Frugal Family is Free This Week

Each week the Frugal Family brings you the best deals around. This week's column will focus on a different idea, getting what you want for free and helping keep the world a little greener. Every time we buy something there is packaging, a bag, receipt and other garbage generated. Let's look at a new way of shopping, being a consumer of re-use and re-cycling.

This column is for you, the consumer, so we would like to hear from you. What experiences have you had with some of these online free sites or do you know of some others? Tell us about it in the comments below.

1- http://www.freecycle.org

This is a national online group that has "clubs" in each town. Your town may not have a Freecycle, but you can join one in a neighboring one. To start you must sign up, then "offer" an item, and then you may begin "receiving" items for free. This includes anything from a hamster cage, baby clothes, toys to cleaning supplies.

Evanston Freecycle 4,496 members

Des Plaines 868 members

Niles 111 members

2-ReUseIt Network on http://www.yahoogroups.com

This is a similar club, a few different rules but again uses key phrases such as "offer, promised, taken, wanted, received and given."

Skokie ReUseIt on Yahoo groups is the closest to this area.

3- http://www.craigslist.com

This is a great place to find a deal to spend money on, but they also have a give away column.

Search in the site- For Sale/Wanted -Free Stuff

With all of these frugal options you want to make sure you go with a friend to pick something up, and it isn't a deal if you spend more gas money than the item is worth going to pick it up.