Saturday, February 12, 2011

free food, fantasy shoes

a friend/neighbor just showed up on my door with an entire laundry basket filled to the brim with food that he was clearing out of his cabinets to make room for new stuff. here is a photo of our cabinet right now.
free food in the pantry!

last we we went dumpster diving after the power went out at our local Target because of a wine/ice storm. dumpstering is fun but i often walk away feeling kind of depressed, though blessed. i understand why the stores have to throw things away but oh. it's just so sad what we feel is disposable. the temperatures were well below freezing so there was no risk of things even thawing. we found hundreds of digornio pizzas, lean pockets, meatballs, tubs of cream cheese, morning star farms food, bertolli meals, chicken breasts, breakfast meat, gourmet cheeses, milk, juice, frozen potatoes, seafood, hamburger patties, lean cuisine and marie calendar meals, paninis, waffles, and on and on. we filled my car twice before calling it a night and didn't even make a dent in what was there.

dumpstering score
after we went dumpster diving we came home with about $400 worth of frozen food from Target, so adding these two things together we will have to spend probably a scant $100 this month (and maybe next? and the next?) on produce, milk, and eggs. i am overwhelmed with God's provision. not that we need free food but hello, why not eat for free?! we are frugal as we can be and that's the way we like it.

speaking of frugal, we got our tax return money. this always presents my brain with the dilemma of saving vs spending. i'm sure that's true for most people though. this year we are saving for solar panels but i'd really love to buy some art from my friend good who tattoos david and i, kat moya. we don't have any debt besides our mortgage thank God. anyways, i've wanted some new clothes. it is a sad side effect of being a tall woman that shirts are always too short in the torso and arms. i've long made do but ugh, i feel clownish a lot. so off to the thrift store i went and found some new stuff like flowery tights, then to H&M where i got some new jeggings (yes, jeggings) and a puff sleeved shirt, and finally to forever xxi for two new boyfriend cardigans. that will last me about 2-3 years. side note: i will buy pretty much any puff sleeved shirt. it's just how i roll. i really want david to spend a little money on himself. he's so selfless and works so hard. i might just have to hand him a hundred and shove him out the door.

i am not a girl who lives to shop. i like it well enough but it holds no particular obsession for me. however, i once came upon a very special pair of shoes and fell in love. in no reality would it be practical for me to own or wear these shoes and yet, i yearned for such a reality. the shoes i had been in love with since fall of 2009, "alexa" by jeffrey campbell as pictured below, were reproduced for H&M and they were in the store when i went there. i was giddy to try them on!



i don't know why they are so attractive to me (david finds them pretty repulsive). i spent more than a few extra minutes walking on a one person runway in the dressing room with these on before bringing myself back to reality and returning them to the shelf. a girl can dream but she still has to realize her life. so now i know that i would look adorable yet foolish in those, mission accomplished.

6 comments:

Eva said...

couldn't Target have given some of that food to a food bank or sally ann or something?? i guess their freezers/fridges would be out of power too, but they could just keep food outside couldn't they?

madelyn said...

Wooow. I wish we could do that. But everyone's dumpsters down here are covered with a shoot leading from the building to the dumpster. :'(
That's great you guys are sUper blessed.
ps) I'm rather tall as well; I think I have about at least 3 frumpy awkwardly clothed days out of each week.

Olive said...

eva - i think there are some laws against donating the food. gosh i hope thats the case and its not that every is just lazy. that would make me even sadder!

madelyn - where are you from? every restaurant/business? thats a bummer.

Madi said...

Oh my gosh! Now I realize why you do have those giant fridges! I don't see how I could put all that food in a Spanish fridge!

Oh, and I like those shoes for you, they go totally with your style. I have that problem too, go shopping on sales...and keep dreaming whith those clothes we like...But I love my real life, as you do.

By the way, I really enjoy your blog. I am a first mummy, Nora is three monts to be one year old. Is exausting and fastinating to be a mum, a wife, a friend...

Kisses from Sapin

madelyn said...

I live in Charlotte, North Carolina. There are a lot of panhandlers around so maybe they do this so they don't loiter?? And well, it's kinda illegal here; at least that's what I've heard. I've been dumpster diving before tho; except I unexpectedly "dove" in on a fellow "diver", an old black man with tattered clothes. he was nice. But I didn't linger. lol

Olive said...

unless specifically stated, it isn't illegal to dumpster dive. i would never ever recommend getting into a trash compacting type of dumpster though! not worth the risk.