Overheard at Work

[frugalnacho]

I just fished a dozen bagels out of the trash and got caught doing it...

In all fairness they were fresh this morning, management brought in 3 dozen for a meeting in the office, meetings over and they came out after lunch and chucked the leftover box of a dozen plus the cream cheese, into the trash can.  It's a dozen perfectly good, not stale bagels that can go in my freezer.  They walked out, I assumed to go to lunch so I went in the kitchen and fished the box out, just as one of the VPs walked in.  I looked at him...he looked at me and all I could get out was a fairly high pitched "What?  I'm not letting perfectly good food go in a dumpster"  He gave me a weird look and just shrugged.  I think I have upped my already fairly high office weirdo rating a wee bit more.

And the cream cheese? Did you rescue that also?
This made me laugh. And why didn't they put out the leftovers for the rest of the office rather than toss them?

I feel better knowing that at least these bagels will not go to waste!

Many people are averse to "old" food or leftovers.  Those bagels were for breakfast, and now breakfast has passed, therefore they are old and no longer good, toss 'em.

A few weeks ago we were at my wife's friend's house for dinner.  They were making guacamole, and had the avacados all smashed up.  They opened up the guacamole seasoning, poured half of it in the bowl, and threw the rest of the package away.  I called them out on it immediately, "wtf are you doing? Why would you throw the guac seasoning away? It's a  dry seasoning...why don't you just fold it back up or put it in a zip lock and use it next time?"

They just stared blankly at me as if they never even considered you could potentially save the dry mix that you didn't use.   I seriously considered taking the packet out of the garbage and putting it in my pocket to take home.  My wife agreed with me, but thought it was a social faux pas to retrieve the unused portion so we just let it go.  So wasteful though.

[former player]

I remember chatting with a good friend of mine and realizing that a couple was listening in on our conversations so I started to mess with them. My back was to them so I winked at my friend and asked her about the baby and she casually said something like, "Oh I threw it out with the bathwater," and we proceeded to chat about how great our lives are and uped the ridiculousness until it became apparent that we were messing with them.

I have always hoped that a line from a conversation between two middle-aged women that I overheard on the train once had a similar inspiration -

"She killed them two years later, you know, but that's beside the point.  And they was lovely children, too."

[dude]

I just fished a dozen bagels out of the trash and got caught doing it...

In all fairness they were fresh this morning, management brought in 3 dozen for a meeting in the office, meetings over and they came out after I'm done eating lunch and chucked the leftover box of a dozen plus the cream cheese, into the trash can.  It's a dozen perfectly good, not stale bagels that can go in my freezer.  They walked out, I assumed to go to lunch so I went in the kitchen and fished the box out, just as one of the VPs walked in.  I looked at him...he looked at me and all I could get out was a fairly high pitched "What?  I'm not letting perfectly good food go in a dumpster"  He gave me a weird look and just shrugged.  I think I have upped my already fairly high office weirdo rating a wee bit more.

Not quite dumpster diving/trash picking, but at my wife's company's holiday party last year, there was a shitload of quality seafood, including a whole tray of lobster rolls left over.  I asked the waiter what they were going to do with them, and he said they had to toss them.  Like hell you will.  I asked for them to go.  Nobody else there wanted to "stoop that low" because they are all so hellbent on keeping up appearances.  I took those suckers home, and emptied the lobster salad from the rolls into a large bowl. Easily 3-4 lbs of lobster salad.  Street value $100-$120.  ;-)  I ate lobster salad with breakfast, lunch and dinner for several days and loved every ounce of it!

[LifeAtTheLodgeHouse]

Small thing, grating on me.

In work everyone has reusable cups, awesome idea as it saves the environment and you save 50c every time you buy a coffee (don't worry I squashed that habit upon stumbling onto MMM). Everyone has these cups: www.keepcup.com and I do too, however my sister in law's work got free cups that are in a blue and black and not the "fancy" multicoloured ones and she snagged one for me of THE SAME BRAND, but blue and black.

CW - You need a new cup
Me - Why? It's same brand but my one is dull colours
CW - It's dull, just buy a new cup, you need a new cup
Me - Um, no
CW - They are only $13 NZ (or something like that)
Me - Okay

A week later...

CW - Have you not bought a new cup yet?
Me - No
CW - Buy a new cup, you need a new cup
Me - I'm probably not going to do that

A week later... you get where this is going...

I DO NOT NEED A NEW CUP. My cup is perfectly fine and even if it wasn't, I have other thermal cups. I will NOT be buying a new cup!!!

I feel like the drink and drugs advert - Just say no. Do not give in to peer pressure!!

Just buy the cup man. All your friends have one. One won't hurt, it'll help you relax.
You too good to buy a cup like the rest of us? Cup chicken? Bwok bwok bwok.....

I'm now waiting to be told how all the cool kids are doing it...

[cloudsail]

I just fished a dozen bagels out of the trash and got caught doing it...

In all fairness they were fresh this morning, management brought in 3 dozen for a meeting in the office, meetings over and they came out after I'm done eating lunch and chucked the leftover box of a dozen plus the cream cheese, into the trash can.  It's a dozen perfectly good, not stale bagels that can go in my freezer.  They walked out, I assumed to go to lunch so I went in the kitchen and fished the box out, just as one of the VPs walked in.  I looked at him...he looked at me and all I could get out was a fairly high pitched "What?  I'm not letting perfectly good food go in a dumpster"  He gave me a weird look and just shrugged.  I think I have upped my already fairly high office weirdo rating a wee bit more.

