Apron Thrift Girl

how to get something for free

Ask any thrifter and some of our best stories revolve around finding something for free. It may have been an antique table left by the rubbish bins or the free box at the driveway of a moving sale. Lately I've utilizing the Free tab on Craigslist. If you look under For Sale you'll find a tab marked free. It's similar to Freecycle where the concept is someone giving away something. You still have to be quick though because free items are generally swooped up very quickly.

What I've discovered during the last few weeks is that the busiest day on the Free section is Saturday afternoon. Especially when people are finished with their yard sales and would rather give it away than pack it back up to either store or donate. 

Last Saturday a posting came up saying that everything is free in the driveway. It included pictures, household goods, baby clothes, books and adult clothing. 

Many of the brands were Target which I just love and the previous owner had so many teal items. I was in heaven.

 
I only took a 1/4 of what was available on the blanket. In all I probably took 20 pieces of clothing. All for Free. Even if they averaged $10 each that would be an original value of $200. I'm guessing though that the value is more around $300-$350. All of the clothing are in really good condition. It was such a fun find at the end of a Saturday.

Take a look this week at your Craiglist free section or do it the old fashion way and keep your eyes peeled as you are driving through neighborhoods. I've seen so many items at the end of the driveway with a nice big "Free" sign asking you to take something away. The ideal thrifting experience.

Have a great thrifting weekend.

xoxo

Selena

collecting miles/points

I love getting something for nothing when it is achieved honestly of course. Airmiles or Points Cards are a pretty easy way to get the goods for free. Our family credit card is with Hilton and we collect enough points every year to get a few nights free in the Embassy Suites. I have such a hard time paying $80-$150 dollars a night for a hotel room, especially the not so nice ones. It feels like such a high price to pay for only a 12 hour stay. I usually don't sleep too well in polyester covers and pillows. I'm also spoiled with my thrifted once-expensive-new duvet and my thrifted feather pillows. I crave luxury and comfort for a thrifted price. The last duvet I bought cost $15 and was the fanciest one that I had ever seen on the second hand market. It came from Italy and you couldn't feel a single stem of a feather like some of the cheaper ones being produced. It was plush and incredibly soft and you usually have to tempt me out of bed with a cup of warm coffee. I mean I'm in my 30's now and I like a comfy night's sleep.

Dave and I have been collecting different airline miles since we married in 1997. Dave had some United Airmiles from before we met. A couple of months ago he told me that they were going to expire at the end of October. We didn't want to use them for a flight somewhere so we delayed making a decision of what to do with them. Being the procrastinators that we uh me sometimes are, we waited until the last second. And when I say last second I mean we were in Dave's home office at his computer 15 minutes before they were going to expire. I don't recall how many miles we had but we quickly purchased a bunch of restaurant vouchers were you spend $50 and you get $25 off your meal. We then bought Keiran a lego firetruck that we will give him for Christmas and we finally we spent the rest on this:

 

It's not terribly expensive if you buy it new but it's something that we probably would never have gone out and bought on our own. It's an LG Blu-Ray Disc Player, (BD 370 for those that like tech stuff). What I am so excited about is the fact that we can somehow hook it up to be wireless (I think) and it lets us watch downloadable Netflix movies as well as videos on YouTube. It does lots of other fancy things that I don't understand. I'm hoping Dave will figure it all out so that I all I have to do is stick in a disc and press play. We don't own a single blu-ray disc but it does play regular DVD's. 

One of the reasons that I am drawn to frugality is so I can live a rich life by being surrounded by luxurious things that I pay very little for. I don't mind if someone has owned it before me. I just want something that will last. I don't want to own furniture made of MDF junk that cracks or crumbles when you look at it the wrong way. I am usually able to pay the same price or far less for a high end, solid furniture at yard sales and thrift stores.

Collecting airmiles (especially for families who fly a lot either for business or pleasure) or collecting store points can really can add up. I doubt when Dave signed up for his United Miles back in the mid 1990's that he would ever imagine getting a Blu-Ray DVD player, a lego toy and restaurant vouchers. Of course I don't think Blu-Ray even exist back then.

Have you ever used airmiles or points to earn something fabulous? What was it? I find that our earned hotel nights are far more satisfying than paying for it with our credit card. There's just something so lovely about getting something for free. Next time an airline offers you an Airmile Card application I highly recommend that you take the time to fill it out. It just might be worth your effort.

a free gift ~ freecycle

One of my favorite ways to thrift online is Freecyle. It's a local email group where you can give practically anything under the sun away. There are some rules of items that are not allowed which are usually listed on your individual group's home page. Overall though the items given away in freecycle are vast and varied. I have given away pea gravel, books, bags of clothing, our chickens & chicken house (they sadly left yesterday), kitchen items and lots more. I have received wood, chickens, plants, Company Store duvet, DVD's, the Martha Stewart dishes above, clothing, books and a children's bead collection.

The key to getting stuff on Freecycle is to basically camp at your computer. Otherwise the items are snapped up in seconds. Once a freecycle post comes into your email box you have to reply within seconds in order to have a good chance in receiving an item. When a post comes in that sounds remotely interesting I quickly reply with "Is this available?". I don't ask questions. I don't take the time to research it. I just shoot my email off at the speed of light in hopes that I get it in quick enough. Even when I sometimes reply immediately I will still be 2nd or 3rd in line. If you can't find a group in your area you can actually start your own Freecycle group through their website.

