The San Francisco Botanical Garden Plant Sales offer amazing opportunities to buy plants you rarely find at commercial nurseries or garden centers. This is the largest plant sale in the Bay Area featuring rare and unusual plants from the Garden’s own collection. You can shop or just browse more than 20,000 Plants, more than 4,000 [...]

The Indie Mart Design & DIY Street Fair returns on Sunday, July 18, 2010 — with more DIY than ever. More than 90 vendors with designer duds, vintage, handmade unique goodies, art, baked treats and a bargain or two for savvy shoppers and broke folk. “This Indie Mart you can make your own terrarium, make [...]

The San Francisco Really Really Free Market (RRFM), run by a collective of citizens, is a temporary marketplace based on an alternative gift economy. No business cards, no bartering — just show up for the joy of giving (and getting) stuff. Like a potluck for stuff, everybody brings something and goes away with more. Bring [...]

Downtown Petaluma’s Sidewalk Sale (Saturday July 24, 2010) is a bargain shopping opportunity and annual ritual for local Sonoma County residents and visitors from all around the Bay Area. This one day event showcases over 50 eclectic and expansive of one-of-a-kind stores and offers shoppers refreshing choices and alternatives to the mall. Participating stores are [...]

Gift Cards seem like a great idea when someone just doesn’t know what to get you. The problem is, you can’t return a gift card, even if it’s for a store that doesn’t particularly suit you. Now there’s a work-around. You can now sell or trade your unwanted gift cards and even buy discounted gift [...]

A festival about soup? Why not? On Saturday, February 20, wander down to San Francisco’s Ferry Building, pay $1 for a hot cup of Ferry Plaza Farmers Market Minestrone Soup and learn about the history of soups throughout the world. You’ll pick up some great tips for making your own soup stock. The big soup [...]

The Annual White Elephant Sale in Oakland has been called the biggest and most fun rummage sale in Northern California. This free event takes place March 6 and 7, 2010. Put on by the Oakland Museum Women’s Board, the event packs a 96,000-square-foot warehouse with sporting goods, boutique items, books, furniture, art, electrical items, dishes, [...]

The Macy’s Flower Show in Union Square goes on from March 28-April 11 with a list of free/cheap activities to enjoy, like in-store events, sweepstakes, cooking demos, and seminars. Something to do on a foggy April day in the city, perhaps. “Spring Is In The Air as Macy’s Union Square is transformed into a colorful, [...]

The 18th Annual Palo Alto Clay & Glass Festival (July 10-11, 2010) is a free, fun-filled 2-day celebration of clay and glass art at the Palo Alto Art Center. Want to feel like you’re walking around in a kaleidoscope of color? This event presents a delightful range of ceramic and glass artwork to feast your [...]

Adore books and the occasional free thought? Then take it to the streets … of San Francisco, that is, at the 15th Annual Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair in Golden Gate Park (March 13-14, 2010). While this particular book fair is sooo San Francisco, it attracts booksellers, distributors, independent presses and political groups from around the [...]

Who needs your parents’ tired old tour books when you can download hip, original audio tours to your MP3 player. Thirty students at Galileo Academy of Science & Technology’s Academy of Hospitality and Tourism created audio tours of San Francisco based on eight themes, including a Coffee Lovers Tour that leads you through coffee houses [...]

Here at Bay Area On The Cheap you hear a lot about fun things to do — for free or at a sweet discount. Our holiday gift guide is no different. That’s because one of the best ideas for gift-giving during recessionary times is to give people something fun they can do to get them [...]

Okay not exactly cheap, but cheap for Jimmy Choo. Starting November 14, the coveted designer duds will be available at H&M on Powell Street in San Francisco, an other H&M stores. Jimmy Choo’s exclusive collaboration with H&M lands in stores on November 14, 2009, including our own H&M in SF. Even if you missed the [...]

If you’re planning to buy local this holiday season, stop by the San Francisco ETSY Handmade Ho Down on December 3, 2009. This is the first ever Etsy-sponsored urban craft show. The 21 and over event will support Drawbridge, a non-profit that brings art programs to disadvantaged youth. (Bring in art supplies for donation to [...]

The White Elephant Market is an upscale flea market held every weekend now through December at the old Custom House space on the Tiburon Boardwalk.  From shabby chic to Marin modern, you may just find it here. Have something to sell? You can rent space to sell your wares, art, merchandise, crafts, gently used goods, [...]

The First Annual Clay & Glass 28 (November 8, 2009) will showcase a collection of prestigious clay and glass artists recent works. Twenty-eight prominent San Francisco Bay Area clay and glass artists will present an impressive collection of one-of-a kind, hand crafted artworks — and the best part is you can enjoy it for free. [...]

If you haven’t been to the Half Moon Bay Citywide Garage Sale, go this year (September 26, 2009) and get some great deals on just about everything you can imagine. More than 100 Coastsiders sell stuff at this 10-year-old event. With that kind of trash treasure as a lure, it’s worth heading over the hill [...]

California “Cash For Appliances” Rebates — Now is the time to trade in your old inefficient home appliances for new energy-efficient models…and get cash back! The California Cash For Appliances program provides mail-in rebates on qualifying new refrigerators, clothes washers and room air conditioners, starting on Earth Day (April 22). The program is part of [...]

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) Artists Gallery will hold its annual Artists’ Warehouse Sale from Wednesday, May 6, through Sunday, May 10, 2009 at San Francisco’s Fort Mason Center, Building A. An annual tradition since 1993, the Artists’ Warehouse Sale is one of the Bay Area’s most anticipated art events. Popular with [...]

This time of year the Bay Area is in bloom. But if your budget doesn’t include buying new plants for your home or garden, just trade your old ones in for something new at the Free Plant Exchange in Mill Valley next Sunday. Bring a plant, take a plant in return. What can you bring? [...]