Do you use this method of spending less money, in order to save faster for your travels?
I don't really dive into dumpsters but i often find things that people discard on the side of the road that people are putting out for trash. If its something worth while that i can get money for if i recycle it , then its even better. Metals such as copper or brass are good for recycling and get some good money. I pick up bottles and cans when i can as i can get money for them and it is also helping clean up the world a little bit.
Reply to this Most of my furniture has been given to me by neighbours who no longer want it. People around here obsessively keep their things in perfect condition, and like to empty and refill their houses often. They are always eager to get rid of stuff to make more room for new things, which is good for us. We dont have to waste the travel money on boring furniture. 😊
I also get a lot of my daughters toys and clothes from neighbours.
When I am in Ireland, I visit charity shops often to inexpensively buy secondhand books in English.
I don't really dive into dumpsters ...
Me neither. I put this discussion on another site too. Half the discussion was taken up with people talking about the second hand stuff they score, and the other half was taken up with people telling them dumpsters are dirty and germ ridden, and they should stop this filthy habit. :D Some tried to explain that they dont actually take things out of dumpsters. It made no difference. People still insisted on taking the phrase dumpster diving literally.
Reply to this I love yard sales. I stocked the majority of my house with second hand furniture. I find it a lot of fun trying to find things at sales that will go match the color and theme of the house or room. And its even more fun when i can get it cheap. I also don't mind scouring online sites such as craigslist to find bargains.
However there are some things that i must buy new, like a chopping board. I like to make the chopping board my own by the way i cut and the way i prepare my food. I can always tell a chopping board is mine by the way the cuts are positioned on the board.
Reply to this For me the phrase 'Dumpster Diving' doesnt mean taking furniture or items that people have thrown out - for me it means going to a supermarket and finding there food bins and rummaging through them.
I've met a large number of people who are either on low wages, or live on the outskirts of society as such who live lives around this kind of 'Dumpster Diving'.
They find a local supermarket and locate their food disposal bins, then when they are closed they rummage through them and find food that hasn't spoiled and take it home.
I've done it a few times and it is amazing at how much food supermarkets throw out - a lot it hasn't spoiled and is just a day past the sell by date.
I remember one week last year i went through a couple of bins from the supermarket with a green logo! 😉 .... and I got a weeks worth of bread rolls, a large amount of banana's and apples that had bruises on but were perfectly edible and then a large number of packets of rice, dried beans and spaghetti that all only had just past there sell by date ... they were all still perfectly edible.
Anyway, thats what 'Dumpster Diving' means to me, and that can be a much better way of saving money that going through skips for items that you don't really need anyway - but each to their own!
Unfortunately a lot of supermarkets nowadays are wise to this going on and believe it or not actually lock up their bins with massive locks, and some that I have visited but no longer do have actually put security cameras over the bins because they are that bothered by people taking away their rubbish --- it is a messed up world we live in when a big corporation throws away food that is edible and then tries to stop people taking that food to be eating ..... what is the world coming to hey??
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