Friday Freebies
So Hubby and I went to a Cancer Fundraiser last Saturday and won some prizes. Does it count as free if I entered to win them? I'm counting them. I could have won nothing. The whole story is here. We ended up with a $50 gift card to Home Depot. I see free garden stuff in my future.
A Nespresso machine that had 12 pods in the box and 50 pods for the wrong machine outside of the box. We also won 4 concert tickets for the summer.
My son closed at his job. All of this would have been thrown away if he didn't take it. We shared with friends.
He also was given these 2 salads. Someone ordered them online and never picked them up. My son says this happens everyday. Who pays for food and then doesn't go and get it? They let employees have it instead of throwing them away. I had one for lunch the next day and so did my son.
I picked up my freebie from Stop & Shop.
I grabbed 7 rolls of wrapping paper and 3/4 bag of charcoal from a free pile in front of someone's house that is moving.
My son worked a morning shift and saved these from the garbage. I gave 2 to a friend who loves them. We ate the rest.
My sister is cleaning out her house so I received a new towel set,
a metal basket, an alarm clock, a fan, a costume for YD, a pocketbook for YD, and some bathroom accessories.
She also sent home some food.
We were cat and house sitting for our friends. They got us a Thank You gift.
Hubby also did a trade with his brother. He got a free truck bed cover for our new to us truck. Hubby needed a wire and our neighbor had what he needed so he didn't have to go buy one.
YD got free lunch at a robotics competition that she participated in. The whole trip was covered by the team. YD and I went to a college festival. She received multiple free pens and a reusable bag.
Lots of free food this week. I knew that we couldn't eat it all so I shared with others. No point in wasting perfectly good food.
Did you get any freebies this week? Do you take free stuff when offered if it's used? Have you ever taken things from stranger's garbage? What did you get?
You scored an amazing amount of free stuff this week! Good job:).
ReplyDeleteYes, I'll take it if it's free. On our recent trip, the place we stayed had the perishable food that the last family had left in the fridge. It was a strange feeling to eat someone else's cream cheese, butter, lunchmeat, cheese slices, 1/2 filled milk jug, pickles, mayo, and more. But, we figured they were tourists just like us who couldn't take it with them when they left, and just ate it. It was going to go to waste if we didn't. There were also some odds and ends in the cupboards and freezer and we used some of that, too. We had a big suitcase full of food, and ordered in some from Safeway as well, and saved literally hundreds of dollars doing that.
Lots of garage sales around here have "free" boxes or piles and we always look at them and take what we can use. My husband is famous for picking things up from the side of the road. In the past, he's collected cauliflower and potatoes that have fallen from farm trucks rounding corners. He's picked up tools. His most famous item was a piece of fabric with bunnies on it. (This had to be around 25-30 year ago). Our oldest daughter was young then, and wanted something from it, so I sewed her a garment, and we called it her "road suit." I can't remember if it was a jumpsuit or a dress, but she wore and wore it!
That is great that Rob gets free food that falls off the farm trucks. I would be out there with my kids picking it all up. We have gotten lots of things over the years from garbage piles. Bikes, pressure washer, BBQs. I always stop when I see piles after yard sales. Most people where I live just put the leftovers at the curb. It also helps that Hubby can fix most things. If a part is broken he will replace just that and most things work great again. We have sold things on eBay and Craigslist from free piles also.
DeleteI would have used the food too. We stay at lots of time shares and have given 1/2 a watermelon or 1/2 bottle of juice to the cleaning staff. Sometimes you just don't have room to get it home.
When Son3 was young I rescued a Lil Tykes picnic table from the neighbors trash pile. I did call her first to make sure it was officially trash.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts on auction prizes are that they are free since you bought the tickets as a donation to begin with.
That's how I feel. I was going to donate win or lose. When my kids were little we were on a walk and came across a gym mat by the curb. I knocked on the door to ask if it was garbage and could we have it. Hubby and I carried it all the way back to our house. I cleaned it up with bleach and soapy water. The kids got years out of it. We gave it to Hubby's work last year. They have a gym and they use it for yoga and Pilates. It just keeps finding new homes. It is still in great shape.
DeleteYes we accept lots of free things when they are offered. We have kind of a trading thing amongst gardening friends where anyone who has spare vegetable seedlings they have propagated or volunteer plants in our gardens we can't use, gets offered to someone else. Also the same thing happens with excess garden produce and plant cuttings we usually text each other and ask if they would like x and also trade saved garden seeds.
ReplyDeleteThis week a friend dropped over with a full grocery bag of lemons free she picked from the trees at a local school she works at which saved us $14 over purchasing them. We use the lemon juice for making cordials, icings, cheesecakes and the zest for making fruit buns and bread and decorating cakes that we make on top of the icing which gives it a lovely presentation and fresh citrus taste.
Here in Australia we have council pickups once a year usually in most areas where everyone puts their unwanted items on the curb for council pickup free of charge. When my children were young ( and I was a broke divorced single mum) I saw a set of 6 matching dining table chairs that were perfectly good and loaded them into my car to replace ones that had worn out and could no longer be repaired in our own home. The value of these chairs were $600 to buy new and they were the latest style of the time.
We have a few tradespeople and builder friends who offer us building materials such as roof sheeting, shade cloth and timber that is excess to their needs when doing jobs for clients. With the recent shade cloth we were given we screened the front veranda with to stop the sun hitting the front of the house. This saved us $154 over purchasing what we were going to buy anyway and we even had enough to make a privacy screen on our back veranda too.
When we go to the local tip to drop off things we also look around to see what we can use and take it home with us too. Recently we found a 2mt large square of wire mesh (valued at $15 to buy) that was like new we brought home that we will use to make a herb drying rack out of. It is truly amazing what people throw out !.
I do recognize that DH and I being handy and thinking laterally, look at everything we find or are given in a different way to most, and see possibilities for many uses for just about everything.
Both DH and I look at all things that come our way free of charge as true blessings.
Sewingcreations15.
And that is why you are able to save so much for your home. You look at things and find a way to make it work. Where we live, most people think of used as a bad thing. I look at it as they paid for the shiny part and I get the useful part. If it makes it to used and I can still use it, then it was made to last. I am the 4th child out of 5. I grew up with used everything.
DeleteTrading is great. I do that in the summer with extra veggies that I grow. A friend and I trade for her honey. I definitely win on that trade. I also trade with a friend that owns a restaurant. Keeps our money in our pockets but gives us things that we want.