Community Give and Take Chest

A lady who recently moved set up a local group I am part of with a community chest. What is that you say?

Well, a person in the group begins with a plastic tote that they fill with unwanted items from their house (how many of us don't need to declutter?). Then they pass it off to the next person. That person takes what they want and adds more to the bucket. When it reaches the first person, they look through the stuff and take out what they put in there originally that still remains (which they will donate or throw away). And then it continues around.

This would be a good thing for a group that meets somewhere regularly, like a knitting club, a Sunday School, a bunch of coworkers, etc. That way they bring it to a place they normally go and can pass it off to the next in line there. We actually are a Yahoo group that live in the same town, but we've set it up so the ones that normally drive past someone else is who they pass off to.

One way it's different than donating to the thrift store is you can put things in there that are still useful that a thrift store wouldn't take. Like half used lotion, makeup colors you don't like, or shelf stable food you may have opened but don't like that's still good.

Things I have gotten from the chest to give you an idea: partially used face soap, an opened bag of dried fruit someone didn't like that I used in cookies, a vase, fabric scraps, clothing for my child, a DVD, toys that a kid got bored of, a garlic peeler, etc.

Stalker Phone Change Options

If you are blessed with a stalker who doesn't take the hint that you don't want them to call or write, like my hubby is blessed, there are 2 options to keep him or her from calling. (You can just mark refused on the mail you get prior to opening and send it back).

You can either get caller ID and call block or you can get an unlisted number. Check the prices with your phone company. If you have an unlisted number, they should not be able to pay for your phone number on the internet, and if you have call block and id, you can program your phone to not take that person's call. My company charges $10 for the change to block/id and $8/month. For unlisted the change costs $10.25 and $.50/month. Not only is it cheaper for me to get the unlisted, but I don't have to worry about the stalker getting wise and changing her number as well. (Of course, if you want to have people be able to find you in the phone book, this would not be an option.)

Finding Used Materials

There are many ways to find materials to meet your needs without buying new. Here are the ones that I use most frequently.

My family - How many of you cannot name someone in your family that has a house full of stuff? Most don't know what they have in the back of the garage piled in a wall of boxes from the 1960s. My mothers have lately been cleaning out house and want to get rid of it. I accept it and keep what I think is useful and freecycle or donate the rest. It also pays to ask a family packrat if they have something you are looking for. I remember telling Mom-in-Law how I was starting to look on Ebay for an oval bubble glass convex picture frame for my bathroom decor, and Viola! She pulls out two from the closet!

Freecycle - Join your local Freecycle group. Here you can offer that stuff from the back of your own garage and get for free what others are giving away from theirs.

Thrift Stores - I love thrift stores. Especially one of my local ones that has free day every quarter! Thrift stores are good for when you have a clothing need, it's the best chance to actually finding a used pair of jeans to fit you that you would wear or some other specific need you have. Also, on free days or in the free boxes, I take what I think may become useful down the road.

Flea Markets - Some flea markets are good; some flea markets think a rusted spoon is vintage and charges $10 for it. Always check out a flea market and see how their pricing goes. Sometimes you can find good ones close to garage sale prices.

Auctions - Around here there are tons of auctions, but always have an idea of what stuff costs. In this area they tend to bid very high to even paying more money than it is worth. Once I saw a pyrex dish I wanted and inspected it and found the grocery store price tag of $8.99 on the bottom of it. I figured I would pay $5, it went for $12!!! If I am not sure of how much it is worth, I make myself stop bidding way under what I think it is worth because I don't want to feel like a dweeb when I get home and find out I overbid. Definitely go on rainy days, snowy days, bad weather days, days when there are many auctions advertised or a major event is happening in the area; if you hit a day when not many people are out, you can get wonderful bargains!

Clearance Aisle - I always check out the clearance aisle of stores I frequent. They usually aren't cheap enough to beat the price of an item at a thrift store, but things like vacuum bags will never be found at the thrift store.

Garage Sales - With gas prices what they are, I do not do this as often as I used to. I tend not to stray too far off my normal beaten path, because a 5 mile trip down a backroad to a garage sale that offers nothing of interest is too much of a waste of gas. I try to hit those that describe themselves more as rummage, city-wide or multi-family sales. Those held by churches are generally always good.

My own backyard/garage - Leftovers from previous owners or my own packratedness comes in handy. Organize it as best you can so you don't go buy something you already have. Keep old clothes and grocery containers, etc. My rule is, I save it for a number of months, if I still can't think of anyway I could possibly use it, I throw it out.

Online - Looking on Ebay, or search engines to compare prices can sometimes find you a better deal than buying it from your local store, but not always. I always factor in shipping as part of the price. If you are looking for used books, use BookSpot to compare prices. I find the internet most helpful for buying larger purchases. Last week, I bought a new printer for the price of a lesser quality one just by doing extensive surfing on the web - found it on sale with free shipping. Also, using the internet to research can keep you from wasting your money by buying an inferior quality product. I always look for customer reviews. I was tempted to buy the inferior quality printer at my local Walmart, but luckily, I was patient enough to go home and look it up and find that many people were unhappy with it.

A Budget Book

After I made the Manila Folder Dividers I used scrap paper to make my budget book. I had a lot of half used spiral ring notebooks left over from college so that was what I started with. Each section was laid out like the below. A title, how much each paycheck received was allotted to that category and a ledger.

I do have to say that this system was pretty crude. It took a lot of paper and if I wanted a special category (Like if I was saving for a couch) I either had to make a new section with divider or I had to cram it in on the side of the paper. After a few years of doing this I started reading some financial blogs.

Free Money Finance
Get Rich Slowly
Personal Finance Advice
Consumerism Commentary

These all advocate budgets, but I forget which one turned me onto the YouNeedABudget software. The system works off of the principal that you should work off of last month's paychecks, so I pulled out all of my savings to begin using "last months" money, bought the software and have not regretted it. No more waste of ink and paper and it is easy to add as many or as few categories. It has a search function too which is helpful. It keeps me from spending ages allocating my money and is so much simpler to view. It's gone up a little bit in price since I downloaded it, but I have not regretted this non-new purchase for it helps me see how necessary it is to make do with the not so new.