Dumpster Diving

Yesterday I had my first experience dumpster diving! Because I really dislike the term "dumpster diving" let's call it "coupon hunting."

Everyone okay with that? :0)

I am super spoiled to have a friend who sends her husband out "coupon hunting" and passes coupons on to me. So I have never had to really look for any coupons on my own. Well, yesterday I had some errands to run that just so happened to put me near 2 great newspaper recycle bins. Alice (the aforementioned friend) convinced me that I should stop and see what I could find. I figured it wouldn't hurt so I found my way to recycle bin #1. When I got there I had to sit and stare for a minute. I guess I never realized how large they were AND how they are all enclosed except for the small doors you slide open to throw your stuff in. I climbed up on the side and stood there a minute debating on whether or not I was actually going to get in. In the meantime a lady pulled up to drop some stuff off. She asked me if I had dropped something in there that I shouldn't have. I chuckled and told her that I was actually looking for coupons from the Sunday paper. She then proceeded to hand me her stash of newspaper and told me that I was welcome to look through her paper. :0) After I snatched the coupon booklets from her paper I got into the dumpster to begin my "hunting." It was a lot cleaner that I had anticipated which was good. I found quite a few coupon booklets. The whole time I was sifting through papers I couldn't help but be paraniod that someone was going to come along and shut the little door on me and lock me in the dumpster! Looking back, it's probably not a good idea to go "coupon hunting" all alone.

Dumpster #2 was even larger than #1 and had multiple sliding windows. It was difficult to get in to and even more difficult to get out. At one point when I was looking for coupons I heard a noise so I looked out the 2 windows that I had opened (both on the same side of the dumpster) but didn't see anything. About 30 seconds later one of the windows on the other side of the dumpster flew open and there was a man standing there. It scared the crap out of me and him!!! (I can laugh at it now.) I was the last thing he expected to see inside of a recycle bin. I apologized for the scare. He asked me the same question as the lady from the 1st bin. "Did you throw away something that you weren't supposed to?" Again, I had to explain myself and he was nice by telling me that there were no Sunday papers in the pile that he was dropping off. :0) All in all I ended up with about a 3-inch pile of coupon booklets. Hooray! It was fun to go "coupon hunting" and get such a big stash but next time I won't go alone and will definitely be a little more precautious.