I just watched a very cool video by Bargain Babe and the Walletpop crew on Dumpster Diving for Food. I have mentioned dumpster diving for coupons before and I have some friends that thought that was extreme. But what do you think of dumpster diving for food? Ewww, right? All that rotten food! Well, maybe not. Check out this video and you will be surprised by the dumpster diving finds.
Then come back and tell me, is this something you would consider doing in to save money? Have you by any chance tried this, share if you have, share if you would or share if you wouldn’t.
Hi! I am Mercedes and this is my blog Common Sense with Money! Helping other people live better, spend less, and save more is something I am very passionate about. I combine simple frugal living tips and smart shopping techniques to help moms across the U.S. become better home economists. Thank you for visiting my blog.
WOW – I am not sure I would do it, partly the gross factor, partly the getting arrested factor, but I am totally appalled at the amount of perfectly good food being tossed. There are many other ways to deal with the food rather than throwing it away. Local food pantries, churches that prepare FREE meals, the list goes on and on. Stores and restaurants alike SHOULD all have a plan to deal with the food waste. HOLY COW!
@lynn @ Maven of Savin,
I think most don’t/can’t donate, because of liability issues. Sad.
@Kate, I know – that is what makes it even crazier!
Nope, I wouldn’t do this unless I was in a very desperate situation. I’ll stick to using my coupons to save money!!
My sister and I got interested in the “freegan” lifestyle years ago. We did go with a group dumpster diving. I was amazed at what gets thrown away… It was kind of gross though and I haven’t done it again.
I don’t dumpster dive, but I have been known to pull over and pick up something marked “free” on the side of the street. I live in the SW corner of Seattle which is rapidly becoming a “international” area, with many immigrants now living here. Many new small businesses have popped up all over here, along with many vegetable stands. There has been many times when I am sitting at a red light, I look over at that dumpster and see it filled with veggies and even boxes of tomatoes, and I have thought of the waste when there are so many poor people in our community. On occastion , I have thought to go thru it and get some tasty tidbits for my hens…I admit, not for me, but I bet my hubby would pick out some and eat them himself!
The sheer amount of food that is throw away in this country is just appaling, I have to say. When I lived in PA, I got together with other people on campus and we went around and organized a local charity organization to collect the food that was going to be thrown away and just did a sort of “swap meet” about once every two weeks. There were some local people who had block freezers that were nice enough to deep freeze the meat that the stores were going to throw away until people could all get together and just take what they needed. It was truly AMAZING the amount of food that could be recyled.
I doubt I’d dumpster dive for food…mainly because I’ve seen just the people who are waiting for the throw away stuff at our local Hostess outlet and those people can get pretty nasty (I’ve seen fights break out), so obviously they need the food worse than I do. I’ll stick to coupons for food (and sharing great scores from neighbors and stuff with my sister-in-law) for now.
Wow! And I thought dumpster diving at my local dump for coupons was extreme!! Every time I go to the dump, about once a week, if the “paper only” dumpster is full enough for me to reach in I always quickly go through the newspapers I can reach and pull out inserts. The same 2 or 3 men are usually working and they laugh at me and call me the crazy coupon lady…..but they let me have at it:) Anyway, I can’t honestly say I could do what they did in the video. It does seem so wrong that all that produce just gets thrown away when so many people could benefit from it.
I have a friend that goes to the local bread outlet. Their dumpster is full of bread and baked goods (not nasty trash). He fills up the back of his truck and gives the items to those who need it. Just because the date says it’s expired doesn’t necessarily mean it’s still not good.
I would totally do this. I’m sure there is plenty of good food thrown away that is perfectly fine.
I know someone who used to work for a trash company and they used to take the dumpsters from a well known pharmacy. They used to throw away nearly full dumpsters of diapers in the packs and they were not allowed to give them away! Well, I don’t think they ever had to buy diapers for their first child. The child’s closet was stacked full of diaper packs. Ridiculous that such a large amount of diapers should be wasted. Not technically dumpster diving, but the same result!
I don’t think I’d do it…but I do agree that there is a lot of good stuff thrown away. I have gone through the recycling dumpsters for coupons, but if they had been regular trash dumpsters with garbage…no way.
