My Front Yard Frog Pond Sanctuary When you live five minutes from the Tennessee River, you don’t have to go looking for wildlife — it finds you. Frogs, birds, hummingbirds, insects… they all show up …
Sincere Scribbles
Showing: 49 - 60 of 175 Articles
Mapping the Free Gold of Bulk Dump Season
Every neighborhood has its seasons, and if you pay attention, you’ll notice patterns. Spring clean-up days, college move-outs, estate sales — they all add up to piles of free stuff sitting on curbs. Furniture, tools, …
Growing Food in Trash: Mushrooms, Microgreens & Worm Farms
Food prices keep climbing, but growing food doesn’t have to mean raised beds and acres of land. Sometimes, the best food grows right out of the trash. It’s cheap, it’s unconventional, and it turns waste …
The Food Companies Throw Away — And How You Can Get It
Every day, bakeries toss trays of bread. Restaurants dump bins of produce. Food plants throw away pallets of product that never hit the shelves. It’s waste on a scale that makes you sick to think …
Modern Bartering: How I Trade My Skills for Real Supplies
Cash is tight. That’s reality. But skills? Skills are everywhere — and they’re worth more than cash in the right hands. Modern bartering is alive and well, it just looks different now. I’ve traded digital …
Where Factories Hide Their Freebies: End-of-Line Pickups Explained
End-of-Line Industry Pickups Factories are efficiency machines, but when things go wrong, waste piles up. Misprinted labels, dented cans, off-size packaging — all perfectly fine on the inside, but worthless to a store shelf. So …
Salvage on Steroids: How to Score Returns & Damaged Stock for Pennies
Here’s a secret the big stores don’t want you to know: they don’t trash all those returns and damaged goods. They pay companies to haul them away. It’s called reverse logistics — and if you’ve …
The Secret Season When Stores Practically Give Stuff Away
Everybody loves a good sale, but let’s be real — sales aren’t where the real savings live anymore. Stores play games with “discounts” and half the time you’re paying the same price as last week. …
Fingers Crossed for the GMC: How Free Lumber Fuels My Homestead
Fingers Crossed for the GMC: Chasing Free Lumber and Freedom You know what feels like real freedom? Not a fancy vacation, not some new shiny car — just the thought of getting my old 2003 …
When Promises Fall Flat: The Ugly Truth About Depending on Someone to Fix Your Home
When Promises Fall Flat: The Ugly Truth About Depending on Someone to Fix Your Home Let me tell you something that’ll drive you crazy faster than a busted water pipe: relying on somebody else to …
Cheap Garden Wins: How I Stock My Yard With $2 Zinnias and $3 Mandevilles
Cheap Garden Wins: How I Stock My Yard With $2 Zinnias and $3 Mandevilles People love to act like you need a fat wallet to have a pretty yard or a productive garden. Truth is, …
How to Stretch a $10 Plant Into a Backyard Full of Food
How to Stretch a $10 Plant Into a Backyard Full of Food When you’re running a homestead on a budget, every dollar counts. That’s why I get downright giddy when I score a plant deal—like …