* Shop in the FREE/ RE-conomy: Gain tremendous purchasing leverage ============================ Analyzing a single buying transaction… In a ReUseIt community posting back in July/09, I mentioned purchasing an unused hand blender at a yard sale for $1.50.  Now, months later, we are STILL using our “new” blender daily to make our morning smoothies.  It works perfectly.  It does exactly what needs to be done… chops up the frozen fruit, mixes the yogurt, ground flax, milk, etc. into an easy-to-eat, painless, pleasurable breakfast. Cost… $1.50… We ALMOST replaced our old (3 year old…) Wolfgang Puck hand blender with a new one from the Canadian Shopping Channel.  That would have cost us from the Shopping Channel, including taxes and shipping & handling… $80.90. At first glance… savings:  $80.90-$1.50 = $79.40 But, wait a sec…  purchases have to be made in AFTER TAX dollars.  So, it makes sense to figure out how much you’d have to EARN in order to have that $79.40 to spend.  Assuming an income tax rate of 30%, that $79.40 becomes $79.40 * 1.3 = $103.22.  If you earn $25/hour, you’d have to work more than 4 hours in order to have that new Wolfgang Puck blender to do EXACTLY the same job as that $1.50 garage sale item does.  That’s the RECONOMY working for you! But, in the FREECONOMY (ReUseIt / FullCircles / Freecycle), you just might find a free hand blender.  In this case, the savings are $80.90 * 1.3 = $105.16. Either way, thinking a little about shopping alternatives offers us HUGE advantages and huge spending leverage. Shopping under the retail radar in the Free / Re conomy in this case provides us with the purchasing power to make 68 more $1.50 purchases with the savings! Wow! Turn off the tv! Who needs The Shopping Channel. Looking at it another way, shopping under the radar in the FREECONOMY multiplies your $25/hour to the equivalent of $1700 / hour ($25×68).  What a huge multiplier! Think Outside the Box(store)! Eric Snyder Twitter.Fullcircles.org ==================

OTTAWA’S REALLY REALLY FREE MARKET

June 4th, 2011

Ottawa, ON — Full Circles Ottawa (FCO), a local freecycling community, is proud to announce it will be hosting its 2nd bi-annual  Really Really Free Market (RRFM) event on June 4th in Vanier, ON at Montreal Rd. and Begin St.  Residents can drop off items at 8:30 am to 10:00am.  The market opens to the public at 10 a.m.

The RRFM is a full day event promoting and demonstrating FCO’s philosophy of “freecycling”; a gifting economy upholding the values of sharing and reusing serviceable items – free of charge – reducing pressure on landfills, and premature recycling of perfectly good usable items.  The event has been scheduled to tie in with Canadian Environment Week (June 5 to 11th, 2011) and City of Ottawa Spring Giveaway Weekend.

This year we will support local business owners by offering them free table/booth spaces at the RRFM to promote their businesses. All participating businesses will honour the freecycling philosophy by not selling anything.  Businesses can offer information, samples, and advice for follow up to obtain new clients. 

We will host an eWaste drop off run by Ontario Electronics Stewardship Program approved Collector, RD Long Computers.  Any unwanted electronics will be handled by RD Long in accordance with strict OES requirements.

In 2011, we welcome Project Priceless; A Wedding Experiment where local Ottawa couple, Brian and Jordan, are planning a “cheap or free” as possible wedding.  They will be meeting event participants to explain their idea and to accept donations for their unique wedding.

City of Ottawa Councillor Mathieu Fleury has graciously accepted our invitation to meet the public and to observe our event activities first hand.

We also have a free raffle of items donated by local businesses, and a local artisan.

Face Painting, re-purposing demos, local musician Anastasia Fillipova, and much much more…

At the event, members of our community are also encouraged to make food donations to the Ottawa Food Bank.

FullCircles Ottawa (FCO) Mission:

The FCO mandate is “reusing to reduce”; the philosophy that using an item to the end of its life creates less impact and less recycling, a process that further contributes to the degradation of our planet. 

Based on the old adage that “one person’s trash is another person’s treasure”, FullCircles’ goal is to reduce the flow of trash into  landfills, slow the amount of items prematurely recycled, by connecting people with unwanted “stuff” to people willing and eager to use other folks’ second hand “stuff”.  Simply put, we believe in FREECYCLING!

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For more information, visit: ottawa.fullcircles.org

CONTACTS:   Event Organizer, Kelly-Ann Wilson, kelly@fullcircles.org