I’ve spent the last 10 years working in Food Safety. There is just no way I could eat food in the garbage. Who knows what is wrong with it…and let’s not forget the ick factor.
i think i’m a total american. i have too much of a weird feeling about eating food that’s been in the garbage. the food may be good, but what about the nasty stuff around it?
i remember though when i was working at a hair salon in college, it was next door to a potato place. i went out to the dumpster we shared to throw away trash and a homeless guy was eating a baked potato he pulled out of the dumpster. i asked if i could buy him one from next door and he said don’t bother. the potato place threw out tons of baked potatoes every day still wrapped in their foil. no reason to spend money on the same thing. =)
if someone doesn’t have the “ick factor” mentioned above =), i’m sure it’s cool. i see that unfortunately we waste a lot of food and other goods.
I work for a huge company (retail) It is disgusting what they make me throw away. Diapers, food, clothing…its just so wastefull.
I didn’t watch the video but I think I get the gist of it by reading the comments.
There’s no way I’d dumpster dive for food. I’m not that hard up. The food may be fine when it goes into the dumpster but think about all the rotting stuff it comes in contact with after it’s in there. Flies, maggots and bacteria – oh my! Major ick.
In the past I have dumpster dived. I live in a college town and the kids would throw away unopened, brand new food because they were moving (Leaving for the summer) and to lazy to give it to the food pantry. I know people have the ick factor but I would never eat anything opened, only sealed and it was rare to find food anyway. One time, I was dumpster diving and a college girl saw me She told me she just went to Sam’s Club a few weeks ago and she had to move. She gave me CASES of unopened speghetti sauce, noodles, soups, ect. It was at a time when my husband was laid off and we very helpful to us.
Also, I have found Bags of Clothes…which I donated to the homeless shelter. Money…put into our savings account. Neon Signs, Inflatables, and just about everything else!!! Lots of Books, DVDs, Cell Phones ( which we send in to point programs or cash). We have found MP3 Players that work just fine. Numerous Microwaves. We also found college textbooks ( loads of them) that would we return and sell back to the college. I even found a diamond ring (in it’s box) and a fancy watch ( which just needed a battery) and sold on ebay for $150.
Now, understand we would NEVER actually go into dumpsters. Just look around in them or on top of them. Also, we wore gloves. We were VERY CAREFUL.
Now, that I am working 3 jobs and very busy, we don’t dive anymore. We haven’t dived for about 3 years. BUT, when my husband was laid off, we had 2 children to feed and we were really struggling..Yes, we dumpster dived. We sold most of what we found. Typically doing a rummage sale in fall, when the kids come back to school and are looking for things for their dorms and apartments.
Are You kidding me! I always found things in the dumpster, toys, clothes, etc… and all this things in a GOOD and NICE condition! and even NEW!!!!! The people that throw this things, are RICH! and think that these things aren’t good! I always tell my husband: Why this people give this things to a church, or a family in need??????
I am not embarrassed to say I grabbed things from the trash and I’m not poor…But
YOUR’S TRASH IS MY TREASURE! :p
I’ve known about this for a very long time and would do it… if it wasn’t illegal. Unfortunately there is so much waste in this county. The stores don’t want to donate it, b/c they are probably afraid they will lose business- since some people will wait for them to give it away. I live in a small town and every Wed. the print store throws out all the Sunday papers- and it is a lot! Unfortunately, it’s illegal to take any of the coupons from the trash. Every time I go to Kroger they are filling up cart fulls of reduced food that didn’t sell and throwing it away.
Have done it, will do it, and a bunch of my friends and relatives do it. My sister works for a MAJOR grocery chain in the midwest – they will throw away entire CASES of yogurt that still have 4 or 5 days before expiration just because the grocery manager tells them to. Unfortunately, that store uses enclosed dumpsters…but I’ve been known to scavenge whenever the opportunity hits. You wash the vegetables before you eat them – do you think they are any more dirty in a dumpster than when they are hit with liquid cowsh*t in the fields (what do you think fertilizer is, folks???) Get real!
And, yes, I will take the coupon inserts from Paper Gators – I always make sure I bring them back to the same Gator when I finish cutting what I need and I make sure to feed the Gator with much more to make up for the few coupons I take.
We HAVE to become a much more green, more bent on recycling, society or we are going to kill our planet.
@ Jennifer B – Well actually that IS dumpster diving…
My little brother has found allot of perfectly good computers and bicycles that way lol! He fixes them up and sells them!
This is the comment that I just left on that site:
“I only read through a few of the previously left comments, so I do not know if this was mentioned again and answered …. but I did see that one person asked why this stuff was not donated to homeless shelters, or missions.
The anwer will shock many. Are you familiar with the old saying, “beggers can’t be picky”? Well, now a days they can.
