Saito2 6686 Posted May 5, 2022 Did you ever not take something offered to you even if it was free? Why does the desire not to accept free stuff baffle, confuse and even anger some folk? For example, today was free tacos at work today. My work frequently holds "parties" with free food and that's fine I guess. I have never participated. I have my own reasons. We blue collar workers are grossly underpaid in comparison to the white collar workers. I see parties as a cheap, textbook way of trying to direct focus away from such inequities. You want to show appreciation? Give us money. Free tacos doesn't put fuel in my car. Admittedly, I'm an introverted crank who doesn't care if management comes down to mingle with the common folk once in a while when they go out to restaurants daily on the company credit card. Aside from that, I have strict diet, being diabetic. 3 years into this job and I still get questioned as to why I don't want free food. I get bewilderment every time. My neighbor is constantly trying to pawn free junk off on my kid too. When my girl had training wheels, he repeatedly hounded me, trying to give me another set. Why, I asked, would I want a second set of training wheels when the end objective was to take the ones she already has off in the future. "But, they're free!" Again, why do I need/want two sets of training wheels? He once gave her a a whole bike he found on the side of the road. It was the same size as her current bike but he proclaimed it better than the one my wife and I bought her. He wouldn't take no for answer. With my daughter not wanting it either, I just wheeled it around to my backyard scrap metal pile for recycling. I realize this all makes me sound rather cantankerous, but what is wrong with not wanting stuff just because its free? I always say "no, thank you". 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Willy iine 18806 Posted May 6, 2022 I don’t take free stuff I don’t want either. I don’t care how free it is or how I’m “missing out”. If I want something that bad I’ll get it myself on my own terms. Some folks think they are owed appreciation for handing out things. I’m like I don’t owe you anything nor obligated to acknowledge you.. You’re not alone, @Saito2!! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Frog Jumper 3661 Posted May 6, 2022 13 minutes ago, Willy iine said: I don’t take free stuff I don’t want either. I don’t care how free it is or how I’m “missing out”. If I want something that bad I’ll get it myself on my own terms. Some folks think they are owed appreciation for handing out things. I’m like I don’t owe you anything nor obligated to acknowledge you.. You’re not alone, @Saito2!! I do like it when people say thanks… Terry Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Willy iine 18806 Posted May 6, 2022 10 minutes ago, Frog Jumper said: I do like it when people say thanks… Terry Me too. I am polite to people and respectful.. therefore I want the same respect in return when I say “no thanks.” Some folks make it a mission to hand people something and make them appreciate them. Now that is annoying. Anyway enough of my own opinions, let’s hear others’ thoughts. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Saito2 6686 Posted May 6, 2022 Thanks. I know I'm off in me own little world at times, but I was beginning to wonder if I had broken an unwritten social rule or something. My wife once turned down a free newspaper at the grocery store. Some fellow from the paper company was handing them out at the entrance. He actually followed her into the store, utterly flummoxed: "It free, who doesn't want a free paper?" Not having a parakeet (or any RC bodies to mask at the time) we had no use for it. If I had gone in with her I would have probably pointed at him, and in a Nelson Muntz voice proclaimed "Ha Ha, your medium is dying!". 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nikko85 3454 Posted May 6, 2022 When you live in a world utterly dominated by material possessions, some people can't understand why you've ever not want more, even if it's just more for the sake of more, but there's a catch. Free stuff isn't free - there's a cost - a cost of finding a space for it, and cost of the guilt if you throw it out, or the cost of you having to pass it on to someone else. Giving something for free to anyone who will take it should be seen a mutually beneficial transaction, not doing someone a favour (unless the person getting the free stuff has asked for it, or you know the personal circumstances which means that you know they need or want something). That being said, I'd be 6 foot under the day I wouldn't take a free Taco, corporate stooge be damned. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