Not quite dumpster diving/trash picking, but at my wife's company's holiday party last year, there was a shitload of quality seafood, including a whole tray of lobster rolls left over.  I asked the waiter what they were going to do with them, and he said they had to toss them.  Like hell you will.  I asked for them to go.  Nobody else there wanted to "stoop that low" because they are all so hellbent on keeping up appearances.  I took those suckers home, and emptied the lobster salad from the rolls into a large bowl. Easily 3-4 lbs of lobster salad.  Street value $100-$120.  ;-)  I ate lobster salad with breakfast, lunch and dinner for several days and loved every ounce of it!

Yeah, I'm an engineer so everyone is pretty frugal.  There was a long email thread once at my last company when someone realized that all the leftover food from the cafeteria was thrown out every night.  People were horrified at the waste, but it turned out there wasn't any other choice (like donating, etc.) due to food safety and liability reasons.  It's really too bad, I'm sure most people at the office would have welcomed the free leftovers.

[o2bfree]

CW - You need a new cup
Me - Why? It's same brand but my one is dull colours
CW - It's dull, just buy a new cup, you need a new cup
Me - Um, no
CW - They are only $13 NZ (or something like that)
Me - Okay

A week later...

CW - Have you not bought a new cup yet?
Me - No
CW - Buy a new cup, you need a new cup
Me - I'm probably not going to do that

A week later... you get where this is going...

I had a similar experience with a staple remover. Mine had a little piece of the plastic broke off the grip, and the admin got all worked up about it. "You need a new staple remover!" "Your's is BROKEN, don't you want a new one?" Broken?! It still worked perfectly!

After a couple weeks a new one appeared in my in box. I just let it sit there, and it disappeared after a few days. That was 19 years ago, and the "broken" staple remover has served me well all this time.

[Seppia]

If you're taking food of the garbage you're going too far in my opinion.

[ambimammular]

I just fished a dozen bagels out of the trash and got caught doing it...

In all fairness they were fresh this morning, management brought in 3 dozen for a meeting in the office, meetings over and they came out after lunch and chucked the leftover box of a dozen plus the cream cheese, into the trash can.  It's a dozen perfectly good, not stale bagels that can go in my freezer.  They walked out, I assumed to go to lunch so I went in the kitchen and fished the box out, just as one of the VPs walked in.  I looked at him...he looked at me and all I could get out was a fairly high pitched "What?  I'm not letting perfectly good food go in a dumpster"  He gave me a weird look and just shrugged.  I think I have upped my already fairly high office weirdo rating a wee bit more.

And the cream cheese? Did you rescue that also?
This made me laugh. And why didn't they put out the leftovers for the rest of the office rather than toss them?

I feel better knowing that at least these bagels will not go to waste!

A friend brought us a few bags of organic apples from an acquaintance's farm. He said the guy has forty plus trees that he does nothing with. The apples are varieties that don't market well, but taste amazing. I've done my applesauce canning for the year and have maybe two empty jars if I'm lucky, and I don't even know the guy that has the trees...but I can't stop thinking about all of those apples going to waste. They've been haunting me since I've learned of them.

[Cadman]

Haha, this immediately sprang to mind... *edit: bagels in a box, I would have pulled them out, too!

[fiftyincher]

Haha, this immediately sprang to mind... *edit: bagels in a box, I would have pulled them out, too!

 it was not IN the garbage. It was above the garbage. Hovering. Like an angel.

[Seppia]

If you're taking food of the garbage you're going too far in my opinion.

Even if it is in a box and none of the food actually touched anything else in the garbage can?

We had a reception on Saturday night and I packed up all the shelf stable items and took them home with me. Corn chips, carrot sticks, potato chips, peanuts... We won't be buying snack food for a while!

It is not a food safety issue for me, but a social norms one.
If I manage to "save" the leftovers before they're thrown away then no issues (I do this all the time when we cook at work), but once they're in the garbage, well I don't fish in the garbage.

[o2bfree]

People where I work are always putting plates with unwanted food in the bus bins. Ticks me off double, once for the wasted food, and twice because there's a garbage can right there and they're too lazy to scrape the food off.

[nanu]

Haha, this immediately sprang to mind... *edit: bagels in a box, I would have pulled them out, too!

 it was not IN the garbage. It was above the garbage. Hovering. Like an angel.

Listen, can I tell you something else? In my family, we used to eat out of the garbage all the time.

[MishMash]

If you're taking food of the garbage you're going too far in my opinion.

Even if it is in a box and none of the food actually touched anything else in the garbage can?

We had a reception on Saturday night and I packed up all the shelf stable items and took them home with me. Corn chips, carrot sticks, potato chips, peanuts... We won't be buying snack food for a while!

It is not a food safety issue for me, but a social norms one.
If I manage to "save" the leftovers before they're thrown away then no issues (I do this all the time when we cook at work), but once they're in the garbage, well I don't fish in the garbage.

And what is the difference between saving it, while still in it's original box, from the garbage, and repackaging it to reuse?  Now if it were rando bagels that had trash on top, I see your point...fresh bagels, in a box, on top of the morning accumulation of kcups and paper cups, not a problem to me.  You ever abided by the 5 second rule or the eh, so what if the (cat/dog/kid/husband) licked/sneezed/coughed/touched after booger picking?  Frankly that's probably dirtier then trash box bagels.

[Seppia]

The difference is how people perceive other people that pick up food from the garbage.

[MishMash]

The difference is how people perceive other people that pick up food from the garbage.

And isn't one of the main points of this forum all about busting societal norms?

[Jtrey17]

I just fished a dozen bagels out of the trash and got caught doing it...

