Can I have x for free?

[PlinkiePlonk]

I understand that times are tough, and it’s up to the individual who responds to have said yes. However, is it just me or are people getting more extravagant in what they might reasonable expect someone to gift ‘for free!’

I have just spotted in a group that someone is wondering if anyone can ‘gift’ them 100 block paving slabs for their drive. Maybe it’s just me but that seems like a lot to feel you can just commandeer.

What is the most expensive thing you have seen people try and blag that has made you think: ‘really?!’ Or is it just me being grumpy.

Moving into a new flat/house with a young baby is a common one. Then turning down the stuff that's offered if it's not good enough.

Mooching and scrounging is fashionable. It’s advanced freeganism. It’s the age of crowd finding and dumpster diving. Even Harry & Meghan practise it (albeit mansions not paving slabs). Why pay for things when you can beg? 🤷🏽‍♀️

The use of “gift” as a verb is the final straw, though. 😞

"Private Eye" has a column where people tell tragic tales and ask for substantial amounts of money [to move house or start career or pay off substantial debts] and then supply their bank details.

I do wonder how much - if anything - they get

@PlinkiePlonk

Freegle [Freecycle] is the place to advertise free items - either to gift or collect.

It wouldn't be my style, but I suppose they think if you don't ask, you don't get.

However - and I am never usually one for correcting people's grammar - I would be sorely tempted to respond to someone asking me to 'gift' them something with an instruction to come back once they'd learned the difference between a noun and a verb. I definitely fall on the descriptivist side of things, but this one infuriates me.

They've always been about to be fair. I was once selling a pair of brand new converse. I'd bought them in the sale but they didn't fit and to save paying return postage, I put them up for sale at just under the sale price (as it was a rounder number) and less than half the original not on sale price. Almost immediately I got a message from someone saying could they have them for a fiver as they were for her disabled partner who didn't need expensive shoes...

I suggested she look for cheaper ones then.

We got about 50 paving slabs for free on freecycle

There's a difference between someone wanting to give something like that away because they want rid of it, and someone asking for it.

I know people like this, one friend in particular. They're ok for money just tight and will take anything offered for free, and sometimes sell it on. I hate it and stopped passing clothes to them, because I would sell the clothes myself except I like the idea of kids I know getting them.

My ex didnt want the stones out the front of our house when we moved in so he advertised them on freegle collection only we had no end of cheeky people demanding we deliver (real demands not even asking) a neighbour collected them with his wheelbarrow in the end I wish I kept them now 🤣

Have a look at the reddit thread r/ChoosingBeggars, it's brilliant

A horse.

On the free group I am on someone asked for a car - apparently, her son had broken down on the motorway and desperately needed one but it needed to be in good condition and have a minimum of 6 months MOT.

I stopped putting things on there after I realised that people were using different accounts with different sob stories to ask for everything and then it was the same people turning up every time. I just give it to a charity shop now.

I sold a cat scratching post on Facebook once for £5. The person came round to collect the item and they had 'forgotten' to pop to the shop to get change from their £10, that's all they had. I reassured them that I had £5 change they could have. I'm quite confident that the cheeky person thought they would get it for free and there's a shop right near my house!

I could really do with a Faberge egg (I think its worth around 30 million) anyone got one spare they could give away?

I didn't realise people actually asked for stuff on these sites?! I thought it was people just listing their unwanted goods and other people asking could they have it, not people posting lists of gimme, gimme, gimme?
Wow! That takes some brass neck.

I'm seeing it more the other way. I offered to lend someone something and they immediately asked how much money I wanted. I said I wanted nothing but they still dropped off a seemingly obligatory bottle of red wine (we now have three despite the fact we don't drink)

Any time someone puts something up as a request they offer to pay and any time anything is being given away, there is a question about how much they want for it.

The delivery people make me laugh. One on our local page 'Need delivered between X-Y time.' Someone answered, 'Not even Argos caters that well.'

There's a woman like this on our community pages. her laptop 'broke' at the start of lockdown and she works for the NHS, apparently. So I gave her an almost new laptop that I'd only used for a couple of months as I have another i use more regularly. Since then she's wanted new tyres for her car, some very expensive collectable toys for her children. I don't entirely regret helping her with the laptop if she's genuine, but I'm starting to think she's a chancer.

The one that always sticks in my mind was "Wanted: Fridge/ freezer. Silver. Must be new or in new condition. I am disabled so would need delivering to my first floor flat."

I’ve seen people ask for cars, caravans, free holidays in static caravans. Cheeky!

We offered a tv for free last week. Within five minutes I had over 60 requests. We picked a nice young couple, who even sent me a photo of their broken tv. They walked here and carried the tv away. I was happy that I’d chosen someone who didn’t plan to just sell it on.

I bet she was inundated with offers, TheGreatWave. If I'd had two I'd have given her them both...

However - and I am never usually one for correcting people's grammar - I would be sorely tempted to respond to someone asking me to 'gift' them something with an instruction to come back once they'd learned the difference between a noun and a verb. I definitely fall on the descriptivist side of things, but this one infuriates me.

Gift has a verb form though.

I saw a couple on our local Freecycle site:

Wanted leather suite - Navy or brown. Not black. Must be excellent condition.

Wanted - Games console and tv for the conservatory as grandchildren are coming on holiday.

I was offering some old cine equipment that someone had given me to get rid of. I had no idea what it was and just posted the descriptions from the boxes. One person offered "to take it off my hands" as though he was doing me a favour. Another sent me a lovely message saying that although he would love to make use of it all would I consider giving him a particular item as he had been searching for it for years. He had the lot - and messaged me when he got home to tell me how grateful he was.

Not quite a freebie, but I sold some stuff (school shirts = approx £5) on one of the sites. Firstly, the person couldn’t come to my house to pick it up due to transport issues, so suggested the town centre. That wasn’t convenient either. She wanted me to drive it to her house, ten miles away in the next town! No why was I going to take an hour of my day, plus petrol money for her convenience.

I advertised a pair of brand new Dunlop wellies for £2 recently. Someone asked me to send them a video of me putting the wellies on.

Firstly, I thought that was really odd, but even more, I can't be arsed. For £2 you can take your chances.

They nagged me about it for ages before taking the hint that I wasn't going to do it.