You drive a tough bargain laowai...

So one part of living here that I have yet to master, and possibly may never, is the fine art of bargaining.  Perhaps I'm lazy.  Perhaps I feel like 50 cents US is a really good price for four potatoes and a yellow onion and I'm more then willing to part with it for a delicious dinner. Who knows.  Whatever it is I really do not like bargaining.  When the items are a little larger then vegetables I'm a little more likely to give it a shot, but even when I try my bargaining techniques are not that well developed.  Usually it looks something like this:

shou huo yuan: 28 kuai.

wo: 25 kuai, hao bu hao?

shou huo yuan: hao da.

You can see I'm not getting that great of a bargain.  Although in that example I just gave I did walk away with a free bag of q-tips which I have previously purchased for 1 kuai.  Haha...so really I saved 4 kuai.  

Recently my bargaining skills plunged to an all time low when I made this mistake:

wo: Na ge dongxi dou shao qian.

shou huo yuan: Da ge 16 kuai, zhong ge 12 kuai.

wo: Hao da, wo yao san ge. (1 big plastic container, 2 medium plastic containers)  30 kuai, hao bu hao?

shou huo yuan: sanshisi kuai.

wo: sanshiwu

shou huo yuan: A...Wo shuo sanshisi, ni shuo sanshiwu.  Laughs hysterically.

To recap, I wanted to buy three plastic containers for leftovers so we could quit using up the plastic wrap and save the earth.  In all they should have cost 40 kuai, I tried to ask for 30 kuai.  The shopkeeper blocked my price and asked for 34 kuai.  I drove a hard bargain and said, "No way, I'm paying 35 kuai and not a penny less."  Or something like that.  

If you know of any good bargaining tips let me know...I need help out here!  If you also know how to make your husband quit listening to Cher that information might also come in handy.  For a friend of course, not for me.