We are connected with / work for caterers. It use to be if we had a couple of pans of leftover something or other after a big job, due to not as many people showing up or whatever, than the next business morning we were at one of the local ‘soup kitchen’ type of missions donating it.
However, laws got changed, and they are no longer allowed to serve half of the people that come chicken and the other half ham. Everybody is REQUIRED to have the exact same meal served to them on any given date, for any given meal. Period.
So if you do not have enough ‘leftovers’ to feed the usual number of people they serve at any given time, then they can’t take the stuff.
Why then don’t the missions take what you have and store it away until they have enough of it? Because that would require MAMOUTH amounts of walk in refrigerated and freezer space. And those cost mega bucks both to buy as well as to run. Also, they have no guarentees of just how long it will be before somebody will again donate that style of baked chicken to equal up to enough for one meals expected number.
Therefore, literal tons of stuff gets dumped daily in any major city. Caterers are not the only ones whom ‘use to’ donate. So did resteraunts, and grocery stores, and food vendors, etc.. But since the laws changed so that beggers can be picky, well, all I can say is it’s a sad state of affairs!!!
Now, on to those whom questioned about droppings and bugs, etc. in dumpsters – you’d have to treat the food like missionary’s in third world countries do on a daily basis – out of necessity. For many of them, every single piece of fresh fruit or vegetable, the celephone packaging on any bag of food type items, etc., must be thourally washed off with a bleach/water mixture, and then rinsed again, and again. YES, even the fresh fruits and vegetables!!!
And for those whom commented about somebody getting hurt while dumpster diving and turning around and sueing the company the dumpster is parked at – that is why ‘dumpster diving’ is now illegal in so many states!!! SAD!!!
I came to this site via it being linked here at ‘Garden Queen’ ‘s blog.”
Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving the comment about my post on deviled eggs :-}
Me again, whoops – looks like I gave credit to the wrong site – SORRY! I had hooked to your site via Garden Queens site, and then to their site …… can I blame my struggles with this Vertigo on me goofing up? o;-p Honest, I’m sorry!
Also, Garden Queen was the one whom had left me a comment ….. I’m gonna go lay back down now 8-/
I have never jumped into a dumpster for food, but when my neighbors set a bunch of canned and bottled items next to the dumpster, I took them. I just washed the cans and bottles thoroughly. Everything was still in date, so why not?
I’ve pulled furniture, (a Victorian-era mahogany dressing table), cookware, (expensive ceramic stuff), bolts of fabric, tv’s, book cases…gosh, name it and I’ve yanked it out of the dumpster. I actually *did* crawl into the dumpster for the dressing table! It sits in my livingroom as I type this. Absolutely beautiful, in my opinion!
Freegans dumpster dive from grocery store bins so there is usually only food in the dumpsters. They usually go to the dumpsters right after the store has thrown everything out. They do not usually dumpster dive in regular bins where other people throw away their gross stuff.
I hope that anyone thinking of trying this will not. I am a child of someone who used to do it at grocery stores, doughnut shops and more and have been traumatized by the things involved with this. And for those of you who go looking for perfectly good things in the garbage there is a reason why it is there. Support thrift stores instead, unless the item is curbside marked ‘free’ which is like the owner giving a free pass to someone who wants to pick it up.
completely disgusting….don’t they wonder why something got thrown out that looks “edible”? perhaps it was left on a disgusting floor (not to mention the disgusting dumpster itself which has to be teaming with bateria) or maybe someone returned it and it could have been tampered with (those crackers!?!?!)
NO way I would do that
BTW I just lost respect for this site for even posting that!
@jen, The title of the article is “Dumpster Diving for food”, if that’s something you’d NEVER do then why’d you click on the link to watch the video? Just to call people disgusting? Move along and be grateful that you don’t have to do that to feed yourself. There are many people reading this site that are a lot less fortunate than you…or that engage in “dumpster diving” in order to protest the OBSCENE amount of waste and exploitation of resources and animals that goes on in this country. The documentary “Food Inc.” shows just how our grocery money is supporting a very unhealthy and unethical food production system. Thank you for posting this article. If nothing else, it is enlightening to many that almost half the food in this country goes to waste.
I love dumpster diving. I used to get great coupons when the paper guy would throw his leftovers in one particular dumpster (with the plastic bags still on them which is WroNg, so I would take the papers, recycle the bags and then return the papers minus the coupons).
