Guys, can I vent?
This low Canadian dollar/dismal exchange rate thing is really harshing my Nas buzz!!

After all my dithering I finally whittled my list down to 6 items: 2 bottoms, 3 blouses and the smocked leather jacket.
Just for fun, I put them all into my cart and calculated the total in American dollars. $666.40. Formidable (and slightly danting for the supersticious), but not positively outrageous.

Problem: NYDJ pants don't ship to Canada. No clue why. Enter the lovely Kari, who offered to pick them up for me in store and mail them to me on her own. Best Kari ever.

So I'm filling my cart and letting the totals pile up in Canadian dollars this time... Imagine my chagrin when I see the remaining 5 items come to $794! As if that wasn't bad enough, a check further down the prospective invoice reveals duty charges of $234.55! *and* Shipping charges of $43, which seems like a drop in the bucket by this point.

Reluctantly, I take the leather jacket out of the cart. Because I simply can't spend as much as the duties etc are dictating.

So, with only 4 items remaining in my cart, the subtotal drops to $494, the duty charges decrease to $136, and postage falls to $33. This adds up to $663, or just slightly more than I would have paid for all 6 items if I were in the U.S.

This is totally unconcionable! And it has me rethinking the whole deal. Part of me just wants to say "screw it" on principle and not buy anything beyond the pants that Kari is grabbing for me. Another part says, "ok, fine, maybe pick *one* special thing and get only it." But what would that be?

Ladies, I need your strategies. What do you do when the crossborder system is sticking it to you?