In all fairness they were fresh this morning, management brought in 3 dozen for a meeting in the office, meetings over and they came out after lunch and chucked the leftover box of a dozen plus the cream cheese, into the trash can.  It's a dozen perfectly good, not stale bagels that can go in my freezer.  They walked out, I assumed to go to lunch so I went in the kitchen and fished the box out, just as one of the VPs walked in.  I looked at him...he looked at me and all I could get out was a fairly high pitched "What?  I'm not letting perfectly good food go in a dumpster"  He gave me a weird look and just shrugged.  I think I have upped my already fairly high office weirdo rating a wee bit more.

And the cream cheese? Did you rescue that also?
This made me laugh. And why didn't they put out the leftovers for the rest of the office rather than toss them?

I feel better knowing that at least these bagels will not go to waste!

Many people are averse to "old" food or leftovers.  Those bagels were for breakfast, and now breakfast has passed, therefore they are old and no longer good, toss 'em.

A few weeks ago we were at my wife's friend's house for dinner.  They were making guacamole, and had the avacados all smashed up.  They opened up the guacamole seasoning, poured half of it in the bowl, and threw the rest of the package away.  I called them out on it immediately, "wtf are you doing? Why would you throw the guac seasoning away? It's a  dry seasoning...why don't you just fold it back up or put it in a zip lock and use it next time?"

They just stared blankly at me as if they never even considered you could potentially save the dry mix that you didn't use.   I seriously considered taking the packet out of the garbage and putting it in my pocket to take home.  My wife agreed with me, but thought it was a social faux pas to retrieve the unused portion so we just let it go.  So wasteful though.

guac seasoning? Skip it all together and use fresh ingredients!

[LeRainDrop]

Small thing, grating on me.

In work everyone has reusable cups, awesome idea as it saves the environment and you save 50c every time you buy a coffee (don't worry I squashed that habit upon stumbling onto MMM). Everyone has these cups: www.keepcup.com and I do too, however my sister in law's work got free cups that are in a blue and black and not the "fancy" multicoloured ones and she snagged one for me of THE SAME BRAND, but blue and black.

CW - You need a new cup
Me - Why? It's same brand but my one is dull colours
CW - It's dull, just buy a new cup, you need a new cup
Me - Um, no
CW - They are only $13 NZ (or something like that)
Me - Okay

A week later...

CW - Have you not bought a new cup yet?
Me - No
CW - Buy a new cup, you need a new cup
Me - I'm probably not going to do that

A week later... you get where this is going...

I DO NOT NEED A NEW CUP. My cup is perfectly fine and even if it wasn't, I have other thermal cups. I will NOT be buying a new cup!!!

I feel like the drink and drugs advert - Just say no. Do not give in to peer pressure!!

Just buy the cup man. All your friends have one. One won't hurt, it'll help you relax.
You too good to buy a cup like the rest of us? Cup chicken? Bwok bwok bwok.....

I'm now waiting to be told how all the cool kids are doing it...

Is it wrong that I'm now online "designing my own KeepCup"?  ;-)  (But not buying -- just designing.)

[dragoncar]

Small thing, grating on me.

In work everyone has reusable cups, awesome idea as it saves the environment and you save 50c every time you buy a coffee (don't worry I squashed that habit upon stumbling onto MMM). Everyone has these cups: www.keepcup.com and I do too, however my sister in law's work got free cups that are in a blue and black and not the "fancy" multicoloured ones and she snagged one for me of THE SAME BRAND, but blue and black.

CW - You need a new cup
Me - Why? It's same brand but my one is dull colours
CW - It's dull, just buy a new cup, you need a new cup
Me - Um, no
CW - They are only $13 NZ (or something like that)
Me - Okay

A week later...

CW - Have you not bought a new cup yet?
Me - No
CW - Buy a new cup, you need a new cup
Me - I'm probably not going to do that

A week later... you get where this is going...

I DO NOT NEED A NEW CUP. My cup is perfectly fine and even if it wasn't, I have other thermal cups. I will NOT be buying a new cup!!!

I feel like the drink and drugs advert - Just say no. Do not give in to peer pressure!!

Just buy the cup man. All your friends have one. One won't hurt, it'll help you relax.
You too good to buy a cup like the rest of us? Cup chicken? Bwok bwok bwok.....

I'm now waiting to be told how all the cool kids are doing it...

Is it wrong that I'm now online "designing my own KeepCup"?  ;-)  (But not buying -- just designing.)

Next time they ask you, just say "I bought a new cup -- here it is" and show them the old one.  Tell them you "designed your own cup" and specifically chose black and blue because it reminds you of the depression your feel at work.  Tell them it's a limited edition for charity and only costs $50 NZ

[arebelspy]

Next time they ask you, just say "I bought a new cup -- here it is" and show them the old one.  Tell them you "designed your own cup" and specifically chose black and blue because it reminds you of the depression your feel at work.  Tell them it's a limited edition for charity and only costs $50 NZ

Better yet, borrow your sister-in-law's, since she'll have one.  Then you can have your cup out, and when it's brought up say "oh, I did buy a new one!" and whip out the second one, same colors.

And tell them you just like the colors of that.

Then return to SIL, and see it never mentioned again, because they know you're serious about keeping that one.

[LifeAtTheLodgeHouse]

CW - You need a new cup
Me - Why? It's same brand but my one is dull colours
CW - It's dull, just buy a new cup, you need a new cup
Me - Um, no
CW - They are only $13 NZ (or something like that)
Me - Okay

A week later...

