Are you in a local group that is part of The Buy Nothing Project? If not, please consider joining. The Buy Nothing Project aims to empower people to engage in a generous giving economy. When you are part of a group in your area, you can post things that you don't want - it helps create less waste, less landfill, and goes to helping people. You can pick up things that others post. And if there is something you need, you can ask on the group, and only buy it if no one has the thing you are looking for. No selling or bartering is allowed - it's purely about giving freely, and relying on your local community to meet needs rather than to buy things and have them shipped to you.
I have posted and given away a lot of things - furniture, clothes, excess garden produce, knickknacks - things that otherwise would either go to a landfill, or I would have to haul to the thrift store where someone would have to pay money to get it. I also have received lots of things - clothes, decor items, garden tools, a cell phone charger, pots for my plants, an umbrella, houseplant cuttings, books, a backpack, etc.
But two of the things gifted to me stand out as the most valuable and useful - things I would have purchased anyway except for the BNP. I received a tumbler composter last year that has created a LOT of compost for my garden and keeps on giving.
The second, I picked up last night - a lot of 4 giant bottles of Protein Powder. The amazon cost of these is $160. I typically buy protein powder anyway because I am vegetarian and need to supplement my protein intake. I used to eat lentils and beans for protein, but I have diabetes and eat low carb now. So, I can't eat as many beans. So, protein powder it is! This generous give from the group will last me about 5-6 months.
The lady I picked up from has an absolutely enormous and gorgeous house. I did a porch pickup in the late evening. It was dark outdoors, and the house was lit from indoors. So, I could not help but notice the mind bogglingly huge living room with a 20+ foot ceiling through the floor to ceiling glass windows. That must be what living in luxury feels like. I can only imagine what the house costs - must be $1 million +, even in my little town. So, she's clearly rich. And she still is in the group - that is admirable. I love it when rich people are frugal too.
You can go here to find your local group: https://buynothingproject.org
Buy Nothing
November 11th, 2020 at 06:36 pm
November 11th, 2020 at 11:27 pm 1605137248
November 12th, 2020 at 01:34 am 1605144891
I did some cleaning in the garage a couple of weeks ago and 5 of the 6 items I listed got claimed. I have a few days off starting Friday and plan to do more cleaning and list more items.
Honestly, I think it's about more than frugality. I think a lot of people are like my wife and I. We're at a point in our lives where we just want to get rid of things. We don't need the money. We don't want to spend a whole day having a yard sale. We don't want to try to sell it and have people haggling about the price or condition. And we don't want to have to haul it somewhere to donate. We just want it gone and if there's someone who would like it, we're happy to have them come take it.
On the frugal side, we have gotten numerous items that we would have otherwise had to buy somewhere, so that's nice too.
November 12th, 2020 at 02:59 pm 1605193146
November 13th, 2020 at 07:03 pm 1605294213
I'm amazed at the things people don't want; many times, the items are brand new and still in their original packaging.
November 16th, 2020 at 02:05 am 1605492313
I've given away 5 items so far.
Today, we've received a high end backpack (Duluth Trading Co.), a bag of curtains (my wife will repurpose all of the fabric), and a kitchen floor cabinet (she's using it in the sewing room both for storage and for the counter space.
I have a few items listed on Facebook Marketplace but if they don't sell in a couple of days, they will be gifted on Buy Nothing also. I figured I'd try to get some money out of them but if not, I still want them out of here.
We are loving our Buy Nothing group. Fortunately, it's very active with a couple thousand members.