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.

And this time he showed up from work with three chandeliers!

I've claimed this one, which looks like it might be converted to an electric bulb fitting from an original oil lamp.



He wants to keep the pink frilly one...



And then there's this one...



The house is being renovated and whilst the woman who is moving in loves them, she's rather short, unlike her husband who keeps bashing his head on them and has learned to hate them. And ultimately they agreed to let them go, so he gave them to my son before she could change her mind.

Burra, I actually like the square one best of all! However, I was thinking of an outdoor light beside the garage door. The current light there is a Charlie Brown Special and the pull chain promptly crapped out... I *think* if I take it apart, I can buy replacement parts, but for the moment, I just plug it in the odd time I need it!

Jay Angler wrote: I actually like the square one best of all! However, I was thinking of an outdoor light beside the garage door.

It looks to me like the design was inspired by an old carriage lamp, and I quite agree that it would work well as an outside light by a door. He's renovating his own place at the moment, and will be fitting a new door (used, given in return for a couple of hours clearing up after hours on another renovation site - anyone spot a pattern?) so maybe he'll want to put it there. I can't scrounge all his trophies off him. But I figured he wouldn't need all three chandeliers...

You think that funny square one would look good by this?

Burra Maluca wrote: You think that funny square one would look good by this?

Yes, I think it would look great!

What metal is the square one?

Remember the pink frilly chandelier that my son got from a job-site? Now they've given him a matching pink frilly table lamp to go with it!

Apparently the guy is a glass-blower and I suspect it may offend his sensibilities. My son, however, isn't that sensitive and considers it to be a perfectly good, functional lamp. Pink frilliness notwithstanding...

The job seems to be at the painting stage, judging by the background clutter...

Burra Maluca wrote:... Pink frilliness notwithstanding...

That looks like a modern frilly lamp. It's quite possible that the metal fitting holding the "frilly glass" is standard and a lighting store may have alternatives. My sister bought a house with similar shades on the lights below the ceiling fan. She was able to replace the shades with something that fit her decor and bought a spare in case one of the 3 had a mishap.

Yeahbutt my son has inherited my total utter tightwad genes...

He won't buy a replacement shade if the one he rescued is still functional. He'll just take a perverse delight in the pink frilliness and wind people up about it if they say anything. He already has a supply of pink paint he puts on all his tools because it's the only colour that none of the other workers will be seen dead with so there's far less chance of any of them ending up in the wrong home.

I suspect the only scenario in which he'd buy another shade is if one of the ones on the chandelier itself gets broken, then he can use the one on the lamp to replace it and he might need something to replace the one on the lamp. But then, my own tightwad genes might kick in and I might make him one out of bits of bent wire and paper and pressed flowers. If I'm feeling sensible, which is unlikely, they might even not be pink ones!

I recently scored 80 free packs (~100 lbs.) of frozen ground beef. Half of it is best as dog food, and the other half is probably fine for human consumption.

This is from my usual farm supplier, who I know personally. They needed it gone (new animal coming in) and they knew we have big dogs and freezer space. Much better than hauling it to the dump!

As a bonus I've been able to gift some to good neighbours who need it for their dogs (in part for financial reasons). So I'm building community too.

EDIT: My hounds push away the spendy commercial dog chow and go straight for my "dog stew" (boiled ground beef, potato, peas, carrots, rolled oats, cabbage, beet skins). If times were tough, I'd eat that myself!

2 giant round hay bales showed up at the edge of my garden last week, enough to cover the entire plot deep in mulch.
Last spring I asked the local farmer if he had any rotten haybales that his cows shouldn't eat. 2 bales showed up last year and now 2 again this year. Good guy! He uses old round bales as windbreaks for his house over winter. Once they get mildewed they are not good for the cows to eat.

I scavenged a large live trap from the ditch along the road. It has been driven over at least once and will need a lot of renovation but I may be able to repair it. Sized for possums and racoons.

Thom Bri wrote:Last spring I asked the local farmer if he had any rotten haybales that his cows shouldn't eat. 2 bales showed up last year and now 2 again this year. Good guy!

Nice!! You will remember to drop off a few adult beverages as a thank you, yes? Farmers talk to each other, and this can grease the wheels in all sorts of useful ways.

I just salvaged a complete set of Kitchen Aid knives from the metal recycling bin at the local recycling centre.

German 4116 steel. Good condition. They just need a quick sharpening. What is the matter with people??!!

To make it worse, the freecycle area is 10 steps away and clearly marked. What is the matter with people ??!!

Edit: There's still a hint of an edge left. I used a simple kitchen steel to make the santoku usable in 10 seconds. 10 seconds!!

I just arranged to go and collect a big heap of free blankets and assorted bedding.

Some of them are likely to be natural fibres, which are getting hard to source affordably. Some will be for me, some for my son, and some can be distributed to various neighbours who are struggling a bit and would appreciate a bit of a hand keeping warm this winter.

