藤儿点评：日裔的桥本凯蒂（Kate Hashimoto）把会计师的精打细算推至极限。她说一切只为积谷防饥：「我一向悭俭，只是在科网泡沫爆破遭裁员后变得极端，世上没铁饭碗，我当自己随时被炒来过活。」

她，Kate Hashimoto，每天的食物开销只有$0.5USD. 

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She loves ‘Ew!’ York

Trash diver reveals tricks of living almost free

By KATE STOREY

Last Updated: 4:14 AM, October 16, 2012

Posted: 2:37 AM, October 16, 2012

· Kate Hashimoto was picking up a few groceries at the Upper West Side Food Emporium when she ran into a friend.

· “Hey Kate, you like wraps? Here’s a chicken wrap,’’ her pal said. “But be careful, it’s kind of wet.”

· They weren’t in the grocery aisle. They were in front of the store, digging through three overflowing trash bins.

· Hashimoto Dumpster-dives for all her food, doesn’t use toilet paper or do laundry, and hasn’t bought toiletries in 10 years.

· She doesn’t have to live this way — she’s an employed CPA.

· “I’ve always been frugal, but it was when I was laid off in the dot-com crash that I became extreme,” Hashimoto explained.

· “No job is guaranteed, so I live as if I could be fired at any time.”

· Manhattan, she said, is a gold mine for Dumpster divers.

· “Consumers in wealthy areas expect their products to be perfect, so upscale stores throw out a lot of items that are still good.

· “New York can be the most expensive place to live, but it can also be the least expensive if you know how to work the system.”

· Hashimoto let The Post spend a day with her learning how to live way below your means.

· She lives in Harlem, where she bought a studio in 2010 and paid it off in nine months, but treks down to the Upper West Side three times a week for good, free food.

· Her other money-saving methods include using soap to wash herself after using the toilet, taking surveys online to earn gift cards, participating in medical trials (she got free birth control for 5 years and took part in a herpes vaccine trial for cash), testing products for free samples, cutting her own hair, washing her clothes while she showers, and running to work to avoid using a MetroCard.

· “I was extremely angry about the latest round of subway fare hikes,” she said.

· Hashimoto does have her limits. Her furniture is a collection of found freebies — but she won’t take an old mattress for fear of bedbugs, and sleeps instead on used yoga mats.

· And she won’t stay in a relationship for free meals.

· “I’ve been in a relationship where I stayed because I was getting freebies and gifts, but I got out of it,” she says. “It’s better to be single and Dumpster-diving than to be with someone you can’t stand.”

· Hashimoto shares her secrets on tonight’s 10 p.m. premiere of TLC’s “Extreme Cheapskates.”

· What Kate Spends Per Month:

· On food: $15

· On clothing: $0

· On toiletries: $0.17 a month on toothpaste

· On her $200,000

· condo: $237

· She puts into savings: $4,000

· Into 401(k): $1,000

· Goal: $250,000 in savings by next year or so