Day 76: A Dollar Saved Is A Dollar Earned

As you might have recognized I was forming letters out my cans. I had so many of them last week, that I really wanted to do something with them. I decided to write my slogan (and blog title) with cans on grass and it worked out pretty well, except that I forgot the V ... . What a desaster.

Enjoy the picture, I guess you have to click on the picture to see that the letters are really cans...










Besides forming letters out of cans, I had the luck to be forced to take 27 cans/bottles to my place.  My girlfriend and me attended the graduate student orientation as every semester, which offered many snacks and drinks.  In the end there were still many cookies, brownies and drinks and the professors urged us to take them... . What a success!  I won´t be able to instantly return all of them, but over the coming weeks I can return a few every now and then and receive some extra cents :).

Here a picture of what we were forced to take home: YUMMIE!

Day 75: Demand determines the price!

After inspecting the speakers a little closer, I am quite happy with my investment... Actually it is not really an investment as I got them for free! I found an advertisement for a garage sale that was scheduled during Hurricane Irene.er gave eve Apparently many things were left (...) and at the morning after Irene, the same garage sale was on craigslist again and the owner gave everything away for free.  So I drove and found the two speakers.
 
I was thinking a lot about how much to expect for them.  I thought about 40$, but actually there is no hurry and you never know whether there is someone desperately looking for big, heavy, loud, old, vintage speakers.
I decided that 240$ is the perfect amount for them. You probably think that this is waaaayy to high, but wait, here is why:

1. The semester started yesterday and there will be many parties around Albany during the coming weekends. Parties = loud music -> loud music = Need for my speakers!
2. The speakerboxes are huge and in really good shape. The speakers themselves are not of bad quality! They are old, but were worth a lot and are being sold on ebay for 50-200$.  
3. I have time!  I dont really need to sell them. I am asking people for offers and even though I expect many to think my price is too high, I hope that their offers are still higher than as if I would have started with a low price. If nobody responds, I am going to lower the price step by step. I advertise them at craigslist, which is completely free and quite common in the US for buying and selling all kinds of stuff.

Here is the link to my offer at craigslist:

http://albany.craigslist.org/ele/2573501684.html


At the end I´d also like to ask you to be a follower of my blog. I´d really appreciate it :)

Day 74: How much are they worth?

Today I did it!  I went to a garage sale and found something valueable!   I am a little in a hurry right now and would be happy for some comments:

How much would you have paid for these speakers?
How much are they worth?
For how much should I sell them!

I will tell later today or tomorrow how much I had to invest to get them.  They are damn heavy and big. I would say 80 cm x 50cm x 35 cm. I opened them to see what kind of speakers they have, but don´t know the brand... so any information would be helpful (i ll google it later too)



Here are some pics:

Day 73: No Cans, but Hurricane Irene Day

Naaah, I´m not going out today do I?   Alright, I did the minimum and collected a bag with maybe 40 cans from the Hudson River Coffeehouse. As it is everywhere in the news, I made some videos of Hurricane Irene while driving Downtown. I uploaded two of them. They are not overwhelming, but I guess that is better for me than flying trees and houses. It is raining heavily since 4am and quite windy, but not much more.  Further downtown I saw a lot of stuff on the streets and fences and smaller trees that did not stand the wind, but that´s all.
  Anyway here they are:

Day 72: Cans Cans Cans!

Income: 40.07 $

During the last two weeks I was not only able to collect cans from my favourite coffehouse, but also during my visit to Grafton Lakes State Park. I also received a bag with cans and bottles from a friend of mine and was prepared to spend a long time at the bottle returning machine.

The trunk full of cans was in the end worth 10,30$ and equals to 237 cans and bottles (206 were refundable). It took me forever to return all of them.

The coming days won´t be too lucrative, as Hurricane Irene is on the way and will reach NY on Sunday. Even though I am located in the north of New York (where heavy storms are rather uncommen), the weather won´t be too pleasant. I´m planning to use this time for some investments. Maybe I´ll find something free on craigslist or, if time, tomorrow at one of the garage sales that are currently everywhere. Sadly, I missed the chance to get 6 boxes full of toys for free at craigslist. They were gone only one hour after the owner offered them.

