When I was younger, I learned from fairy tales that there are magic words you can say like “Abracadabra” and “Bippity Boppity Boo” that make things vanish and appear.  As I got older, I found a new word that works much better than these…”Free.”  It amazes me how quickly you can get rid or or accumulate something by simply advertising that it’s free!  It’s actually my favorite word. I know you’re supposed to say that “love” or “family”, but I’m just being honest! And sometimes it doesn’t even matter what is it….as long as it’s free. As the old saying goes, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure” and treasure is always best served up free!

“OMG….look what I found for free!”

I know there are droves of you out there who sit in front of your computer every night, logged into the “Free” section of your local UsedSite just waiting for something amazing to come up that you can get for nothing. (I learned a trick that if you hit the refresh button every 30 seconds, you might be the first to respond and win the glorious prize!)  I’m guilty of this myself and have had to talk myself out of many items that I almost responded to just because they were free.  For instance, there was the “Free Yard of Dirt” that someone posted and I needed new dirt for my garden.  I was about to respond when sanity clicked in and I realized I have a 13-month-old son so I didn’t have the time or ability to actually pick up the dirt…but it would have been so awesome to get for free.

Or there are the dozens of chickens and roosters I constantly see being given away (Way more roosters for some reason…hmmmm…just think about for a few seconds and you’ll know why) and I think, “Boy wouldn’t that be nice to have fresh eggs every morning from my pet chickens”…and then I think about all the chicken poop I’ll have to clean up and decide against it.  I even saw someone giving away two beautiful blue macaws for free the other day and thought, “I can finally fulfill my life-long dream of becoming a pirate and teach my pet parrot to say”Avast ye matey” but decided to pass as I first need to procure a pirate ship, pirate hat, pirate sword and some gold teeth…let me know if any of you are planning to put any of these items up for free soon and I’m in! As they say, I was  “counting my parrots before they hatched.”  Hahahahah…sorry I couldn’t resist!

The word “free” is so magical it can actually help you save time, save money, help the environment and make things disappear all at the same time! Here’s an amazing example:

Last week, my husband and I were just hanging out in our backyard enjoying the sunshine with our friend Jason, when he told us he had to leave early to go home and tear down his full size deck with pagoda and take everything to the dump. He was complaining that this was going to take him hours to do as well as cost him a ton of money to dump at the landfill. My husband and I looked at eachother and almost simaltenously said “why don’t you just post it for free on UsedVic?”  Jason thought we were crazy and couldn’t believe anyone would want to take his deck, let alone come over and actually dismantle it as well…just because it was free. We explained we’ve seen this done all the time…like a few months ago we saw someone advertise free ikea cupboards (worth a bundle!) as long as you came and dismantled them yourselves. They were gone in 30 minutes!

So we convinced him to stay a bit longer and then later, go home and post an ad saying “Free deck” explaining that whomever took it had to dismantle it as well. Still not convinced, he left and did as we said…about an hour later I got a text from him saying over 20 people had emailed him within the first 15 minutes of posting the ad and another 10 people within the hour. He was flabbergasted!  And sure enough, the next day someone came over, dismantled the entire deck, took it away and it didn’t cost our friend a penny to get rid of. Here’s the proof:

Before the deck was posted on UsedVic…

Less than 24 hours after the deck was posted! I told you…magic!

This amazing feat actually got me thinking that I may try an experiment in the next few weeks and post some random and weird items in my house on UsedVic  and see how quickly someone will take them for free!  Just think, if you can make a whole deck magically disappear with the word “free,” imagine what other crazy things you can make vanish.  I’d love hear some of the crazy and amazing things you have managed to either score  or get rid of thanks to the magical powers of the word “Free.”

Coupon tip of the week: Remember to check out the clearance section in your local grocery store everytime you go there. You’ll be amazed at the deals you can find and they’ll be even better if you can combine them with a coupon.  I just went to Safeway and picked up 4 boxes of cereal that is expiring soon (we eat cereal like it’s going out of style in this house) and they cost me $2 each! Plus there was a promotion on the box that said I will get 1 free breakfast item like yogurt or tea when I submit a code online.  So for $2 I got a box of cereal AND a tub of yogurt.  Not bad at all!