoe size and told her I would be her agent for shoes. It isn’t as interfering as it sounds.

I was thrilled when I found these shoes. $2! If she paid me back by buying me a cup of coffee, I'd come out on top! The shoes had clearly never been worn, and as with most unworn shoes at op shops, when I took them to the counter the woman said, “They didn’t last long, I just put those out.” Being a successful op-shopper, you see, isn’t about finding the "best" op shops: it’s about visiting op shops frequently. Of course, not everyone has that kind of time on their hands.