Still Cold

After going to the grocery and finding some fantastic bargains in the clearance aisle, we decided to stop at one of our local haunts.

One full bag of meat. Still cold and ready to freeze. Several bags of pre-cooked spicy sausage, about a dozen or so packages of ham cold cuts and a large package of pork shoulder.

The pork shoulder immediately went into the crockpot and will be cooked slow for about 8 hours. I added some salsa, cayenne pepper and one onion for a spicy pork dish I can use tomorrow for carne asada tacos.

Speaking of cold, I have a big cooler on my front porch. Every night I fill up about 6 plastic tumblers with water and freeze them in the freezer. The next morning I take them out and put them in the cooler. Eventually they melt and pop out a few hours later. Then I refreeze those glasses and start the process over again. By doing this, this keeps the cooler constantly cold. In the cooler, I keep water, soda and sometimes food we find as my frig and freezer are full.

Due to this lousy economy, my husband and I live a spartan frugal life style. But we’re far from bored. We have plenty of things to do, like fix up an old country home. Aside from dumpster diving as entertainment we also like bird watching.

We had found a few months ago over 10 pounds of bird feed in the trash. We took it out of the dumpster and brought it home. We purchased 2 bird feeders that are a sort of mesh feeder. The birdies love it. In fact they’re getting big. They’re being fed well I guess. Every single day I have tons of red birds, bluejays and even a yellow and black bird. They’re simply beautiful to watch. When the weather gets a little warmer (it’s been cold here!) I’ll sit outside and try to either videotape them OR take their picture.

Bring Home the Bacon

When my husband told me he would bring home the bacon, I thought he was being old-fashioned. Tonight we got 2 large packages of bacon. Yes I love bacon. Love it. Don’t eat it that often, but I do love it.

Inside the one bag (which was cold) was dozens of packages of cold cuts, bacon, cheese, cream cheese, grape juice and sweet tea.

We took some food to our local food bank that we’ve been giving food to. When we walked in tonight, we were aghast. Someone or a group had given them an ENORMOUS amount of food. Chips, candy, baby food, diapers, formula, juice and other stuff too numerous to mention. I was so happy to see that I almost cried. They wanted to give US some of the food. We both said no, we have plenty of food, enjoy it. You deserve it.

That is the power of manifestation. The energy of our giving food had created a 100th monkey effect of giving and generosity.

By the time we got home, I was famished. I didn’t know what to fix. I was tired, hungry, sweaty and dirty from hauling all that food out of the dumpster, cleaning it off and putting it away.

So dinner tonight was fish tacos (cod fish) and a strawberry margarita.

Life is good.

Sub Sandwiches on a Sunny Day

Decided to take a drive as it was a nice sunny day. Paid a visit to the local library and printed out several free coupons I had collected from doing surveys. I’m a coupon and clearance queen. Anytime I can save money, I do it. I had over $16 in reward bucks so I stocked up on some much needed items.

On the way home, decided to stop at a local store that always gives us great booty.

We had a wonderful haul. 4 hero sandwiches, a basket of peppercorn fried chicken, 3 bags of Chinese stir fry veggie mix, several bags of onions, a new container of re-fried beans/cheese dip and a few other items. Inside the dumpster down below (this is a deep long dumpster) were several more boxes. They were way too heavy and far too down to get. My spouse almost lost his phone in the dumpster. Whew!

The night before we found over 10 bags of potatoes. 9 bags went to the local food bank and the one package we kept for ourselves. I usually cook my potatoes in my rice cooker. They’re nice and steamed when they come out. I top them with a little bit of sour cream and butter.

I do actually buy food from time to time. But I always gear my shopping around things that are one sale and I peruse the clearance aisles religiously. Just the other night we found some items that were a steal, they were so marked down. My husband oh we’ll get these on the way back to the register. I said no way, by the time we get back here, they’ll be gone. And they were. I’m glad I got what I wanted. They were marked about 75% off.

More Bread, Desserts and Meat

Took a nice little drive all over the mountains today. Spring has burst through and the trees are green, the fire flies are out at night and life is good. We spotted a mess of chickens going back to their pen. The chicken are coming home to roost. I guess they’re free range chikadees.

Recovered out of the dumpster 2 large bags of bread. Buns, rolls, cakes, muffins, cookies, etc. Three bags of deli meat, still good and still cold. We’re freezing them now just in case.

Recovered over 20 packages of frozen cold meat, within date. Steaks, chicken quarters, pork chops and ribs.

Right now my freezers and refrigerator are FULL. You cannot slip a newspaper in them. The majority of the food has went to the local food bank/church. Just tonight the manager told us that the food we donate has helped more than we could ever guess. He said they were praying for bread, cheese and eggs and within days we arrived with a dozen bins full of food.

I always ask if the food went over well, did they like it etc. He said UDD, more than you’ll ever know. You have no idea. My spouse and I just grinned from ear to ear when we hear that. Watching that man’s face light up when we brought more food tonight, made my night.

