If you’ve ever wondered how I manage to get so many freebies, I’m here to let you in on my secrets. These are the rewards programs and strategies that I use to get free Christmas presents, food, toiletries, office supplies and more from big-name stores and restaurants. [Read more…]

Be sure to check out the update at the bottom of the post.

My husband and I were headed home from a morning of curb shopping when he spotted a Little Free Library a block from our house! Do you know about these? [Read more…]

Fridays already have a lot going for them, but now there’s even more to like. Here’s the scoop on how you can score three full-size freebies each and every Friday: [Read more…]

We’ll be heating our weekend homestead with two wood stoves, and that means we’re going to need plenty of firewood. We plan to harvest fallen trees from the property, but we’ll also be getting firewood from our favorite store: Curb Mart

Since our town has large trash pick up, people don’t haul trees off when they cut them down; they just pile them up at the curb, and wait for the trash truck to get them. That’s great news, if you’re a curb shopper with a wood stove and a way to haul firewood.

Spring is the best time to “shop” for firewood, since people tend to be focused on cleaning up their yards, but really you can find free firewood anytime of the year.

Living in a suburban town as we do, people frequently cut the wood into fireplace-size logs before putting it at the curb. Maybe they think it looks neater that way? Perhaps it’s so it’ll be easier to carry? I don’t know, but if they want to take care of that chore for me, I’m all for it. Heck, if you’d like to split the wood too, that’s fine by me. Just leaves me more time for curb shopping.

If you’re going to get your firewood at Curb Mart, I also recommend picking up wood pallets. They’re usually made out of hardwood to stand up to the weight of the items being shipped on them, so they burn beautifully. Just cut them up, and toss them in the fire. There’s no need to season them first.

Just be sure to look for the “HT” marking on pallets; it’s an indication that they’ve been heat-treated (aka kiln-dried). You don’t want to burn any that have been pressure-treated. They’ll have an MB on them, which stands for Methyl Bromide.

Do you have other sources for free firewood? I’d love to hear about them.