Jul 3

Jul 3 The Summer at Berkeley Tales: Turning Trash into Dinner

Written By: Chris Nguyen | Read full profile

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When you''re a college student and living by yourself, it''s totally hard to budget between food, rent, tuition, and that latest textbook that the professors make you buy. But, by taking advantage of the stuff that college students leave behind on the street, you might be able to buy a weeks worth of dinner, or in our case a dinner for 4!

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UC Berkeley is known for two things: (1) being one of the top public universities in the nation and (2) their memes for edgy teens page. BUUUT…. did you know that Berkeley is a place filled with treasure? Yup...thanks to those students who have to move right away, the streets are filled with good quality stuff like couches, bed frames, desks, and basically anything that you college students need.

So, let me tell y’all a time how my siblings and I turned their trash into money.

It was back on a hot summer day when I was taking summer classes at UC Berkeley with my brother and sister. At that time, we just got back from eating lunch in Oakland. As we were heading back to my brother and his girlfriend’s apartment, I noticed a big black object lying on the sidewalk. At first, I thought it was just some broken junk that some student threw away. However, as we approached closer to the object, we saw that it was no ordinary trash. What we saw was more than just trash; it was treasure in a form of a MALM IKEA bed frame in good condition.

(PAUSE): I know you guys are thinking, “How the heck is a bed frame treasure, especially when it’s from the streets?” Well, think about this. You’re a poor college student trying to look for furniture for your new apartment, but your closest IKEA sells a MALM bed frame for about $149.00. You’re on a budget, you’re deciding between furniture, food and that latest, updated textbook that your professor expects everyone to have. And you really don’t want to think about how to get it delivered with all the bs delivery fees. So, finding a MALM bed frame off of the street in basically new condition is a STEAL. I mean what’s better than FREE to college students who are studying their brains off?

Astounded by this find, we immediately went back to the apartment, got my brother’s nifty tool box, and jumped back into the car to claim our prize. Luckily, the bed frame was still there as we got back. So, as soon as we parked the car, my siblings and I immediately got out of the car and disassembled it as if our life depended on it. (Imagine Guido during the pitstop scene from Disney’s movie, Cars). But seriously, our life did actually depend on that thing because it was how we put food on the table for the rest of the week.

Once the bed frame was disassembled, we sanitized it back at the apartment. With my brother and his girlfriend’s marketing skills, we managed to turn someone’s trash into a $40 dinner (or a week’s worth of Kimchi Fried Rice for 4).

*Now, we did check Berkeley’s Free & For Sale page and saw that someone had just put the bed frame out for less than an hour, so it was still fresh and we did a deep clean and some restoration, so it looked better than new.

But the moral of this story is to tell you to not judge something by its cover. Even if someone might have thrown it in the trash doesn’t make it totally useless. Remember one person’s trash is another person’s treasure. In this case though, one person’s trash became food for 4 for the rest of the week.

*Nguyening Lifestyles is not a registered financial service provider and does not give financial advice. All information in these posts are for entertainment purposes only. Nguyening Lifestyles is not liable for any actions or outcomes that transpired after your reading of the following post.

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