Another option for email thrifting is an online yard sale group. Where I live there wasn't an option to buy online except through Craig's List. I love Craig's list but I tend to get lots of interest from Seattle with people who want me to bring everything on the ferry for them. I decided to start my own email list through Yahoo Groups. My group is an online yard sale list where people can join and post items to sell. I started the list in January of 2006 and there is currently 480 members. The prices are generally a little higher than yard sale prices which is good if you are selling. Some members post photos at the yahoo group homepage. When my friend Behan sold nearly everything in her house to move her family of five onto a sail boat, she posted her photos on a flickr group. She then sold her items through the online yard sale list. I borrowed her idea to create my own. Now when I post I my items, I write up a short description of them and then a link to my photos. This also allows people to look at other items I have for sale. I have sold heaps of items this way. The benefit of doing this is that I don't have a wait once a year for my yard sale and I don't have to pay any fees to an online site like eBay.

If you want to start a group of your own here are some tips.

~Create a name for your group to use through Yahoo Groups or Google Groups. I use the name of our town along with On-line Yard Sale.

~As moderator you get some choices in how you set up the group. I chose to approve each application individually to avoid spam. I've had people from the UK and Ohio try to join. I personally think one of the benefits of a group like this is to keep it local and simple. I only get a handful of applications a week so it doesn't take too much time to approve memberships.

~I initially announced the group on some local parenting email groups to attract members. The group started quite small but quickly grew mostly through word of mouth. Also yahoo group members can search through the site looking for keywords such as your town name. Another option is actually to hang up an old fashion flier about the yard sale group.

~When opening the group, plan to have some items to sell right away to get the group going.

Just now as I was writing this post, an email came through from a woman selling American Girl items. She was selling a red dinette table and two chairs for $8.00 as well as 8 American Girl outfits for $20.00. I quickly emailed her with my interest. Cerys is going to be over the moon with excitement when she sees these. 

It's a fun and easy way to build a thrifting community. Now that the colder weather is arriving the yard sales are quickly disappearing. In fact I only went to three on Saturday and didn't buy a single item. I was disheartened but still pleased about the free Martha Stewart dishes from Friday. I had been eying this pattern in the store but somehow couldn't make myself buy them. They are not a complete set but that's okay because I'm going to use them as serving dishes. I adore the silhouette pattern. What is the best item you have ever received on Freecycle?

Best things can be Free

When my father comes to visit he stays busy. He isn't a grandfather who finds the nearest recliner and lights his pipe. My father is the grandfather who is working outside doing all sorts of projects. Occasionally he'll ask permission to build something but other times we'll find out about it afterward much to the frustration for dh. I don't mind so much because he has the skills to build anything and do it so cleverly. This is what he built on Saturday after my mother, Keiran and I left him to care for Cerys for the afternoon.

A tee pee made of recycled tree limbs and moving blankets (which are thrift store finds that we used to move 8 times) My father even made wooden spikes which he pounded through the blankets like stakes. 

Notice that Cerys has borrowed one of my thrifted needlepoint pillows. I love when something is made from nothing. These were all cast off items that when put together created this wonderful little play house for the children. They have spent hours in it. I guess we could have bought this for $336.00 or this instead. But we spent nothing and still managed to build a pretty cute tee pee.

On Sunday my father and I went to the dump and recycling center. I must say that I really dislike going to the dump. I have been known to get a bit weepy at the usable items people throw away. Once when we lived in Wales I found two boxes of very old books in the dumpster. Some of them were over 100 years old. But the dump (Tip) was very strict and you couldn't take anything out. Well being the eco chic girl I was, I stashed them away in my tub that had held my recyclables and I stole them away and rescued them. How could anyone throw away old books?

When we were at the recycling part of the center we noticed a bunch of old 2X4's in the truck next to us. I suggested to my dad to ask if the man was going to be throwing them away. My dad hesitated and told me the guy looked mean. I thought focused was a better description but kept quiet. Then he thought about it and climbed out of the van and started speaking to the man next to us. The man nodded his head yes and we loaded these into our van.

Okay, so I know this doesn't quite stack up on the excitement level of dishes or crafty items but these were absolutely free. And they are in beautiful condition. My father brought in a piece and told me they were old growth because the rings were so close together. He even brought in a modern piece as an example to show me the difference. This is my dads way of showing excitement. I nodded my head enthusiastically as any daughter would do.  I'm not sure the value of this wood but the fact that we saved it from the dumpster felt good. We are building a shed that is going to be made nearly all out of recycled wood and these 2x4 were just the pieces my father needed to complete the project.

He used the 2x4's to complete the wall (this is before he used the free  wood on it). We have only had to buy the plywood and the roof tiles (yet to be put on). The blue wood is an old fence on the property and the white beams were from an arbor we don't use any more.

Here's a photo of the three men in my life. Dh, Keiran (in pj's) wearing his work hat and my father Nick after a day of chopping wood.

Maybe one day there will be an area at each dump where you can leave items that other people might want.  For now I guess there is freecycle or local bartering groups.