I am from the U.K. but now live in Crete, Greece. It is a beautiful place to live, with wonderful people. The view from my village. The view from my dentists waiting room. No. I do not trust the banks at all. For example, I have both a euro account and a pound sterling account with my local Greek bank. When I need funds sent over from my U.K. pension, I instruct my U.K. bank to send sterling to my local sterling account. I then transfer some or all of it to use into my euro account, WHEN THE EXCHANGE RATE IS ADVANTAGEOUS. The last time I did this the money did not turn up. My U.K. bank swore that they had sent it. It had certainly left my U.K. account but had not arrived in my local sterling account. Weeks later, it was found in my euro account at a very, very, poor exchange rate. But how had it got there? This was a different account number which I had never given to my U.K. bank. It turned out that my U.K. bank was not allowed to transfer my money directly into my local bank. Apparently, it has to go through a middle bank. Why? I don't know. The intermediary bank was Deutsche bank. Deutsche bank stole some of my money by forcing my local Greek bank to give them my account number for my euro account so that they could change my sterling into euros at a very poor rate and then pocket the difference. The day the money was put into my euro account, my Greek bank was offering 1.20 euros to 1 pound sterling. Deutsche bank changed it at 1.15 euros to 1 pound sterling. That is a big difference when it was thousands. After many weeks of expensive telephoning and trips into town to my local bank, I finally got some of it back from Deutsche bank. Not all of it , but it had made me so ill, I just gave up. So, Deutsche bank stole....my local Greek bank should not have given them my account number information.....so no, I do not trust any bank. Daisy

Mine are mostly small things -- like using a glass compote to hold cotton balls in the bathroom -- or a cut glass tumbler to hold q-tips. A hinged CD holder (similar to the tissue box above but a double version) used as a spot to store extra TP. I have a dresser that is a TV stand for our exercise room and the drawers have my gift wrap rolls and ribbons. A home office armoire that was going to be my craft and gift wrap station became a china cabinet when my dad moved and I suddenly acquired another set of china and crystal and I wasn't ready to make decisions on getting rid of anything. I have an old radio cabinet that I cleaned up and planned to put a new shelf and door in the top, but the stained glass panel hasn't been made. I'm thinking about painting it and redirecting it's new life for another room now. Another one I haven't done buy we've talked about a couple of times is to put a pull out bed in a window seat to add a guest bed in our gameroom. I think the inflating mattresses are going to keep that one from happening -- take less room and are probably cheaper and more comfortable now that we no longer have a sofa with the pullout mechanism to repurpose. If a new thread is started, we should try to link this one at the top so these ideas and photos aren't lost -- st least as long as we can.

Bump. The deadline passed so we can let this sink in the list now.

Technically speaking, it's not legal to change an addressee on a postage affixed envelope. In reality, the post office isn't too picky about it. Technically, you're supposed to take it to the post office and have it replaced. Like I said, I don't think they're too picky, and have done it before. But we are talking about an organization who sued the Boy Scouts for putting their fundraiser brochures on mail boxes! Ob $aver thought: My favorite is paying bills online. Between postage, envelope and check fees, it's realistically 50¢ per bill saved. I'm saving $25/year easily, plus the gas of going to a mail box. Another favorite is my little "pantry". I hate going to the store and people who have to run to the store every day for something are nuts. Worst case, I can always make a can of soup. Plus I have a few groceries in case of a storm. Another phrase I enjoyed came from one of the spouse-swap programs where the minimalist/frugal wife's motto was "Do I need it? Do I love it? Does it make me money?" If not, toss it. Oh, and I was proud of myself... My washer was dumping water all over the floor and I thought I'd have to replace a washer after only 26 years of dependable service. Hey Joyful, shouldn't that have been under warranty??? ;) Being crippled up like I am these days, I can't do too much but I was curious to see if there was a chance of it just being a hose or something, plus I couldn't really wreck it, so, after tearing it open, sure enough, all that happened was two hose clamps lost their tension. A trip to the auto parts store, 2 - 25¢ hose clamps, maybe an hour, well, couple hours of "work" (more play and confidence builder) and I saved the cost of a new machine and disposal of the old. So what would that be? Anywhere from $100-$500 per hour pay, tax free, and I'm washing away again. Maybe I'll get another 26 years out of it? Well maybe not, but I'd expect a couple years of use anyway. Oh, other little things, like making a non-electric humidifier out of an ice cream pail sitting in front of the heat register. Cut holes in the top to keep the cat from playing in there. Plus I had to set it into a dishpan because she got mad and tipped it over! There's so many things, I can't think of them. But I enjoy reading others ideas too. I guess I try to make money spending an investment. For instance the Frugal Gazette books to me are an investment since they give you ideas and motivation. Use the library for movie borrowing & rental. Bought a few dozen popular movies for $1 each and share them with a lot of people. Shop for things on the internet to see what they'll cost, then know if it's a good buy when you go out. I had to buy a new dryer and saved $200 by buying a floor model at the "BB" Store. Researched things I wanted and checked reviews and the like. My $5/mo ISP has paid for itself so many times it's hilarious.