CW - Have you not bought a new cup yet?
Me - No
CW - Buy a new cup, you need a new cup
Me - I'm probably not going to do that

A week later... you get where this is going...

I had a similar experience with a staple remover. Mine had a little piece of the plastic broke off the grip, and the admin got all worked up about it. "You need a new staple remover!" "Your's is BROKEN, don't you want a new one?" Broken?! It still worked perfectly!

After a couple weeks a new one appeared in my in box. I just let it sit there, and it disappeared after a few days. That was 19 years ago, and the "broken" staple remover has served me well all this time.

I'd put money on my cup outlasting theirs aswell :)

[LifeAtTheLodgeHouse]

Small thing, grating on me.

In work everyone has reusable cups, awesome idea as it saves the environment and you save 50c every time you buy a coffee (don't worry I squashed that habit upon stumbling onto MMM). Everyone has these cups: www.keepcup.com and I do too, however my sister in law's work got free cups that are in a blue and black and not the "fancy" multicoloured ones and she snagged one for me of THE SAME BRAND, but blue and black.

CW - You need a new cup
Me - Why? It's same brand but my one is dull colours
CW - It's dull, just buy a new cup, you need a new cup
Me - Um, no
CW - They are only $13 NZ (or something like that)
Me - Okay

A week later...

CW - Have you not bought a new cup yet?
Me - No
CW - Buy a new cup, you need a new cup
Me - I'm probably not going to do that

A week later... you get where this is going...

I DO NOT NEED A NEW CUP. My cup is perfectly fine and even if it wasn't, I have other thermal cups. I will NOT be buying a new cup!!!

I feel like the drink and drugs advert - Just say no. Do not give in to peer pressure!!

Just buy the cup man. All your friends have one. One won't hurt, it'll help you relax.
You too good to buy a cup like the rest of us? Cup chicken? Bwok bwok bwok.....

I'm now waiting to be told how all the cool kids are doing it...

Is it wrong that I'm now online "designing my own KeepCup"?  ;-)  (But not buying -- just designing.)

No, I did it too. Just designing, not buying, of course :) I'm not cool enough to buy one...

[LifeAtTheLodgeHouse]

Next time they ask you, just say "I bought a new cup -- here it is" and show them the old one.  Tell them you "designed your own cup" and specifically chose black and blue because it reminds you of the depression your feel at work.  Tell them it's a limited edition for charity and only costs $50 NZ

Better yet, borrow your sister-in-law's, since she'll have one.  Then you can have your cup out, and when it's brought up say "oh, I did buy a new one!" and whip out the second one, same colors.

And tell them you just like the colors of that.

Then return to SIL, and see it never mentioned again, because they know you're serious about keeping that one.

I'm seriously thinking I might actually do this...

Me - I did buy a new cup...turns out I like black and blue :)

[Squirrel away]

Haha, this immediately sprang to mind... *edit: bagels in a box, I would have pulled them out, too!

That was I thought of too.:P

I would probably take bagels out of a bin if they had just been put in there and they were in packaging.

[o2bfree]

I just fished a dozen bagels out of the trash and got caught doing it...

In all fairness they were fresh this morning, management brought in 3 dozen for a meeting in the office, meetings over and they came out after I'm done eating lunch and chucked the leftover box of a dozen plus the cream cheese, into the trash can.  It's a dozen perfectly good, not stale bagels that can go in my freezer.  They walked out, I assumed to go to lunch so I went in the kitchen and fished the box out, just as one of the VPs walked in.  I looked at him...he looked at me and all I could get out was a fairly high pitched "What?  I'm not letting perfectly good food go in a dumpster"  He gave me a weird look and just shrugged.  I think I have upped my already fairly high office weirdo rating a wee bit more.

At my workplace, meeting leftovers get put on a table in the common area, and cause a feeding frenzy. People call to each other or send email, "Pastries in the commons", "Mexican food out", "Donuts!", and the stuff is usually gone pretty fast. But I'll snatch up condiments left behind, those containers of cream cheese are the best! I have a large one from Panera in my fridge right now.

Another good thing to grab is the plastic serving utensils and containers. Catered meals from places like Baja Fresh includes sets of large serving spoons, forks, tongs, and bowls with covers that are great for taking food to parties. Yeah, I get those looks sometimes when I'm fishing plastic ware out of the trash.

[horsepoor]

So I was traveling this week with a co-worker who makes about the same salary as I do - not quite six figures, but close.  We get paid a flat rate for per diem and can purchase our own meals or use our corporate card and then pay the bill when it comes.  He was complaining about some snafu with reconciling his corporate card for a meal he'd purchased on a previous trip and I said that was why I don't use the corporate card for meals.  He said "well, towards the end of the trip sometimes I'm running out of money..."  Umm, we never travel longer than a work week - you seriously don't have $10 to your name for lunch, or a CC that you pay off each month?

[frugalnacho]

I just fished a dozen bagels out of the trash and got caught doing it...

In all fairness they were fresh this morning, management brought in 3 dozen for a meeting in the office, meetings over and they came out after lunch and chucked the leftover box of a dozen plus the cream cheese, into the trash can.  It's a dozen perfectly good, not stale bagels that can go in my freezer.  They walked out, I assumed to go to lunch so I went in the kitchen and fished the box out, just as one of the VPs walked in.  I looked at him...he looked at me and all I could get out was a fairly high pitched "What?  I'm not letting perfectly good food go in a dumpster"  He gave me a weird look and just shrugged.  I think I have upped my already fairly high office weirdo rating a wee bit more.

And the cream cheese? Did you rescue that also?
This made me laugh. And why didn't they put out the leftovers for the rest of the office rather than toss them?

