What did you reuse or repurpose?

[ScrimpAndSave]

Got some free mulch and did my garden!

[LuxLiving]

Today FrugalSon and I worked moving stepping stones out of the big garden and moving them to the top yard by wheelbarrow four at a time (big slope) to make a small patio section in a part of the yard that will never grow grass! Nobody was using the pathway in the big garden anyway.

We also repurposed some of the leftover flat rocks that we were given free for the hauling** when our church was done with their building project. I downsized a flower bed so then I used the rocks to go from the new little patio area and created a walkway that rings the now smaller flower bed and will connect it to an existing poured concrete walk on one side of the house.

I will likely have to either buy some river rocks to put in between the bed and the rock side trim or do a small concrete pour. I would rather it be concrete, but the yard budget may require river rock this year. If I go that route then I could later reuse the rock as mulch for the flower bed. OR I could do a combo of concreting in the river rock.

We have stretched that leftover flat rock a LONG way using it to ring the ugly fence on the top yard and around the back of a long picket fence area to keep more land from eroding on the slope and I STILL have a big pile of it left. I'm trying to decide whether or not I could put up with an uneven flat rock sidewalk for this little section. It would only be about 4-6 ft. long. I could lay it tomorrow and if later I find it livable it could still be cemented in at a later date.

**It didn't cost me any extra for gas either as this was when FrugalSon was working 8-12 at the church anyway and we'd go early and we'd put a load on for me and I'd come home and unload. Then when I went back to pick him up we'd do another load in the afternoon! I love FREE!!

[GiftBlogger]

I'm constantly regifting, especially when someone gives me candles or bottles of wine. I keep the wrapping paper or gift bags as well and just give them to someone else.

[rob62521]

I had some limp celery and I put that with a couple of carrots and some chicken parts I wouldn't eat and made chicken stock. I used it to cook fresh green beans in -- sure beats canned!

[LuxLiving]

Last week TheGrrl's mother had sent a chocolate cake over. It was yummy. In the race to good relations to possible future co-in-laws, I made them a cherry cake rather than send back an empty pan. Since I was already going to have the oven going and the resulting cooking mess, I made us a cherry cake too. Double the pleasure, half the clean-up, and additional warm-fuzzy-brownie points w/TheGrrl & her folks.

So, I repurposed my cooking session to include my family as well. Hubster & 2 young men here like cake too!

[rob62521]

And where, pray tell, is cherry cake for the rest of us, Lux? :-)

[LuxLiving]

rob62521,

Too late - I had your piece right here but it's in my young gents' tummys! Gotta strike while the cake is warm around here or you miss it.

[rob62521]

Phooey...that will teach me to go to work and miss the cake! :-)

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I have the oddest coaster for what ever cup I have with me at the computer desk. I wake up with coffee and the internet the way people used to wake up with coffee and the newspaper. I don't like having a saucer or real coaster beside me because I will be engrossed in reading and will set my cup down wrong and flip the saucer or coaster up or even off the desk. I need something really flat, water proof and non-tippable.

Solution: An empty Tide detergent mylar packet well rinsed out and dried. It was a sample I found out about through Savingadvice.com. I've had it here for months and it suits the purpose beautifully. No water rings on the desk, no saucers somersaulting to the floor.

[rob62521]

This isn't my idea, but one of the ladies I work with does pottery on the side and sells them. She mails them to many places after taking orders at art shows. Although we save boxes and packing peanuts if we get them for her, she said she is shredding all her junk mail for packing and it does pretty well!

[LuxLiving]

This isn't a recent one, but I just remembered it. When we sold out of our old house and had about a month before we could move in here, Hubster borrowed a semi trailer from work and we packed up all our household goods in it. The only thing he kept out besides his clothes was his computer. The kids and I visited various relatives around the state during that month and he stayed in town to work and stayed at his Dad's house.

They didn't have any room for his computer so he took (re-purposed) an old-folks walker that was in Pop's attic and put a board across it and used it for a make-do desk for his computer monitor. He held the keyboard in his lap and made do for the month he was there. Somewhere I have a picture of this goofy set-up! Some times it's all about using what you have handy.

[rob62521]

Originally Posted by LuxLiving

Some times it's all about using what you have handy.

Amen! And it worked!