New York CPA Dumpster Dives to Save Money

Kate Hashimoto, CPA, knows how to save money, even if it means getting food from the dumpster outside the local supermarket.

Profiled on the TLC channel’s “Extreme Cheapskates” and in Tuesday’s New York Post, Hashimoto also saves money by not buying toilet paper, paying to do the laundry or purchasing toiletries. She found most of the furniture for her Harlem studio apartment from cast-offs left on the street. She also washes her clothes while she’s taking a shower, cuts her own hair and sleeps on used yoga mats, according to the Post.

On the side, she earns extra cash by participating in medical trials and taking surveys online to get free gift cards. But she has a paying job at a Big Four CPA firm too. The blog Going Concern discovered that Hashimoto works for PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The job earned her enough to pay off the mortgage on her apartment in nine months. But she is concerned about the upcoming round of fare hikes that are planned for the New York subway system next year, though she often runs to work to save subway fare.

As someone who likes to save money where I can, I can sympathize with Hashimoto’s frugality (and frustration at the never-ending rounds of subway fare hikes). And so can a lot of accountants, who after all need to be able to advise their clients on how to save money. She may be taking it to an extreme, as per the title of the TLC series, but after all that’s reality, or at least reality TV.