We've been lucky in the neighborhood we live in... everyone lets each other borrow stuff. I think they do it to help keep up the appearances of the neighborhood.
For example, these birds have been trying to nest in our porch entryway... but our porch is 2 stories so we needed an extension ladder. DH went over to the neighbors... asked him... he didn't have one, but they walked over together to the neighbor who did. Borrowed it, and returned it.
That same day DH is BSing with the neighbor and the neighbor says "If you ever want to borrow our pressure washer you can" since his side of the fencing in our back yard is faded which you notice considerably since we just put in a new fence... or to borrow his truck so we can put mulch in our landscaping.
SO the most frugal thing we've done is to just make friends with the neighbors
We did buy some tools... like a dolly and a table saw which has come in handy more than once when DH replaced all the flooring in our old house and when we moved.