Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve noticed that inflation is once again a thing, and prices of just about everything are skyrocketing. But the kids shouldn’t suffer just because politicians can’t get their act together. And if the kids need a nice table, then you can provide them with one at zero cost.

You simply find a cardboard box of sufficient size. (Before you take it, make sure there’s not another victim of the economy living in it.) With a sharp knife (perhaps the Opinel pocketknife we previously reviewed), you simply cut away everything that doesn’t look like a table, as shown in the self-explanatory illustration.

Your parents and grandparents had a lot of interesting stories about how they had fun during the Great Depression, and now your kids will be able to do the same thing. This idea is from the March 1962 issue of Popular Mechanics.