Kate Hashimoto was picking up a few groceries at the Upper West Side Food Emporium when she ran into a friend. "Hey Kate, do you like wraps? Here's a chicken wrap,'' her pal said. "But be careful, it's kind of wet." They weren't in the food store. 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 makeups in 10 years. She doesn't have to live this way -- she's an employed CPA . "I've always been money-saving, but it was when I was fired 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 _ 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 reporter of a newspaper spend a day with her learning how to work the system. She lives in Harlem, where she bought a studio in 2010 and paid it off in nine months, but walks 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, testing products for free samples, cutting her own hair, washing her clothes while she showers, and running to work to avoid using subway. "I was very angry about the latest round of subway fare rises," she said. Hashimoto does have her limits. Her furniture is a collection of found free gifts-- 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 with a boyfriend for free meals."I've been in a relationship where I stayed because I was getting free 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." The author mentions Kate's friend at the beginning to   _  .
show there are too many dumpster divers introduce the topic of the text show they have the same lifestyle show the close relationship between them