I'm rather hoping that bag of linens will have some fabric that I can attempt to turn into a dress and have a go at dyeing a natural sort of green or brown colour...

What a great find, Burra! Blankets are great and can be used for so many other things too (and if they're nasty you can always use a duvet cover).

I'm eyeing those (table?) linens in the bag there. I inherited a bit of stuff like that, all hand embroidered, and I just have them in storage because I am not sure what to do with them. fitting them together into a dress seems like a great plan, I look forward to seeing it come together!!

Tereza Okava wrote:I'm eyeing those (table?) linens in the bag there.

I keep looking at that bag of linens too. There seems to be an awful lot of scalloped edging for a bed-sheet, but it doesn't strike me as hand-made stuff either. I guess I just have to wait and find out. Assuming they do actually all show up, I intend to have a jolly good rummage and find the best use for it all. Maybe it's a whole heap of pretty pillow cases? The advert said it was all bedclothes but maybe she inherited it and hasn't been through all the bags herself either, just wanting to get it out of the house to free up space.

the ones I got when an older relative passed away were machine finished along the scalloped edge, but she had embroidered in the middle (what a combo: machine made crapola but part personalized so you can't get rid of it!!).
I imagine cutting out the homemade part for using in... something.
And while the machine finished edges on mine were definitely done with some sort of weird shiny poly thread, the fabric is either really nice cotton or even linen, which is really scarce here, I have no idea where she might have gotten it from. So I keep it all in my stash box for now....

Burra Maluca wrote:Maybe it's a whole heap of pretty pillow cases? The advert said it was all bedclothes but maybe she inherited it and hasn't been through all the bags herself either, just wanting to get it out of the house to free up space.

I am always amazed at how much fabric is in a pillow case. I could totally see piecing free pillow cases together to make a skirt or top out of. If there are enough in that bag and you don't need them as pillow cases, I could imagine you might get a dress with some creative piecing. A pattern made of multiple panels would make it easier I expect.

Great score!

Oh crumbs. That photo did NOT do justice to the size of those heaps of bedding...

That bag was indeed full of table linens, along with some other items that had been shoved in on top since the photo was taken. I'm now the proud owner of a gorgeous heavy-duty white cotton tablecloth with matching napkins (which I might actually use one day when we finish renovating as we have a stone-topped kitchen table that would probably benefit from having a cloth over it when we actually use it to eat from so the plates don't smash into the stone too hard), plus a variety of cheaper quality printed cotton ones, mostly with cigarette burns so they will be put on one side for use in sewing projects. Also a pretty piece of pink gingham fabric, a baptism cloth, a linen glass cleaning cloth, some old towels, a pair of brand new white boxer shorts with a cupid motif saying 'I love you' in Portuguese, three white chef's jackets and matching chef's hats. She also threw in (quite literally - they were clearing an apartment and they ended up with a chain of people literally throwing stuff to each other down the stairs to load the van...) a camping mattress, a kiddie bed mattress with no cover, a plastic lidded jug, and a brass umbrella stand shaped like a cauldron.

There was a huge stash of blankets and duvets and bedspreads. I kept what I wanted, Austin picked one thing out, my son pounced on some blankets with big-cat designs, and we're delivering most of the rest to a friend later today who can put them to good use. I'm still trying to find a good home for the baby-blue synthetic-satin bedspread with polka dots, lacy trims, white embroidered flowers and padded fleecy liner, all neatly shaped to fit on a bed with corner posts which was obviously bought for a much loved granny but never used. I really need to find a little old lady who will love it but also actually use it. It's so incredibly pristine and shiny that I think anyone who would actually like it is likely to keep it safe in a cupboard until it ends up looking for yet another home in due course.

I still need to find homes for the chef's jackets and the surplus good tablecloths too...

Edit - I forgot the giant bag of clothes hangers and the cloth bread bag. Keeping the bag, and the wooden clothes hangers, but the plastic ones need new homes.

I stopped by a dumpster where a 40 X 40 garage just finished. I scored a half dozen half sheets of metal siding/roofing.  I am amazed the  builder put them in the dumpster.

Anyway, I am rebuilding some pig shelters. So, they will save me a few bucks.


Edit:  OK.  I did some research. The builder left them for the owner. The owner put them in the dumpster. And for the more curious, they were not all the same size…exactly….but my pigs won’t mind.

Nice! I'm working on a new shelter for my goats, and the primary holdup is roofing material, so I totally understand what a windfall that is! W000t!

It's small compared to many, but it's food: we've been composting unsaleable produce from our local independent greengrocer for our community garden all summer.  Because I'm prepared to pick over the punnets of soft fruit, I've rescued enough jam-quality raspberries, strawberries, apricots, plums  & blueberries to have a portion a day all summer!

Today I had a swarm of honey bees fly into some unused beehives I have stacked up near the house. Free bees! If they survive the winter that's 200+ $ right there.

I got a super bargain on insulated firebrick for my masonry heater core!

