Obviously you have never been deathly sick or lost your job.. Had your car repossesed because there was no work.. Or been on the end of being unmercefully tormented...by unfair debt collections practices..Your attitude is harsh and legalistic.. Not every one is out to stiff their creditors..Did ou know that 40% of all Bankruptcies are due to catastrophic illness..Even good people in the Bible had credit problems..It's all there in the book.. but Ill bet you don't read that..
Things that are unusable to us (clothes my son outgrew, kitchen gizmos I didn't use, etc) I donate them. Clothes that are actually trashed - stained, torn - go to the charity in town (Goodwill) that sells unusable clothing as rags.
Things that are actually unusable (old boombox that no longer plays CDs or radio but will play cassettes!) get trashed.
But dirty things I just wash and use. Or wash and donate - every year we clean out the gutters during spring melt, so the storm drains don't clog up. We find a ton of hats and mittens. I wash them and donate them.
Bookmatchers is a great up and coming site to trade books. It's sort of new now, but with more people joining, networks can be created on their campuses. In addition to just books, collegematchers is a craigslist for colleges across America.
I used to freecycle a lot but have become very disappointed in the local group here and ended up leaving that group. Too many admins were snatching all the good stuff before they allowed it to be posted.
If it is of use to me and I feel it is worth my time I'll fix it up. If it is useful but not needed by me I'll usually donated it to the local thrift store.
If it isn't useful but is recyclable then that is where it will go.
Finally if there is no way to pass it on to a useful place it will go in the trash.
Well if its "unusable,broken or dirty" it gets dismantled and the metal parts taken and sold to the scrap yard. I also sell paper and magazine to a paper factory. Whatever is left goes to the dump, we have a free dump day once a month. Everyone should see the landfill just once it is unbelievabe the amount of trash we make!!!!!!!
I try to give things away in my network of friends and then post it on a local Freecycle email group. I've received many useful items through both groups. Otherwise, we try to reuse as much as possible and throw away very little (composting diapers through a service, composting food scraps, recycling paper and containers through the city, using the city's yard waste service -- and picking up finished compost through the city as well).
...is not always gross and dangerous. After my freshman year of college, I noticed that my peers were throwing away quite a few things in the dumpsters outside. One reason is that there's a rather short timeframe between finals and move-out day. However, in my mind this doesn't excuse the massive amounts of furniture, clothing, office supplies and perfectly packaged food that get thrown out. I went dumpster diving one day and found (on top of other clean items:
-two brand-name thermal sport shirts
-$5 in change
-three unused spiral notebooks
-a teddy bear from the school bookstore
-two clean, folded cotton t-shirts
I shared the change with a nearby janitor and took the rest of my spoils home. I washed the clothing, of course, but now my dad and I each have a perfectly good thermal shirt for skiing. I've used the notebooks, I sleep in the t-shirts, and I keep the teddy bear. I'm not above using perfectly useful, cleanable stuff.
A great way to cut down on waste from college campuses would be to have people at the dumpsters to intercept and sort useful items at various times during finals week, and especially on move-out day. Goodwill and other non-profits leave donation barrels, but they quickly overflow and simply aren't enough to handle the volume of items some students are willing to throw away. The university has an official policy against dumpster-divers, to discourage homeless people, and it's sad to see so much go to waste.
I've pulled an end table out of the burn pile to refinish it and I still use it today. I found a beat up tobaggin and refinished it and nearly broke my neck going too fast down too steep of a hill, I have a 20 year old truck that gets me from a to b. If I was rich I'd probably do way more stuff like this, I'd need a barn for it all!
It's good to evaluate what I've got and what's worth going after or repairing. Time is money.
If I think I can swing it, then I'll go for it.
Firstly, I'll try and hock it for a reasonable price. If I can't, then I'll try and donate it for a tax deduction. If I can't even give it away for free, then (sadly) it will go in the trash.
Bottom line? Reduce, reuse, recycle. Going green can actually make a little green in my wallet sometimes.
I am all for reusing and recycling, and I'm definitely pro donation, but I think that when you donate things you need to be realistic about whether or not someone else is going to want it. If you don't want something anymore because it doesn't work, no one else will want to pay money for it at a thrift store.
