tightwadspoonies

[tightwadspoonies]

I am allergic to all nightshades (tomato, potato, peppers, eggplant) as well as shellfish. I'm also physically disabled, so standing at the stove or counter for long periods of time is painful. My food options are so limited as a result, and I end up relying on frozen foods more than I'd like. Any ideas?

Trail mix: Lots of things can be purchased in pre-sized pieces from bulk stores and mixed in zipper bags. I recommend dried fruit or berries without added sugar, seeds (pumpkin, sunflower, etc..), nuts, and puffed grain or cereal pieces. Making your own mix is usually a healthier and more customizable option than buying pre-made, so you can expand it out to a meal or just eat as a snack.

Meal shakes- Combine a regular smoothie recipe with some heavy cream or nut butter for more calories. These are much easier to clean up after if you use a stick blender and rinse it off immediately.

The following recipes minimize prep, or allow prep to be done at a different time than the meal will be consumed:

Sheet pan meals: Cut pieces of 2 different vegetables (sweet potato, onion, broccoli, green beans, cauliflower, etc...) and a meat (chicken, sausage links, beef, pork, etc...) into 1-inch cubes, toss in oil of choice with spices of choice (I like garlic, onion, salt, and black pepper), lay on a sheet pan, and bake until the meat is cooked through (30-45mins at 350F).

The chopping can be done seated and/or done ahead on a good day (or even purchased pre-cut at some supermarkets) and frozen (lay on a baking tray in the freezer for an hour, then put in a zipper bag) for a quick meal on a bad day. You can cut down on dishes by lining the pan you freeze or cook with in parchment paper.

Instant Pot or slow cooker meals: Put some meat, roughly chopped onions, spices of choice, oil of choice, and broth in a slow cooker or instant pot, set to appropriate settings and wait.

Make rice or other starch ahead of time and freeze in portions. Then all you have to do is microwave it to go with a sheet pan dinner or instant pot dinner.

Non-nightshade sauces can be tricky, but here is a relatively easy one that doesn't require sautee-ing. It does require an instant pot or slow cooker and blender or immersion blender.

#health #diy #food

[tightwadspoonies]

Hey! In response to your recipes post, I was wondering if you had any recommendations for low histamine protein options. I have MCAS mostly controlled by meds and would like to do better about a low histamine diet. When I tried initially, I lost too much weight because I couldn’t get enough food, protein in particular, following the SIGHI diet list. Eating took so much coordination and I just didn’t have the time or energy. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Assuming you are following this SIGHI list.

Before I go too far with this, if you are losing weight, you may want to consider aggressively focusing on fat. So if you can tolerate dairy, that means you want cream, sweet cream butter, or fresh cheese (like cream cheese) in every meal and snack. And I'm talking probably drinking cream or half-n-half as a beverage. Cheese and cream/half-n-half have a lot of protein in them too. If you are sensitive to additives, consider getting these directly from a dairy if that is possible for you. Whole milk also tends to have fewer additives and may be a more sustainable option.

If you can't tolerate dairy or the additives that come with it, canned whole-fat coconut milk may be a good replacement due to it's high calorie and fat content.

If you can't do coconut or dairy, consider finding an oil that you can tolerate and doing "oil shots" (drinking 15-30ml amounts of the oil as a snack several times per day). You'll need to combine this with a protein source (see below) to get the same benefit as above.

Pumpkin seeds (shelled), chia (freshly ground), and hemp seeds (hemp hearts) contain a lot of protein, fat, and calories. You can make up the rest of your protein needs here through whole grains like brown rice (if tolerated) and amaranth, millet, and oats (assuming these are tolerated).

If you can do meat, this is also a great option, though I know a lot of people avoiding histamine have trouble with store-bought meat due to handling concerns. If you can get meat frozen directly from a farm this is usually much better in the consistently-low histamine space.

#health #food #diy #chronic illness #mcas

[tightwadspoonies]

Recipes

Recently my wife and I have been offering our cooking/recipe creation skills on reddit to anyone who has a very limited diet due to food allergies/intolerances/MCAS, GI issues, or any other problem that limits a diet to very few foods.

