Keen to hear your stories. Sometimes the best things in life are free.
Keen to hear your stories. Sometimes the best things in life are free.
I try to DIY everything. In my head, every piece of hardware, broken furniture, or random screw has a future use. My default mindset is always repair before replacing. And even if I can’t fix something, I’ll go on a mission to find some other way to use it and look for a used replacement. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad trait, but I do know it drives my wife a little nuts at times!
Still, I take pride in being the guy with the only 20-year-old Toyota on the street, rust patches and all.
For me, this mentality has lead to a sort of hoarding, in which everything I own has a potential future use, but little of it has been used, even after years of being in my possession. This is partly due to the fact that the quantity physically obscures many of the items and I forget that I own them. It is also because many of the items have near-zero use-value; I can imagine a use for almost anything; I can only actually use a small fraction of that.
Recently, I have been aggressively throwing away possessions; if I see it and I can't remember using it (or I have replaced it with something I use more frequently), then I throw that thing in the trash ASAP. I don't care how much it's worth; space, time, and labor; every possession has mental load.
In my case, I’m a bit obsessive about labeling, organizing, and keeping an inventory. I like having everything within arm’s reach because I hate wasting time searching.
That said, I might also one day change that habit and I fully recognize it’s not practical (or healthy) for everyone. I agree that space, time, and mental load are real constraints. I’ll be more mindful about how I frame these things moving forward. Appreciate your comment.
- Ride public transportation.
- Everyday sorts of maintenance (Home/auto).
They are not necessarily "interesting" but I (a low spending person) hove done, enjoyed, and gained from these activities.
Lasts me forever. Presentable for all occasions
Someone else mentioned Carhart. I have some Duluth cool max pants that are also highly durable.
Jeans used to stand up to that. Maybe I’m washing them “too much” (wars have been fought over the Right Way to do denim care) but since they used to handle it just fine, I know it’s possible for new jeans to do it...
I wash my jeans every couple months, I just use a bucket and then hang them to dry for a couple days.
What brand do you recommend?
To me they’re an iconic brand and will always be cool. Build quality wise it’s all right for the price, but I’ve also never really bought any other brands so I can’t compare.
I drive way across town to go to a wholesale grocery stores to buy produce in bulk. This is what I look forward to on the weekends. I have to pass nearly a dozen supermarkets to get there, but its worth it. I can typically get a 30 pound box of tomatoes for $19. Sometimes I can get 40 pound box of bananas for $20 or less. I can sometimes get a giant 10 pound wheel of Brie from France for $7 or a 40 pound wheel of Asiago for $19. Last week they were selling 12 6-packs of flour tortillas for $1 and 40 pounds of high quality dog food for $29.
I have a tiny yard, but I also have multiple fruit trees. I get several dozens pounds of grapes off one grapevine (pink Iona) and this year expect to get thousands of figs off my large fig tree (florea) and several dozen persimmons. For my persimmon tree I ordered a mini-chocolate persimmon, which is like an Asian Hachiya persimmons that are just a little larger than American persimmons with deep brown fruit, but immediately after I planted it the tree genetically divested a second trunk producing American persimmon leaves and American persimmon fruit. Next year I am also hoping for dozens of pounds of cherries off a Lapins Cherry tree. We also in the past grown cabbage and broccoli, but by far the most productive salad crop is okra.
I bought my second Kia Soul for $17,000 and still drive it 8 years later. I have never had a mechanical failure on it. I am on my third battery and only gone through a flat tire once. I don't need any security package because it is a manual transmission, and of course who wants to steal an old Kia Soul?
I got a laptop that I bought in 2015 and I took care of it nicely so it works great! I got my phone (new) from a pawnshop, for a fraction of its real price.
Cycling to work (to save on tickets (I don't use a 'monthly card') and squeeze in a 20km bicycle round-trip to work)
Because most people can relate horror stories of finding some janky "free" listing and they show up to the place and it's not as-described, and often gets weird. Or, they list something for "free" or cheap, and a stream of takers comes by, and again, gets super-weird because they don't seem to understand/care about the "seller" terms.
Perhaps there are "pickers" with a temperament for sorting through the dross and finding diamonds in the rough, but most of the "free stuff" seems to be like "come pick up this white elephant we can't be arsed to transport", and I can see a lot of wasted weekends and occupied storage space just holding crap.
I brought it up with my mom again yesterday -- she said her best friend's granddaughters love to "go thrifting" but thrift stores just ain't what they used to be. Due to Antiques Roadshow and eBay and Etsy and retail arbitration and American Pickers, every thrift store and "free stuff deal" is picked clean by some professional, before an amateur can put his boots on.
My biggest haul was a piece of 3/4" plate glass 4'x9'. I've never even seen them listed, but I would guess it costs thousands new. I got it for free.
Coincidentally my sketchiest buy was also when buying glass. The guy looked like he was on something and had the stuff on the 3rd floor of some kind of scrap warehouse place. Nothing bad happened and the glass was as described.
I’m not poor but I grew up poor and learned a love of doing these things manually. It’s a way of remembering my mother, connecting with the realities of everyday life, deepening my sense of appreciation and taking pride in a craft.
My friends all cook for each other. I’m not sure really wealthy people still take the time to enjoy preparing food for themselves and for others.
evolve2k•8mo ago
Interestingly for me, they often carry a hammock with them and when they find the most beautiful of spots, they tie it up across a couple trees and just hang out. Once they had it slung across two trees at the water’s edge and hung there above a lovely creek. They picked it up second hand, and there no cost to head out in nature with it week after week.