1500 Days to Freedom

Think different and escape the rat race.

Why I can’t throw my torn shirt out

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Madison Wisconsin, home of Hippie Christmas
Madison Wisconsin, home of Hippie Christmas

We spent a good number of years living in the awesome college town of Madison, Wisconsin. Except for the harsh winters and terrifying taxes, Madison is almost a perfect place to live. It’s a beautiful city with lots of outdoor activities and good people. The Dane County Farmers’ Market may be the best in the country.

One fine August day in Madison, Mrs. 1500 came home all excited:

  • Mrs. 1500: I have a bunch of clothes for you!!!*
  • Me: Ummmm??? I don’t really need any new clothes. What are you talking about?
  • Mrs. 1500: It’s Hippie Christmas! I got them out of someone’s trash!!!

At this point in the conversation, I was not nearly as enthusiastic as Mrs. 1500. Actually, I was a bit disgusted.

  • Me: Garbage? Hippie Christmas?!? What on earth are you talking about? Are you on drugs?!?
  • Mrs. 1500: No! Hippie Christmas is when all of the college students move out and throw all of their belongings in the trash because they’re too lazy to move them. Much of it is perfectly fine. Come look at what I found for you!!

With great apprehension, I took a look at the treasures Mrs. 1500 had rescued. To my surprise, all of the clothes seemed to be in great shape. Nothing was stained or smelled like beer or vomit or even cats. I cautiously approved the finds, ran them through the wash and put them away in my closet.

Me (1)

Although this was 5 years ago, I still wear much of the clothes that the Mrs. found that day. One of my favorite items was a long sleeved, button down, red shirt. It became one of my go-to clothing items in the cold seasons (9 months of the year in Wisconsin). When it was cool, I would throw on a random t-shirt and then this shirt over it.

Garbage is great!

IMG_3707
Dora the Explorer narrowly avoided deep exploration of the local dump

Well, not all garbage. However, I’ve since come to learn that people throw out perfectly good stuff. I used to laugh at the dumpster divers of the world: “Ha, those people are going through someone else’s crap!” Now, I am the trash picker and it is a badge I wear with honor. Every one of our daughters’ bicycles have come from the garbage. So did our wheelbarrow. Many other tools too. And I’m an amateur. The Frugalwoods are Jedi Master trash pictures; look at some of this stuff!

RIIIIIP!

The mortal wound
The mortal wound

A couple months ago, disaster struck my red shirt. I was working on the house and part of the shirt got caught on a nail and tore. Ugggh. I showed the tear to the Mrs. who insisted she couldn’t fix it. I took the shirt to the garage to toss it in the trash. I looked at the shirt, looked at the garbage can and then looked at the shirt again. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Of course, it was just a silly shirt that narrowly avoided a date with the dump half a decade ago, but it just felt wrong to discard it, especially after it had narrowly averted the same fate once already.

I put the shirt back in my closet where it hangs to this day, waiting for the cold weather to set in. I have no idea how long it will last, but the shirt and I have been through a lot together. Just like the shirt, I have scars. Together, we’ll grow a bit older together.

Yep, I really wear hats with Warren Buffett on them
Yep, I really wear hats with Warren Buffett on them

 

*I actually found these clothes still hanging on their hangers, lying on top of towels and other clean things. They were clean, and upon further inspection, Mr. 1500’s exact size. I picked up an entire wardrobe for him that day. Except underpants, because that is the one thing you buy brand new, no matter how frugal you are.