If you're someone who might benefit from this, send your safe foods to our inbox and we'll post a couple recipes!

You can absolutely do this on anon if you are more comfortable. I can also make meal shake or tube feed recipes.

Note that we are not nutritionists, we just like a good challenge and helping people eat their best.

#health #food #diy #chronic illness #mcas #food allergies

[tightwadspoonies]

How to Get a Doctor to Listen To You (and maintain the relationship you have with that doctor, cause you're gonna need that later)

First, I'll preface this by saying: The system sucks. There is no perfect way to access medical care, at least not in the USA. You've almost always got to play the system at least a little to get what you need.

Should it be this way? No. But it is. So here's how to play the game in order to get the most out of a visit to the doctor (there are very different steps to getting what you need out of a hospital stay, but that's a different post):

So First, Let's Assume You Have a Primary Care Doctor That isn't an Urgent Care or the Emergency Department (if you don't, look below the cut first for some tips on getting one, then come back up here)

First, make a list of your problems, then go at the pace of one problem per appointment. Yes I know this sucks. But please read on.

Reasoning:

Appointments are set up in 15-minute slots, but docs typically are timed to about 5-8 minutes spent in a room with a patient on average (the rest of the time is prep and charting and referring and checking in with other doctors to get advice). This is imposed by the hospital or clinic they are working for- not something they choose. If a doctor took as much time as they needed with each patient they would probably get fired. That means every minute beyond that 5 minutes is a minute being "taken" from another patient (isn't capitalism wonderful?!). And 5 minutes is about enough time to evaluate 1 single medical problem.

So when you're setting these up understand that it is way easier and faster to make a bunch of appointments all at once than making them one at a time (hence the making a list of your problems). You might be able to get one slot per week (after a new patient appointment, which will probably take a long time to schedule, see below the cut), each scheduled for a different problem. Keep in mind though, if you make multiple appointments, no-shows are not taken-to kindly. Too many and the rest of your appointments will be cancelled. If you know you can't make it, call ahead.

So what if you need seen right now for a specific symptom? Go to an urgent care or the emergency department. They are almost never going to be able to solve the problem, but a toradol shot for a migraine now is better than waiting six weeks for a sumatriptan prescription. Plus, an emergency department visit or two where they did something for you establishes a history in the record of your problem.

Does this suck? Absolutely. Is multiple appointments always practical for work/school/transportation/copay reasons? Nope. But that's the system, and unfortunately, if you go into an appointment with 6 problems, as you have probably experienced, you're either going to be asked to narrow it down to what is the most important to you anyway, or you're going to get exactly zero useful things out of that appointment.

Next, be upfront, and do it LONG before the doctor walks into the room.

When you schedule an appointment, they will ask you why you are coming. If you want to be evaluated for Ehlos Danlos, for example, say exactly that. "I want to be evaluated for ___________".

Reasoning:

No one can hold everything in their heads for their entire careers, and doctors use that little blurb of why you are coming to look stuff up before you get there.

If you spring something on them that isn't something they see every day, they will be falling back on a very small amount of information they got a long time ago. If you don't fit that tiny piece of information they have saved on that specific disease, you're probably not going to get a diagnosis.

In contrast, if they come in knowing what they will need to evaluate, they will be able to look up or ask how to do the evaluation beforehand and the evaluation for things like the thing you want evaluated. You're much more likely to get a diagnosis if they're doing the right test and asking the right questions.

Also, say you are looking for a diagnosis if that's what you want, and say why. Say something like "If I come up positive for MCAS, could you tell me? I want to try some treatments and accommodations for it that I can only get through a diagnosis."

Reasoning:

I spent 6 years in therapy before my counselor admitted to me that she thought I had had depression the entire time. Why? Because before Obamacare, having a diagnosis of anything more than the flu one time could leave you un-health-insurable for life. Plus even just a generation ago being sick in any way was something socially unacceptable.

It's still like that, but it's changing.

