DavidKenny / Flickr
We share five must read blog posts about saving money every Friday.
Play bartender to friends with these frugal cocktail party ideas. (Wisebread)
By now you know Netflix raised its prices 60%, but why did customer overreact to the price change? (CNN Money)
Don’t get swindled. Turn the tables on con men by stealing these 10 con man tactics to keep your money safe. (Main Street)
Remember Bargain Babe’s dumpster diving video? Well here’s a refresher for folks interested in taking the plunge! (UltimateCoupons)
Beauty deal-seekers learn how to read beauty product labels. (Money Talk News)
“We’re about to spend three months living completely out of trash starting with nothing at all, starting with an empty apartment,” says a man at the beginning of I Love Trash. “We’re going to get everything to fill our apartment…from the trash. All our clothes and bedding and food and toys and games and entertainment all out of the trash,” the man continues.
The folks behind I Love Trash sent me a link to their 1:15:45 film after watching me going dumpster diving. Their video gets good about 2 minutes and 30 seconds in.
Quick TRUE or FALSE quiz. Every American creates 4.5 pounds of trash per per day. (more…)
Reactions to a video of me going dumpster diving got a wide variety of reactions, from intrigue…
Wow! It is amazing how many things get tossed out, but I don’t know if I could go dumpster diving.
..to disgust…
This is just not right. I don’t eat food that falls on my floor at home or that grandson has sneezed on. No way am I going to eat food from a dumpster. If I was homeless, maybe. Thankfully I am not in that predicament.
…to understanding…
my son bragged about our dumpster finds once, and the church gave us a care package for Thanksgiving!
…to outrage…
I worked at Starbucks for several years, and you would all be sickened at what was thrown out. Perfectly good baked goods are thrown out by every store, every evening. TONS OF THEM. Giant garbage bags full of them. The poor, minimum wage baristas are generally not allowed to take any of it (although I often broke the rules and took stuff anyway). There oughta be a law against this waste.
…to another kind of outrage…
What you are advocating is highly dangerous. Let me explain. I operated grocery stores for over 60 years. What was safe to eat, but damaged or close to its ‘do not sell’ date was marked down and sold in the store or was donated to charity. What we threw in the dumpster was often contaminated or unsafe to eat. Contaminated with what? Spills of household chemicals like bleach, soap, cleaning supplies, dirt, insects, and poisons. Unsafe to eat included foods that contained salmonella, botulism, or listeria. Salmonella and listeria can make you very sick or if you’re young or elderly kill you. Botulism will kill you even in small amounts. Yes, sometimes an employee will put something good in the dumpster and not all food there has these bacteria, but, can you tell the difference? Foods that have been recalled often go into the dumpster. When they are recalled, there is a serious safety reason. There are hundreds of recalls a year that you don’t hear about. If you wouldn’t buy it because it was recalled, why would you eat it for free? Do you have a death wish? What you are advocating is much like playing Russian Roulette. Sure, when pulling the trigger, most people will get off. Then again sometimes you are just out of luck. Is it worth it to take a chance on the safety of your loved ones or yourself?
…to practical…
Why don’t more people start groups like FoodNet (Nebraska) and then people who really need food could pick it up for free and not have to dive in dumpsters. I use to help with this group and we would pick up unused food from various restaurants, cafeterias, and grocery stores and take it immediately to a refrigerator or freezer (if needed). I was able to take some of the food for my family and we never got sick. I wish there were more groups like this one.
To be clear, I am not advocating dumpster diving, which is illegal. I sought to tell the story of Allison Burtch, who believes passionately in dumpster diving as a way to take individual responsibility for the waste our country’s food system produces, for better or worse.
Comments in order were left by Blakely, Lynda, prettybama, Chrystal, Ron, and Amy.
If you haven’t watched the 2:49 video, click more to see it. (more…)
Dumpster diving is not just about saving money on groceries, which is what I thought until I spent an evening with Allison Burtch. This girl is taking personal responsibility for all of the food our country wastes by eating her way through dumpsters. She has been diving for about six months and hasn’t bought groceries since.
