Question for people with kids and budget

[freshstart06]

Has anyone ever heard of freecycle.com this is a site where people give away good stuff for free. I found a few yahoo groups site for my city where people give away free stuff like furniture, fridge, clothes, cars, you name it. You can even ask for stuff.

[freshstart06]

Sorry it is www.freecycle.org

[Granny]

I've used freecycle quite a bit. There are several for our city, broken down geographically. The last time I used it, the kids and I spent an afternoon driving around picking up used jeans. I collected them to make a braided rug. We used freecycle to clean out the storage building and got rid of a bunch of stuff.

There are people who will try to get stuff for free for a garage sale, but once the members figure out that is what is being done with their stuff, that someone is making a profit off someone else's generosity, the prfit seeking member are banned. It's a great way to get stuff for free and keep useable stuff out of the landfills.

[Granny]

Yes, St. Mary's foodbank is the best. You get a good select of meat ie has ribs, steak, family size bag of chicken you name it. I really love the fresh veggies, I will be getting more food this Monday. You can get as much as you want. It is funny because my husband always sends me to get the food, apparently, the men that work there must think I am cute or something because they always give me extra for free. LOL. The way it works you drive up to order (Like you would at a fast food place) and place your order, then you pull your car up to the loading dock and the men that work there load your car. The best times to go is before and after the holidays. You wil get ham, turkey, the best cakes and pies. All the food is the overstock from local grocery stores ie Frys (Krogers) Walmart, you name. You will also sometimes get household goods. The only problem you cant pick exactly what you want like at a grocery store, you get whatever is in the meat box, bread box, pastry box, veggie box. Once I stuck with way too many cucumbers and beets.

Are you sure this is the same? The website looked to me like one would know ahead a time exactly what one would be getting and it was necessary to pre-order.

[wayne-o]

Couple of other suggestions.

Clip coupons. It is a little work and you have to be organized. Most stores in my area offer double coupons and occasionally triple coupons. The trick is making sure your not buying something you dont need just to use ur coupon. Quite often if I catch a sale and double coupons im getting things 1/2 price or better.

WIC. If you have small children, check with your local health dept about a program called WIC. (women infants and children). It is a nutritional program that helps expecting mothers, before birth. Mothers and babies after the birth. And small children to a certain age. The income requirements for this are much less stringent than to qualify for foodstamps. They give you vouchers for things like milk, cereal, juices, tuna, eggs, peanut butter, dried beans, and baby formula for babies. It is not enough to get you through the month (except maybe baby formula), but every little bit helps the cause.