With shopping bills piling up and the cost-of-living rising, a Florida woman decided to look for an alternate way to buy essentials. Her search for a low-cost solution led her not to any stores but the dumpsters behind them. Now, she claims she has saved over $50,000 ( ₹44 lakh) by "dumpster diving" for clothes and other essentials in the last two years, according to the New York Post.
Cost-conscious content creator Melanie Diaz said she got a taste for trash after she watched videos of people salvaging trash from garbage on social media. Surprised by the low-cost method, she decided to try it out for herself.
The 22-year-old's first dive led her to a trash treasure filled with books, toys and other reusable items. Since then, she never looked back and now devotes four to five hours a day digging from dumpster to dumpster to find everything from clothing to home decor to pet food.
Watch her dumpster-dive video here:
Thanks to her dumpster diving skills, Diaz claims she no longer has to spend money on clothes and other everyday needs. She also realised that she didn’t need to work a full-time job anymore. “Since I started dumpster diving, I have saved a lot of money. I have used the money to put towards traveling around the world," the content creator was quoted as saying by the New York Post.
For the love of trash
{{/usCountry}}Thanks to her dumpster diving skills, Diaz claims she no longer has to spend money on clothes and other everyday needs. She also realised that she didn’t need to work a full-time job anymore. “Since I started dumpster diving, I have saved a lot of money. I have used the money to put towards traveling around the world," the content creator was quoted as saying by the New York Post.
For the love of trash
{{/usCountry}}Diaz has a simple rule for her vocation: Keep what you need and give away the rest. “I don’t sell the items I find, I will donate the stuff I don’t want to keep. I’m originally from Colombia, so I will send items back home where people can make use of them. I really love dumpster diving, you never know what you are going to find -— it is always a surprise,” she said
Diaz is not the first rubbish-obsessed dumpter diver living this uniqie lifestyle. Recently, a Texas mom claimed that she earned $76,000 a year by reselling items she found after dumpster diving. The love for trash has also resulted in people finding true love. Dave Sheffield, 35, met wife Erin, 39 say they bonded through picking through a pile of waste.
“We met in a dumpster. I saw him, popped my head over and asked what he was doing. He jumped out, we cleaned up and spent the day dumpster diving," Erin said.