There's still fear about this in the medical world. Putting a diagnosis on paper that the doctor technically didn't have to used to run some pretty serious risks. Pre- HIPAA (1996) those risks extended to your job and social life too (patient privacy was actually not actually a law back then). Even today, certain health conditions (including things like gender dysphoria or schizophrenia) may be looked at unfavorably in some areas if you're trying to do something like adopt.

So be open about the fact that you want to know, and if necessary, why that information is important to you.

Finally, come up "normal" on screening questions. At the beginning of the appointment, the person who rooms you will ask you a set list of questions. These are called "screening questions" and they include things like "do you feel safe at home?" and "does transportation keep you from getting to appointments or getting medications?"

Reasoning:

Unfortunately, if they find anything they need to talk about when asking these questions, they generally have to address these problems at the appointment, which means time they cannot spend on the problem you're there for.

If youdon't feel like lying and think you might have come up "positive" (something needs to be talked about), you have to be extremely clear that you would prefer to make another appointment to discuss the screening test, and today stay focused on the problem you came in for. It depends on the doctor as to whether they are willing to take that risk (and it genuinely is a risk, to them), and you also end up eating up some time.

My wife's opinion is that you know yourself better than a screening test anyway, and sometimes you do have to lie to get what you need.

So, you know, you do what's best for you.

Keep Reading:

Choosing a Doctor:

When you are first starting out looking for a doctor, you will probably have the choice between family practice (either a family practice doctor or family practice nurse practitioner) or internal medicine (your standard adult primary practitioner). Having worked in family practice I may be biased, but personally of the two, if you're looking for someone who is most likely to listen off the bat, it's going to be someone in family practice.

You may also have the option between a private practice and a residency. Of the two, I would choose the residency, because at a residency the docs you see are going to be residents who, 1- just finished up learning about all the zebras and can still remember them, and 2- are not yet jaded. Which if you think you have anything that isn't the most straightforward case of diabetes/heart disease/COPD, that's what you need.

The First Appointment:

So here's the thing. In order to get in with a doctor, you have to do something called a "New Patient Appointment", or NPA. An NPA takes a long time to get (sometimes months) but it is worth it to get a primary care doctor. An NPA is a little longer (usually about an hour or two) and most of that is going to be screenings with a nurse or medical assistant.

Understand that very little will happen at this appointment. It is just for you and the doctor to get to know each other (through a pre-programmed set of questions) and get some background info on you. Sometimes there will be time to address one thing. Use the checkout from this appointment to make more appointments that will fix things.

#health #chronic illness #going to the doctor #diagnosis

[tightwadspoonies]

I would love to talk to someone else who has tactile/somatic hallucinations. So if you're one of the special ones who randomly feels hands touching you or like you have injuries you don't actually have, hit me up!

#psychosis #I'm new to this #or at least #new to the name for them #even though I've had them all my life

[tightwadspoonies]

I also highly recommend Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank. It’s older but I think a very realistic view of what would happen in a nuclear apocalypse- some chaos initially but it quickly settles into a more mundane life of daily survival and cooperation.

I love the post-apocalyptic genre as much as the next horror fan, but there is something to be unpacked in how they often reinforce very reactionary political ideas. Not just in the more bluntly conservative ways of thematically rewarding ideas like

“shoot first ask questions never”

“never offer mercy”

“torture works”

“Strong Government may be doing Bad Things but it is the only thing stopping people from becoming roaming bands of cannibal rapists unless Strong Men with police or military training maintain order once society collapses”

But also in the less easily recognizable reactionary beliefs like

“power vacuums are real and inevitable” (implying that unless you plan to exert a similar level of power and take the top of the hierarchy then you should not seek to dismantle power)

“the people who survive are the best— the strongest and smartest and most resourceful, the ones who deserve it most.” (implying that eugenics is an inevitable biological force rather than a political ideology)

“If someone who deserves to live dies, it is due to the actions of a villain, ‘good’ ‘important’ people do not just die from sickness or hunger or chance or mundane accidents” (more eugenics tbh, or at very least a just world ideology & confusing storytelling conventions with how the world works)

