$1,626,770.00
...has been saved by our readers. How much have you saved?
Maybe it’s the holidays, but today instead of ranting and screaming at someone on this site, I decided to dig up one of my favorite posts:
What are we doing on this site?
Yes, I read my own posts sometimes.
Anyway, for those of you who haven’t been around since the early days, I wrote that on the day I graduated college in 2005. Check it out.
And happy holidays.
lol reading your own posts
cant blame u
some people jsut arent as interesting as “i” …right?
im loving this site man
ill be checking it out for few weeks
check out this steve jobs video: http://malcolmred.co.uk/
This year being the “recession” and such I can’t help but wonder if the Salvation Army or another such place might pick that stuff up and give it to people who actually might need it. Even if the RA or a frat or sorority loaded the stuff up and took over, by making sure to get the receipt all the stuff can be used as a tax reduction if you itemize. Sounds like it might have made a big reduction actually.
I love this comment, so apropos:
Jerry
June 15th, 2005
It is absolutely amazing how much stuff we Americans buy that we just throw away. Adding to the shock is the realization that we are going deeply into debt to foreigners to buy it. If we find we have so much stuff that we can’t take it with us and have to throw it away, maybe that’s a signal that we need to buy less.
[...] Being rich [...]
all of Your post are useful us,
that post is really good, the point You noticed are not known by most people or they know but don’t care,if we spend on only required goods we can save money,but must say that much items u threw even i would be staring at that,and its a good idea to read Your old post,people like me are lazy and i dont go to olders posts most of the time but i will watch out for your older posts now
Ramit, where’s the cool money saving tips? I keep coming to the site, but there hasn’t been much in the way of updates??
Well…it’s the holidays.
Happy holidays Ramit!
Seriously Jen, give the poor man a break. Happy Diwali/Eid/Hanukkah/Kwanza/ChristMass everyone! Quite an inspiration story. Very much enjoyed it, thx.
I hate to see when good things go to waste that could have just been driven over to goodwill/salvation army/woman’s shelter.
I am a college educated 31 year old professional, and I have a beautiful wrought iron plant stand in the shape of a spiral staircase that I found sitting next to the dumpster at my apartment building in late college.
If there is a university in your town, please consider finding someone with a truck and gathering some friends to drive around and pick up some of the newer items and drop them off at a local place.
I make $70k a year and I still don’t waste stuff like those kids at Stanford. I don’t know how I got this way, because every time I go home, my parents try to buy me more and more useless crap. I have to say no – over and over again.
Personally I try to sell stuff on craigslist or ebay before I throw it away. I see no value in paying for an item and then throwing it away after only a short while of use. On the other hand I only feel this way because I have never been well off in my life. I’m sure some of the students at Stanford never knew what it felt like to experience financial woes.
Good post. It was the same way at my school. As I was moving out one year I actually I picked up a few working blenders outside the dumpster that look like they’d never been used. It was pretty common to see people come and check out dumsters for quality items.
But I have to say, this isn’t just an American thing as much as people want to think it is. I’ve lived in other countries, and in Japan as a teen we’d actually dumpster dive a lot of perfect condition electronics. A lot of houses only had room/need for one TV, for example, so if they upgraded the perfectly functional couple year old TV would be tossed. It was pretty surprising.
Awesome post.
I’ve read about people who “trash pick” or “dumpster dive” for things they need. I even read about a guy who eats solely off what he finds in dumpsters. Nothing gross about it, he takes stuff that is wrapped and not broken/moldly/etc.
Your post has me inspired! I’m thinking about driving around to college campuses when they let out. I would collect the stuff and drive it to a local charity. It would be a fun project with my 11 year old son. I bet I could get the colleges involved. Hrm….
Hope you are having a great holiday. Looking forward to more great info. 
Ramit,
People often forget that “rich” is a relative term.
Excellent post.
did you die or something?
I’d be amused if my death were discovered by someone posting a comment like “did you die or something?” on my blog. How sad that you didn’t even capitalize it.
Nah, I’m still here. I’ll post soon.
Wasn’t it Mark Twain who, upon reading his own obiturary, said that “this report of my death is an exaggeration” This is the (alleged) note in his own handwriting:
http://www.twainquotes.com/Death.html
Speaking of reason for being rich, at shareyournumber.com there is a methodology to work outWHY you need money and HOW MUCH you really need …
I'm the New York Times best-selling author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich. I co-founded PBwiki and graduated from Stanford.
