How do you feel about Hand Me Downs/Second Hand Goods?

fizzel81

i love charity shops and boot fairs not had much luck with freecycle ive given some bits away but the few bits ive wanted i have never had replies to my emails.
you will love your breadmaker when you have cleaned it out i got mine out again for the 1st time in ages yesterday shame i ended up at the hospital all day so the bread had sat init too long by the time i got home

zar

We got a breadmaker too from some kind people via freecycle two weeks ago, and have made about 6 loaves so far. Yum!

We even used the bread flour they gave us with it, even though it was BB Aug 04! I'm guessing that was the last time they'd used it, but it works great.

I hope you manage to persuade your OH that its OK, I'm sure it will be a lot cleaner than the industrial machines they use to make bread for the shops anyway...

in_my_wellies

The breadmaker cooks at such a high temperature that all bugs/ germs are dead - just wondering if this is the problem he has with it?

My DH is OK with secondhand, sometimes mending and reusing stuff even I would have got rid of.

I nearly got caught out last summer. I bought a 'brand new' blue jumper from a charity shop, so good that I gave it to him for his birthday. (As an extra present - I'm not THAT mean!) Anyway, he liked it so much he wanted another one in green. I thought he would forget but he persisted and in the end I had to come clean. Luckily he saw the funny side too.

snoozer

My OH's nephew got married and bought a house last year. His fiance/wife insisted on everything new, including a bathroom suite because she didn't like the idea of using someone else's.

When OH and I got hitched 20 odd years ago I think the only new furniture we had was a mattress which was on the floor cos we couldn't afford the base. Everything else was handed on and lasted us for years. :j

needmoney

I have lately had given to me a portable tele and yes a breadmaker both from my brother and sister-inlaw:D still have to get a booster for the tele though.

sanfrancisco

The fact that most people are bothered by second hand goods is because we have been conditioned with 50 years of advertising by corporations that brainwash us into thinking we must have x, y or z and it must be new. There motivation is to make money and they make moeny by selling us stuff. They need to convince us that we need this stuff, when we don't really. Fashion is just clothes companies inventing new things to sell to us each year.

I make a predicition, that with the current state of the economy, being frugal will become very trendy in the next few years, probably under the guise of "being green", and everyone will be coming to us for tips. Look how the 4x4 is being replaced with that new green car thing. When something gets too popular we don't like it and we have to replace it with something new.

pandaonmyshoulder

I visit the local charity shops etc.. but sadly have no family to provide hand me downs, if only......

snoozer

sanfrancisco wrote:

I make a predicition, that with the current state of the economy, being frugal will become very trendy in the next few years, probably under the guise of "being green", and everyone will be coming to us for tips.

I think you're right. Look at Japan, when their economy went into recession lots of people started to moneysave and look at old style ways of doing things.

mountainofdebt

often visits charity shops but not when she's with my sister, who gets very embarrassed if she sees you coming out of one and would (I'm sure) would rather die than see you buying something from one.

A couple of years ago my mum was meeting my sister and had some time to wait so she went in and fancied a top. Anyway to save my sister's embarressment she put her purchase in a M&S carrier that she had with her. No point as my sister had seen her from outside the shop!

Better not tell her then that I buy alot of my clothes from ebay ....in fact I bought an evening dress off ebay and proudly tell people of my bargain!

bikerqueen

YOur OH cant put it in the bin. it was given in good faith by someone who wanted to keep it out of landfill. If he insists on you getting rid of it then the ethical step is to put it back on to freecycle.

So far I have freecycled

Empty cardboard boxes
chrome and pine shelving units
a knackered car
3 seater sofa and matching chair
single futon
2 boxes of stuff for car boot to charities
a double bed
shower curtain

I have received

A huge ikea rug for my dining room
A bottle steriliser
A bottle warmer
A baby care book
A practically new baby bouncy chair
an orange juice squeezer thing in chrome
a book on gardening
a box of 60 books (kept the ones I wanted, freecycled/charity shopped the others)
some bluebell bulbs
paint for my nursery

It's fab