Free Shopping

Ok, this may be a less popular post but hang in here with me to the end.

I'm going to talk about dumpster diving and garbage picking.  YIKES!  But Frugal Omma, doesn't that cross into cheap?!  It can extremely easily but let me explain.

All the generations before me that I have known have "picked garbage."  (Did you know you can actually get a license to partake in these activities by your local government and you just flash it to people if they ask you what you're doing?)  But the key is for only certain things and at certain times.  For dumpster diving I have gone to high end local colleges at the end of the year.  Why?  Because students with seemingly lots of discretionary money throw out what they can't pack back home.  Those living farther away throw out perfectly good furniture.  Now, that being said let's draw the line somewhere shall we?  No cloth covered furniture and no beds or bedding.  I'm talking lamps, tables, chairs you can wash/disinfect, bookshelves, etc.  Stuff you can clean and not worry about bringing in lice and other nasty stuff with it.  That is where you get cheap and it is ultimately expensive to fix that mistake.  (Same holds true for hand-me-down furniture, you have to know where it's coming from.)  You also want to make sure it hasn't rained.

You never know what you might find driving around the nice end of town on garbage day.  You find things people haven't bothered dropping off at Good Will and just want to get rid of it.  I've picked up perfectly good big wheels and other outdoor toys for my kids this way.  While my Grammy A would do the polite thing and ask someone if she could take an item I do the "it's by the side of the road on garbage day so they obviously don't want it" stop, throw it in the car, and drive away.  I started out with the polite asking but people just look at you like you're crazy and go "Um yeah, I'm throwing it out so knock yourself out."  One has to know the difference between "it happens to be in the lawn" and "it's clearly being thrown out" or you could get into trouble.