If I wasn’t pregnant I would do more…
I did not watch the video yet, and have never gone dumpster diving per say, but my parents live in a very nice condo association where they recycle – so the paper is separated from all the other greucht – and i have DEFINITELY gone down there to hunt for coupon inserts after the weekend!! It is a great way to stock up on coupons since I do not get a paper myself.
The only diving i have done, is if i am in my neighborhood and its garbage day. We see cans in their recycle bins(BAGS full) and take them home. within a few months we take them to a special can recycling company and get some money we would have never had. Whenever we go somewhere we have a bag in the car to pick them up. Roads, parks, parking lots, etc. they are everywhere! You really can make a difference cleaning up too. Dumpster diving can help!
I find all these comments totally interesting!! I don’t think I have ever dumpster dived, I would certainly grab a few coupons if I had the opportunity though : )
Thank you all for your honest comments!
I think there is a big difference between “recycling” furniture, bikes, etc. (also grabbing coupon inserts) and dumpster diving for food. Before I even watched the video, I was sure she would be diving for canned goods, etc. I would never have dreamed that someone would pull produce from a dumpster to take home. She might never have gotten sick, but it only takes one store to start putting rat poison in their bin for this to become a big problem. There has to be a better solution to the amount of food waste that’s created. I’d rather see this diver spend more time working on Congress to change legislation to allow for more donations.
I grew up very poor one of many kids dumped on my grandma to feed. She took us dumping at least 3-5 times a week. We always went early in the morning before the dumpster was emptied. We found a lot of produce with rotten spots that can be cut off. We also found a little bit of everything. I would wash everything very well before eating.
My cousins and I hated dumping it was very embarassing and stores don’t like you in there dump believe me. On a positive note: we were always fed very well.
I don’t know if its the safest way to eat. I have many medical conditions. I am disabled with lupus being my major disease.
When I was in college, I worked in the produce department of a grocery store. When we threw food out, we were told to pour a bottle of bleach all over everything. I have no idea if this was common practice, or just something my manager had us do to keep people from dumpster diving. In any case, I would never eat food items that came from a dumpster. When food is thrown out, there is a reason- it’s old or it’s been left out of refrigeration too long. The risk of food-borne illness is not worth the savings. Clothes & other household items are a different story. My brother-in-law found some beautiful paintings that a mall art store was throwing out, presumably because they’d been in inventory too long without selling. Of course, they weren’t covered in rotten tomatoes, either!
No. I wouldn’t. I have nothing against those who do, I just would not.
This was on Oprah last year. Very interesting, but not something I would do for food. I would (and have) take something off the curb if it is free. And I might take moving boxes out of a dumpster, but never food.
When I was a little girl in the 1970s my Dad used to work on the backhoes and dump trucks at the local landfill. Some of our toys at Xmas time came from the landfill new in the box. One year I got a new Dancerella doll from the landfill.
Then, one time he brought home a whole brand new big case of 1000 Grand bars. We ate those for weeks!
I meant to say 100 Grand bars (not 1000). They were full size, too.
I would be too worried about getting sick with food from the dumpster!
We are very lucky here. Hannaford stores donate this food to our local church who then opens the door for people in town to “shop” free. This is in cooperation with the local food bank. It is unbeleivable what they are able to donate that otherwise would go in the dumpster.
Interesting post. Thank you for being gutsy enough to share it with us.
Really I mean really you lost respect. Why???
I have went dumpster diving for coupons why waste?
Ummmmm? no! That’s fine that she wants to do that but not I… says me…=) First of all they said at the beginning that it was illegal so that says it all to me. Kust saying =) weird…..
I do “dumpster dive” for coupons sometimes, but I’m not sure I could do this.
I dont think there is anything wrong with this… we pay sooo much for produce! and we buy the stuff they put out on “clearance” and that stuff often looks much worse to me than the stuff those girls hauled in. If I knew where to get such great looking dumpster scores I totally wouldnt hesitate to look for some good stuff. I mean, once you peel a banana, what dumpster bacteria is left on it?? I say go for it! we never really get coupons for veggies and fruits anyway!
I’ve been known to take coupons off the top of the recycling dumpsters when i’m there throwing in my recycling. why not? i think it’s dangerous to be in the dumpsters, but if you can just look in and grab a few, then do it.
when i was in college i shared an apartment with my younger brother. we were BROKE all the time we furnished our apartment with what the local college kids threw away before they went home. sure if you can afford to live differently, than count your blessings, we surely did for everything that we found.
as for the rat poison/bleach worriers, how many grocers in this economy do you think are throwing bleach or rat poison away? nobody. if you don’t want pickers then you enclose your dumpsters. if you put poison in with the food then you will kill deer and racoons, scavengers, bugs and they will be laying around your dumpsters. if it’s in an unopened package or safety sealed, then why not. if it isn’t then someone could put bleach or rat poison on it when it’s sitting on the shelf just as well, couldn’t they? i worked in 3 different produce departments while i was a teenager and nobody ever did anything like that.
