There is the discarded wrought iron lamp that Ardelle Bellman spotted while riding her bike when she lived in Delray Beach, Fla.

She picked it up and carried it home across her handlebars. It's topped with a lampshade she also found among someone's throwaways.

"I feel bad that these useful, interesting objects are being discarded. I take them in, just as I do with animals," said Bellman. Batchelor, a Pekingese, is at her heels in her Glen Allen home. The lamp is in a corner, near an animal print-patterned rug that she also rescued from the trash. Glazer, an aging poodle, eyes visitors but does not get up. Both dogs are adopted from the Animal Rescue Foundation.

"My family is recycled," said Bellman. "I usually don't buy anything except food."

Bellman's "trash to treasures" attitude has helped her cobble together what she good-naturedly calls a "kitsch nouveau" look.

"It's not an avocation. . . . When I am driving, I come across it. So I do make a lot of U-turns," said Bellman. Not only is she saving money, she pointed out, but she is also being environmentally friendly.

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The economic news has been disappointing in recent months -- house values continue to decline in most markets and job losses in some industries are mounting. Gasoline costs more than $4 a gallon and seems to go up a few pennies every week.

Consumers, some reports suggest, are shifting to smaller, more fuel-efficient cars and may be delaying big purchases.

For people looking to cut back, free stuff can't be beat. But short of doing a slow roll through alleys in your town's toniest neighborhoods, there are other options, such as thrift stores and consignment shops that are full of stuff often priced to sell.

Estate sales, yard sales, swap meets, flea markets and classified ads are also options for frugal folks looking for home furnishings.

"Resale thrives in a slow economy," said Adele Meyer, executive director of the National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops.

"There are people who . . . want to turn their cluttered closets into cash when the economy is tight, people that may not have thought of selling something before," said Meyer. "Or maybe they donate to a charity, and they didn't think of donating before, and now the tax write-off is more important to them."

According to Meyer's group, there are more than 25,000 resale, consignment and thrift stores in the United States, and the number of shops is growing at a rate of about 5 percent a year.

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The Lakeside area of Henrico County in recent years has become home to a cluster of resale shops, including Consignment Connection.

"Our volume has increased so much over the last four months," said Phillip Zornes, who co-owns the Consignment Connection with Beth Forsyth and Sandy Bremer. The store is packed with furniture, kitchenware, wall art, knickknacks and other stuff. Some of the neater items that catch the eye right away -- like a leopard print chair -- get claimed quickly. Shoppers browsing on a recent morning checked out a dining room table with six chairs priced at $348, a sideboard for $175, a lamp for $15, with lots more like it in the same price range.

"Anything you buy used is going to be a lot cheaper than retail," Dell Martin, a dealer at Consignment Connection, said one recent morning. As a dealer, he buys things to resell them. "I think more people are buying in places other than retail," said Martin.

Shirley Cahoon drives to Consignment Connection at least once a month. It used to be once a week until gas prices skyrocketed. She brings stuff to consign and often turns right around and buys something.

"I was looking for a particular lamp shade. I found it here. You have to go through four times to catch everything," said Cahoon.

Consignment shops take in stuff people don't want, often really good stuff they have just gotten tired of, and when it sells, the shops get a commission of the sale price. Most stores have criteria on what they will accept. Yard sale leftovers probably won't make the cut.

Chris Walthall, owner of Town & Country Consignment in Providence Forge, gets a lot of items from families clearing out homes after parents have passed away or from older couples downsizing. The shop specializes in furniture and home décor.

"When people back up with their truck to bring me things, I don't know what it is. It's always a surprise," said Walthall, who opened the business after retiring from a 28-year career in the airline industry. "I do keep a book of things people are looking for."

"I have a piece that came in yesterday, a Hoosier cabinet," said Walthall. "A woman came in from Boston, and she said this would sell for $1,500 in Boston. We have it for $750." There is also a new marble-top bathroom vanity, consigned by a builder who bought it for a construction project but didn't use it.

Most consignment shops mark down things that have not sold in 30 days and also limit how long they will carry an item, often 60 days.

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Thrift stores offer a different buying experience. They are run by nonprofits, and typically what's for sale has been donated. The quality is often mixed. Some thrift store chains create "boutique" stores where they sell their better stuff.

Diversity Thrift on Sherwood Avenue in Richmond has individual rooms dedicated to furniture, electronics, books, clothes, electronics and kitchenware.

At the Goodwill Industries thrift store off Chamberlayne Avenue, everything is in one big room. Other thrift stores in town are run by the Salvation Army, disabled veterans, hospital charities and other nonprofit groups. "I find children's clothing, household items," said Lee Anderson, as she pushed a shopping cart through the aisles at the Goodwill store. "I come in at least once a week."

Because she is a regular, Anderson knows a good buy when she sees it and is quick to note if something is not competitively priced. When a store worker came back with a price check on a plastic storage container, Anderson thanked him and put the item back where she'd gotten it. One of her best purchases, she said, is a fox jacket she bought for $19.95. "I've worn it at least three times. I've gotten all kinds of compliments," said Anderson.

"We thrive on our clothing sales," said Serena Quarles, manager of the Goodwill store off Chamberlayne. Regulars know, too, that every week something is going on sale based on how long it has been in the store. For instance, everything with a purple sales tag might be half off one week, the next week it's items with a yellow sales ticket. Charles Tisdale timed it so he was able to get an entertainment center for $15, half off the $30 original price.

"It was solid wood," said Tisdale. "Most of the stuff made today is particle board."

Tisdale, who is on a fixed income, doesn't have a problem with using something someone else has owned.

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But some people may have to cross a psychological barrier before they accept secondhand or used goods. Research suggests things like cars and furniture are generally accepted secondhand, but other items such as clothes, stuffed animals and appliances are sometimes less so.

"Most people tend to be fairly rational consumers," said David Urban, chairman and professor of marketing at Virginia Commonwealth University. When it comes to a choice of having a problem with using something someone else has already used or saving some money, saving money will usually win out, said Urban.

Worth Repeating, a consignment shop on Laburnum Avenue, specializes in women's name-brand clothing and shoes and occasionally takes in furniture, said store manager Marcia Philyaw. A loveseat and two chairs recently on display sold quickly, she said.

Philyaw said some consignors develop a following, with customers calling to see if they've brought in anything new.

"We do have people looking for certain people's things. They have the same taste, size, everything," said Philyaw.

Donna Kennedy is one of those regular consignors on the way to developing a following. She brought by a handful of stylish dresses last week. Items she'd brought in a few weeks back sold well.

"It's a neat way for people to work together in a bad economy," said Kennedy, explaining the appeal of resale shops.

Urban, at VCU, said the economy is forcing people to rethink what they throw away -- which is how it used to be. He tells the story of having to reuse a single sheet of tracing paper the entire term to copy assignments from school workbooks when he was a boy in the 1960s attending Catholic school.

"When you know you have no budget, you learn how to make do. . . . I think the same thing is happening with the household environment. When our budgets are squeezed, we start making different choices," said Urban.

Tips for consignment or resale