I do not have a paper shredder but I have found a very effective, inexpensive way to protect my identity. I just tear anything with personal data on it once and then put in with the household garbage. I gets so messy, No one would be able to retrieve it!
Source: No one, I just did not want to buy a shredder.
Sorry, but for the thousands of dollars an identity thief can make off your identity, going through a garbage bag is no big deal -- neither is it hard to reconstruct a document that has merely been ripped in half. Furthermore, you are throwing away material which could just as easily be recycled and kept out of the landfills.
Shredders can often be found at very cheap prices at thrift stores and garage sales. Or, you may consider joining "Freecycle.org" and simply asking for for one. Sooner or later a freecycler with an extra one laying around will be happy to give you one. Good luck.
The people that do this also have been known to dumpster dive so I doubt anything like a little garbage deters them. If one gets into those stinky dumpsters what won't they put up with? If putting your info into the garbage makes you feel good I'd also dump some water or other liquid on it.
I am somewhat overly cautious perhaps, but it makes me feel better. I do the same things as posted above. I tear it up it to many pieces, then a put a few pieces in each waste basket around the house; bathroom, kitchen, bedroom, etc. and that way no one can put the pieces together like a puzzle to view my name, address, etc. etc. Maybe a bit overboard, but it's what I do.
I do the same. I take the scissors and cut up the paper and put it in with my food scraps which I collect in a plastic grocery bag inside a one gallon ice cream bucket with a lid on it. It also helps absorb some of the moisture.. I don't think anyone would want to go through that mess and read anything.
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