Piano sized dreams on a keyboard sized budget?

How about no budget?

Do you need something but just can't seem to scrape together enough money to buy it at the local outlet? Well why don't you just ask for it? Millions of people around the world are doing just that, and people in their communities are more then happy to give it to them. No strings attached.

I mentioned earlier that part of going green is reducing waste as well as limiting the buying of stuff. One of the best ways to do that is to join the local Freecycle group and become one of over 4 million people around the world who are giving items they no longer need to those who do.

On a typical day you can find local people asking for or giving almost anything you can imagine. Do you need a working power cord for that lamp in the corner? Maybe your kids have outgrown some of their clothes and you are tired of them taking up space in the closet. Perhaps you bought a couple boxes of the new frozen pizza rolls only to find you'd rather eat treats out of the litter box like fido does.

Whether you need something or need to get rid of something, chances are you can find a match on Freecycle.

To give it a try, simply sign up for a free Yahoo! account and look for a group near you. Once you have found and joined a group you will need to decide if you want to read posts at the website or if you prefer to read them via email. If you choose email, just be aware a busy group will keep your in box full. In that case, simply select to receive email from the group in digest form and you will typically get them in batches of 25.

Now simply sit back and wait. If you see something you like, act fast because things go quick. As you can imagine free is a pretty popular price with most people. Just remember to give as well as take and be honest about the condition of the items you give. Most anything goes and finding a taker is generally pretty easy.

No group near you? Start your own and help reduce waste in your community.

Have fun, good luck and be proud you are helping to reduce the strain on our planets resources.

Things you can find on Freecycle include:

• Food
• Clothes
• Electronics
• Kitchenware
• Garden tools
• Craft supplies
• Cars (seriously)
• Boats (again, seriously)
• Pretty much anything else too (hey if people will give cars and boats, why doubt me?)

Photography by Julia Freeman-Woolpert