Pinching Lindens: Living a Frugal Second Life
Last Updated on Sunday, 28 June 2009 16:04 Written by PaisleyRaven Foxclaw Saturday, 18 April 2009 08:33
Getting by in Second Life can be as easy and as hard as getting by in RL. Your avatar may have rent, clothes, hair, shoes, creature comforts and of course, a social life to pay for. The Linden dollar’s exchange rate is far and beyond excellent when compared to most RL currencies. However, it can become problematic for some to keep up with the Lindens.
Aside from earning Lindens just hanging out in areas that pay for camping, you can earn Lindens for picks. These options however, are time intensive. Most camping spots pay anywhere from 1-3 Lindens for 10-30 minutes of your presence in the vicinity. The Picks-Pay option usually pays monthly, and only after you keep the Pick in your profile for a full 30 days.
While you’re camping or Picking your Avatar still has needs. You can’t go to the club in jeans and sneakers…not on leather night!
The upside of all this is that Second Life is stuffed to the brim with freebies. Clothes, jewelry, skins, shoes, buildings, textures, cars, motorcycles, plants and hair are all over the place. I went from under 100 items in inventory to over two thousand in a few days collecting various freebies.
I found this treasure trove of gimmies after I spent RL funds to line my avatar’s pockets for my first few days of adventuring in Second Life. I was doing the Picks and Camping thing, and hunting for somewhere to call home in the meantime. As mentioned before, I lost the Picks job, and nabbed the last of my RL mad money to keep me afloat.
Fortunately, I had paid my rent ahead for three weeks. I had a cute little apartment with a gorgeous ocean view. It was 250L$/week for 100 prims. Once I had a pad, I went looking for furniture. I knew 100 prims wasn’t much, so I was hoping to find what I wanted in the smallest possible denominations.
After jumping around a few places, I found CC Décor Mainstore Low Prim Furniture. On the top floor, there were loads of freebies that I nabbed without a smudge of greedy guilt. In RL I hate spending more than I have to for anything. Cheap is good, free is sweet.
After that shopping trip and a decorating spree that would make Martha Stewart weep, I got to thinking. If one store has freebies wouldn’t others? So, I did a search on –what else- freebies.
Good lord, the list was endless. Clothes, furniture, gadgets, avatar accessories, shoes, jewelry by the hundreds (and I am not even close to exaggerating here).
I found prefab buildings, textures, body parts, skins, even full avatars! This is where I started kicking myself as well. I bought clothes, furniture, shoes and stuff when I could have gotten them all for free? Oh, the cheapskate in me cringed in agony!!
Many stores offer gifts, or a freebie table. I found entire stores that were nothing but free or 1L to 10L items. Say it with me now: “cheap is good…”
For fellow cost conscious residents, I have listed my favorite freebie spots, as well as a bit of information about what you can expect to find there. The upside of freebie or cheapy stuff of course is that they are free or cheap. The downside is that beggars cannot be choosy. When you hit a box for free stuff, you do not get to pick and choose what you want out of it. It is an all or nothing shot, and you can sort out the dross from the bling later. Personally, I found that the ratio of “oooh!” to “oh well” is acceptable. You may also find yourself grabbing duplicates, as some got the same package for free, and pay the good fortune forward. Duplicates can be a good thing though, especially if the item is NO COPY. And of course, you can always take some time while you sit in a camping chair to clean up inventory!
And now, the Freebies!
Freebie Warehouse on Burns is literally a warehouse full of large shipping containers. There are three or four levels to the place. From the ground up the whole shebang is free. Each box is labeled with the type of freebie inside and most of them give you a count of how many items you can expect to find when you get home and open the carton. You can choose from cars, trucks, prefab buildings, furniture, skins, avatar accessories, clothes jewelry and textures to start. Freebie Warehouse is worth a visit for everything and anything you may be looking for in Second Life.
Freebie Store at Galleria Mall
The Freebie Store is part of the Art Colony at Galleria Mall in Foxboro. It is stacked with all sorts of items, poses, plants, animations furniture and a whole slew of slews more. Not everything is free, but “cheap is good”. Nothing I saw was more than 5L to acquire. This is perfect for the impoverished newbie or any resident who has hit a dry spot in earnings.
Once again, not everything is free. It takes some hunting, but there are goodies to be found all over the place here. More poses, clothes, shoes, avatar parts and furniture. The priced items are a bit more than a low-fund shopper might like. I saw a few things for 49L others for 89L. There were two or three items I looked at that were 200L or more, but they were multi-pack items or gadgets.
Adult, sex and businesses involved therein type freebies. There’s a few things here that are not tied to human kind’s carnal nature, and they are worth the grab. If you own a mature business or visit such places often, you will thank yourself for coming here before you go spending money on your toys.
Starship Jefferson Quality Textures
Starship Jefferson has tons and tons and more tons of nice, versatile textures. Floors, curtains, stained glass, walls, fabric –it’s all here. Jefferson, like many Freebie givers, only asks that you do not sell the textures given to you. You can, however, build with them, design with them, and sell the created product. He has a section just inside the door stacked with freebies. There are few more around the walls but take some digging to find.
I just found this spot a few days ago while helping a fellow builder locate plants for her medieval garden. This is a small place but filled from floor to ceiling with neatly organized boxes of some of the most unique textures I have yet to come across. Don’t let the name fool you! The place is well kept and laid out better than many larger retail shops I have declined to spend Lindens in.
There are more, of course, and I have yet to explore some of the landmarks I snagged from IM. Maybe we’ll run into each other freebie hunting!
