The thread on Frugalism and all the Peak Oil threads has got me wondering what was the best way to scavenge good stuff from the neightborhood (or for those who are more cynical, how to take advantage of other people's wastefulness).
When is the best time to go looking for discarded stuff? How often should you go? And for scavenging for food, what is the best, least diarhea-inducing way to secure good food for free (or at least at a discount)?
Getting food from dumpsters is seldom logical.
A box of twelve 3-oz Maruchan Ramen Noodle packets (chicken flavor, beef flavor, etc.) sells for something like $2.50 in a supermarket such as Walmart, where each of the dozen packets is 190 calories, and the cost is proportionally like spending $2 for 2000 calories in a day, for food that can be quickly prepared with water in a microwave. Of course, it wouldn't be healthy to live on that alone, but such is an example of inexpensive food that can be one component of a cheap diet if someone was that short on money.
Precooked canned baked beans that cost $0.20/ounce ($3/pound) in a small major-brand-name container may cost just $0.05/ounce ($0.80/pound) in a large can by a different supplier, literally a factor of four price difference per unit weight. Big bags of rice, sugar, beans, etc. purchased in bulk at a supermarket are cheaper per unit volume.
Many people incorrectly think that the most inexpensive form of eating is fast food. However, not only does such tend to be a high fat unhealthy diet, proportionally it is typically around $5+ per 2000 calories, such as a ~ 400 to 450 calorie burger costing $1 or more. It's at least double the cost per day obtainable if aiming for minimum food costs when selecting food at a supermarket.
Someone dumpster diving is likely to spend as much or more than a half-hour of time to get a day's worth of food, but, even if they worked at a minimum wage job making $6/hour, such an amount of time spent at work could better provide the $2 or $3/day minimum for healthy food without such a risk of disease. Time is money.
(Of course, there is also the option if someone was that desperate of government assistance or going to a charitable organization operating a food pantry giving free food).
Minimum food expenses are on the order of $2 to $3 per day or $50-$100 a month. The biggest expense is rent, e.g. around $400/month for a low-end apartment in most places in the U.S. (although many people even with low incomes get into deep debt to buy a $200000 house instead, like buying a $30000 new vehicle instead of a near-identical used vehicle for $5000).
The individual described in the frugalism thread is penny-wise and pound-foolish, having tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars put into a duplex but not spending a thousand dollars a year on basic, sanitary food to replace whatever she spends many manhours of unpaid labor collecting from dumpsters.
It's not worth it for someone to eat food from dumpsters and risk getting huge hospital bills if it is contaminated.
