Purchases in DR

[gretchsean]

Hello all,
Should start with a thanks to many of you for your very informative posts.
My question is multilayered: I have seen that most suggest not bringing ones car to DR, and I noticed that Mainer found a computer priced close to that of the one she was looking at in the US. So that being the case, what are the things that a family moving to DR might need to look into purchasing before arriving. I have read lots on insurance and am planning to review Timex's- I think it was his-suggestions regarding banking, but are there big or small items that we would be better off to obtain here(US), or should we just pack light and buy in the DR?
Thanks in Advance,
Sean

[Chris]

We packed light and bought here. It worked for us and is much easier than the whole process of getting stuff here.

[Carla]

we came here in october with nothing but 2 suitcases each, and i have regretted ever since not to have shipped everything in a container - including our car. we have to pay expensive storage, and lots of the stuff i dumped back home i bought much more expensive here. especially since i find furniture pretty ugly here, not being a caoba fan...so depending of wether you can sell things or store them well- i also miss a lot of the things that made a house my "home" .of course you can buy almost everything here- but is that how you want to spend your first weeks here ?
best luck in decision making...

[Amber]

I came here seven yeas ago and brought enough of my priced possessions to see me through the transition. You can buy almost anything here and although some things may be more expensive, if you consider the cost of shipping and dealing with the aduana, you're better off just bringing the stuff that you can't let go of. Besides that, if you buy here, you don't lose the warranty as you would if you brought them over. If you read the fine print in most warranty contracts, you'll see what I mean.

[gretchsean]

Thanks all,
Amber that's a good point I hadn't thought about the warranty stuff. Carla-even your car? I read on another thread that most thought bringing over the car would just be too much, $ hassle, etc. Please more about that issue. We plan to sell or leave with family most of our stuff, so the storage thing will not be a concern.
Thanks again to those who replied.

[mainer]

I would suggest bringing a few things.

Washcloths/facecloths

Dishcloths--lots of towels available but no cloths. I also would have brought a brush with a handle for washing fruit and vegetables.

clothespins--the ones here are very cheap and break easily. The maid leaves them out on the line, so plastic would be best.

Towels--We like really big ones, so we brought our own.

Pillow if you are really fussy, but they do take up a lot of room. We packed our printer and other stuff with ours.

We got an estimate on shipping our stuff in a container. We didn't find it worth shipping.

I miss my jars of spices. We can buy spices in baggies in Sosua, but not nearly the selection that we had at home.

We brought jeans and sweatshirts that we will probably never wear. We should have brought extra bathing suits. They will wear a lot faster in the pool every day.

We brought pliers, a hammer, and other small tools that we have used many times.

We brought extra shampoo, soap, vitamins, tylenol and stuff to last a month or two. It has really cut down on our set up costs.

I brought a bottle of woolite to wash bathing suits. Good plan.

Fly swatter

We brought some small polar fleece blankets that pack up small, but don't seem to get so damp from the humidity. It is pretty humid here, and our bedsheets always feel damp.

A good first aid kit. We made our own, and we have used it a lot with a family of four. We bought the peroxide here. My son said that peroxide is on the list of things not to fly.

Photographs from home. We only brought one, but a few more would have made it more homey here.

We really, really miss our car. We evaluated how much it would cost to ship it, compared to what we would get for selling it there and buying one here. It is not a car common to the DR, so service would be a problem. We are going back in April to sell it.

And finally, We are probably the only non Spanish speaking people to move here without bringing an English-Spanish dictionary. (Ken's wife was kind enough to lend us hers until we find one)

[andy a]

Get an electronic one. Radio Shack in particular should sell a good one, maybe as much as $100.

Why? So you can look up word derivation forms that you hear or read. Those are often not listed separately in traditional dictionaries.

This is especially important in Spanish because there are so many verb inflections.

A good one will have a speech synthesizer for pronunciation.

[Carla]

we would have gotten a tax exemption because my husband works for an aid organisation, so for us it would have been cheaper.
spices- especially if you like to cook a bit more adventurous- i miss my thay-curry paste a lot and some of the indian spices i ususally cook with.
your face-and body lotion will probably be twice as expensive here -if you can get it at all.
i have not seen a wok here- and am glad, i brought my own.
posters and your music- very important.
as for the english-spanish dicitionary- cuesta library has several good ones....
any more questions? feel free to ask..

[ricktoronto]

Originally posted by andy a
Get an electronic one. Radio Shack in particular should sell a good one, maybe as much as $100.

Why? So you can look up word derivation forms that you hear or read. Those are often not listed separately in traditional dictionaries.

This is especially important in Spanish because there are so many verb inflections.

A good one will have a speech synthesizer for pronunciation.

I totally agree. The ONLY one worth buyng and lord knows I have tried them all is the Franklin Bookman Speaking English/Spanish Professor. The speaking part is a bit corny but it is not bad (conjugations of leer and reir are easier to say if you hear them ,e.g.). Model is BES 1840

Advantages: put in a conjugated form and you get the infinitive. Conjugates all forms including for example both imperfect subjunctives, uses the LaRousse dictionary (some 250,000 words) and shows a lot of context uses of words, e.g. you type in "put" in English and you get poner/ponerse of course but dozens of other English phrases with ways to say things that often do not use the verb but something else, e.g. some degreeof idiomatic speech.

It will also correct - so you can put in what you heard and often it lists the actual word you meant so you do not have to be perfect.

For something like $100 US its invaluable. There is a junior version of the same thing very much smaller and so tiny it is hard to type on and read the results, so stick with the talking model.

the batteries seem to last forever - I have never changed mine and have used it since 1999.

I am not sure about Radio Shack but I think Amazon.com has them. And I think the Franklin people sell online as well. Link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...onics&n=172282

P.S. While I do not live in the DR yet, I found in the mercados in Boca Chica more facecloths/washcloths than you could use in 100 years for around 15 RD$.

[sjoekik]

Carla,

I ordered my Thai curry pastes and spices from
http://importfood.com

K