I think this becomes an issue when people—who have not studied, for example, the way that communities engage in mutual aid during natural disasters even if disconnected beforehand—will assume that collapse will inevitably lead to evil cannibal hoards as the biggest threat to survival and therefore the most important thing to prepare for, instead of understanding that collapse is much more likely to lead to an absolute need for community interdependence and cooperation to survive in the face of environmental disaster. I think it’s an issue if you can’t picture disabled people during collapse because you watched a hundred depictions of post apocalyptic shows where disabled people are eerily absent or die immediately, instead of internalizing the much more likely reality that if you survive disaster even if you were able-bodied previously, you and everyone you know will likely be surviving as disabled people.

like the media is fun as a form of storytelling, but if you are approaching your imagination of the future with increasing climate crisis with images you got from zombie shows, you do need to take a break from the fiction and learn from communities that have actually experienced natural disasters in real life.

[tightwadspoonies]

This sounds like BS or at the very least the placebo effect, but it was very much a cool thing that happened.

My wife has COVID and with it shortness of breath. We didn't have any albuterol, but we did have another idea!

Knowing that theobromine had been studied as a bronchodilator and found as effective as theophylline, and knowing that cocoa has a lot of theobromine in it, I set out to make a mean cup of bronchodilating hot chocolate.

So the effective dose of theobromine is 10mg/kg, which for my wife is about 900mg. Since cocoa has about 20mg/g of theobromine, about 45g (about 1/2 cup) would do it. We used about 1/3 cup and it... worked amazingly well.

Like so well my wife said it was the best she had ever felt lung-wise. Like, we're thinking she might have asthma because her shortness of breath is better right now with COVID + Chocolate than it is on a totally normal day without COVID.

Definitely talk to your doctor if you're having shortness of breath and don't know why, but if you just wanna make a mean cup of bronchodilating hot chocolate for kicks, the recipe is below:

1 cup water

1/3 cup cocoa powder (or if you want to get really precise, the number of Kg of body weight divided by 2 equals the number of grams of cocoa)

1-2 tablespoon sugar (to taste)

Put the cocoa and sugar in a mug and add about a quarter cup of the water to it and stir into a paste. Add the rest of the water and stir until liquid. Heat in a microwave or on the stove to desired temperature.

Enjoy!

Its not, like, the tastiest hot chocolate ever, but it's not horrible.

#tightwadery #food #health #diy

[tightwadspoonies]

As someone who spent the last 3 months looking for a job in a Very Hiring(TM) field...

#jobs #job search #polls

[tightwadspoonies]

Eating Well

If you are someone who struggles to figure out what to eat, this post may help.

There is a lot of information out there about eating well. It's important to know it's not as complicated as most guides try to make it. The following is a simple way of looking at food adapted from David Werner's Where There Is No Doctor:

You need a main food, or foods. A "Main Food" is one or more starch bases, like pasta/noodles, bread/tortilla/biscuits, hominy, rice, potatoes, taro, millet, barley, or another grain or starchy tuber.

These are usually cheap and should make up a majority of your calories. They often also provide an amount of protein, vitamins and minerals.

However, living on starchy bases alone is not adequate. To them, you need to add at least one or two each of "Go Foods", "Grow Foods" and "Glow Foods" every day.

"Go Foods" are energy foods. They are things like oils, fats, peanuts, other nuts, oily seeds (like sesame and sunflower), and sugars (like granulated sugar, honey, maple syrup, and fruit juices). Eat more of these if you are doing heavy work. They can also replace some of your Main Food, though they are often somewhat more expensive.

"Grow Foods" are foods that build muscle and other body tissues and heal injuries. They include animal foods (like meat, eggs, milk, and fish), legumes (beans, peas, peanuts, and lentils), and seeds (pumpkin, sesame, sunflower, melon, etc...).

"Glow Foods" are foods that contain a lot of vitamins and minerals. These include dark green leafy vegetables (spinach, kale, collards, turnip greens, radish greens, etc...), orange vegetables (carrots, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, winter squash of any kind, etc...), fruits (apples, pears, berries, quince, etc...) and other vegetables (turnips, radishes, summer squash, onions, cabbage, etc...), herbs and spices (chili powder, garlic, cumin, thyme, oregano, sage, cinnamon, etc...).

