I am grateful for the ability to look at old things with a fresh eye. Our dog tore a ligament in her knee and needs a fairly expensive surgery. We've been looking for ways to save money and have been able to recycle/repurpose a number of our old possessions lately. It has taken a bit of work to bring them back to life, but we are finding the nostalgia value to be well worth the effort. I also appreciate the lesson my kids are learning.

For example, we always get a fresh tree each year for our family room. We had an old prelit tree with broken lights. My husband had the idea to cut off all the old lights and light it again with some old lights we used to decorate our old house with. They are 10+ years old, but we had just enough working bulbs to make it work. That's $70 we get to save on a tree this year.