I was very proud of myself for saving about $150 by not buying lumber for my fenced yard. We moved into a new house recently and have two big dogs, so I wanted to fence the perimeter with 48" wire livestock fencing. Its a wooded area, so I thought I could go around the existing trees to minimize fence posts, but didn't want the wire to dig into the bark as the trees grow. Pressure treated 2x4's nailed to the trees would have added an additional $150 to the overall cost of the project. I scanned craigslist and facebook marketplace looking for people scrapping decking or whatnot, but didn't come across anything.
There's a guy up the road from me with a small sawmill, so I stopped by and he let me load up with 'slab wood' as he calls it. This is the first cut of the log that removes the bark and squares up the sides. He has a whole pile that eventually becomes firewood or is used for raised bed gardening, or when he accumulates too much, is hauled off and dumped into the woods. After getting it home, I cut them to length, shaved off the bark, and nailed to the trees. The rest of the fencing project just got completed this past weekend and the dogs are happy to run around.