Ultimate in money saving

Sharra

The thing that struck me about the Freegans programme is when he said that in other countries a 5 yr old would know whether a melon was ripe or was going to make him/her ill - in our country we rely too much on sell by dates to tell us whether the food is ok to use.
We need to retrain our sense of smell and judgement

Gers

Sharra wrote:

The thing that struck me about the Freegans programme is when he said that in other countries a 5 yr old would know whether a melon was ripe or was going to make him/her ill - in our country we rely too much on sell by dates to tell us whether the food is ok to use.
We need to retrain our sense of smell and judgement

Melons smell right or wrong - no good pressing the tops of them, just hold them to your nose (don't touch!) and inhale. I said in a thread earlier this week about my milk lasting fresh much longer after the use by date. Read somewhere else about storing cottage cheese upside down cos it keeps fresher longer that way (was it here??).

NOT using vegetable racks but keeping them in the dark helps them stay fresh longer. Wrapping bread in paper and not plastic helps that too.

halloweenqueen_2

So what stops anyone buying something and then using it a week later? They surely would use their common sense? Its no wonder peoplearen't thinking for themselves any more they are so used to be told what to do.

angelatgraceland

Common sense has gone into the bin along with everything else in our wasteful western world

Rave

I've posted about bin raiding before; I used to do it a lot (not so much now, although I may restart at some point). I've had loads from the bins of my local supermarket, including loads of beer, tinned goods (usually dented but otherwise fine), fruit/veg, eggs (LOADS of eggs in fact), chocolates, pasta and plenty of other stuff too. Anything whih sustains packet damage in the store or is going out of date can be chucked. I've even eaten meat when I've pulled it (sealed) out of the bin in the middle of winter- although I tend to casserole it to be on the safe side.

I think however that my local supermarket has become a popular destination for freegans- I read an article about it in the independent and the location they described sounded exactly like my local. Maybe that's why my finds tailed off towards the end.

I also like looking in skips, and I've even had a few interesting things from the communal bins for my block of flats. However, the absolute best place to bin raid is charity shops- you would not believe how much they throw away. I can barely begin to list the variety of stuff I've found, although books, clothes and household goods feature heavily. Have a look here if you're interested though:

http://www.dumpsterworld.com/index.php?topic=122.0

As for the legality of it- I was questioned by the police while diving once (I was drunk too, and decided to go ahead even though they were doing something else nearby). Sure enough they came over and asked me who I was and what I was doing. Once they'd established that I wasn't a wanted criminal though they told me to carry on. I asked about the legality of what I was doing and was told that it could technically be construed as 'theft by finding' but that they'd definately not act unless they received a complaint.

halloweenqueen_2

Why do charity shops charge so much for clothes - no wonder places like tesco's do well, I can buy a new pair of jeans in there for half the price of the charity shops, then they have sales and as we see above chuck the stuff out. If they were to charge less they would probably end up with more actual money in the tills, after all the stuff is donated but it stays on the racks forever. I don't live in an expensive area either.

rlm_3

Talking about finding things in bins, I've recently noticed that loads of people throw their receipts in the bin outside our local Tesco Express. I've started to pay more attention since someone mentioned in an OS thread that they collected receipts from trolleys and asked customer services to add the clubcard points on the receipts to their card. I try and surreptitiously 'rescue' them as there's nothing but paper in the bin but my boyfriend is mortified if he's with me when I do it. Then again he was pretty impressed when I found a '52-pointer' in a trolley at the big Tesco this weekend

EssexGirl

rlm wrote:

Talking about finding things in bins, I've recently noticed that loads of people throw their receipts in the bin outside our local Tesco Express. I've started to pay more attention since someone mentioned in an OS thread that they collected receipts from trolleys and asked customer services to add the clubcard points on the receipts to their card. I try and surreptitiously 'rescue' them as there's nothing but paper in the bin but my boyfriend is mortified if he's with me when I do it. Then again he was pretty impressed when I found a '52-pointer' in a trolley at the big Tesco this weekend

Oohh I do that!! I never seem to find any reciepts these days. Looks like people either claim their points or keep the reciepts. Damn. Wouldn't let my hubby know though, he would be embarrassed!

rlm_3

What I don't understand is why the people who collect the trollies don't bag them all!

tina68

reehsetin wrote:

i used to work at whsmith - me and my assistant manager wanted to donate some of the old books to a school down the road, the manager wouldnt let us blaming head office tho i think it was more him who didnt want to - such a shame, they even ripped the books up so they couldnt be sneaked away!
i can understand perishables for health and safety reasons - but no logical reason at all for them not to be donated to schools at least or even to be generous liberaries

Was it Hitler that had the burning of the books?????:rotfl:
Must be a relative..Thats sacraledge:mad: