Brand New In Oklahoma

Hello everyone, my name is Josh. I've been reading all the posts for a few days so i already feel like i know most of you. A few months ago my wife and i decided that we would no longer live our lives like we had money. Regardless of how much we ever make (and we already do well) we will never live anywhere close to our means again. I'm talking beans and rice or potato soup every night! We had a real discussion about what we wanted, when we wanted to retire, what we wanted for our kids, and what we wanted to leave behind and decided that those things are way more important in the long term than the instant gratification of eating dinner at P.F Chang's. That said, i began to get extremely bored. Can't do much but sit around the house if your ultimate goal is to spend absolutely no money. Then, a couple weeks ago we were all at the lake with our metal detectors and it hit me that i should be saving all the aluminum cans we see everywhere we go! Then of course it spun from there, not just cans, but wire, and brass, then i found a computer tear down video on youtube. Next thing you know, two to three weeks into being a newbie scrapper, i'm going through the dumpsters in the section 8 apartment complex in my town all day today! I love it! I'm not bored, I'm not spending money, and my free time is now used to make even more! I haven't been to the yard yet but plan on going this coming saturday.


A few questions I have,

I didn't see any talk of aluminum cans? Is this because it is deemed unworthy or is it considered a no brainer? I mean i'm thinking of searching park trash cans on weekends.

Also,if you acquire any free televisions, do you test them first or just scrap them? And if you test them, where would you sell old working televisions nowadays? Pawn Shops? I'm not looking to do any resale of my own at the moment.

Thanks for any help or tips you can offer guys!

Originally Posted by Mechanic688

The cans are kind of a no-brainer, you might check the local yards around you to see who has the best prices on what your going to take in. Prices do vary.

Tube type TV's usually have no resale value anymore, that's why you see so many in the free section of CraigsList. Before you scrap them make sure you have a good place to recycle the tubes.

Thanks. I don't plan on ever having many tubes at the moment and there is a Best Buy that could technically be on my home from work if i want to brave the traffic.

Hello Haiku Welcome to SMF! Good luck with your new venture

Originally Posted by Bear

Hello Haiku Welcome to SMF! Good luck with your new venture

Thank you. Starting extremely small (cans, wire, anything else i spot) but i can definitely see the money lying everywhere i go. Can't wait to be big time!

A BIG welcome from Cincinnati

Welcome from Indiana...