Example meals (each meal does not need to contain all types of foods, as long as someone is eating some of each every day):

A rice bowl (Main) with vegetable (Glow) and bean (Grow) curry (Glow).

Oatmeal (Main) with whole or coconut milk (Go, Grow) and berries (Glow)

Spaghetti (Main) with tomato sauce (Glow) and meatballs (Grow)

Tapioca pudding (Main, Grow, Go) with cinnamon and nutmeg (Glow)

Farrow (Main) with stewed tomatoes (Glow) and olive oil (Go)

Zucchini boats (Glow) with black beans (Grow), rice (Main) and cheese (Go, Grow)

Baked potato (Main) with broccoli (Glow) and cheese (Go, Grow)

Potato (Main) and spinach (Glow) curry (Glow)

Whole fat yogurt (Grow, Go), granola (Main, Go), and berries (Glow)

Peanut butter (Go, Grow) and jam (Go, Glow) on toast (Main)

#food #eating #eating well #health

[tightwadspoonies]

As someone who’s spent many (most) winters in cold houses and makeshift outdoor shelters while homeless, here’s my advice for if you don’t have adequate heating:

• Make soups or even just keep a pot of water boiling, and bake things if you can. I like to make teas in the morning for this purpose. Eating enough food (if you can) helps dramatically increase your core body temp.

• Take a shower BEFORE the coldest parts of the day, or skip the shower til it’s warm enough to. If you absolutely need to, use warm wet washcloth and work in sections of your body so you don’t have to be fully naked and wet all at once. If you can’t be in a warm enough location afterwards— avoid getting your hair wet at all costs especially if you have thick hair. If you’re at higher risk of cold related illnesses like hypothermia and frostbite, such as disabled and chronically ill folks, I would highly recommend avoiding anything that causes you to get wet if you can’t get warm afterwards.

• Make a blanket fort or use a tent indoors to spend your time in and sleep in

• Drink tea/cocoa/hot beverages, avoid ice or cold drinks. Avoid alcohol specifically if you can because it lowers your body temp while making you feel warm, which can be dangerous.

• Cuddle with your pets (even pets that don’t normally cuddle often are cuddly during cold spells as a survival response)

• Wear thermals and layers if youre up and moving, but make sure to pre-warm any clothes you change into by tucking them into the blankets with you for a while.

• If you have someone to cuddle with as close as possible, do it, also wear less clothes, thinner clothes or shorts when under blankets and cuddling, you share way more body heat that way, whereas thermals and layers will only keep your heat to yourself

• If you have cold feet: take off your socks under blankets (and keep socks under blankets before putting back on) and keep a hot pad under blankets near your feet. Thick socks are great for insulation— but if your feet are cold, insulation means it’ll keep that cold in and keep the heat out. You have to add your own heat, and once they’re warm, you can put the socks back on.

• Tin foil, trash bags, and blankets on windows if you don’t have plastic.

• Keep doors closed and use rolled blankets or towels to stop drafts. Try to stay in one room if your whole home is cold, smaller spaces are easier to keep warm.

• If you don’t have a mummy sleeping bag, a hoodie with the strings pulled comfortably tight can be a good substitute especially if paired with another sleeping bag.

• Layer blankets for insulation. Closest to your body, have hot pads and heated blankets, then a reflective blanket to direct heat back towards you, use fluffy blankets and comforters next for insulation, and on top, have something heavy to help seal the heat in and push that heat towards you.

Blanket layers: first, heated blanket/hot pad/hot water bottle/etc, then reflective blankets/emergency blankets (there are reusable ones!)/sleeping bag, then fluffy blankets, then your heaviest/thickest blanket on top (quilt, weighted blanket, tarp, etc). If you don’t have one/multiple of these, just layer what you have following this guide as much as possible.

• I like to have at least one fluffy blanket wrapped near my head/neck to keep as much warm air in the blankets as possible when I move my arms.