@erin you’re one of the most logical people on here. Stores always know there’s a chance someone could DD. They’re NOT secretly putting poison oj the food, although they may not like it its not worth killing someone over their leftovers. Too much risk when a padlock will do the trick. I’d DD ALL DAY!! If its sealed canned or boxed its safe. Produce can be washed. I doubt ppl would think its gross if they saw where the food they buy in stores lays around, and forget about fast food. I think some ppl would die without modern day convienences. We have it too easy.
I can’t imagine doing this for food, it makes me grateful that I have the money to go to the stores and the talent (if you can call it that) to use coupons to save so much money. I do however visit the recycling paper dumpsters for tons of free coupons!!! Love it when the paper man dumps 50 copies of untouched papers, you can’t beat that!!!
I am SO impressed with all the comments, what a fun discussion! I have absolutely used the recycling “dumpster” to find coupons and I have dumpster dived at a wholesale flower shop for flowers. I pray that my situation never forces me to dumpster dive for food.
Thanks Mercedes for the great post!
oddly enough I just watched this two nights ago, was trying to find a link to that dive documentary. It’s interesting, and kind of cool to say the least. I, like many kids, have gone through the trash when I was younger just out of sheer curiousity. While I would never dumpster dive I don’t see anything wrong with it. What folks find is crazy! and Yeah I’m one of those people that think as soon as something is in the trashcan it turns into toxic waste.
Though a few weeks ago I went through my own trash to find some upcs for the glade rebate
, hey it was 5 bucks! It was pretty gross though.
I don’t think I could ever do this for food, but I have never been in that dire of a situation. If it wasn’t illegal, I would go dumpster diving for things and coupons. I just can’t bring myself to do it seeing that it is illegal here. Its disgusting how much waste our country has. Thanks for this post! It was a huge eye opener.
Hi everyone – just a clarification: dumpster diving is NOT illegal everywhere. It is regulated by local laws that vary from place to place. Of course, you should never, EVER climb INTO a dumpster as this can be very dangerous, but picking things out of a dumpster is perfectly legal in many parts of the country. I have not tried this, but if I could find a group of local freegans you can bet I’d give it a whirl
Interesting video. If I knew it was legal and I had a friend to go with me. . . maybe:) Perhaps we all need to work on getting laws changed so this food could go to the needy and our government could quit spending our tax dollars on needless programs. . . hmmm.
My brother is a garbage collector. Back in the day that he had to get out of the truck and dump the garbage by hand he found an AMAZING array of items. I always wondered just where my birthday and Christmas presents came from. . . .:)
I once did dumpster dive for coupons !.At that time I had a BMW 3 series that was a gift from my huband when I got a new job.Anyways I decided once to pick out some papers in the dumpster as they had a coupon for a free item.As soon as I came out of the dumpster and was loading the papers in my car, I saw a man standing looking at me with his eyes and mouth WIDE open.I thought his eyes were going to fall out !!
I will never forget the look on that guys face…..:)
that’s really funny. you should have told him – how do you think i pay for this bmw?!
i can’t remember what blog i was on, but she had a statistic that only 1% of coupon produced are used and are mostly used by people with higher incomes – that is a paraphrase of her statistic. so i take no responsibility for its validity or if i paraphrased incorrectly =)
I may be frugal but I have to draw the line at grocery shopping at the dumpster. For me, I am sure it is more psychological than anything else… even if the food were sealed in 100 heavy duty Ziplocs I would still *know* it came from a dumpster. Like others, I have been known to grab something marked “free” on the side of the road or at a recycling center, but not food items.
I think the key with dumpster diving is finding the right dumpsters. While I have never done it myself, it seems plausible that if one could find one that threw away primarily food items and not trash like the one shown in the video it would be a relatively safe practice. If I came across a dumpster with random trash items with the food I think I would pass it by, but if I found one like the girl in the video…heck yeah I would take that stuff!