I feel better knowing that at least these bagels will not go to waste!

Many people are averse to "old" food or leftovers.  Those bagels were for breakfast, and now breakfast has passed, therefore they are old and no longer good, toss 'em.

A few weeks ago we were at my wife's friend's house for dinner.  They were making guacamole, and had the avacados all smashed up.  They opened up the guacamole seasoning, poured half of it in the bowl, and threw the rest of the package away.  I called them out on it immediately, "wtf are you doing? Why would you throw the guac seasoning away? It's a  dry seasoning...why don't you just fold it back up or put it in a zip lock and use it next time?"

They just stared blankly at me as if they never even considered you could potentially save the dry mix that you didn't use.   I seriously considered taking the packet out of the garbage and putting it in my pocket to take home.  My wife agreed with me, but thought it was a social faux pas to retrieve the unused portion so we just let it go.  So wasteful though.

guac seasoning? Skip it all together and use fresh ingredients!

Like what?  I can't ever replicate what is in those seasoning packets.  It doesn't taste right.  We usually use far less than recommended too, so we get about 4-5 batches out of a single packet, so our annual guac spice budget is probably less than $5.

[mtn]

I just fished a dozen bagels out of the trash and got caught doing it...

In all fairness they were fresh this morning, management brought in 3 dozen for a meeting in the office, meetings over and they came out after lunch and chucked the leftover box of a dozen plus the cream cheese, into the trash can.  It's a dozen perfectly good, not stale bagels that can go in my freezer.  They walked out, I assumed to go to lunch so I went in the kitchen and fished the box out, just as one of the VPs walked in.  I looked at him...he looked at me and all I could get out was a fairly high pitched "What?  I'm not letting perfectly good food go in a dumpster"  He gave me a weird look and just shrugged.  I think I have upped my already fairly high office weirdo rating a wee bit more.

And the cream cheese? Did you rescue that also?
This made me laugh. And why didn't they put out the leftovers for the rest of the office rather than toss them?

I feel better knowing that at least these bagels will not go to waste!

Many people are averse to "old" food or leftovers.  Those bagels were for breakfast, and now breakfast has passed, therefore they are old and no longer good, toss 'em.

A few weeks ago we were at my wife's friend's house for dinner.  They were making guacamole, and had the avacados all smashed up.  They opened up the guacamole seasoning, poured half of it in the bowl, and threw the rest of the package away.  I called them out on it immediately, "wtf are you doing? Why would you throw the guac seasoning away? It's a  dry seasoning...why don't you just fold it back up or put it in a zip lock and use it next time?"

They just stared blankly at me as if they never even considered you could potentially save the dry mix that you didn't use.   I seriously considered taking the packet out of the garbage and putting it in my pocket to take home.  My wife agreed with me, but thought it was a social faux pas to retrieve the unused portion so we just let it go.  So wasteful though.

guac seasoning? Skip it all together and use fresh ingredients!

Like what?  I can't ever replicate what is in those seasoning packets.  It doesn't taste right.  We usually use far less than recommended too, so we get about 4-5 batches out of a single packet, so our annual guac spice budget is probably less than $5.

Avacado. Copious amounts of onion. Copious amounts of cilantro. Tomato. Lime juice. Kosher/Sea Salt. More cilantro.

Optional: Garlic and Jalapeno

Try it, add more salt if necessary.

[Beaker]

I just fished a dozen bagels out of the trash and got caught doing it...

In all fairness they were fresh this morning, management brought in 3 dozen for a meeting in the office, meetings over and they came out after I'm done eating lunch and chucked the leftover box of a dozen plus the cream cheese, into the trash can.  It's a dozen perfectly good, not stale bagels that can go in my freezer.  They walked out, I assumed to go to lunch so I went in the kitchen and fished the box out, just as one of the VPs walked in.  I looked at him...he looked at me and all I could get out was a fairly high pitched "What?  I'm not letting perfectly good food go in a dumpster"  He gave me a weird look and just shrugged.  I think I have upped my already fairly high office weirdo rating a wee bit more.

I would totally do that if they were in a box. I actually did do that with one of those giant bags of chips that Qdoba brings for catering. I got a weird look for that, but come on, it was a sealed ziploc bag. It's not like the magical garbage germs teleported through the plastic.

My office buys too many bagels almost every Friday. I've had free bagels for breakfast on Saturday and Sunday for months now, and at times had up to a half dozen containers of cream cheese in the fridge. The funny thing is nobody else will take them. I've even packaged the leftovers up in the bag with cream cheese and physically tried to give it to people, but they won't take it. Bizarre. I've also been eating leftover company pizza for days now, while everyone goes out to lunch.

[maco]

I just fished a dozen bagels out of the trash and got caught doing it...

In all fairness they were fresh this morning, management brought in 3 dozen for a meeting in the office, meetings over and they came out after lunch and chucked the leftover box of a dozen plus the cream cheese, into the trash can.  It's a dozen perfectly good, not stale bagels that can go in my freezer.  They walked out, I assumed to go to lunch so I went in the kitchen and fished the box out, just as one of the VPs walked in.  I looked at him...he looked at me and all I could get out was a fairly high pitched "What?  I'm not letting perfectly good food go in a dumpster"  He gave me a weird look and just shrugged.  I think I have upped my already fairly high office weirdo rating a wee bit more.

And the cream cheese? Did you rescue that also?
This made me laugh. And why didn't they put out the leftovers for the rest of the office rather than toss them?

I feel better knowing that at least these bagels will not go to waste!

