I was talking with my friend about getting free stuff and was telling him that I get free vegetables and free merchandise... and people in the community are very happy to give away stuff. And I'm also very happy to give away stuff...

And the first thing he asks is... do they give away free money? If they have spare cash and want to give it away he's most willing to accept it...

Now... once again, I'm not saying what's right or wrong. I just want to try to reverse engineer what's going through his mind... cos I was once like that... 

I still use money and would love to get more free money...
But... that's not the point of getting stuff free.
It's just a different mentality...

So I think to myself... why does he want more money? Why does he want it for free?
And I see his lifestyle... buying frivolous stuff.
I mean, by all means, he makes money he can spend whatever he wants.
I see him buy stuff, and leave it in the house, unconsumed. He buys food, take a piece, leaves it in the fridge for months til it expires and he discards it. I know, I've been to his place and helped myself to his expired stuff in his fridge. 
Many pieces of household items, he does the same thing, buys it, thinks it's going to be useful, but leaves it to collect dust...
He the kind of person who sees his friend buy a new car and he's inspired to buy a new car too. And he has to convince himself that he doesn't need a new car. 

I don't know... maybe he has a lack of financial sense, or lack of discipline, or lack of frugality, or doesn't see the cause and effect that spending is causing him to need more money to feed the spending. Or he just loves the dopamine when he indulges in spending. It's just the act of spending that people like, and what they IMAGINE the item would do for them. The feeling is fleeting. After they get the item, the REAL use might be less that what they IMAGINED it to be. 

He mentioned before, if he stikes TOTO, he's going to buy 2 cars. One to drive to work another for showing off on weekends. SO... you get the picture of the kinda person he is...

As I said, he earns his money, he can do whatever he wants. I'm just sharing some background to readers can understand the profile as I continue my story.
His spending habits AREN'T abnormal.

Anyway... so as I was thinking... IF someone gave him free money? What would he do? Well... spend it all. That's it. He's not the type to be happy with an additional $50. That's nothing to him. He would love another free $50, but it wouldn't last long...

So I think... how would extra money benefit any of our lifestyles? What would YOU do with extra money? 
Cos... IF you can get $50 worth of free vegetables for weekend activity, it's the same as EARNING $50 on a weekend activity. And most people don't earn any money on the weekends. 
To me, I find vegetable collection a fun activity, and I enjoy doing it on a weekday. Cos my wife would hate to sweat it out on the weekend.

If you join the "freegan" community, and you get a free oven... Doesn't that mean you got a free $50, cos you didn't need to spend it? Every dollar saved is a dollar earned... So in real terms, the "freegan" community IS giving away free money. Cos it helps people save money by not spending.

BUT... and it's a BIG BIG BUT... BUT... most people don't see the money saved. Cos most people don't track expenses and basically, if they have money in the bank, they just spend it. If they have less money at the end of the month, then they just taper off the spending til the salary comes in...
So... when they get free stuff, the extra money just gets converted to other kinds of spending. 

So the question comes back again... why do you want more money?
Are you someone who wants to buy more stuff? Cos you just love to buy stuff? 
I know people who sees something, wants it, and buys it... I've talked to them before. Their response is... "Why should I suffer and deny myself this item?"
This mentality baffles me. Cos my thought process is pretty much like... I see an item, I don't want it... then it stops. I don't suffer cos I don't deny myself the item. 

I know of lower income people. Who join the freegan community and they get free vegetables and items. But similarly, the amount saved in grocery spending doesn't translate to real savings for their financial future. Basically, the amount saved from grocery spending just gets re-allocated to other forms of spending. And the thing is... for a lower income family, the savings IS significant. 
If you earn $2000 per month, and you can save $200 due to free vegetables, it's like earning $2200. 
This additional $200 could be used to save, or buy better insurance, etc etc.
And once again, when I talk to them, they don't know where the excess savings has gone to. 

So same question... why do you want more money? If you don't know where it goes it, means that extra money isn't important. It's just a leaky bucket. Any additional money just disappears. So with or without that extra money, there would be no change to your life anyway. 

This happens to me too. Cos my spending is controlled by my credit cards. As most readers know, I try to spend $500 on each of our UOB ONE cards. So we have around $1000 in discretionary spending every month to capitalize on the bonus interest in the UOB One account. When I'm not hitting enough expense, I try to increase my spending when I go out and eat. Usually, I'm not very successful and I have to prepay my telco bills to make up for any additional short fall to push the spending to above $1000. 

I've been officially saving on groceries for around 2-3 weeks, and somehow, our weekend spending has also dropped, I think we've been eating at hawker centers more cos our Entertainer App expired and we didn't buy it for this year, so we only use Eatigo and Fuzzie. So our dining out at pricey places has also somewhat dropped. 
This month we went to the dentist... $196. 
And I prepaid our telco bills for next month. $83 Starhub + $29 M1. The Starhub bill includes her family's bill so she gets reimbursed for that portion.
And our spending nicely hit $1008 for the month. 
This means that my usual monthly spending could be dropped to $700.

