Scrounging in the dumpster

Okay, I think I have officially crossed over into the pathetic. Last night at around 10 p.m., I and my trusty flashlight were snooping around the dumpster and recycle bins at my townhome complex. Why, you ask? I was looking for coupons.

Before you try to have me committed, please hear me out. Yesterday was junk mail day (the day when local restaurants and stores besiege our mailboxes with ads and coupons). While usually it consists merely of Burger King, Food Lion, and Papa John's fliers, this week it contained the golden ticket of coupons (in my opinion, anyway): Cafe Carolina and Bakery. Cafe Carolina does a coupon promotion only twice a year, so it's a pretty big deal when it happens. In fact, I've been anxiously checking my mailbox for over a month now, hoping that each day would yield the coveted sheet of coupons. And now it's finally happened! Buy one sandwich, get one free; 50 percent off any Flatbread; buy any dinner menu item, get one free. These coupons are valuable, especially when you consider that most entrees cost between $6 and $8. I am especially excited about the flatbread. They have an amazing chicken caesar salad flatbread. Oh, and they have the best chef salads, too. And don't even get me started on the chicken salad.

So anyway, I'm excited. I love food, and I love coupons, and when you put them together I'm downright giddy. But as I stood by my kitchen counter holding the sacred coupons, I realized that others in the world might not appreciate the value of these coupons. I also realized that since the coupons don't expire till the end of May, one set of coupons would not be enough for me. But how to get more? Hmmm...... I know for a fact that many people throw away their weekly junk mail without even looking at it, so I figured that some of my neighbors had probably tossed their mail in the recycle bins after getting it out of their mailbox. I decided that a quick check in the recycle bins wouldn't hurt (I live in Carrboro, after all, where recycling is the norm). But since I also had a bag of trash to take out, I stopped at the dumpster first. And lo and behold, there on the very top of the pile was a stack of the weekly junk mail. So I casually leafed through it and extracted the Cafe Carolina coupons. Just to be clear, I did not go digging around. The coupons were on the very top. My recycle bin check also yielded more coupons.

I justify my actions by reasoning that the coupons will serve a much better purpose in my hands as opposed to simply filling America's landfills or traveling to the local recycling station. So there you have it. I will leave it up to you to decide if I am pathetic or not. But as a final point in my favor, let me point out that my actions will probably end up saving me quite a bit of money while allowing me to eat some very yummy food.