Frugal or just being smug...have you scored a real deal recently?

My son arrived back from work, even later than usual having agreed to pick up something largish from a store and take it to someone after work in his van. He turned up on our doorstep wearing a brand spanking new black faux-leather biker jacket and carrying three shopping bags full of clothes and shoes, some new but most lightly worn and smelling of someone-else's laundry liquid. Apparently they were a thankyou for doing the delivery, and I'm assured the guy is legit because he works for the council. I'm not entirely convinced of the logic of that and can only assume the guy has recently done a house clearance for someone, maybe a relative, and thinks my son is a worthy recipient of some of the spoils, even if most of the stuff is too small for him. There are some brand new socks still in the wrapper, though the used Y-fronts are destined for the bin because I don't think any of us are quite that desperate.

I now have a cute black jacket and an apple-green lambs-wool V-neck jersey. My son has the faux-leather biker jacket, a red Marlboro padded winter jacket and a nearly-new pair of Nikes. And I guess the rest will be offered around his workmates in the morning.

I look back and think that clothes used to be so hard to get, and now they show up by the bag-full and I have so many donated shoes that I didn't even bother to try on any of the pairs in the bag even though they looked useful.

It's a strange world...

I'm currently testing the jersey and I'll add a photo of the jacket if I can persuade my son to take one later...

Edit - worked cancelled so he showed up, though he's hiding behind his balaclava 'cos he doesn't like having his photo taken.



And me testing the V-neck jersey, with Rosa because wants to join in the fun...



My son says I look like I belong to the Weasley family in it, which I'm taking as a compliment...

Always glad to avoid waste! I was brought up to revel in hand-me-downs, repairs, and rescues.

My most recent big rescue has been a slightly damaged small polytunnel cover (do some people call these "hoop houses"?) that will fit our existing bird net frame.

But I'm always "foraging" for such wins, and there's are fair bit to find in our suburb.

Just as we were tearing through our basement, barn, and attic getting rid of stuff we had no use for, our electric pressure cooker died.  On the net, a 6 qt Instapot runs around $120.00.   My wife found one in a junk store, in its box, labeled NEW….for $60.   We grabbed it.  It works and looks new.

We managed to blag all the old roof timbers from a job site to feed to the rocket mass heater.

That lot should keep us warm all winter!

Well we're half way through sawing and splitting and stacking that load of wood. Most of the bigger pieces are eucalyptus and there was a fair bit of bark around the place, presumably having fallen off the timbers after they were put in place. We call it woof rather than bark as burns so readily and I've stashed it separately to use as fire-starters.

I will have to sieve the ashes at some point to remove old nails but for the cost of the fuel to go and fetch it, it's a bargain! And it needed to be cleared anyway...

I also asked my son about the bags of clothes he was given. It turns out he still had two bags left as people just aren't very interested in used clothes, so I had another rummage through them and found a brown sweater. It's acrylic rather than lambs-wool but it fits and it's useful so I'm not too fussed, and a pair of shoes which will do for walking the dog, a pair of cotton sweatpants and, somewhat unbelievably, what I thought were two pairs of jeans turned out to be jeggings. Which are big enough and stretchy enough to actually fit me! I never thought I'd wear anything resembling jeans again but I'm happily pretending I'm in my twenties and hauling wood wearing denim.

This is a heads up to anyone in any city or town of any size that uses "finds"  in their daily life... The FREE things that restaurants throw away as normal trash.....
Here in "Carolina" I service kitchen food processing equipment... When I need a container for storing bulk nuts, bolts, screws, nails & etc...
I can stop on my way out the back door, and remove 1 gallon jugs from the garbage can... MOST ARE CLEAR SEE-THRU PLASTIC for food products like pickles, chow-chow, etc.. Glass gallon jars are used for mayonnaise & etc....
If you want the large #10 can, look to a pizza restaurant.,
But almost any restaurant will have the metal cans, in "fish-house" restaurants, a lot of plastic
see thru containers are used...and find the garbage can when emptied..
Just like the ""coffee shops"' give away spent grounds, if you GIVE ,
YOU WILL GET A POSITIVE RESPONSE....

   DO NOT LEAVE A MESS FOR THE RESTAURANT TO CLEAN UP..

  They have to pay for garbage service to pick up the cast-aways


Have a blessed 2026

A friend of mine wants to hitch a lift into town next time there's a shopping trip, and offered me this in return.



He said it's getting damp at his place and needs somewhere dry to live. And that it's been a bit chewed.

I asked him what had chewed it. Mice, maybe?

Mice, goats and a donkey apparently.

How could I refuse?

Well the Friday evening shopping trip happened and my friend handed a whole bag of goodies over to the boys for me.

All this lot showed up!



Iggy wants the novels and Rosa has claimed the jug and the Mrs Beeton's. Which she now wants me to read to her...



I must admit some of those topics look worth investigating.

This page is about haybox or fuelless cookery and gives a basic introduction and instructions on how to build a haybox.



Whilst this page gives instructions for use, though I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of leaving it in long enough that the food needs to be reheated for serving - to me that would indicate insufficient insulation that has allowed the food to cook to a temperature that might allow harmful bacteria to breed.



After all that reading, Rosa decided to take all the silk flowers I had in the other jug and artfully arrange them in this one instead. Which means I now have the original jug to root sweet potato cuttings when the time comes.

I mean, I did have a dedicated glass vase for that job, but somebody borrowed it and arranged peacock feathers in it for her alchemy display. I can't be cross with her though. She is an awesome little dragon.

Someone in the next village had upgraded their attic insulation and was offering the old 2cm thick blue sheets to anyone who wanted them!

My son wants to use 4cm of insulation in his walls so I think these are going to be doubled up. Any leftovers can go up into our attic to improve the insulation up there.

Rock for scale, as usual...

Oooh and another lot just showed up being cleared out from a renovation site. Too thick for what my son wants them for, and a bit battered round the edges, so they can go up to improve the attic insulation.