I do, however, think that setting things on the curb with a POst-It saying FREE is an amazing way to pass on less than perfect things. I've even done it with food that I didn't want to eat. (Canned green beans, anyone?)
We have a rubbermaid container that holds things we no longer use. At the end of the month, I go through the tub and see what is eBayable and what should just be donated. Some things I look for are would this be worth my time to list on eBay? Will someone else be able to get use out of it. Sometimes it's clothes that just don't fit, or old electronics that I have upgraded.
I donate EVERYTHING to the EASTER SEALS. These people are wonderful. They call me at home once every 6-7 weeks. They give me two weeks notice when they will show up. They then call me the night prior to PICKUP AT MY HOME! I've done this for three years now. They leave a tax deductible form on the door. I leave their stuff on my porch with a tag on it for them. Many times they will ask specifically for warm mens clothes or womens clothes etc.
They even take big items and are thrilled to get them! Two tv's of our recently went to a group home for disabled adults! h
EVERYONE PLEASE THINK ABOUT THIS LITTLE KNOWN ABOUT CHARITY WHO CALLS ME AND THANKS ME FOR HELPING THEM!
We used to recycle what we could at the local recycle center, but our local newspaper discovered a few months ago that most of the items that people thought they were recycling had just been going to the landfill...for years! So, we have stopped "recycling" since it was fake recycling.
We do take our old clothes, appliances, and toys to the Salvation Army. If we think we can sell it, then we might list it on eBay, but almost everything goes to the Salvation Army or to the garbage.
All in all, no ideas for recycling from me, since our area is a complete fail at running a recycling organization. I wish the problem would be fixed soon so we could start up again!
I will post things for sale on ebay or Craigslist if I know that it is worth something. If I'm not sure many times I'll still list it for free on Craigslist or freecycle just so someone else can get some use out of it if they want. Very rarely do those things end up getting thrown away.
I would die without my freezer. Die. That is being very dramatic, I realize, but seriously, it is the greatest purchase I have made to my home to save money on groceries. I got mine off craigslist for $40. What a steal, huh?
So funny you should mention the utility bill...I was just finishing up my next article and almost commented that a gluten-free life doesn't have to mean choosing between the electric bill or groceries. Thanks for the encouragement. I have a lot of articles lined up in this frugal gluten-free vein. I am so glad you're finding it helpful. Really, thank you for the kind words.
Thanks so much for the tip on the used bread machines. Very good point. I like the idea of giving out your first 5 loaves of gluten free bread to non-celiacs for another reason as well: it will truly challenge you to make something that tastes authentic. Plus the more practice with different recipes, the better!
I didn't even think of that cross contamination. Strange since I had to de-glutenize my entire house after we found out about poor dear hubby's digestive dilemma. Thanks for the heads up!
For items that are truly trash, I either throw them away or recycle them. No chance of getting cash for them where I am. But since I'm a single person household, I don't generate a lot of waste, so I only have to pay for a small trash bin (which comes with a small recycle bin. I've thought about upgrading the size of my recycle bin; I can do that for free. But I can usually get by with the small one).
I do keep some "trash" items that are still usable. I use glass jars as drinking glasses and glass and plastic bottles for mixing up Gatorade, Koolaid and powdered milk. If I have an immediate need, I use plastic containers with lids to help with organizing things. And I've found that cut down plastic milk jugs are great for holding nails and screws while doing large home improvement projects.
For items that aren't trash but that I no longer need, I sometimes give them to friends or save them for our church's annual garage sale to raise money for mission trips. Small random things get put into a box that becomes the White Elephant gift box around the holidays. Random keychains, promotional DVDs, non-food samples and such fill that box.
There's FreeCycle in my area, but I prefer to use Craigslist, so long as someone else can come pick up the item. Sometimes it's easier to just toss things, unfortunately, particularly if there are time constraints.
Obviously you have never been deathly sick or lost your job.. Had your car repossesed because there was no work.. Or been on the end of being unmercefully tormented...by unfair debt collections practices..Your attitude is harsh and legalistic.. Not every one is out to stiff their creditors..Did ou know that 40% of all Bankruptcies are due to catastrophic illness..Even good people in the Bible had credit problems..It's all there in the book.. but Ill bet you don't read that..