• If you’re on a thin bed, an air mattress, or don’t have a bed, put something below you for insulation from the cold ground. Any high quality sleeping bags temperature recommendation is always based on having good insulation below you. Cardboard, yoga mats, foam, blankets, coats, etc. all work.

• Be vigilant for signs of frostbite and hypothermia, especially in children, disabled, elderly and pregnant folks. Remember to follow frostbite and hypothermia guidelines for re-warming and get medical attention for these whenever possible.

• Have an emergency go-bag ready with your medications, chargers, clothes and other essentials in case you need to leave your residence.

• Be sure to not accidentally give yourself CO2 poisoning or cause fires or explosions with whatever heating method you use. Anything with gasoline, propane or other fuel sources are generally not safe for indoor/closed space usage.

• Don’t let yourself get so warm you sweat, you can lose a lot of heat that way and the wetness will make you cold which is hard to recover from.

• When you get out of bed or from blankets, fold the blankets back over where you just laid to retain the heat for when you climb back in. Even if you have to be gone an extended period of time, this keeps the cold out. You can preheat heated blankets for when you get back into bed.

• Lights have a lot of ambient heat, as do appliances, especially larger appliances. Even having your laptop on your lap and using it can help you warm up.

• If you’re able to be up and moving or do light exercise while you have to be out of blankets, thats the best time to do it. Again, be mindful of sweating.

• If you’re homeless and unsheltered and don’t have a camp, sleep in the daytime in the warmest parts of the day, and walk around at night to avoid freezing to death. Savor a hot tea or hot coffee at fast food places if you can afford it.

• Single use hand warmers can be saved if they still have heat by putting them in an airtight ziplock bag. When you want to use them again, you just open the bag to expose them to air. If you can, invest in reusable ones (there’s electric ones and also ones you can boil to reset).

• Laying on your side, particularly in fetal position, helps you to conserve heat, whereas laying on your back can allow more heat to escape

[tightwadspoonies]

What To Do... Hygiene Edition

If you don't have a toothbrush-

The goal of brushing teeth is to prevent tooth decay. Prevent tooth decay by preventing bacteria buildup on teeth. Plaque (the slimy film that appears on teeth after a day or two) is a buildup of bacteria, saliva, and tiny food particles. If you can remove this once or twice a day, before it becomes hard (tartar) you are much less likely to have cavities and gum disease.

You can do this without a toothbrush by taking a small piece of rough cloth (like the corner of a washcloth or towel) and rubbing it all over your teeth twice per day. Rinse it well afterwards and let it dry completely (preferably in the sun) between uses.

If you don't have toothpaste-

Toothpaste is a paste containing rough particles, flavorings, and other chemicals that remove and may help prevent plaque and tarter from forming.

If you're doing a good job brushing your teeth to disrupt that plaque formation, you technically don't need toothpaste. However, if you would like a little bit of freshness or feel like you need more than just a brush or cloth, you can take a pinch of baking soda and (optional) add a drop or two of flavored extract (like vanilla or peppermint- DO NOT USE ESSENTIAL OILS FOR THIS). Put this on your toothbrush or cloth and brush as normal.

If you don't have deodorant-

Deodorant is not absolutely necessary for health, but if you work somewhere that has a "hygiene code" or some BS you probably need to smell like something other than a human.

The recipe is the same as toothpaste above. A pinch of baking soda and (optional) a drop of extract like vanilla or peppermint. Rub under each armpit.

If you don't have lip balm-

Lip balm is often necessary in colder or dryer climates to prevent cracking and infection. Any fat can be used as lip balm, for example, petroleum jelly (Vaseline), lard, butter, vegetable oils, your own face grease, etc... Just put a drop on a finger and rub on your lips until it rubs in.

If you don't have toilet paper-

You will need a plastic cup and a wash cloth. Use the plastic cup to pour water over the soiled area. If it's poop you'll need to use your hand to make sure everything washes off. Once clean, use the wash cloth to dab up any remaining water. Wash your hands well afterward.

This might sound horrible if you're used to toilet paper, but it is used all over the world and leaves you a lot cleaner than TP does.

