There's frugal, then there's cheap. And then there's me...  

Hmmm ... I know there's probably something (or someTHINGS) that I've saved that were dumb, but I can't think of one right off the top of my head.

As for that printer ribbon, you should have listed it on eBay or something. There may have been someone out there holding on to a dot matrix printer just waiting for that ribbon. You could have made big bucks!

When I sold my apartment and moved out I found so many things I had to give away or dispose of, including old rolls of fax paper, inks and ribbons from equipment I no longer had. I gave them all to charities to sell, so they may have been of use to somebody.

I try now not to keep stuff, or at least not to buy anything I will not use.

I saved baby bottle liners even though we didn't need them any longer. There is no way anyone should use them, as they have been stored for more than 20 years.

Also stored an old computer that is no longer being made and it doesn't work. I always thought we might fix it, but it would cost more to fix than we originally paid for it.

Oh that's us all right... We save plastic bags, elastic bands, scraps of paper to write on (for recycling) - absolutely anything that crosses our path. I had the same thing when I cleared out my house in Reading - an old typewriter ribbon (can't remember the make). I gave the old thing away about 15 yrs ago, so why keep the ribbon? Not like we're going to use it again?!?!?!

If my BF wants to keep it, I want to chuck it away and vice versa. So between us we have a ton of junk around the house. Even better still, when we go for walks he always comes back with something from the tip or along the roadside -it just might come in handy one day!?!? Yes, sometimes the object does but not very often.... maybe we are secret squirrels?

Now why didn't you ebay it?

LOL I don't think I've ever saved anything like that, but I know people who do save things like that, I just tend to throw it away, or donate it someplace.

I'm sure there is someone, somewhere that wants or needed that ribbon...

But seriously, there is a name for people like you

'Pack Rat', and that's because you hold onto everything for that 'just in case', and you know there are many many times that people often someday find a use for things like that.

But in all seriousness I think that there are going to be more and more people who start to hold onto things like that.

Mooch

I'm perfect, so I don't save things "just in case". I USED to, back before I was perfect of course. lol. ;)

My dad was the WORST for saving things though. I found way too many "things" when I cleared out his apartment two years ago when he went to a nursing home. The dumbest to me, were little pieces of wood. He lived in an apartment, and did not do woodwork. But you never know, those little pieces just might come in handy sometime! Ugh! It was very frustrating.

I learned from him, and am doing better now, and not keeping things like I used to. I still have odds and ends around, but not nearly as much. I think the dumbest thing I used to collect, were the plastic bread tabs. It was handy having a few of them around to use on opened bags of other things, but only a couple were needed. I had a large margarine container FULL of them in my kitchen drawer. What's the point of that? I mean, there were HUNDREDS of them! Lmao!

I can not think of a single thing that I have saved without good reason. My husband on the other hand seems to have a fear of getting rid of things... the poor guy, it can be really tough on him being married to me. I wonder if it is a guy thing to hold on to.... because you never know when.....

the ribbon still being in the case might have brought you a few bucks... or it could have been donated to a thrift shop as someone out there would have some use for it, for something...or, they may have just liked to buy it just in case, someday, some need will arise...and of course, you never know....

no, i cull through clothes and the like about every 6 months just so my house does not get over crowded. it is easy to be taken over by stuff - we live in the day and age of 'stuff' - the more the better...

because like me if I throw something out something happens the very next day that i could have used it for
PS'I too am a pack rat!!!LOL

BCMike, I am very very proud of you!!!!
My husband has been in his computer room, doing the same thing now for 3 days!! He has kept things long enough for the same reason. "JUST IN CASE". Just in case created a room that you couldn't walk thru. So he decided to start pitching. We are up to 3 large, large bags. Now mind you alot of the stuff that was in there were things/papers/documentation, from where he worked. The room is actually coming together right nicely.
Keep up the good work! I throw everything I can away, because I know "JUST IN CASE" will never manifest itself!!!