Many people are averse to "old" food or leftovers.  Those bagels were for breakfast, and now breakfast has passed, therefore they are old and no longer good, toss 'em.

A few weeks ago we were at my wife's friend's house for dinner.  They were making guacamole, and had the avacados all smashed up.  They opened up the guacamole seasoning, poured half of it in the bowl, and threw the rest of the package away.  I called them out on it immediately, "wtf are you doing? Why would you throw the guac seasoning away? It's a  dry seasoning...why don't you just fold it back up or put it in a zip lock and use it next time?"

They just stared blankly at me as if they never even considered you could potentially save the dry mix that you didn't use.   I seriously considered taking the packet out of the garbage and putting it in my pocket to take home.  My wife agreed with me, but thought it was a social faux pas to retrieve the unused portion so we just let it go.  So wasteful though.

guac seasoning? Skip it all together and use fresh ingredients!

Like what?  I can't ever replicate what is in those seasoning packets.  It doesn't taste right.  We usually use far less than recommended too, so we get about 4-5 batches out of a single packet, so our annual guac spice budget is probably less than $5.

Avacado. Copious amounts of onion. Copious amounts of cilantro. Tomato. Lime juice. Kosher/Sea Salt. More cilantro.

Optional: Garlic and Jalapeno

Try it, add more salt if necessary.

Don't forget ground coriander (cilantro seeds). I smash 'em up with my mortar & pestle, but you can get it pre-ground. (I just happened to find like a pound of whole coriander at the Korean grocery store for like $2)

[I'm a red panda]

We just had a meeting at a really ritzy hotel. After all the consultants had left, I took a baggie and filled it up with the leftover candy from the break snack bar.  I got about a pound of gummy bears and M&Ms.

My insanely frugal boss was really mad I didn't have more bags; because I left SO much still out there; and it was all still paid for.

I fully expect that next meeting he comes with a box of ziplocks.

[Ceridwen]

Colleagues signing up for a group lottery purchase (and yes I joined in, I'm a sucker for the lottery fantasy a few times per year!).  We would win 5M each.  The general consensus amongst the group of ~40 YO colleagues was that this would NOT be enough to retire on.

[zephyr911]

Colleagues signing up for a group lottery purchase (and yes I joined in, I'm a sucker for the lottery fantasy a few times per year!).  We would win 5M each.  The general consensus amongst the group of ~40 YO colleagues was that this would NOT be enough to retire on.

Jeebus. I could retire with an army of servants on that much, but I realize my COL is below average... >.<

[JLee]

Colleagues signing up for a group lottery purchase (and yes I joined in, I'm a sucker for the lottery fantasy a few times per year!).  We would win 5M each.  The general consensus amongst the group of ~40 YO colleagues was that this would NOT be enough to retire on.

Jeebus. I could retire with an army of servants on that much, but I realize my COL is below average... >.<

Even cutting that in half after taxes, the SWR on that would be more than my income.

[Ceridwen]

Colleagues signing up for a group lottery purchase (and yes I joined in, I'm a sucker for the lottery fantasy a few times per year!).  We would win 5M each.  The general consensus amongst the group of ~40 YO colleagues was that this would NOT be enough to retire on.

Jeebus. I could retire with an army of servants on that much, but I realize my COL is below average... >.<

Even cutting that in half after taxes, the SWR on that would be more than my income.

We're in Canada, so tax free lottery :)

[merula]

Yeah, I'm an engineer so everyone is pretty frugal.  There was a long email thread once at my last company when someone realized that all the leftover food from the cafeteria was thrown out every night.  People were horrified at the waste, but it turned out there wasn't any other choice (like donating, etc.) due to food safety and liability reasons.  It's really too bad, I'm sure most people at the office would have welcomed the free leftovers.

There's a federal law protecting food donors from liability from donated food. It's been on the books for nearly 20 years.
http://media.law.uark.edu/arklawnotes/2013/08/08/the-legal-guide-to-the-bill-emerson-good-samaritan-food-donation-act/

I hear this all the time, and it's really sad. The Second Harvest organization in my area is always willing to talk to potential food donors about stuff like this, and I would hope that's a nationwide approach.

[o2bfree]

Yeah, I'm an engineer so everyone is pretty frugal.  There was a long email thread once at my last company when someone realized that all the leftover food from the cafeteria was thrown out every night.  People were horrified at the waste, but it turned out there wasn't any other choice (like donating, etc.) due to food safety and liability reasons.  It's really too bad, I'm sure most people at the office would have welcomed the free leftovers.

There's a federal law protecting food donors from liability from donated food. It's been on the books for nearly 20 years.
http://media.law.uark.edu/arklawnotes/2013/08/08/the-legal-guide-to-the-bill-emerson-good-samaritan-food-donation-act/

I hear this all the time, and it's really sad. The Second Harvest organization in my area is always willing to talk to potential food donors about stuff like this, and I would hope that's a nationwide approach.

That's great to know. I've donated leftover food to the local womens' shelter, and one of my CWs collects leftover cafeteria food for a weekly dinner offered by her church. They're jazzed to get it.

[dragoncar]

I just fished a dozen bagels out of the trash and got caught doing it...

In all fairness they were fresh this morning, management brought in 3 dozen for a meeting in the office, meetings over and they came out after lunch and chucked the leftover box of a dozen plus the cream cheese, into the trash can.  It's a dozen perfectly good, not stale bagels that can go in my freezer.  They walked out, I assumed to go to lunch so I went in the kitchen and fished the box out, just as one of the VPs walked in.  I looked at him...he looked at me and all I could get out was a fairly high pitched "What?  I'm not letting perfectly good food go in a dumpster"  He gave me a weird look and just shrugged.  I think I have upped my already fairly high office weirdo rating a wee bit more.