I´d also be happy to have some more followers, so please press "join this site" on the right, if you are regularly checking my blog. Thanks to Member No.6  and thanks to all the other readers.

Day 70: What to do with so many cans?

As I haven´t returned any cans for about two weeks, the trunk of my car is now filled with empty bottles and cans. As some of you might have recognized, I am still not fully satisfied with the Design of my blog and was changing it several times. Currently, I m a little bored by the header " A Dollar Saved is A Dollar Earned" and was thinking about a not too ordinary way to make it more interesting. The cans must be good for something more than just 5c deposit refund.

I was thus spending some hours on an empty parking lot (or rather the meadow next to it) and arranged cans back and forth. I´m quite satisfied with my results and will update the complete results on the blog as soon as possible. 

Tomorrow morning I will return all my cans, you can see many of them on the photo, I guess I have far more 150 cans and bottles and am looking forward to receive some dollars for them. 
I´d also be happy about some more followers,  so if you are not, this is your chance! Just click "join this site" on the right :)

Day 67: Grafton Lakes State Park

Income: 29.77 $

Yesterday, my girlfriend and I spent a day at Grafton Lakes State Park.  The lake has a public beach and a nice trail around it. While the beach is quite clean, you can see some trash lying around on the trails along the lake and many people don´t throw their cans into the forest, but put them next to benches or small grill areas.

I took the chance and collected the cans along the trail. I filled up a whole bag and will return all the cans during the coming days. We only walked a third of the whole trail, I guess next time I´ll bring bigger bags. From now on I´ll put some  in my car, yesterday I had to borrow my girlfriends shoe bag which she generously donated (thank you).

Anyway, the park is a little cleaner, and I am a little closer to the 20000 cans that I need to win the challenge  :`( .

Afterwards we stopped at a café to drink some coffee and get some food and baaam, I´ve found 52 cents on a couch.  All in all a very successful day!  I´d be glad to have a few more followers, so if you read my blog every now and then, become a follower :)

Day 64

Income: 29.25 $
Currently it is quite rainy in Albany and I am slightly demotivated to invest much time into collecting cans and bottles. However, on the spacy parking lot in front of my apartment, I am very successful in finding pennies and sometimes nickels or dimes. I don´t assume to see all of them, as I am not paying too much attention, but so far I was able to find at least 3 coins every week.

And again, 2 days ago I found a nickel and 2 pennies, just lying around between the other cars. If only more people would lose some coins on my parking lot!
Anyway, on Sunday I am going to return cans and bottles I have collected during the last 2 weeks.  I expect even more cans and bottles than on day 55 (192 cans and bottles).  See you on Sunday :-)

Tribe meets white man for the first time

Yesterday, I watched the video below, showing a tribe in Papua New Guinea who meets a white man (Jean-Pierre Dutilleux) for the first time. Dutilleux travelled through North and South America and according to his biography, Sting (the musician) had also joined him to one of his visits to the Amazon. I haven´t seen this video earlier, even though it is from 1976.

Isn´t it interesting to see how the tribe reacts to things that are normal to us? How they carefully look at the colored dishes and cups and how they react when eating rice with salt (or sugar?). I would have imagined they think he is some kind of devil, but instead they are careful, but peaceful and very curious about everything. I really enjoy watching it. I am currently thinking whether I should order one of Dutilleux´s documentaries, just too curious about his other travels.

Have a look at his biography if you like to find out more about his travels and the survival of the remaining Indians of the Amazon Rainforest.

Day 55: Short Update, Big Payout

Income: 29.18 $
After gathering bottles and cans in my trunk for two weeks, I returned a shopping cart full of cans. The 2 bags were worth 8,85$ and countained 192 cans (177 for 5c). I also found two more Pennies on my parking lot.  However, I am currently quite busy with life and can´t find the time to post too much. So just to keep everybody uptodate:

Before:

After: