Granny Fricket's Thicket

Do you realize what is thrown away in the United States EVERY SINGLE DAY? It blows my mind, completely and totally.

I started to visit the local dumpsters as a way to supplement my Dubia Roach colony’s food. I mean, hell, they are roaches… why not try to find them some iffier lunch food and save a little money. It was way way way messing with my head to go to the grocery store to buy them $$$$$ food to save money on feeding my dragons. Yeah… that’s how it started.

I went to the very near to me (and dear to my heart) regional chain store to see if they had a dumpster I could look in to see if there was anything I could use. THEY use a compactor, not a dumpster and those are just freaking scary to me. So… I figured most places must use them… but maybe down the street I could go to a more wider known chain to see if THEY had a dumpster and (low and behold) they did.

Not only did I find roach dinner… I found package of potatoes with one not so yummy looking one at the bottom… I found onions with one maybe not so yummy looking one at the bottom… strawberries… bananas (a metric ASS ton of bananas)… just… in the dumpster.

I’m sitting around trying to figure out how to stretch a dollar into fifty dollars and grocery stores are tossing out food that I would ordinarily end up with any way (pay top dollar… get it home… and find the iffy things buried in the middle of the package…). I wonder…

So I started to do my research (after snarfing up some of what I found).

I was a little worried that I would be thrown in the pokey by the local constabulary… turns out that as long as it isn’t on private property or marked with a no tresspassing sign (or locked) it is perfectly legal to go diving.

It also turns out that there are places (said larger chain if I get lucky) that throw out other things besides groceries. Like… pizza ovens… fans… sewing machines… blenders… candles… The boxes might be a little damaged. The glass jars the candles are in might be broken. Whatever it is might have been purchased, taken home, then returned. It ends up in the dumpster.

There are people who take pick up trucks to dumpsters to find the re-sellable stuff. There are people who find amazing things.

I have found some amazing things. And I’ve started to make trips to my favorite spots every few days to see what I can find. I’ve started to preserve up what I find. It is kind of an adventure.

 

Here…

Here I will share some of what I’ve learned… what take aways maybe someone else can use to keep the wheels on their own wagons.