海角大神

We currently own a 2004 Honda Pilot, which we use for most of our family鈥檚 driving needs. We bought it off of聽. We ended up paying substantially less than we would have at a dealership.

I have a large handful of tools that were given to me by someone on聽. They cost me nothing.

Last year, I purchased several of my children鈥檚 Christmas gifts off of聽. They were all new or nearly new, and they all cost far less than they would have otherwise.聽

A few years ago, I found a keyboard on聽, one I used to help myself learn how to play the piano a bit. It cost nothing.

The internet is a powerful place to find person-to-person sales and sharing, and those two sites are at the vanguard of it.

All of us have lists of things we鈥檇 like to have. It鈥檚 a pretty poor financial choice to simply go buy these things, and any sensible person won鈥檛 just go out there and start spending.

Instead, they鈥檙e patient. They wait for the right opportunity to find these things. They鈥檒l barter if the chance comes up, or they might even pay a few dollars, but they won鈥檛 pay a whole lot.

听补苍诲听聽(among other sites) play into this perfectly. They offer a great opportunity to find items you might want or need for free or for a very low cost.

Sure, often these items are used, but you have the ability to inspect them before you buy them. In my experience, most of the stuff listed is either of good quality or you can tell by the description that there鈥檚 something less than stellar about the item.

I often watch Craigslist and Freecycle for those few things that I鈥檓 looking for (right now, for example, I鈥檓 looking for a low-cost wall-mounted shelf for a few books). Once every few days, I鈥檒l stop in and browse the new entries for my area and, if something matches, I鈥檒l inquire about it.

The key is to聽be picky and stick with stuff you鈥檙e actually looking for that鈥檚 at a low cost.聽Most of the entries are completely irrelevant to me. A few more might be of interest, but they either cost too much or there鈥檚 something about the item that rules it out. I look for the few remaining items and those are the ones I chase after.

Let Craigslist and Freecycle be a part of your routine, particularly when there鈥檚 something you need that has a low urgency about it. These sources will often connect you to that item at a surprisingly low cost without leaving the convenience of your home.

This post is part of a yearlong series called 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap (Revisited),鈥� in which I鈥檓 revisiting the entries from my book 鈥�365 Ways to Live Cheap,鈥� which is available聽at Amazon聽and at bookstores everywhere.聽