If you don't have soap-

For handwashing- use water to wash anything visible off the hands, then follow with hand sanitizer or a few drops of rubbing alcohol to sanitize.

For body washing- You don't actually want soap for most of your body, including your privates. Wash with water only. For hair (since it tends to look greasy if unwashed), use a few teaspoons of baking soda or tablespoons of lemon juice and rub it in. This will help get rid of dirt and grease when soap or shampoo is not available.

If you don't have nail clippers-

Use sharp scissors. While these might be more challenging the first time and you'll need to be careful, you can absolutely use scissors for nail clippers, it's what everyone did before the invention and popularization of nail clippers.

#diy #hygiene #alternatives #low resource #low resource medicine #tightwadery

[tightwadspoonies]

Disclaimer: I made this table but I am NOT a pharmacist. This is for educational or writing purposes only. I used common drugs from each category (and at least one within each sub-category if a therapeutic class) to determine general interactions. I highly recommend you ask your pharmacist, doctor or at least check specific drugs you may be taking on an interaction checker like drugs.com prior to taking a new combination of medications, OTC or not.

[tightwadspoonies]

You know how you have a mental health thing and apply to 3 graduate programs one night and then get your meds changed and realize more school isn’t going to fix things but aripiprazole and gabapentin might? This is a universal experience I am sure.

#mental health

[tightwadspoonies]

Dumpster Diving and Salvage Shopping

If you asked me what my role in the ecosystem is, I'd say I'm a scavenger. I hate confrontation and I hate spending money when there are other options. I will gladly just take whatever you don't want in order to avoid such unsavory obligations.

So dumpster diving, salvage stores, and incidental meat registries and I get along pretty well save for the anxiety. This post, hopefully, takes some of that away for my fellow scavengers who would love to dumpster dive but just don't know how yet, or are afraid of getting in trouble.

Dumpster Diving:

First of all, dumpster diving is legal in all 50 states of the US, but check local ordinances because rich people get fussy about people digging through trash to the point of some cities condemning the practice. It's on a bunch of other posts but it's worth saying.

Cops, of course, will lie or imply otherwise on this. A good way around that is to look like someone who is "not breaking the law". AKA: look like a suburbanite: Wear some khakis and a polo shirt, carry a Starbucks cup, and act as white as you can possibly get away with. If approached, smile, call the cop "officer" or some such referential title, and explain that you thought it was legal. Not that you know it's legal- that you thought it was legal. If they tell you to scram, do so. No argument with law enforcement is worth what is in that dumpster.

Note that it is illegal in many places to put stuff into dumpsters that aren't yours, though, so if the cops are having a slow night, be careful about them asking you to put stuff back.

You also don't want to be the reason dumpster diving gets banned in your community. Do this primarily by never getting into a dumpster. I know the container of perfect strawberries is just out of reach, but if you fall or are unable to get out you are not only up a creek yourself but potentially causing an anti-dumpster-diving frenzy that your town's grocery stores will never recover from. Also, people have legitimately died from getting into a trash compactor.

Now, "legal" does not mean "pro-store-policy". One of the main reasons for this is that is dumpster diving can be somewhat dangerous and no store wants to be the store that's known for letting people break legs on their slippery dumpster juice or what have you.

Avoid too many store policy issues by waiting until the store closes, doing a pass-by to ensure no one is waiting to see if anyone is picking out of their dumpsters, and (again) looking like someone who wouldn't be diving in dumpsters.

Store management tends to worry that they will be sued for letting you eat expired or unsafe food. If you do get approached by a manager who isn't excited to see someone picking over their dumpster selections, it is a good idea to impress upon them how very many dumpsters you pick from and how you wouldn't possibly be able to prove it was their dumpster that gave you food poisoning. Also, if you're feeling particularly bold, let them know that you are saving their store money by decreasing the weight of their waste. Probably not by a lot, but hey, you're on their side here. If told to scram, once again, do so with haste.

On that note, there are safe and unsafe foods to pick:

Generally Safe:

Packaged shelf-stable foods even with damaged outer packaging

Milk if still cold

Cheese

Eggs

Bread (including frozen bread if still cold)

Whole Veggies and Fruits, even with bad spots

Fermented anything

Non-Food Items like dry pet food, hand sanitizer, soap, cleaning products (except bleach), etc...