Things that are unusable to us (clothes my son outgrew, kitchen gizmos I didn't use, etc) I donate them. Clothes that are actually trashed - stained, torn - go to the charity in town (Goodwill) that sells unusable clothing as rags.
Things that are actually unusable (old boombox that no longer plays CDs or radio but will play cassettes!) get trashed.
But dirty things I just wash and use. Or wash and donate - every year we clean out the gutters during spring melt, so the storm drains don't clog up. We find a ton of hats and mittens. I wash them and donate them.
Check out http://www.onewayshopping.com. This is another great site that aggregates online shopping deals and coupons together.
Bookmatchers is a great up and coming site to trade books. It's sort of new now, but with more people joining, networks can be created on their campuses. In addition to just books, collegematchers is a craigslist for colleges across America.
Bookmatchers.com
We donate most of our unwanted items to charity.
I used to freecycle a lot but have become very disappointed in the local group here and ended up leaving that group. Too many admins were snatching all the good stuff before they allowed it to be posted.
If it is of use to me and I feel it is worth my time I'll fix it up. If it is useful but not needed by me I'll usually donated it to the local thrift store.
If it isn't useful but is recyclable then that is where it will go.
Finally if there is no way to pass it on to a useful place it will go in the trash.
this is bullshit
Well if its "unusable,broken or dirty" it gets dismantled and the metal parts taken and sold to the scrap yard. I also sell paper and magazine to a paper factory. Whatever is left goes to the dump, we have a free dump day once a month. Everyone should see the landfill just once it is unbelievabe the amount of trash we make!!!!!!!
I try to give things away in my network of friends and then post it on a local Freecycle email group. I've received many useful items through both groups. Otherwise, we try to reuse as much as possible and throw away very little (composting diapers through a service, composting food scraps, recycling paper and containers through the city, using the city's yard waste service -- and picking up finished compost through the city as well).
...is not always gross and dangerous. After my freshman year of college, I noticed that my peers were throwing away quite a few things in the dumpsters outside. One reason is that there's a rather short timeframe between finals and move-out day. However, in my mind this doesn't excuse the massive amounts of furniture, clothing, office supplies and perfectly packaged food that get thrown out. I went dumpster diving one day and found (on top of other clean items:
-two brand-name thermal sport shirts
-$5 in change
-three unused spiral notebooks
-a teddy bear from the school bookstore
-two clean, folded cotton t-shirts
I shared the change with a nearby janitor and took the rest of my spoils home. I washed the clothing, of course, but now my dad and I each have a perfectly good thermal shirt for skiing. I've used the notebooks, I sleep in the t-shirts, and I keep the teddy bear. I'm not above using perfectly useful, cleanable stuff.
A great way to cut down on waste from college campuses would be to have people at the dumpsters to intercept and sort useful items at various times during finals week, and especially on move-out day. Goodwill and other non-profits leave donation barrels, but they quickly overflow and simply aren't enough to handle the volume of items some students are willing to throw away. The university has an official policy against dumpster-divers, to discourage homeless people, and it's sad to see so much go to waste.
I've pulled an end table out of the burn pile to refinish it and I still use it today. I found a beat up tobaggin and refinished it and nearly broke my neck going too fast down too steep of a hill, I have a 20 year old truck that gets me from a to b. If I was rich I'd probably do way more stuff like this, I'd need a barn for it all!
I donate everything I can. One woman's trash is another's treasure.
yes im trying to get my tatts beind my ears removed! other wise i cant get accepted in to the army!
It's good to evaluate what I've got and what's worth going after or repairing. Time is money.
If I think I can swing it, then I'll go for it.
Firstly, I'll try and hock it for a reasonable price. If I can't, then I'll try and donate it for a tax deduction. If I can't even give it away for free, then (sadly) it will go in the trash.
Bottom line? Reduce, reuse, recycle. Going green can actually make a little green in my wallet sometimes.