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  1. I went to grad school up in Chicago – and I was shocked when I saw all the stuff that the undergraduates would just ‘throw’ out. What they would do is pile it in the dorm lobby… so every spring, me and a few friends would spend a portion of a day shopping. So much of my grad school wardrobe was furnished that way…. I kind of miss those days…

    We also did something called a clothing swap – a bunch of girls would get together at a friends apartment, bring a bottle of wine and all the clothes we wanted to get rid of. We would dump the clothes in a giant pile on the floor and then start looking through them for ‘new’ clothes to take home. Everything left over, we donated. It was a great way to change up our wardrobes for free. Unfortunately, in corporate America – I can’t quite seem to find any ladies who want to do clothing swaps anymore 🙁
    Mrs. SSC recently posted…Death of a CellphoneMy Profile

    • Clothing shops sound like an awesome idea. We do the same thing with beer, only there aren’t any leftovers. 🙂

      I wonder why college kids are so wasteful. I was never this way. I hate throwing anything of use out. I have a friend who won’t even take leftovers from a restaurant. That drives me completely nuts.

  2. We’ve rescued quite a few things over the years from the city dump. Several pieces of furniture, old windows/doors that The Little Lady upscales and sells, etc. (I have to be honest, I still feel really weird pulling things out of the trash and try to avoid it if I can)

    That being said, the crown jewel over the years was one of those motorized toy vehicles. You know, the ones for kids that crawl along at a snail’s pace, are ridiculously priced, and we’d never buy? Anyway, we found a yellow Hummer in someone’s trash one time. Our kids were young, so we threw it in the back of the truck, took it home, and plugged it in. The kids had loads of fun in it over the several years before the battery died.
    Big Guy Money recently posted…Luxury’s Curious Effect On Decision MakingMy Profile

    • Ha, those kids vehicles are in the trash all. the. time. We got a scooter as well. We fixed it up and then sold it. Crazy.

  3. We live in a semi-rural area. Since there was no bus shelter, my neice’s husband built one for their kids and anyone else in the neighborhood to use. We all also use it as a big free-cycling booth. I’ve used it many times to put any unwanted but otherwise good items in, they stay out of the rain, with a big FREE sign. The only thing that didn’t ever get taken was a dryly written book on fly fishing. Most everything is taken within the first few hours!

    • Awesome idea! Funny that the fishing book sat there. I think I would have slipped that into the book return at the library. Let them deal with it! That or mail it to a random person!

  4. Haha…I didn’t know they made caps with Buffet on it! Yea, I’m like you…I keep clothes that are in tatters…hey I can still wear it around the house right? Although I did throw a bunch of them out when we moved. It was either put the tattered clothing in boxes and move them or use them as rags.
    Andrew@LivingRichCheaply recently posted…Co-op Buying ProcessMy Profile

    • Ha, they aren’t just for wearing around the house. To Mrs. 1500’s dismay and to the confusion of my parents, I wear some holey stuff in public. No wonder why my neighbors think I’m poor.

  5. I can’t believe those kids throw their perfectly good clothes away! I can’t even throw away clothes I DON’T like that have holes in them, I’m always trying to find a way to reuse them before I consider throwing them away. Rags, cover pet beds, etc. My husband shirts are the perfect size to put over one of our dog beds so we have to wash the actual bed less.

    We’ve pulled several things from the dumpster by my parents house. It’s in a rural gated community (weird, I know) 20+ minutes from a thrift store to donate to so a lot of perfectly good things get thrown out. We’ve pulled out an easy up, a really awesome cart that I now use an an end table (looks like that modern, rustic chic stuff from restoration hardware) and he even called a friend about a paddle boat someone threw away. He took it home to find it was perfectly good and we found the same one at a store in town for over $500.
    Hustle + Save recently posted…Sell Your Stuff October ResultsMy Profile

    • A paddle boat, now that is an awesome find!

      Good for you for making use of those old clothes. When mine are in absolute tatters, they make their way to the rag bag. They have to be in sorry shape to make it there though.

  8. I’m absolutely sure you could run a business based entirely off items college kids throw out each year/semester, it’s like that guy in the pick up truck that picks up all the metal items, he has to be making some money on that.
    Even Steven recently posted…Early Retirement Extreme Book ReviewMy Profile

  9. Hmm, if I can find the right size, I’d be game. I used to dumpster dive when I was a kid. We found cool Apollo space mission memorabilia and office supplies to last a lifetime.

