As many of you know, we rave about our Brother Laser Printer. It is a real workhorse when it comes to printing eBay shipping labels (these are the ones I love), invoices and thank you inserts. I’ve had mine for 3 years, printed 17,853 pages on it, and only refilled the toner about 5-6 times (at about $5 for each refill) rather than buy a $50 new cartridge each of those times. I just buy bulk refill powder on eBay for cheap and refill it when it gets low. So easy. So cheap. That’s what we call digital scavenging!

This past week we talked about how we harvested honey from our beehive for the year. Well, here is the video to prove it. You get to see all the fun without all the sticky mess. Yum!

Here is another video about how we, as Scavengers, keep costs low in our house. Making your own deodorant at home is cheap, easy and you can fully control your ingredients. Using a base of unscented Aloe Vera Gel, Witch Hazel and a bit of Rubbing Alcohol, you can add whatever essential oils you like. I love the combination of Tea Tree, Lavender, Eucalyptus and a pinch of Peppermint. Now add a little Baking Soda to liquify the gel and aid in de-odorizing. That’s it! So simple and so effective.

 Ingredients mentioned: Tea Tree Oil, Lavender Oil, Eucalyptus Oil, Peppermint Oil, Witch Hazel, Aloe Vera Gel, Baking Soda and Rubbing Alcohol.

This video isn’t about eBay, but it is about scavenging. Part of our lifestyle is about reducing costs so we don’t have to over work. More bills means more time working to make the money to pay the bills. Since selling on eBay gives us control of our time, we realized we could heat our home entirely with wood that we found for free on Craigslist. This is how we do it.

We don’t spend any money on heating bills, but it does take time to scavenge the wood we burn. Very often we build this into our eBay buying. Before we go to an auction, we pick up free wood from a home that advertised a recently cut tree on Craigslist. Most people who cut down a tree in their yard don’t want this wood. They’re thrilled when we take it all away, and we love it because they’ve already done the work of cutting it into manageable chunks for splitting. It’s great exercise too.

If you have ways that help save household money, we’d love to hear them in the comments.

Items mentioned: Fiskars Hatchet (our favorite!), Fire Poker, Ash Broom, Ash or Kindling Bucket.

Check out our How To Make A Fire Starter Video and watch the original Wood Stove Insert Install Video too.

ITEMS MENTIONED:
Panasonic GH Series Cameras
Panasonic 20mm lens
Large Weight Scale
Small Weight Scale
Steno Notebooks
Tape Measure