I am all for reusing and recycling, and I'm definitely pro donation, but I think that when you donate things you need to be realistic about whether or not someone else is going to want it. If you don't want something anymore because it doesn't work, no one else will want to pay money for it at a thrift store.
I do, however, think that setting things on the curb with a POst-It saying FREE is an amazing way to pass on less than perfect things. I've even done it with food that I didn't want to eat. (Canned green beans, anyone?)
We have a rubbermaid container that holds things we no longer use. At the end of the month, I go through the tub and see what is eBayable and what should just be donated. Some things I look for are would this be worth my time to list on eBay? Will someone else be able to get use out of it. Sometimes it's clothes that just don't fit, or old electronics that I have upgraded.
I donate EVERYTHING to the EASTER SEALS. These people are wonderful. They call me at home once every 6-7 weeks. They give me two weeks notice when they will show up. They then call me the night prior to PICKUP AT MY HOME! I've done this for three years now. They leave a tax deductible form on the door. I leave their stuff on my porch with a tag on it for them. Many times they will ask specifically for warm mens clothes or womens clothes etc.
They even take big items and are thrilled to get them! Two tv's of our recently went to a group home for disabled adults! h
EVERYONE PLEASE THINK ABOUT THIS LITTLE KNOWN ABOUT CHARITY WHO CALLS ME AND THANKS ME FOR HELPING THEM!
We used to recycle what we could at the local recycle center, but our local newspaper discovered a few months ago that most of the items that people thought they were recycling had just been going to the landfill...for years! So, we have stopped "recycling" since it was fake recycling.
We do take our old clothes, appliances, and toys to the Salvation Army. If we think we can sell it, then we might list it on eBay, but almost everything goes to the Salvation Army or to the garbage.
All in all, no ideas for recycling from me, since our area is a complete fail at running a recycling organization. I wish the problem would be fixed soon so we could start up again!
I will post things for sale on ebay or Craigslist if I know that it is worth something. If I'm not sure many times I'll still list it for free on Craigslist or freecycle just so someone else can get some use out of it if they want. Very rarely do those things end up getting thrown away.
Unless, of course, it can be cleaned/fixed and I (or someone I know) has a use for it.
http://www.lifetuner.org/discussions/396...
I would die without my freezer. Die. That is being very dramatic, I realize, but seriously, it is the greatest purchase I have made to my home to save money on groceries. I got mine off craigslist for $40. What a steal, huh?
So funny you should mention the utility bill...I was just finishing up my next article and almost commented that a gluten-free life doesn't have to mean choosing between the electric bill or groceries. Thanks for the encouragement. I have a lot of articles lined up in this frugal gluten-free vein. I am so glad you're finding it helpful. Really, thank you for the kind words.
Thanks so much for the tip on the used bread machines. Very good point. I like the idea of giving out your first 5 loaves of gluten free bread to non-celiacs for another reason as well: it will truly challenge you to make something that tastes authentic. Plus the more practice with different recipes, the better!
I didn't even think of that cross contamination. Strange since I had to de-glutenize my entire house after we found out about poor dear hubby's digestive dilemma. Thanks for the heads up!
For items that are truly trash, I either throw them away or recycle them. No chance of getting cash for them where I am. But since I'm a single person household, I don't generate a lot of waste, so I only have to pay for a small trash bin (which comes with a small recycle bin. I've thought about upgrading the size of my recycle bin; I can do that for free. But I can usually get by with the small one).
I do keep some "trash" items that are still usable. I use glass jars as drinking glasses and glass and plastic bottles for mixing up Gatorade, Koolaid and powdered milk. If I have an immediate need, I use plastic containers with lids to help with organizing things. And I've found that cut down plastic milk jugs are great for holding nails and screws while doing large home improvement projects.
For items that aren't trash but that I no longer need, I sometimes give them to friends or save them for our church's annual garage sale to raise money for mission trips. Small random things get put into a box that becomes the White Elephant gift box around the holidays. Random keychains, promotional DVDs, non-food samples and such fill that box.
There's FreeCycle in my area, but I prefer to use Craigslist, so long as someone else can come pick up the item. Sometimes it's easier to just toss things, unfortunately, particularly if there are time constraints.