Why not freecycle?

I love being thrifty! I think it is in my blood, my mom and dad love garage sale-ing and my mom is queen of the thrift store. My extended family is just as nutty about thrifty-ness so it is no wonder that the frugal bug bit me! Recently I have started using freecycle. If you haven't heard of freecycle it works like this. You go to www.freecycle.org and then you enter your zip code. The website will let you know how many freecycle groups are in your area and you pick the nearest one to your zip code. I believe that all freecycle groups work off of yahoo groups, so don't be surprised when you get directed to join a yahoo group.

The rules are simple: Offer first, then accept offers or post wanted offers. But definitely you start by giving something away before taking something else. I started by offering up some unwanted gardening supplies. A lady quickly responded to my add and we meet at the library where she picked up her new FREE treasures. Then I went on and accepted a few free goodies for our family. I picked up a big bag of little girls clothes that I gave to a friend of mine. Then I posted a wanted add for homeschooling items. These pictures are of the items another lady gave me. A large map of the world. In the first picture you can see Thomas put some green glass on Greenland. I was trying to explain to him that mommy found that glass on a beach in France, but he thought it should have came from Greenland...it is green after all! I have since hung it on a wall. Even Winston wants to learn about the world...ha!

She threw in a complete set of letters that I hung in the playroom at eye level for the little guy.

Looks cute and maybe he will start to recognize more letters.

Below is a picture of a very awesome calender she also freecycled to me. Everything has velcro so we can easily switch the dates and seasons and special holidays. It came with everything, I was surprised that none of the numbers or other small pieces were not missing. It is super nice! Currently it is hanging on Thomas' artist easel. I might buy some more velcro and hang the whole thing some where else down the road. But Thomas isn't really using his easel for art at the moment so its no big deal.

The point of this is to tell you how much fun being frugal is and how easy it is to find things you want without paying for them. Maybe a freegan lifestyle awaits us...

PS. It feels great to give as well!