I love hand-me-downs. I shop at consignment stores, and when I’m done with my found treasures, I donate them to local charities. But it would never occur to me to do this with my home.

Yet, for some homeowners, especially ones in foreclosure, donating a house to charity may be the only way out of an awful situation -- and it seems like it could even be a path back to financial well-being. It's becoming quite popular, in fact, because it not only allows the homeowner who can't sell her/his house a way out, but also the donated homes -- many of which are renovated and resold -- add new value to the neighborhood. Here’s how it works:

Occupy Connecticut Light and Power! The electric company of the Constitution State was charging an old Italian guy $220 a month for power in his condo. He knew the bills were wrong because he hardly used any electricity or gas at home. Meanwhile, his barbershop was tricked out with electric everything and plenty of A/C, and its bill only topped out at $150 a month.

He kept trying to tell the company that something was wrong. They kept saying the only thing wrong was he wasn’t sending checks fast enough. This went on for 10 years, before the guy’s son went in and straightened things out. (Why did that take 10 years, anyway?)

In the end, they finally had to cut him a check ... for guess how much?

A homeowner in Minnesota is trying a neato gimmick to get people interested in buying his four-bedroom, three-bathroom, ranch-style house. It comes with a sunporch, cedar deck, shady backyard … and a Lamborghini.
 
I’m trying to do the math on this. The home is priced at almost $400K. The Lamborghini was probably about $250K new, and sells for about $150K used. So potentially, you’re getting another house-worth of merchandise on top of the house itself.

Apparently, this kind of trick is a growing trend in real estate. Along with cars, desperate sellers have been known to try to throw in time-shares, fancy TVs, and even a year’s worth of fresh-baked cookies.

Hmmm. Now we’re onto something. Because frankly, I don’t want a weird, ugly sports car that only auto-dorks care about. Attention, home-sellers. If you want to draw me in, here are some items you might want to throw in with your house:

Want to know my favorite crafting-on-a-budget secret? I use other people's recycled trash -- not by scrounging around in the garbage, but by going to a store that actually sells the stuff.

It's called SCRAP, which stands for "Scrounger’s Center for Reusable Art Parts." It’s a warehouse that collects castoff office and craft supplies like paper, tiles, paint, fabric, posters, cards -- basically, the most random, weird stuff -- and sells it for pennies on the dollar. 

It’s a new kind of recycling, and it’s catching on just about everywhere. If there’s one near you, find it. If there isn’t, start one.

There’s a funny song by Jonathan Coulton about a mad scientist who’s trying to woo a woman in all the wrong ways. “I made this half-pony, half-monster to please you,” he croons. “What’s with all the screaming?”
 
If you’re the kind of person who finds that funny and maybe a little creepily sweet, you’ll probably like Franken Toys as much as I do. They’re the perfect antidote to the mostly-vomitous “here’s what moms REALLY want!” mother's day gift suggestions that have clogged my email in-box. A snot-green zebra-print pashmina? Really, Internet?

Come on in and take a look at some of her amazing creations.

Here’s a fun, new-ish trend in street art: knit graffiti, or yarn bombing. It’s a tongue-in-cheek attempt to achieve “world yarn domination,” according to the book Yarn Bombing: The Art of Crochet and Knit Graffiti ($13.57 at Amazon). Around the world, artists create knitted shapes that they then put in unexpected public places. The result? Something that brightens the landscape and makes people laugh with unexpected joy.

This is just the kind of thing that a crafty knitter can co-opt for home use. I’m already eyeing my needles and plotting my next move. As I paged through these Flickr photos, I thought, This is a colorful, unusual way to brighten up an indoor space.

So, when we ran across this story about an Iowa couple that got a "free house" due to a wonko loophole in Iowa law, we thought, "Yippee!" Finally, someone stuck it to the big bad banks.

Sure, we hate thinking this way, but since this whole financial crisis started, we've heard story after story of banks messing around with hidden fees and costs, and so many banks giving loans and mortgages to people knowing full well they couldn't afford it. It was nice to finally hear that a homeowner won a victory. It was like Homeowners 1, Banks 2.36 million (the number of properties repossessed from December 2007 through June 2010).

But, as with everything, as everyone should do whenever signing documents, you need to read the fine print. So, we read the fine print of this story about Matt and Jamie Danielson ... and those lucky homeowners don't seem so lucky anymore.

Wal-Mart greeters aside, when is the last time you saw a big box retailer employee that appeared to have been old enough to remember John F. Kennedy's assassination? There may be a reason for the younger employee pool at such stores as Home Depot, Kroger, and Target, as the job application asks for a birth date. And one job-searcher says she's been discriminated against in favor of younger applicants at these stores.

In fact, Ruth Lyons tested her theory by lying about her birth date, and wouldn't you know it -- she finally got the interview. By shaving 18 years off of her age, the 59-year-old got a phone call. But the fact that she even was asked for a birth date is suspect when age discrimination is illegal. For good reason, since in this current job climate, the over-55 crowd is having the most difficult time landing a job out of any population. Which is so depressing I don't even want to think about it. And neither do you.