Gettin' Somethin' for Nothin'

Today we installed our new TV. It was a gift – look, if I were to say that my big thrifty trick was, “Have generous relatives,” this would be a pretty lame blog. So I do not have any tricks regarding how to get a free TV.

Or do I?

We already had a TV. It is old and not digital-ready – not a flat screen, nothing fancy whatsoever – but it does the job. So, I’m going to Freecycle it.

If you don’t know about Freecycle (www.freecycle.org -- you’ll see the link to the right as well), get friendly with it. The philosophy behind Freecycle is, you give away things that might otherwise go in the landfill. By giving it away, what you’re really doing is a random act of kindness. And you’re keeping something out of a landfill – especially something like a TV, which I wouldn’t be able to put in the landfill in good conscience anyway. And if you regularly surf Freecycle, you can get some great stuff from it. I got a bed for my son, and all it cost me was a 15-mile car ride.

And this week, somebody is, in fact, getting a free TV out of it.

Have you used Freecycle before? What are your Freecycle stories?