The cost of living in San Diego has been notoriously sky-high for years, and the hike in prices across the nation has squeezed many households even tighter. Many people who might be in this position for the first time in their lives don’t know where to turn to save money.
A San Diego resident saw that need and put together a small, increasingly popular website to meet it.
Angel Mannion, 38, has worked in creative worlds for most of his life and understands the stresses that come with economic ebbs and flows.
ThriftDiego.com, as the name implies, is a guide to every thrift store in the San Diego area, along with their hours, their specialties, and sometimes a brief description of what to expect, such as “coffee shop next door” or “resident emus.”
He has also created a similar directory for plant nurseries, PlantedSD.com, which includes sales, promotions, and community events around plants.
The Oak Park-based opera singer and conductor spent several years with a musical group called Folklore Guild and is about to join the St. James by-the-Sea chorus — where he occasionally guest conducts — on a tour in England.
Mannion said that his websites reflect his interests. He has had an affinity for thrifting for much of his life.
“When I was in college, I was into getting old suits and getting them tailored to fit me,” Mannion said. “Similarly, I had this huge obsession with English cathedrals and the type of wear that comes with that culture and the way that English romantic composers would dress.”
But it was always something of a hobby — until a whole series of events converged.
“I got really into arranging and we would do concerts and recording projects so that went from 2014 to like 2019ish,” he said. “Then I took a five-year break from music entirely.” Instead of making music, he went into project management, taking on the San Diego Opera’s Opera Hack in 2019.
Then, of course, came the pandemic, and there wasn’t a lot of demand for opera for a while. So Mannion focused on project management instead, receiving his PMP certification in January. He learned to code along the way, making ThriftDiego.com and PlantedSD.com for practice.
The two directories have filled a pair of niches in San Diego that were surprisingly devoid of anything similar. Since Mannion put them up, he has watched their popularity grow slowly but steadily.
While they function as a public service, he said he hopes to be able to expand out into website design and do more project management in order to support his true love, music.
“Ive just basically piecemealed freelance project management, landscaping gigs every once in a while… but ideally I would love to do that folklore group most of the time,” Mannion said. “That would be nice.”
