Thursday, May 04, 2006

Would I be frugal & green if I didn't mention Freecyle?

Nope!
Freecycle is a free , international online service that wants to keep excess stuff out of landfills. You offer your unwanted items to others for free and people respond to your offer via email. You can also request items. Freecycle has offers and requests for just about anything you could imagine.
I've seen a person with goats looking for free kudzu!
Join the
local Freecycle on Yahoo Groups
and get in on the fun! Freecycle also has a Freecycle Community group that features discussions and other things not allowed on the actual Freecycle group site.

Once a year, Freecycle holds a picnic and swap.
My only caveats with Freecycle is that there are some rude moochers that frequent the site 24/7 looking from freebies to resell for profit on Ebay. If you have something of value that you feel such a moocher might grab, my advice is to either sell it yourself or to give the item to charity. My other problem is the folks that just seem to do nothing but park their high-speed connections on Freecycle and reach out a grab everything before the rest can have a chance to get an item.
Oh, and then there are the folks that post outrageous wish lists for freebies:large appliances, houses, cars...some idiot even posted a request for a free Porsche! Even used and in bad condition, that is a $25,000 car! Get real!
The above rotten apples not withstanding, Freecycle provides a valuable & worthy service & has mostly good-hearted people posting. I got a wonderful cat from a Freecycler!