I’m not gonna lie–I did it once with a friend (who has done it well more than once). For us, it wasn’t a we-have-no-money thing so much as a statement against pure wastefulness. There’s a delicious bagel shop near her place that throws out literally hundreds of bagels EVERY NIGHT. They don’t even resell day-old bagels. Just throw out this massive amount of food. So it wasn’t in a dumpster, but it was a group of big garbage bags full of nothing but bagels (so it didn’t touch any other waste). One of the guys cleaning up for the night saw us and kind of laughed, said that people do it not infrequently, and gave us a tip on where to find a certain kind of bagel.
Different, I feel, from my old roommate whose friends once took a whole tray of food from a nearby restaurant’s trash. I don’t think that the platter of plantains or whatever was actually covered or wrapped or anything. I don’t judge…
I live in a college town and when I was young we always went dumpster diving with my grandma at the end of each semester. College kids would throw out everything they didnt want to move. It was very common in our area to do this. You had to get there early before everything was gone. I know a someone that does this year round and has a big yard sale every year to sell the items they found. They always make a couple of thousand from this. I think it is a great way to recycle, those items should not be going into landfill any way. We never did food though, but I’ve seen specials on freegans and if we had some in our area I would try it out. There is nothing wrong with it. I’m sure it is cleaner than eating at fast food restuarants.
I would certainly consider dumpster diving. I have gone into dumpsters to get coupons that I really wanted and get coupons out of peoples recycle bin. I agree with the girl in the video that it is disgusting at the amount of food we throw out just because it is “expired.” Who decides on those dates anyway. I never throw food out unless I smell it anyway. At the school I work at we have a school store. The parents running the store refused to sell the kids Doritoes because they were expired. My friend and I both took them home. We both got a plastic garbage bag filled with individual packs. They are not stale at all, what a complete waste of money. I think companies put an expiration date of food sooner than it really needs to be. I love going to the grocery store and getting manager special lettuce, mushrooms, meat. If it looks gross or smells I don’t buy it but usually it’s great and I just throw the meat in the freezer. I really don’t understand why dumpter diving is against the law, it should say “Eat at your own risk.” Maybe less people would be on foodstamps!
for food… HECK NO! I dont like to eat off other’s plates!
Coupons… Furniture (THAT I CAN USE) ….. yes.
There is a produce stand that throws away LOTS of good fruits and veggies. I have a pet pig that I get it for, but I think they should try to sell it real cheap or give it away instead. I hate seeing all that wasted food.
If your not going to use something at least pass it on to someone who will use it or a food pantry. My neighbor and I are always sharing fruits and veggies in the summer if we can’t eat it before it spoils. Same goes for household items. It doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to drop off a few boxes at a resale shop.
I think i might try it I’m just afraid of dirty maggot filled dumpsters in the summer heat. I like the idea of donating it but most people dont want to deal with taking there and would rather pitch it. Maybe its something to think about BUT……..what if you get caught its illegal and you have to go to court and everyone there knows what you did???
We are definitely a wasteful society that throws away a lot of usable stuff. I saw the show on freegans also, and was impressed. I have spent a lot of time with my grandmother, who grew up during the depression, and one of the most valuable lessons I learned from her is “waste not, want not”! ( The other is how to make a great chiffon cake!)
I don’t think I could be a freegan and eat food out of a dumpster, the ones they show on the video look like everything is pretty clean but I am too scared of what else (or who else) is there around in the dark. To scary for me. But me and my son have gone “diving” at the party city on cuz after all the holidays they throw tons of good decorations away and thankfully that is all paper and plastic stuff. But I still get all freaked out… don’t want to get caught cuz you aren’t supposed to take things from the dumpsters anywhere.
I would totally do it! If I knew it was legal, and if I had a friend to go with me! I’m a wimp hehe! I love to hear these stories and I think there was a story on 20/20 or maybe it was Oprah, not sure, anyway it was very interesting.
Dumpster diving appears to be the responsible AND AFFORDABLE thing to do! Get past the ick and you will find GOOD, CLEAN FOOD! If there is one rotting banana attached to the bunch… cut it off and discard it… the other bananas are fine.
Heck, I’m already finding it difficult to afford everything that I need. I attend college and although my tuition is covered through various forms of grants and scholarships, I still need to pay for housing, books, and food out of pocket… the minimum meal plan is over $1,200 a semester for just 10 meals a week! Just cannot afford it right now… or until I graduate, find cheaper housing, sell the car I have that is decent enough to get from point a to b without breaking down,or get a better paying job (which is the purpose of the degree… LOL… you know the cycle).
I’m getting a friend and dumpster diving TONIGHT!