Stayin' Alive: Shopping on the internet.

The Foreign Service is a family and a small one at that.  There are people you adore, people you... don't..., you don't burn bridges -ever- because you never know who will be posted together next, and you always know you can connect to people who are in your future post.  We need places to compare notes, commiserate, and offer useful advice. A new page called Trailing Houses has come about for such useful stuff.

When the local economy doesn't have familiar items for less that double or triple what you're willing to spend (i.e. cereal).  When the local economy has items that simply won't cut it (i.e. diapers). When the local economy doesn't have clothing in your size (i.e. India).  When the local economy doesn't have food items for restricted diets (i.e. diabetes).  You get the idea.

So here you go, fellow FS folk, a little list of useful links.

Hands down #1 was Amazon, and specifically Amazon Prime.  Everything you can possibly need to set up a new home.

If you're a Target fan at home, then Target online is great.

Walmart also has a good following, as well as CVS.

From there, there's a wide variety of favorite sites for everything across the board.

For spices and blends (unless you're in Asia or the Middle East, of course): Penzeys

For party goods: Oriental Trading Company

For standard clothing: LLBean and JCPenney and Kohls

For conservative women's clothing: Holy Clothing

For dresses and professional wear: Eshakti and ModCloth

Home and personal items: Drugstore and Soap and Alice

Babies need their own stuff: Diapers and CVS

Kids do too: Carters and Old Navy

School supplies are so expensive at post: Discount School Supply

Reusable items to lessen waste: Reuseit

Books, for those who don't own a Kindle: Book Depository and Paperback Swap

Gifts if you can't find anything local: Etsy and Prezzybox and ThinkGeek

Shoes: Zappos and 6pm

Groceries: Buy The Case and Netgrocer and Amazon Grocer

Cheese (order during the U.S. winter): Cougar Gold and Tillamook

Portable sizes: Minimus

Make-up: Eyes Lips Face and Avon

School Uniforms: French Toast and Target

Pet supplies: Pet Food Direct and Amazon

Adapters and Converters: Voltage Converters

Retailmenot and Ebates are two good sources for making some money back or getting discounts on your purchases.