The Duct tape post calls to mind

**Cricketlegs** · 05-01-2009, 10:40 PM

when I was growing up.

I don't have any duct tape stories but I do have a few creative ones.

When Daddy took off and left Mama with 3 kids and no childsupport things were rough. Someone gave us a second hand washer and dropped it off in the front yard. As a surprise my sister who was 11 and I who was 9 moved it to the back patio for use on ROLLER SKATES! We did it although if my kids did something so dangerous I would freak. Mama was so proud of us though and we did get the washer hooked up.

Another one, We lived in a one bedroom one bath house but we had 2 full sized beds. One was in the livingroom. An old cotton mattress, springy box spring on 4 CINDERBLOCKS! Man I used to stump my toe on those dumb bricks when I would come runniing into the house!

Now, things are different. My sisters and I are married living great lives and Mama still lives in the same house only she has it fixed up so nice now with couches and a baby grand piano etc but when the porch started to sag my sister(the same one)and I scratched our heads and then we jacked it up and added another brick with a tire jack. Mama thought that was so funny!

Crazy part--I get my "rigging things up" ability from--you guessed it--my daddy. Go figure??

So who is next, tell us your make do, make it work, figure it out story.

**HandyMom** · 05-02-2009, 12:09 AM

The only thing I can think of is when my rear bumper rusted and fell right off the back of my jeep. I used two heavy duty rubber bungee straps to strap the bumper back to the car and it held for more than a few years. The guy who bought my jeep didn't even notice since the rubber straps were black and blended in with the rubber already on the bumper. I saw no need to fix it since this was working just fine.

**spyzvixxen** · 05-02-2009, 12:51 AM

My dad had an old deep orange VW bug he used to work on. He needed to get the body off of the chassis(?), so he put 4 sets of 4 milk crates stacked in a square & used a 2x4 in the front & in the back to hold it up. The problem was that it was in our driveway & visible from the far end of the block. Yeah, real classy. It stayed like that for well over a year till a neighbor complained.

**HandyMom** · 05-02-2009, 05:06 AM

My Mom had a car engine in her garage for years. She wanted to get rid of the engine but no one wanted it and it was too heavy to move it very far. So my Mom dug a big hole next to the garage and managed to push the engine into the hole and buried it.

**frugalwarrior** · 05-02-2009, 07:34 AM

We used to shop at auctions. Furniture stores would close and they would auction off floor sample quite reasonably. In better times we bought a couch and didn't have it even 2 years when the knob leg broke off. I couldn't justify buying a new couch so we stuck 2 2x4's under it and used it that way for years. I always was a little embarassed about it until I was at work and heard the big boss talking. The CEO of the company who made well over $100,000 a year was telling a story about his couch. Ya know, the one with the boards under the corner where the leg used to be. Of course, he wasn't talking to me but I had to laugh to myself.

**imagine** · 05-02-2009, 11:48 AM

Originally Posted by frugalwarrior

I always was a little embarassed about it until I was at work and heard the big boss talking. The CEO of the company who made well over $100,000 a year was telling a story about his couch. Ya know, the one with the boards under the corner where the leg used to be. Of course, he wasn't talking to me but I had to laugh to myself.

I think alot of creative frugal solutions are not based on need.

I grew up with duct tape chairs but also rode my bike to the local country club to swim putting my lunch and snacks from the pro shop on the family tab. (I did get in trouble for eating candy bars for lunch instead of real food so my mom started showing up to make sure I had a real lunch. I really hated having to dry off and dress properly to go in to the dinning room to eat.)

**cab54** · 05-02-2009, 12:33 PM

We have one bed up in the loft right now that has one leg gone, and is jacked up on wooden boards. I wouldn't let anyone but a small child sleep in it, though. It's resting too precariously for me on those boards. One of those things we've put off fixing/replacing.

We used cinderblocks all over the place in my growing-up house. In fact, the house itself was made of cinderblocks! (My grandpa built it.) I can remember a cinderblock 'entertainment center' (TV stand) in my parents bedroom.

Mom had a cinderblock garden --as opposed to a rock garden. There were piles of them out behind the shed.

We found out they don't make very good baseball bases, though. Hurts if you run into them hard, or slide. Roofing tiles make GREAT bases!

**peanut** · 05-02-2009, 08:30 PM

Ooops! Wrong thread!

**HisDaisy** · 05-02-2009, 08:44 PM

When I first started graduate school I lived in a old house that was converted into apartments. In the conversion they took a large bedroom and put a small wall near the middle and made 2 very small bedrooms. It was just big enough for a twin size bed, small dresser and a small desk. I really needed more storage space, so I went to the the local home and garden store and small lengths a of 2x4 and cut them in the blocks with a hand saw and then glued a few of them together to make stack. I then placed them under the legs of the bed. Instant storage space.

The last house we lived in did not have level floors (it was built in 1920 and was a rental). The floor was so bad in the bedroom that the dresser drawer would not stay shut. So, I went and bought some shims and shimmed up the front of the dress 2 inches.

**imagine** · 05-02-2009, 10:16 PM

Originally Posted by HisDaisy

The last house we lived in did not have level floors (it was built in 1920 and was a rental). The floor was so bad in the bedroom that the dresser drawer would not stay shut. So, I went and bought some shims and shimmed up the front of the dress 2 inches.

We had did the same thing in our old house built 1920. But it was a bookcase that didn't stay up right enough for the books to stay on the shelves and and instead of bought shimms we use folded up cardboard.

We currently have wood shims under a "leg" of the fridge as the adjustable legs on the fridge didn't adjust enough to level the fridge ( a house built in 1915 this time). The appliance guy used the shims when he installed the fridge. So even professional use this trick.

**heartofmine** · 05-02-2009, 10:34 PM

How many cars dh and I have had that the trunk or hatch wouldn't close and we had it tied down.

LOL
How many windows in our first home which was a trailer that we had were duct taped because they were broken.

Our first bed was a hollywood bed frame with an old rusty metal springs and a piece of foam for a mattress.

**frugalwarrior** · 05-02-2009, 10:44 PM

When I first met DH he lived in a rental house that was being torn down to build an exit ramp for the highway. He was dismal about it because it was the longest he had lived anywhere. I told him to take a brick. When we found out no one wanted them (bricks were reground then not reused), we took a bunch and some cinder blocks and made a bookcase using a couple of boards. We also got an old cable spool and made a table. We called our furniture "Construction Modern".