InsaneJim69 1584 Posted May 7, 2022 Imo the worst ones are family members. Me and the wife have numerous times said things like "oh we will need to get a new living room clock" or "yeah we are looking for new curtains" and a family member has said oh I have one that is lovely etc. And then it gets all akward cause you now feel you need to take it as not to offend them, even though it's their old tat 🤦♂️🙄 The only time I have been pleasantly surprised was when at my dad's and just about to leave and he says " oh I almost forgot I've got something for you to take with you as it's no use to me" me thinking the worst and he pops out of the kitchen with a big box of unopened Hop House 13 beer, and says " I got them from someone, but I don't like them so you might as well take them if you want?" Heck yeah !!! 😂👍 James. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Silver-Can 402 Posted May 8, 2022 On 5/7/2022 at 3:02 AM, InsaneJim69 said: Imo the worst ones are family members. Me and the wife have numerous times said things like "oh we will need to get a new living room clock" or "yeah we are looking for new curtains" and a family member has said oh I have one that is lovely etc. And then it gets all akward cause you now feel you need to take it as not to offend them, even though it's their old tat 🤦♂️🙄 The only time I have been pleasantly surprised was when at my dad's and just about to leave and he says " oh I almost forgot I've got something for you to take with you as it's no use to me" me thinking the worst and he pops out of the kitchen with a big box of unopened Hop House 13 beer, and says " I got them from someone, but I don't like them so you might as well take them if you want?" Heck yeah !!! 😂👍 James. Ha ha yeah I can relate to this. I live about 200 miles from my folks and only get to see them a couple of times a year. And I always seem to leave with more stuff than I arrived with. 'We saw this and thought of you/the kids/wife etc' or 'we've not long replaced item x, so why don't you have our old one?' On a more general note, I would feel somewhat affronted if a casual acquaintance offered me free stuff and wouldn't take no for an answer. Late last year our neighbours of 15 odd years moved out and tried to palm all the 'tools' they didn't want to take with them (too much hassle) on to me. Random screws, fittings, odds and ends, bits and bobs etc. I was like, no thanks, I've got enough pap of my own. Did have an angle grinder off then though 😁 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wooders28 4723 Posted May 9, 2022 I'm a nightmare for free grub and I can't see decent food going to waste either. It's maybe not a good thing, when if someone can't finish their pizza etc in work , the box just gets left on my table in the canteen (it's a shift thing) , which has obviously, resulted in the comedy chilli sauce being added for shift amusement... I have however, started to turn down other people's junk...kind of. In the past, I'd have excepted the old lawn mower, that someone couldn't get running, with the romance of spending 5 mins to get it running like it was new, then selling it on for big money, but it just ends up with me palming it on to another s̶u̶c̶k̶e̶r̶ dreamer, so now I don't bother, if they're insistent, I ask them to put it in the boot of my car, and I'll drop it off at the tip later. The 'kind of' is that we have people contact my RC Club ,and say they've an old ,remote controlled car , that their child left in the loft/garage /shed and no longer wants ,as they've gone to university/got married etc, and do we want it? I think we're upto 6 atm, and the last 2 I picked up, this was one, which has proved to very time consuming ,and I've still not got the thing running yet... 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
87lc2 2666 Posted May 12, 2022 I'm a 'neat' hoarder and usually will take anything mechanical or tool related that someone wants to give me, but I refuse to take someone else's junk that I'll need to find room in my garbage cans for. I think its gotten worse since we've had our daughter. Everyone thinks they can just pawn off all their baby crap on you and I can't stand it. My wife comes home with stuff all the time that people gave her and I just toss it. Especially toys, they're the worst. She gets so much crap as it is from the grand parents & aunts, we don't need your worn out dirty toys all over our house as well. Sorry if I come off as a jerk, but this is a timely subject since it has been annoying me for the past few months. It is funny watching people's expressions when you tell them you don't want something since it will be a hassle to throw away 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Willy iine 18806 Posted May 12, 2022 @87lc2 Oh man, I know exactly what you mean! People just kept insisting I should take their old kids’ toys all the time when my kids were little. I don’t want your old dirty, rusty, and dented junk! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
