I usually don't think of myself as super frugal, but yesterday while doing some yard work and bending some metal rods, the neighbor was chuckling at me and commenting on how frugal I was being. Now that I think about it, I was being kind of frugal. But you need to read the back story to see how frugal I was actually being.
18 years ago we bought our first home. Within a month a co-worker asks if I would like a guest bed. If I come pick it up, it will save him a trip to the dump. So we now have a new house and a guest bed.
5 years ago, my son really needs an adult sized bed. Well we have a perfectly good guest bed, and not many guests, so problem solved.
3 years ago, my wife informs me that we need a new mattress, we've been sleeping on ours for over 16 years. I protest! Then we proceed to get a new mattress.
Now I have a perfectly good 16 year old mattress. After discussing it with my son, he believes that our old mattress is better than his current mattress. So the mattress that I saved from the dump 15 years prior gets thrown into the garage, and the son is now using our relatively new 16 year old mattress.
I am informed that nobody will accept that nasty old mattress in the garage as a donation, so just take it to the dump. Well it's a long drive to the dump so that's going to use some gas, and they're going to charge me at least $5. My solution, attack it with a utility knife, remove all the fabric, then attack it again with the cutting blade on the grinder. I'm left with a pile of springs. Bundle everything up into neat little packages using the removed fabric as the wrapping. 1 package put into the garbage can once a week. After 3 weeks the mattress is gone. With the exception of 3 rods that ran across the bottom of the mattress to give it support.
Now, I had plans for those 3 rods. I had recently planted a little pine tree in the front yard. It was small enough that I was worried the kids, or neighbors would step on it. Took each rod, stuck it in the ground and bent it over the tree. Perfect we now have a tree cage.
Also about 3 years ago the vines I had planted along the chain link fence had reached the top, and I thought it would be cool to have an arch of vines to go across the pedestrian gate. The trees needed to be trimmed anyway, so after completing that job I choose several branches, twisted them together, bent them into an arch and attached them to the gate. Great I have a natural looking frame for the vines to climb on.
So yesterday, I'm walking around the yard. The tree cage is getting to small, and the tree branch arch is covered in vines but starting to decay and should be reinforced. So the three mattress rods are pulled out of the ground, twisted together, carefully weaved through the vines and attached to the gate. Great, that should keep the arch up for the next 10 years or so. Those little rods have now served three different purposes for me!
All those words to say "I reused some stuff."