    I just pray the skinny jean trend goes away. 🙂

    • Whoah, space memorabilia! How awesome is that?

      I had some really awesome space memorabilia given to me by an astronaut and my mom threw it out. Grrrrrrrr!!!

  10. Did you wear that shirt in Omaha? Looks familiar… =)

    Have you tried the iron-on repair patches? That’s what I like for holes and tears like that. They sell them in JoAnn and I just try and get a color that matches pretty well and iron a bit of the patch on the inside on the cloth over the hole. Try a red one – it won’t look perfect, but you might be able to get a little more use out of that button without fearing tearing it off when you unbutton!
    Mrs. Pop @ Planting Our Pennies recently posted…IKEA And The Florida Keys, An Unfortunate JuxtapositionMy Profile

    • Yes, I think I did actually!

      I will try the patch. I could put it on the inside too, so it wouldn’t show up. Thanks for the suggestion!

  11. That’s awesome. And, thank you for the shout out! I don’t think I’ve ever been called anything more honorable than “Jedi Master Trash-picker.”

    Funny enough, Mr. FW also has a red button-down shirt that we got for him out of the trash. He’s worn it to weddings, for Easter, for family photos, for our anniversary… It’s basically his nicest shirt. I think he’ll probably wear it for our Christmas picture this year 🙂

    I second Mrs. PoP’s suggestion of an iron-on patch. Those tend to work well with thinner material like that shirt.
    Mrs. Frugalwoods recently posted…Frugal Hound Sniffs: Financial DiffractionMy Profile

    • Hmmm, maybe Mr. FW is my twin in another dimension. Beard? Check. Likes good beer? Check. Code wrangler? Check. Does construction? Check. Hmmmm…

  12. I’ve never heard it referred to as Hippie Christmas, but when I was in undergrad I would dive the dumpsters after the kids moved out of the dorms in May. Similar, although probably not quite as good items as you might find curbside.

    I have hypothesized that, at least in the relatively small town that my college was in, someone with a pickup and a garage or shed they were willing to do without for the summer could make quite a killing as a side hustle by collecting all the futons etc. and then advertising a garage sale at the beginning of the next school year selling them for rock bottom prices.

    • Yep, I believe you could make a good deal off of it.

      Futons always get trashed too. One could probably sell the futons back to the incoming students a couple months later…

  13. Love reading all your comments. As an advanced senior, I was taught to never throw anything useful away, use a spatula to get the last drops, & clean out the fridge before a trip to the market. My kitchen motto is “use it up”.
    Our city has an event every month in the summer where you leave out on the curb your unneeded items, and you can cruise around town to find all kinds of things available. Folks just don’t like to take their “stuff” to the dump. Just be careful to put your bicycles etc. away from the curb!
    P.S. A comment on the best diets – Try the Ham diet = “Half As Much” !

    • Wow, that is a great idea! I love it and wish more places would implement it.

      I love the HAM diet too!

  14. How bad are Madison’s taxes? Living in the Northeast corridor skews that for us – and Madison is one of the places I’m considering for RE.

    I first thought you meant that your hat had Jimmy Buffet on it. 🙂

    • Taxes were about 2.5% of the property’s value. So, a home that costs $200,000 would pay about $5000/ year in taxes. The income taxes are also pretty steep. With that said, you do get a lot for your tax money. There is free pre-school for the kids and the bus even stopped at the house to pick them up. After that, they had full day kindergarten. I have neither of these things in Colorado, not even a bus.

      Madison is probably my favorite city in the world. It’s big enough to have a lot going on and is very bike friendly. On the other hand, it is manageable, not like a big city like Chicago or LA. The countryside around Madison is beautiful too. We actually lived right next to Madison in Monona which I highly recommend, especially if you have a family. Great place.

      If you have any other questions, please hit me up via the contact form and we can chat a bit more!

  15. I live near a college town… Berkeley, California. When each semester is over, you could stock a thrift store with the amount an variety of stuff that gets thrown away…

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