The point I'm trying to make is that if I didn't go to the dentist, I would have found some other way to spend that additional $200. BUT since I went to the dentist, I naturally adjusted my spending to be within the $1000 limit for the month. 

We got an additional $20 voucher from Cold Storage from using the AIA Vitality App.
And these vouchers have a really really short expiry time frame. Just a couple of weeks. 
And we were having some difficulty spending the vouchers. Nonetheless, we induced some spending at Cold Storage to use up the vouchers... it just feels so weird spending money at a supermarket these days.

The thing is... most of the time we don't notice how we spend the money. So I go back to the start of this post... Why do we want more money? 
If we know and plan what to do with that additional money... Then that's all fine and great cos it helps to improve our lives in future.
But if we just spend it frivolously, then there's no difference in getting an additional $50 or an additional $1000. Cos it's going to be the same as flushing the money down the toilet. 

Of course different people have different wants and desires and spending patterns would differ from a low income person versus someone who is of higher income, etc, etc. Everyone is a free person and is free to live whatever life you want to live, and I'm not here to say what's right or wrong. 

My posts are usually to try to make people to ponder a little bit more. 
So.... Why DO you want more money?



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After I started going to Pasir Panjang regularly, I now have an abundance of food. 
And every week, I will get even more food. So I need to either, take only a little bit of food during my trips to PP, or use up the vegetables really quickly.

I tend to take too much, cos when we grab the food, we aren't supposed to choose, cos if everyone is going to choose, it's going to be a mess and the whole point of saving discarded produce is to take stuff that people don't want to buy. So usually, we just take whatever we can get our hands on, bring them home, then sort it out and cut off any parts that we aren't planning on eating. 

For me, I don't know how much stuff I'll be cutting off, so I usually take 20%-30% more of every single item which I get my hands on... usually, that is still too much and I end up with excess food which will last me many more days than I expect. 

As mentioned in my previous post. 
I recently got a really really huge cabbage. I cut 30% of the cabbage off to prepare dinner. After washing and slicing, I found that it could last for 4 meals. I kept 2 servings for myself for 2 days of dinner. And messaged my neighbour and asked him to take my other 2 servings. He looked at it and commented that it's actually quite a lot and he will have to eat it for 2 days.
In the same post, I mentioned that I collected baby corn and broccolinis. 
The day after I gave the cabbage to my neighbour, I messaged him again to give him some baby corn... and 4 sweet potatoes.
And the following day, I passed him some broccolinis...
I never told them where I got the food from... His wife mentioned... hey, maybe next time we don't need to do marketing and you can just provide us stuff... and I replied... that can be arranged... LOL she was totally stunned and said "joking only"... but actually I was serious.
I think I was starting to freak them out... I mean... think about it, we usually don't have much contact with our neighbours. I'm on quite friendly terms with my neighbour, but we don't really bump into each other very much, but we do talk. But imagine, a neighbour whom you're not really close to... contacts you every few days to give you food... most people would likely think... "What the hell???"

Since I'm going overseas again soon for quite a long period, I have to manage my inventory of food well for this week. So I passed the sweet potatoes, mentioned in my previous post, and 50% of the same cabbage to my mum... Based on my estimations, I should have finished my food just in time for my trip next week.
And hopefully, when I get back, I can get into a food collection session and stock up again when I'm back.

The feeling is really strange when food is relatively free... I use the term relatively, cos there is still effort involved, but I can go almost every week to collect vegetables so it's a constant flow of "free" vegetables. Cos previously even if I had over purchased food, I would never have offered to give my neighbour free vegetables. I'd just try my best to preserve the food or consume it quickly, or when I buy groceries, I buy less the next round so that I can finish up my excess food from my previous purchase. 
But now, every collection session, I can just take whatever I want, so I just collect, and any excess, I don't need to consume it all, I can just pass it on to someone else. 
And the strange thing is... I thank my neighbour for helping me to consume. Else I would have to consume it, and this would mean that I can't collect more in my next collection session.
How amazing this feeling is, when money is removed from the equation. 

I've also made it known to my other neighbours that I'm open to collect stuff that they want to throw away. Especially, during this spring cleaning session, but I'll willing to accept it all year round.  A couple of neighbours are part of a group chat so I just announced that I am willing to take in 2nd hand items and pass them on to others, cos many times, we are "sayang" to throw away our items, but we also don't really use these items and they end up just sitting in the storeroom for no good reason, just cluttering up space. 

