Original Tips 23-27

23. Volunteer when you can at community cleanups, book fairs, botanical centers, museums of all types, libraries, Earth Day celebrations. Teach children not to waste, but to share and to trade where possible. See the onsite community areas for barter.
24. When re-gifting and homemade gifts are good. Teach the spirit of gift giving and holidays; commercialism has been an issue since the first Christmas. Read Christmas and holiday stories and lore to see how such greed and commercialism are combated through the last two millennia. Also, you can see how people celebrated in historical times of economic adversity like War, Depression, and famine. You might be surprised at how happy and meaningful some of these celebrations can be.
25. Weddings; tips for economical weddings. I Had a Civil ceremony and church wedding for under $2500. Tell how.
26. Coupons and sales
27. Collecting is always a great way to recycle and make use of things. Collect for art materials, store inventory, personal enrichment or investment, for children, for fun. People who collect tins, baskets, and boxes use them for storage as well. People who collect vintage pens and pencils use them and sharpen them whenever they can. People who collect buttons often use them on their clothes.

Old shoes sometimes make good flower pots, and old bowling balls make interesting garden ornaments. Victory Garden and other shows have made good use of incorporating them into garden landscape. Same for old signs, old wheelbarrows and garden implements, wooden doors and fences, statutes, old tires, old claw foot tubs, milk cans, and tractor seats. They have found new life in garden landscapes. DIY scarecrows or other scarecrows as collectibles serve dual purposes as well. For one night special occasions, luminaries from paper bags are still a great effect, especially if you use LED “fake” votives which are save and effective.