Monday, October 17, 2011

Frugal Finds

A stone topped table to hold my tea cup and lunch.
The town dump where, when I was a teenager, was the place to go for target practice, is now called the Transfer Station. My friend J and I call it the mini-mall because it's a wonderful place to "shop." On shelves set up in a corner of the parking lot one can find, if one waits long enough, just about anything one has longed for but has never had the money to buy. Example: an older fellow approached the shelves one day with a large cardboard box. He set it down at my feet, reached in, pulled out a Cuisinart and handed it to me. "Here," he said. "My wife has passed away and I don't have any use for this darned thing." I sure did! I'd been coveting one for years. I murmured sympathetic words about his wife and absconded before someone else saw the treasure I was holding.

A week later I found a box of electronics chock full of computer keyboards, cameras and phones still in their original, unopened boxes. On bulky waste day last year I scored a gorgeous, unstained, heavy futon ("I can't move this thing around by myself anymore," explained the woman from whose car it emerged").  J and I nearly herniated ourselves lugging the thing from her pickup to the back yard but it made a perfect cushion for my outdoor metal swing. On this year's bulky waste day, I came home with a glider chair in perfect shape from the house of a neighbor who was moving away, a small, stone-topped table for outdoor dining, and a lamp shade that didn't sell at a tag sale. Oh! And a mini Gardenway cart, something else that has long been on my wish list.

My little Gardenway cart - I'm so excited. This has been on my list for years!
J and I added up the money it would have cost us to buy new what we'd hauled home from the Transfer Station over the past two years and, counting the aforementioned, plus the wooden shoe rack, the Williams-Sonoma popover pan, the numerous baskets, mugs, and dishes, most still wearing their former tag sale status price tags, and still usable vacuum cleaner parts, curtains, yarn, and paper goods, we've saved well over $2000.

My grandmother lived through the Great Depression. She'd be proud of me!

Black lampshade on far left, glider rocker on right.

17 comments:

JeannetteLS said...

Wow!You really scored. This makes me all the happier that I gave up on yard sales and, if there was something I thought made sense that someone could use, I would put them out two days before the bulky waste day--IF the weather was good.

Things went, and I liked to picture them being used and enjoyed by someone else. I COVET that table, though, I Can tell you! GREAT treasures.

Brian Miller said...

nice...i am all about scoring nice stuff for free...our dump crushes everything immediately unfortunately but there is always free stuff on the side of the road...you did well for sure...

June said...

Oh, I love this! I have The Most Comfortable chair . . . my mother-in-law told me it's called a lady chair because of its shape . . . it fits my back so perfectly. It was sitting on somebody's front yard with a big "FREE" sign on it. And it's OLD and WELL CONSTRUCTED. What a find! I adore finding and using cast-off things! Not only because of the saved money, but just because it's such a shame to destroy perfectly usable items.

Pauline said...

Jeannette - it is a lovely table. Come have tea... I like that you donated your treasures. I'm sure those who now have them are glad, too!

Ah, Brian M - time to start a petition!

June - I agree. Why waste something if it's still useful? And this chair is SO comfortable!

Pauline said...

No wonder the chair is comfortable - it sells new for over $300

Judith said...

The Thrifty Yankee scores again.
Lucky you live near a high-rent transfer station.;-)

Rubye Jack said...

How fantastic! This beats Goodwill. This is what I miss about California, places like this. Out here in the country everyone is so poor there are no good fines to fine.
Congratulations tho on the great things you've found.

Kerry said...

"The Transfer Station" has an awfully ominous ring to it, but...

Omigosh! A Cuisinart AND an adorable little garden cart. A popover pan? Yes!!
I would be in heaven here at the Transfer Station.

steven said...

isn't it cool that frugality leads to the greatest riches?! superb finds! steven

Out on the prairie said...

I might be afraid to come home with too many treasures.What a grand idea!

Reya Mellicker said...

Excellent finds! Wow.

Here on Capitol Hill, people put what they consider to be junk out on the sidewalk so those of us who prefer bargain "shopping" don't even have to go to the transfer station. The couch on which I'm sitting came off the street as well as my marble topped coffee table and a floor lamp I adore.

I can relate.

red dirt girl said...

Oh how fun!! I wish my community would do something similar .... I'd find a lot of things 'I need/want'...!
Kudos to you for recycling.

xxx

Pauline said...

J - I guess that's one advantage to being a second home dominated community...

Rj - the poor folks love the transfer station!

Kerry, it does now that you mention it but it beats "dump" by more than a mile or two ;)

Steven - frugality has its own rewards :)

OOTP - I have to pace myself. I do donate to those same shelves so there's always room at the cottage for "new" Stuff.

Reya - it's recycling at its best!

RDG - time to start a petition!

Hilary said...

I love yard sales for the same reason but you can't beat the price of your finds. I love that table.. in fact, everything looks wonderful.

Pauline said...

Hilary - free is such fun!

Steve Reed said...

Those are some amazing finds!

Pauline said...

Steve - that chair is the best thing I've ever hauled home!