More Bargains

More Bargains was Originally Posted on January 15, 2005 by lavarock

Ok, so last blog was about bargains. I LOVE bargains.

I was talking about expensive appliances because I am in need of a few appliances myself. One item I had been pricing was a washing machine and had found a good machine for a very good price. I investigated its options and particularly liked the multiple water levels. Often I want to wash a small load and hate to waste water. Here in Hawaii we especially hate to waste water because it is a finite resource (unless you know a cheap way to desalinate the ocean).

So here I was, about ready to spend a couple hundred dollars on a new machine, when I came across a website called FreeCycle.Org [url=]http://freecycle.org[/url] where people offer items for free, just to keep them out of the landfill. What a concept! In the past I have seen people go to the dump, dump their trash and then hesitate a while to see if anyone else was bringing in items they could use.

What could you FreeCycle? Well, let’s say that you just moved somewhere and had lots of cardboard boxes in good shape. Why not let someone else have them who also needs to move? Why should everyone moving need to buy new boxes and then throw them away?

Perhaps over the years, you have been collecting aluminum foil (or have a giant ball of string…) perhaps someone else can use it for something constructive?

Well, I signed up for the Big Island version of FreeCycle and not a few eeks later, saw a posting that someone had a washing machine to give away if I would come get it. The place was 2 ,iles from my house and if I had been able to cut down a few more trees, probably could have seen the location from my lanai.

Although the machine has only 1 water level, I’ll make do. The unit is 9 years old and although has seen reasonable use, it works fine. I may even be able to modify it slightly to use less water.

I will now be looking around for things I can get rid of the same way; kinda pass the bargains around. My neighbor gave away a ton (well maybe not quite that much) of avocados that he had this year. In my case it looks like it may be mangos (mangoes). I may have hundreds of them this year…

So there you go! Be creative in your cheapness. It will pay off!