The pursuit of freeness

Success! 

My Sunday hunt for freebees never did end up with actual trash picking. We did peruse a few back alleys but no treasures jumped out at us. I did have some luck at the usual recycle centres however, and came home with the following:

Two drawer metal filing cabinet 

(no dents, drawers roll!)

Large wood framed mirror 

(mostly white but needs paint on one unfinished edge)

Brand new printer 

(now to see how much the ink is!)

Window screen 

(This is actually something I was planning on trying to make, as I need it for paper making) 

Also at the recycle centre were several glass windows. I tried in vain to think of a use for them, so ultimately they were left behind. (My husband did not try very hard to help me come up with a reason to pack them into our compact car.)

I also responded to a classified ad and picked up two free chandeliers. One is quite nice and the other I have plans that involve some pewter spray paint.

 

On a high from my weekend thrift adventures, I returned to the recycle centre on Monday night and packed away two retro vinyl chairs. Like most of these chairs, they were a lovely rust-based floral with some nice tear details on the seat. I have plans for these chairs that are half realized at this point. I will post some pictures of my success in the future! (near I hope) 

I also scored some very large sheets of blank white paper. I'll be honest and say that at first I took them guilt-ridden as I had no real idea what I would use them for. Initially I probably just took them because my husband wasn't around to put a stop to it, however, on the drive home I realized they fill the only void in my gift wrap dilemma! I can now use watercolour or glitter glue to create my own wrapping paper for any occasion. This is a particularly good idea when you have kids (which I do not) because they can finger paint wrapping for friends and relatives. I will have to be somewhat more careful with the cheese factor as adult handprints are not quite as darling.

New level of frugality

Having recently borrowed my Mom's copy of the "The Complete Tightwad Gazette" by Amy Dacyczyn, my brain is now wild with new ways to engulf my life in thrift.

My life used to be that of a carefree spendthrift, but was quickly converted by marriage and a few nights in front of TLC's "Extreme Couponing."

Today being a Sunday, it is my tradition to force my husband to accompany me to 24hr recycle stations after dark to scavenge coupons. However on this occasion I have bigger plans that he need not know about until safely in the car. I have been reading about the merits of actual trash picking - known as treasure hunting for the more PC frugals out there - and while I am nowhere near becoming a "freegan" (people who dumpster dive for food) I am not above driving through a dark alley to see what's available at "100% off." Here's hoping my bodyguard is in an amiable mood, and I don't come back empty handed!

One great find this weekend was a box of gift bags at a garage sale. This is something that I would have previously passed up as junk, but seeing as I reuse my own gift bags, but have very few, I don't see that its any less kosher to take someone else's. While most people may receive enough bags to cover their gift wrap needs, having no kids means that my husband and I give substantially more gifts than we receive.

The bags were priced at 10 cents each (1/10th of the dollar store price I would pay) but I was able to purchase the entire box for $2. Hoping there was at least 20 bags in the box to make it worth purchasing, I counted out all of the bags when I got home for a total of 69. Not only were there bags of every size and occasion, some had never been used and all were in very good condition. Several of the bags were far nicer then what I would purchase myself. With the exception of one outdated Harry Potter bag (which I anticipate I can use as cardstock in a craft), I anticipate that I will be able to regift all of them for a $66 gift wrap savings.

While gift wrap in itself will never bankrupt us, this is just one of hundreds of ways to make saving money a lifestyle choice. Eventually everything adds up.