Generally NOT Safe:

Sliced lunch meats

Cheese touching meat

Cut salads or veggie trays

Prepared hot foods (even if still hot)

Pre-cooked refrigerated meals

Frozen veggies (unless still mostly frozen)

You want to make sure you have some time the next day to process your haul. Everything needs to be carefully sorted, cleaned, peeled, and in the case of perishable food like eggs and veggies, cooked prior to eating.

One final thing:

Be considerate. Leave everything how you found it and make sure you're not making more work for employees. Also, if you know others in your area dive, leave some stuff there for the next person.

Salvage Shopping:

Perhaps you aren't completely up for dumpster diving but still like living your lil raccoon life? Thats fine!

Salvage groceries are a great option. Essentially, instead of throwing food away that they can't sell to traditional consumers, grocery stores sell near-dated or damaged products to salvage grocery stores for pennies on the dollar, and that savings is passed along to the consumer.

Most salvage stores are smaller than traditional grocery stores, and some are cash-only. Some have fresh or frozen sections, but the smaller ones are pretty much all packaged goods. If you are living exclusively on salvage stores, you may want to supplement with some dumpster diving, foraging, or gardening (or even maybe going to a grocery store, but that's hella expensive).

Salvage groceries are not necessarily going to be perfectly food safe. There will be expired goods (doesn't mean bad). That just means you will have to do some due diligence. For example:

Make sure that an item you want to purchase is still in a sealed container

If there are more than one of an item, make sure they are the same color

Prioritize un-dented cans

If you must buy a dented can, make sure the dent isn't on an edge or seam

Don't buy expired canned tomato products

If you open a food and it smells bad, looks like it thawed and re-froze, hisses or bubbles- THROW IT AWAY

Generally be more cautious than you would normally be at a grocery store.

In my area these are pretty much always run by the Amish and Mennonite communities, but check around in your area. They are becoming more and more common outside these communities.

Not all of them will be listed on google maps. Look for a shop called "Bend and Dent" or "Salvage Groceries" or a small store advertising "Discount Groceries". Once you find one, it's easy to find others by asking at the checkout, since they tend to cluster together.

A drawback is that, because they do tend to cluster, they may be farther away than other grocery options. If you are far away, I highly recommend getting a few friends together and making a day of it. I can't say this about most things, but the extra cost in gas is well worth the savings, even if you are driving over an hour.

#free food #food #dumpster diving #USA #homesteading #tightwadery #adulting #reference

[tightwadspoonies]

Okay kids so listen up- let’s say you eat 2 apples per day every day of the year. You want to buy those apples all at once when they are cheap and in season and dehydrate them.

If you went to the local produce auction those 24 pecks of apples would cost you like $120. If you bought the same amount of apples from a grocery store it would cost you like $328 and you would get a lot of weird looks.

Assuming you have the most overpowered consumer-grade dehydrator on the market and it could dry a half peck of apples in 10 hours, you would end up spending about $62 in electricity to dry all 24 pecks of apples.

Which leaves you with a total of $182 for the auction apples and $390 for the grocery store apples. Or like $62 in electricity if you have a mature apple tree or know someone who wishes they didn’t.

#apples #food #homesteading

[tightwadspoonies]

IM GOING TO CRY THEY MIGHT INCREASE THE SSI ASSETS LIMIT TO $10,000.

it's a bipartisan bill too! and for anyone unaware, people on SSI (which is different from SSDI), can only have $2,000 in assets (unless they have an ABLE account, which comes with its own rules). this assets limit has been in place for FORTY YEARS and is a giant part of why being on SSI keeps people incredibly impoverished.

i've also heard they might remove the marriage penalty but i don't have the spoons to read or explain it so someone else please add on!

this is huge! please spread the word and do what you can to help ensure this happens!

[tightwadspoonies]

My hypothesis is that in like 10 years gen z is gonna have a big cult boom the way the boomers did in the 70s