After I announced it, 3 of them messaged me to tell me that they will pass me stuff. They were quite hesitant to pass me stuff cos they were wondering if I could pass them on and that they didn't want to clutter my place or give me expired food. But I told them not to worry, I'll find someone else to give these items a 2nd life. 
So I've been happily collecting stuff, and similar to the above, my neighbours thank me for taking the stuff out of their homes and giving them a 2nd life, cos they did not want to throw but neither do they want to use it. 

Of course after collecting the stuff, I need to pass them on... the problem is, I had an issue with passing on stuff to people in the bigger freegan community. Cos there are many people who ask for stuff, but they don't come and collect them, and the giver will hold on to the item and have to follow up with the person to ask them to collect it... that's just a hassle for a person giving, and such terrible behaviour. 
So I decided to only post in a small freegan Whatsapp group, which I feel should contain more responsible people. And true enough, the people are more reliable and many of my stuff has been taken or reserved to be taken within this week. 
Of the stuff that I've collected from my neighbours over the weekend, I have cleared most of them. Even the items which I picked up in this post, has been given away or reserved.
I have only 3 items which I am still thinking what to do with them, cos I'm asking my closer friends first before I post in the freegan community. 

Once again, it's a pleasure to receive and give away. It's a lot easier than dumpster diving which I find a bit too much effort for me. Cos I really don't need anything, so looking through dumpsters is really just for the thrill rather than the items. Whereas now, I feel that I'm providing a service to help my friends and family and neighbours to help declutter their home and pass on stuff to other people who might be able to re-use the items. So I find that this is more fun for me, and I don't need to really clean up the items very much. The items come to me instead of me having to hunt for it, and all I do is facilitate the collection of items for the people who want to take them. 
Also, now that I post in a smaller Whatsapp community, I feel happier giving stuff away as well. It's not so much that I don't like giving stuff away, but rather, if the "taker" makes it difficult for the giver, then that just removes the fun of giving. Like if I have to ask the person multiple times if he/she really wants the item or not. So now, I just set a rule, if they ask for it, they have 7 days to collect it, else I will just give it to someone else without double confirming again. I'm thinking of changing this to 5 days... cos I really don't like to keep unnecessary clutter in my place. And sometimes, there are instances where someone reserves the item to be collected 5 days later, but someone else asks for the item slightly later, but is willing to collect it tomorrow. And it's instances like these that I think... I might as well just give it to the person who can clear my stuff tomorrow.
Oh well, I'll adjust my giving policy as things move along and I get more experienced in giving. 

Since giving has been getting easier, I also have been thinking of giving away stuff which I was planning to sell on Carousell, cos it's much easier to just pass on the stuff instead of waiting for someone to buy it for a couple of bucks... Not all... but there's some stuff which I think isn't worth cluttering up my place just for a couple of bucks. 

This got me thinking... are people cluttering up their houses cos they feel that throwing away stuff is such a waste? It may not be an insecurity issue. I always thought that people mildly hoarded stuff, cos they are unsure if they are able to find the same item again when they need it, so I thought it could just be a mild form of insecurity.
But maybe, there are a lot of people who don't want to throw things away cos... so "sayang" such a waste, it's still in good condition, but they don't know what to do with it, cos they don't know who else to pass it on to. So it just stays in the storeroom for years... 
I think this COULD be another reason for why people end up cluttering up their place.
They know they won't use it, but also feel it's a waste to throw it, but they don't know who to pass it to.

Kk, that's it for today, there's a couple of stuff I need to do. I've been pretty busy these few days, helping my parents with some stuff before CNY and also meeting friends and such... that's why there was no post yesterday.


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Just a quick post...
I don't really dumpster dive anymore, cos I don't need stuff...
But then... on my way home at the bottom of my lift I find stuff....
I just gotta take...

The picture on the right is the pile of plates found on the picture on the left...

Getting free stuff hardly needs any effort... Just keep your eyes open. I just picked them all up at my lift lobby and entered the lift...


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I always like things that make me think a little bit more, or give a different perspective of things...
To look at things from a different direction to see new things which I might have missed out.

Just a little joke to start the day.

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So now that I regularly go to Pasir Panjang Wholesale Center, I get a range of vegetables. 
But my wife doesn't really like vegetables, except for a few selected types, she hardly eats any other vegetables. 
BUT... she loves soup. So I've basically taken to cutting everything up and boiling it into a soup until everything is soft and she will be willing to consume it without much complaints. 

There's a lot of stuff she doesn't eat by itself... onions, capsicums, cauliflower, carrots, etc...

This is the soup for the next 2 days... it has sliced up cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, onions, capsicum. 
But what to use as stock base? I tried just boiling the soup with vegetables, but it was just bland, even with salt and some soy sauce. There was just a lack of depth in flavor. 

Previously, I would use pork, chicken or beef bones. But those are expensive. And since I want to try to keep my dinners to as vegetarian as possible... "as possible".... I'm not vegetarian, and I will still use oyster sauce, but I'm trying to just keep it to just veges as the main dish. 