And the cream cheese? Did you rescue that also?
This made me laugh. And why didn't they put out the leftovers for the rest of the office rather than toss them?

I feel better knowing that at least these bagels will not go to waste!

Many people are averse to "old" food or leftovers.  Those bagels were for breakfast, and now breakfast has passed, therefore they are old and no longer good, toss 'em.

A few weeks ago we were at my wife's friend's house for dinner.  They were making guacamole, and had the avacados all smashed up.  They opened up the guacamole seasoning, poured half of it in the bowl, and threw the rest of the package away.  I called them out on it immediately, "wtf are you doing? Why would you throw the guac seasoning away? It's a  dry seasoning...why don't you just fold it back up or put it in a zip lock and use it next time?"

They just stared blankly at me as if they never even considered you could potentially save the dry mix that you didn't use.   I seriously considered taking the packet out of the garbage and putting it in my pocket to take home.  My wife agreed with me, but thought it was a social faux pas to retrieve the unused portion so we just let it go.  So wasteful though.

guac seasoning? Skip it all together and use fresh ingredients!

Like what?  I can't ever replicate what is in those seasoning packets.  It doesn't taste right.  We usually use far less than recommended too, so we get about 4-5 batches out of a single packet, so our annual guac spice budget is probably less than $5.

Avacado. Copious amounts of onion. Copious amounts of cilantro. Tomato. Lime juice. Kosher/Sea Salt. More cilantro.

Optional: Garlic and Jalapeno

Try it, add more salt if necessary.

Yeah, any dry seasoning packet is gonna make it taste like Taco Bell guac, straight from the caulking gun

I say leave out the cilantro and add tomatoes if that's your thing

[RyanAtTanagra]

I just fished a dozen bagels out of the trash and got caught doing it...

In all fairness they were fresh this morning, management brought in 3 dozen for a meeting in the office, meetings over and they came out after lunch and chucked the leftover box of a dozen plus the cream cheese, into the trash can.  It's a dozen perfectly good, not stale bagels that can go in my freezer.  They walked out, I assumed to go to lunch so I went in the kitchen and fished the box out, just as one of the VPs walked in.  I looked at him...he looked at me and all I could get out was a fairly high pitched "What?  I'm not letting perfectly good food go in a dumpster"  He gave me a weird look and just shrugged.  I think I have upped my already fairly high office weirdo rating a wee bit more.

And the cream cheese? Did you rescue that also?
This made me laugh. And why didn't they put out the leftovers for the rest of the office rather than toss them?

I feel better knowing that at least these bagels will not go to waste!

Many people are averse to "old" food or leftovers.  Those bagels were for breakfast, and now breakfast has passed, therefore they are old and no longer good, toss 'em.

A few weeks ago we were at my wife's friend's house for dinner.  They were making guacamole, and had the avacados all smashed up.  They opened up the guacamole seasoning, poured half of it in the bowl, and threw the rest of the package away.  I called them out on it immediately, "wtf are you doing? Why would you throw the guac seasoning away? It's a  dry seasoning...why don't you just fold it back up or put it in a zip lock and use it next time?"

They just stared blankly at me as if they never even considered you could potentially save the dry mix that you didn't use.   I seriously considered taking the packet out of the garbage and putting it in my pocket to take home.  My wife agreed with me, but thought it was a social faux pas to retrieve the unused portion so we just let it go.  So wasteful though.

guac seasoning? Skip it all together and use fresh ingredients!

Like what?  I can't ever replicate what is in those seasoning packets.  It doesn't taste right.  We usually use far less than recommended too, so we get about 4-5 batches out of a single packet, so our annual guac spice budget is probably less than $5.

Avacado. Copious amounts of onion. Copious amounts of cilantro. Tomato. Lime juice. Kosher/Sea Salt. More cilantro.

Optional: Garlic and Jalapeno

Try it, add more salt if necessary.

Yeah, any dry seasoning packet is gonna make it taste like Taco Bell guac, straight from the caulking gun

I say leave out the cilantro and add tomatoes if that's your thing

I don't even know what would be in 'guac seasoning'.  Other than cilantro guac doesn't have herbs or spices.  I guess maybe dried jalapeno and dried onion?  'Just add avacados'?

Fair warning, if you're making guac for a group, ask about cilantro first.  I'm one of the 10% that are genetically grossed out by it, so the 'copious amounts of cilatro, then more cilantro' makes me wince ;-)

[LennStar]

My office buys too many bagels almost every Friday. I've had free bagels for breakfast on Saturday and Sunday for months now, and at times had up to a half dozen containers of cream cheese in the fridge. The funny thing is nobody else will take them. I've even packaged the leftovers up in the bag with cream cheese and physically tried to give it to people, but they won't take it. Bizarre. I've also been eating leftover company pizza for days now, while everyone goes out to lunch.

Soudns like you are doing a lot of income tax avoidance here, you destroyer of society!

[zephyr911]

Fair warning, if you're making guac for a group, ask about cilantro first.  I'm one of the 10% that are genetically grossed out by it, so the 'copious amounts of cilatro, then more cilantro' makes me wince ;-)

You poor, poor soul. I can pretty much make a salad outta that shit.

[MicroSpice]

OMG! What are you people doing to guacamole?! What in the actual fuck is a guacamole seasoning packet?!

