Tips for the Very Frugal.

I've been using my bike to ride around and scout residential areas.
You can see much better at bike speeds and can see appliances and things in back yards that are worthwhile, that you might miss if you were just driving past.

I made up some small fliers that I can leave on the door- or the big piece of junk in the driveway, I put them on with the blue colored 'easy release' masking tape.
I designed the fliers at home using Word and printed them at Officemax for 10 cents a page- or about 2.5 cents each. (4 fliers per page)
I also hand them out instead of business cards.
I printed them on light colored green and blue paper so they stand out a little bit.
I think I'm going to print some up on a heavy paper stock for a slightly more professional look. That would cost about 4 cents apiece.

Using the bike to scout today, I came across on older car storage lot that full of metal junk that would need to be hauled off, so I made a note of the address and will look up the owner's address and send them a small flier in the mail ( they're about post card size anyway.)
I also found a good area that has appliances that need to be hauled off, and I found a good size pile of scrap steel down near a creek bed. I'll go back tomorrow and work on breaking it down, and then return with the truck for the pick up.
You could also drive to an area you wanted to scout, and then ride the bike to do the actual scouting to save gas, and just use the truck when you need to pick something up.

If you wanna be all fantzy like- you can get a big box of professionally printed business cards at Office Max for just $20.

A prepaid cell phone can be had for $20 at Best Buy, AT&T stores or even dollar stores. This gives you a separate phone number so you can tell it's a business call coming in and answer it in a professional manner.

If you're going to scrap- you need magnets!- I pulled some really good ones out of TV sets that were on the side of the road.
They'll stick to the outside of the truck - or the bike- so they're always handy.

Originally Posted by Scrap man

Good ideas. With the bike, though, you can't carry much like you could if you were walking, unless you're scouting for larger stuff. If you're just out on trash day, I'd recommend walking.

A person could build a bike trailer, or modify a kid trailer for hauling smaller stuff. Just an idea.

I think the OP's main idea was to scout out and then come back, but someone else might get to it before he returns.

nice example of how a little thought goes a long way and some local knowledge can prove more useful than all the muscle in the world