Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Free, Free is Always Good



Many of us, especially those of us who have families, are looking for ways to lesson our bills or save money.  Let me tell you, yes, I AM going to tell you *chuckle*!



While flipping through my cable channels (of which I am seriously considering canceling) yesterday, the Today Show on NBC had a discussion about web sites where you can trade, borrow and even get items for free.  Many of us are aware of some of these sites or sites that are similar, but this list includes some of my favorites. 



My husband is being laid off in January, so I need to save every penny I can!




FREE--All sites included in the list provide a service where you can find people (even in your local area) who are getting rid of items:  for free!


Craigslist

All you need to do is search any city, country, etc.  and under the items for sale there is a catagory labeled FREE.



FREECYCLE NETWORK

On Freecycle.org you by typing in your location, you can search for freecycle yahoo groups that put you in touch with those who offering their items for free. 


FREESHARING NETWORK

Freesharing.org is very similar to freecycle.org, but different.  Check it out, you will see!



BORROW--These sites are geared for those who just need to borrow an item.


NEIGHBORROW

Neighborrow.com provides a borrowing service where you connect with others who are willing to lend you an item short term.  If you would like to lend or borrow, just sign-up and list those items. 



BORROWING CIRCLE

This is directly taken from the borrowingcircle.com site:

Here's how it works: you and your friends create free accounts on BorrowingCircle, and register belongings you are willing to lend out. Then when "Fred" in the BorrowingCircle family wants to borrow one of your items, he puts in a request. You arrange how to get the item to "Fred," and he borrows it for a time. Then when the due date rolls around, "Fred" returns it.


SWAP/TRADE



SWAPTREE

Sign up with swaptree.com and you can swap items such as books, music, movies and games.  I have already signed up! 



If you do a search on stumbleupon.com (I am sure other bookmarking sites too) for the term "swap", you can find all kinds of websites that offer this type of trading/swapping system.  Here is a link to my stumbleupon results page, I am sure yours could be different:  stumbleupon



As with any type of service or internet dealings, make sure you thoroughly check out not only the web site, but make sure you are comfortable with the person you are transacting with. 


Have fun!



5 comments:

Overwhelmed Mom said...

I am thinking of canceling my cable too. I always think of how much more I can accomplish if there was no tube. I posted about this (in part) today also http://owwm.blogspot.com/
Thanks for all the free stuff - I knew about craigs list but not the others - I'll check them out!

SimplyBillie said...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE Freecycle! I'm even the owner/moderator for our local group. Great post. I'll have to check out the other sites.

nB said...

Please check out neighBORROW before we enter the private BETA ahead of the launch. We have been building the community now we are working with the individual groups "neighBORROW-hoods" to perfect the system. We are even compensating the "mayors" of those testing neighBORROW-hoods.

email admin@neighBORROW.com with questions

Thanks

Anonymous said...

Love Freecycle here, too. Thanks for the head's up. I'll have to look at what's in the neighborhood. (Faint strains of Mr. Rogers singing "It's a beautiful day in the neigh-bor-hood, a beautiful day for a neighbor...")

Laura said...

You crack me up K. If I find anything other 'free' stuff I will let you know! :)