Avocados. Tomatoes. Lime juice. Salt. Jalapenos. Onion. Garlic. A freaking pinch of stupid cilantro, if you must, but it is super unnecessary because most people think they become Bobby Flay by dumping cilantro onto anything, and then say, "Look, we're having Mexican food!" Bah!

Okay, I'm done.

[zephyr911]

OMG! What are you people doing to guacamole?! What in the actual fuck is a guacamole seasoning packet?!

Avocados. Tomatoes. Lime juice. Salt. Jalapenos. Onion. Garlic. A freaking pinch of stupid cilantro, if you must, but it is super unnecessary because most people think they become Bobby Flay by dumping cilantro onto anything, and then say, "Look, we're having Mexican food!" Bah!

Okay, I'm done.

You're awful uppity for a n00b. But hilarious. ;)

[mtn]

Fair warning, if you're making guac for a group, ask about cilantro first.  I'm one of the 10% that are genetically grossed out by it, so the 'copious amounts of cilatro, then more cilantro' makes me wince ;-)

You poor, poor soul. I can pretty much make a salad outta that shit.

No kidding. The most important part of Mexican food.

[mtn]

A freaking pinch of stupid cilantro, if you must, but it is super unnecessary

[Jack]

It's true even for plain old bike helmets.  The regulated bar for safety is pretty high, anything other than that is probably just for show.

In car racing helmets--similar to motorcycle helmets--often times the cost goes along with extra features or comfort. They don't get safer the more you spend.

Car racing helmets get more expensive just for being labeled for "car racing" instead of "motorcycle" use. (Yes, I know there are differences between Snell SA and M ratings, but not enough to justify the 200% higher price!)

That said, I'm sure it's actually worth having a nice helmet depending on the kind of racing/riding you do. I wouldn't know; I only use mine for autocross, for 5 minutes at a time.

We just had a meeting at a really ritzy hotel. After all the consultants had left, I took a baggie and filled it up with the leftover candy from the break snack bar.  I got about a pound of gummy bears and M&Ms.

My insanely frugal boss was really mad I didn't have more bags; because I left SO much still out there; and it was all still paid for.

I fully expect that next meeting he comes with a box of ziplocks.

What a poser. Somebody truly insanely frugal would mooch a trash bag from the hotel custodial staff!

[mtn]

It's true even for plain old bike helmets.  The regulated bar for safety is pretty high, anything other than that is probably just for show.

In car racing helmets--similar to motorcycle helmets--often times the cost goes along with extra features or comfort. They don't get safer the more you spend.

Car racing helmets get more expensive just for being labeled for "car racing" instead of "motorcycle" use. (Yes, I know there are differences between Snell SA and M ratings, but not enough to justify the 200% higher price!)

That said, I'm sure it's actually worth having a nice helmet depending on the kind of racing/riding you do. I wouldn't know; I only use mine for autocross, for 5 minutes at a time.

Where are you finding 5 minute autocross courses???

But same here. I think I paid $120 for my SA2005 ZAMP helmet. Cheapest one I could find. Wish I hadn't gotten a full face one, but at the time I had a Miata and was considering doing track days.

[JLee]

It's true even for plain old bike helmets.  The regulated bar for safety is pretty high, anything other than that is probably just for show.

In car racing helmets--similar to motorcycle helmets--often times the cost goes along with extra features or comfort. They don't get safer the more you spend.

Car racing helmets get more expensive just for being labeled for "car racing" instead of "motorcycle" use. (Yes, I know there are differences between Snell SA and M ratings, but not enough to justify the 200% higher price!)

That said, I'm sure it's actually worth having a nice helmet depending on the kind of racing/riding you do. I wouldn't know; I only use mine for autocross, for 5 minutes at a time.

Where are you finding 5 minute autocross courses???

But same here. I think I paid $120 for my SA2005 ZAMP helmet. Cheapest one I could find. Wish I hadn't gotten a full face one, but at the time I had a Miata and was considering doing track days.

Man...I would get SO LOST on a 5 minute autox course!

[sheepstache]

I just fished a dozen bagels out of the trash and got caught doing it...

In all fairness they were fresh this morning, management brought in 3 dozen for a meeting in the office, meetings over and they came out after I'm done eating lunch and chucked the leftover box of a dozen plus the cream cheese, into the trash can.  It's a dozen perfectly good, not stale bagels that can go in my freezer.  They walked out, I assumed to go to lunch so I went in the kitchen and fished the box out, just as one of the VPs walked in.  I looked at him...he looked at me and all I could get out was a fairly high pitched "What?  I'm not letting perfectly good food go in a dumpster"  He gave me a weird look and just shrugged.  I think I have upped my already fairly high office weirdo rating a wee bit more.

For future reference, next time say you like going to the park to feed the ducks.

[Jesstache]

OMG! What are you people doing to guacamole?! What in the actual fuck is a guacamole seasoning packet?!

Avocados. Tomatoes. Lime juice. Salt. Jalapenos. Onion. Garlic. A freaking pinch of stupid cilantro, if you must, but it is super unnecessary because most people think they become Bobby Flay by dumping cilantro onto anything, and then say, "Look, we're having Mexican food!" Bah!

Okay, I'm done.

This is hiliarious and I agree mostly but I don't do the garlic or the jalapenos (little kids) and sooooooo many people compliment me on my amazing guacamole and want my "recipe" lol.  I mean, you can literally see what's in it:  avocados, tomatoes (nice and ripe and lots of them) and about 1/2 of a white onion chopped up fine.  Salt generously and squeeze in 1/2 to a whole lime's worth of juice and done.  So delicious.  So easy... WTF is Guac Seasoning?  I would call that SALT.