From Cheese to Church

Found over 200 packages of that pre-shredded cheese. About 20% of it went to our food storage and the rest to the local food bank/church. This type of cheese is very convenient for families, but pricey. We use it in our cheese biscuit mix, pizzas, enchiladas, tacos, egg omelets, soups, chilis and too many other foods to mention.

Also found many containers of cottage cheese, cream cheese and other perishable items that had to go home or the food bank immediately. We got what they call fresh kill. It had just been thrown out as it was still very cold or frozen. That’s the best way to get it.

Last night on my way home decided to stop at a local haunt. Glad I did. What appeared at first to be three glad bags of trash were new merchandise thrown out. There was some broken glass i.e. candles, but the majority was good stuff. Several new pair of jeans, socks, T-shirts, children’s toys, a new MP3 speaker, soap, shower gel and candles. Some will go to the local charity and some to us.

I’m very grateful for the stuff we find. God has blessed me with a good sense of intuition and discernment. This allows me to follow my gut and usually it’s spot on. This helps needy families, helps us and keeps perfectly new items out of the landfill, where they would just sit and rot.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day – 19 bottles of beer on the wall

Had an overwhelming hunch to visit one of my sites. Paid off quite well.

Found 19 bottles (new) of unopened Heineken in a new plastic tub. I don’t care for Heineken, but some of my friends do, so when they come over, they’ll have their favorite beer. Tub is new, intact and ready to use. It can be used for anything or to put in my truck for further diving.

1 brand new DYMO label maker. Works great. This is a great tool for making file folders or just organizing anything. It can be used to label my jars and bottles for food storage.

2 bottles of seltzer.
1 can of monster coffee drink.
1 can of Coca Cola.
5 cans of Arizona Iced Tea.

1 pair of pink pajama bottoms – new unopened, fit me to a T.

1 package of adult diapers.

So today, we’ll have a roasted pork that is now cooking in the oven, cabbage, potatoes and carrots cooked in the stew pot. I’m bummed it’s very windy today, or I would have cooked the pork on an open pit fire.

Oh, and I forgot, my green beer.

Late for the Super Bowl party

Had a hunch to stop by an obscure place we frequent. Glad we did. Found 37 containers of brand new paper plates, about 75 packages of dinner napkins and 2 penants for the Super Bowl. They had been marked down very cheap, but still weren’t selling, so off to the trash they went.

In addition we found in another dumpster 4 bottles of smart water, several vitamin protein type energy drinks, and about a dozen or so new Pez containers.

The napkins and paper plates I’m keeping. They’re good for when you’re on a picnic, have company over or just don’t want to do dishes. The penants I’ll give to a sports fan.

I still had quite a few bottles of mousse and hairspray. So my teenage neighbor and her friends are now the recipients of my largesse.

The rest of the calendars and new patterns were given to charity.

A few nights ago we were dumpster diving and we heard a large thud on the other end of the mall. I know that sound by now. That’s the thud of a large object hitting the bottom. Sure enough, we waited until management left and there was a case of sparkling bubbly wine. I was impatient when I got home and took off the safety seal off one bottle. Wrong move. About an 1/2 hour I heard a POP and bubbly was everywhere. Oh well. Cleaned up the mess and still had 3/4 of a bottle left. Had it with dinner the other night. Quite good I must add.

Additionally we bought a wood burning stove on sale. A good price too good to pass up. We tested it out and it works fine. We put sand on the bottom as instructed. Sand we FOUND diving. Amazing isn’t it? You could cook on top of that stove. Things like this are needed in case of a power outage OR other weather crises that could cause modern technology to stop temporarily. For every person that is prepared, that is one less person that is dependent on the government, Red Cross or any other agency when things turn sour.

Calendars, Candy and Clothing

Such a huge haul tonight. Several boxes of candy bars. Many were the new type with no GMO ingredients. Over a dozen bottles of water. One facial buff new in box, shampoo and deodorant.

A few weeks ago, we found 4 boxes of calendars. 2013 calendars. Several we’ve used ourselves, several we’ve given away and a few others will be mailed to close friends and family.

That same night. Next store, a huge box of Vogue patterns. ALL new in the trash. I sew and have been wanting to start sewing again for a while. Bought some nice fabric on sale and now I have a beautiful new dress I can wear out for the night.

I’ve been wanting to redo my wardrobe and get out of the jeans/tshirt/loose T-shirts I’ve been wearing and wearing dresses more. Now I can!

Makeup for Life

I had a hunch last night to pass by one of our haunts. I was running out of cold cream for my face, shower gel and other haircare products. Guess what I found? Several hundred dollars of NEW makeup, shower gel, lotion, etc. What a great find for me!

I’ve already told my friends that if the world as we know it ended today, we’d at least have enough makeup until we left this planet.

Energy Drinks

Decided to have a fun day at a local event. On the way home, I had a serious hunch to stop by a local haunt. At first my husband didn’t want to go. I pressed. He was tired. I insisted.

And I’m very glad we did. A huge bag of energy drinks, energy bars, Atkins bars, and other assorted drinks were in a large bag. My husband jumped in, pulled the heavy bag out, I lugged it to the car and off we went.

Here are some shots of tonight’s finds.