^Pretty much as Golden Boy above mentioned.... college town and students moving out. Though dumpster diving is not in me, piles of good items at curbside garbage pick-up day are common.

Also, I just started a thread on a Zunow that was a genuine dumpster find. The frameset was left in a LBS dumpster and where I acquired it from the shop owner. Absolutely thrilled to have it but at the same time, makes me cringe the zero respect some people have. Whether or not the trasher knew of the value, at a minimum something like this would only take a little effort to drop off at a Goodwill or even call the VA for pick-up, etc..

Make it easy on yourself by going, instead, to police auctions, yard sales and maybe craigslist (but even on cragislist, I don't really see any bargains). You really don't want to bring home a frame that's badly dented or its threads stripped. It's hard to tell its true condition while you are standing by a trash heap, sacrificing your dignity.

^ I'm always keeping an eye out on CL, FB, Offer Up, etc. and it just seems like the Houston market is way too high for the bikes we want. Even the crappiest local bikes' asking prices are ridiculously high. I'll keep an eye out for the free ads and garage sales though.

Also, I will be hitting up a Frankenbike swap meet this weekend. Prices are decent at the ones I've been to before but who knows what you'll find. I'll probably end up getting a couple of things for my clunker challenge build.

Speaking of mini fridges...lol. Aside from the leftovers, your wife sounds like how my father used to be about such things. "Goofy pride thing" sounds about right.

Mini fridge - My neighbors just threw one out a couple nights ago. Of course the trash men won't pick those up, so I figured I would grab it the next day. By the time I got around to going out to get it, I notice they had now torn the door off it! If you know the door needs to be removed, how do you not know the trash guys won't even take it?!

I can see if you were raised really poor, and that leaving an "I'm never going to live like that again" imprint on you.