I am lucky enough to live within comfortable driving distance of a (sadly dwindling) ceramics production town, so I thought to call a salvage yard in the area to see if they had any kiln bricks sitting around. They had six boxes of deadstock Isolite LBK-30s sitting around, about $2.50 a brick vs $17 ordered from the manufacturer. They're rated for up to 2800°F

L Kawamura wrote:...so I thought to call a salvage yard in the area to see if they had any kiln bricks sitting around.

Brilliant idea. Never pay retail!

I just scored 10 huge cabbages for 10 bucks (at my mother-in-laws this weekend, cabbage was 12.99 a head, although that place is nuts. Normal price lately has been about 4 or 5). They are huge and I'm not even kidding when I say I think I might have 45 kg of cabbage at least.

They are local, and it's forecast to pour for the next week or so. I can imagine they had to be picked, got picked in the rain, and got sold cheap. They are all wet, and need to be used soon.
Let the chopping begin!! i already made quick pickles for dinner, but this weekend we'll also do kraut, maybe kimchi with normal cabbage, and my favorite, cabbage sushi (use blanched leaves instead of nori around a mixed seasoned rice. It's traditional to use salmon but we don't have any so we'll probably use tuna instead).

Himself was clearing out the rubble and junk from an old place ready for renovation yesterday. And, of course, he's well trained to bring home anything interesting for me...

This is what he showed up with...

The mobil bucket seems to be made from a cut-down can of oil or something, with what looks like a 'real' bucket handle attached.

The skip bucket is probably just a re-used bucket from a jumbo pack of washing powder.



The bostik bucket is made from a cut down can of sealant or similar, with a purpose-made handle rather well attached. I'm quite impressed with this one!



Let's have a closer look at the tools and things...

There's a big mug thing made out of a castrol gtx can, with a supply of used nails inside.~

The head of an enchada (hoe) which looks very worth salvaging.

A donkey shoe!

A pig sticking knife.

And a bilhook type tool with an extra little blade on the back, which also looks very salvagable.



A quick look in the contents of the bostik bucket reveals old nails, some sisal string, old corks, a bag of unused corks, and a wine-siphoning tube.



And here are the unused corks...



I'm not quite sure how much of that lot we'll ever actually use, but I had great fun playing with it.

I'll salvage what I can!

That mobil bucket is interesting...



I have a few left over handles from plastic buckets that degraded and developed holes (and of course I kept the handles !) Making reuse of smaller bulk metal containers like that is a great idea. Metal buckets take a lot more abuse - thanks!

Do you have a close up of how they have done the hole for the handle on the bostic tin? That also looks rather interesting.

I just took a couple more photos because I suddenly realised that it deserved a closer look too.

The metal cans have been cut down, and the edges carefully rolled to make them stronger and safer, which I think is great. I'm not well versed enough in metalworking to comment very much on how the handles were attached so I'll let the images speak for themselves.



And the view from the inside...



Our disabled friend next door recently gave us a rubber bucket full of wood ash to dispose of. I think I'll be sending one of those home-made metal buckets back instead. And the other one can become our ash bucket, for similar reasons. The bostik bucket is more interesting, but also smaller, so I guess I should let him have the smaller one seeing as he's in a motor-home with less space. I have the photos now anyway!

Thank you!!!

Burra Maluca wrote:I'm not well versed enough in metalworking to comment very much on how the handles were attached so I'll let the images speak for themselves.

At a guess the loops are doubled back on themselves through a hole in the can side, which has been reinforced with extra metal, and then the wire rivetted (or possibly just hammered flat). Nice job!

brilliant find!! it is so hard (at least around here) to find anything made of metal anymore, and those are great for ashes (and other stuff, I'm sure).

That billhook type thing looks a lot like an old sickle that maybe belonged to my husband's grandmother (possibly brought over from Japan) which I saved from a cleaning-frenzied auntie who was going to throw out all the old tools (insert pulling-out-own-hair emoji here!! we got a few gems that day, although we skipped the old-timey and possibly homemade long guns, decided they were best 'donated' to the local law enforcement...) and it is hands down the tool I use most these days.

Nancy Reading wrote:At a guess the loops are doubled back on themselves through a hole in the can side, which has been reinforced with extra metal, and then the wire rivetted (or possibly just hammered flat).

Austin went and had a look at it. Without dissecting it, as far as we can tell those loops are bent around into a Ω shape, the thin metal sheet has been soldered on top, then rivets have been put through with the lower arms of the Ω wrapping around the bottom of the rivets.

I also suspect that the placement of the rivets one on either side of the seam in the bucket is very deliberate as they, along with the Ω shaped loop of wire and the soldered-on bit of sheet metal, will support the sides of the seam and stop them pulling apart.

And while he was looking at it he noticed that the entire bottom of the bucket has been replaced at some point with what appears to be a nice smooth, shiny bit of galvanised steel.



And a hole has been patched up.



Who would ever have thunk that I'd fall so in love with an old bostik bucket...