So the secret ingredient for cheap soups is.... drum roll.... MISO...
A cheap miso paste is around $2.50 for 500gm. And that will last for a long long time. 
I usually use one table spoon for around 400ml of water, then cut up veges and dump them all in and boil til everything is pretty much soft... 
I'm not proud of it... but it's the only way to get my wife to eat her veges and for me to clear up the large quantities of vegetables which I have. 
It's a pretty healthy meal. A simple vegetable soup and easy to prepare. 

I don't do this for ALL the veges I collect, just the ones she doesn't like. I still stir fry vegetables with oyster sauce and mushroom sauce and all that. But since I can't choose the stuff I collect at Pasir Panjang, on days that I can get veges that she eats, I take those, otherwise, I will just collect what is available and make a soup out of it. 

Another thing I do is, I also use organic stock cubes... ok this is a cheat... I don't use the cubes by Maggi or Knorr. I feel those are just too salty and loaded with all kinds of chemicals. 
I use Kallo organic cubes when they are on discount at Cold Storage or one of those premium supermarkets. But those aren't as tasty as the Maggi or Knorr cubes. So I have to use 2 cubes for every 1 liter of water.
On discount, each box of organic cubes is around $3.30 for 6 cubes. Otherwise, they are $6.60.
The strange thing is... in Singapore, Kallo organic cubes have only vegetable varieties. Like mushroom cubes, or garlic and herb cubes. But when I was in the UK earlier last year, I managed to buy and bring back, organic beef and chicken cubes. 
Obviously, this method is more expensive than just using miso... but I do it for a change every once in awhile. Else drinking miso soup all the time would just be boring. 

For anyone who would like to cook healthily and super cheaply... I highly recommend this method... 
To join the freegan group to get free vegetables from Pasir Panjang on Saturdays, (Wed is possible but most readers are working), then bring back a stash of vegetables (enough for a week) to boil with a fairly cheap miso...
Organic miso paste can be bought at NTUC or Cold Storage at around $6 for 250gm. I bought my cheap miso at $2.50 for 500gm at Meidi-ya.
With just $2.50 for the miso, along with an estimated $3 transport cost per collection... assuming you do it every week, a whole months' worth of dinners could potentially cost only $3 x 4 weeks, +$2.50 = $14.50... plus the cost of whatever rice you are using.

Alternatively, unsold vegetables can be collected on some evenings with the freegan group at Little India, when one vendor we are acquainted with gives us his excess inventory. 

I'm not advertising for anyone or the Freegan group. Just sharing.
Cos I've been getting loads of vegetables at low cost and I've been drinking soup for quite some time and I'm not getting bored of it, cos I switch the soup base around a bit. And I'm really enjoying my soup with a mixture of vegetables which I usually don't get to consume, cos previously I wouldn't buy them cos my wife wouldn't eat them.

This is a post more to share about reducing grocery cost and how I'm handling the large volumes of vegetables with a simple and cheap recipe, which is healthy and nice enough for both of us to eat regularly without getting bored.


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So in my earlier post today, I said I was going to PP to collect unwanted vegetables. 

The typical operations is that the volunteers go out to ask vendors for fruits and vegetables which they do not want anymore or are going to discard. Then we bring all the stuff back to a meeting point as and when we collect sufficient quantities. Then when the lorry looks like it can't take the load, then we stop the collection. 
Next, the volunteers get to take whatever produce they want. Then any excess will be sent to other beneficiaries. Today, the lorry was too full so we needed to load the excess onto the car which was going to transport the volunteers to unload the lorry.

Anyway, I got back quite early today, I think it was around 2pm. I'm not too sure... But I've spent the past few hours processing my fruits and vegetables. So that they can be stored longer. 

​Here's what I collected for today.

2 onions. One has been chopped up to be added to my soup and the other one will be kept for a short while.
The soup can be kept for a couple of days and the onion looks like it will survive another 2-3 days.
​

Spinach and rocket leaves. These are the type used in your expensive salads. 
But as you can see the rocket is turning yellow.
These will be stir fried today for my dinner, cos these can't be kept for much longer.
This is likely 4-6 servings, but I'm pretty ok to eat more of these veges. 
​

Broccolini and baby corn.
The florets of the broccolini were starting to turn yellow. Nothing really wrong with the baby corn.
These 2, I cut them up and blanched them in hot water for about a minute to "kill" them. So that they can keep for the next few days.
​

Beet roots and sweet potatoes. These can be kept for some time. 
I cut the beets up and boiled them in lightly salted water. So now they can keep for sometime and I can snack on them when I feel like it.
The sweet potatoes will likely be steamed for a snack whenever I feel hungry.
​

3 capsicums and 3 pink dragon fruits.
1 capsicum was cut and thrown into the same soup as the onion. The other 2 will be kept for a day or two.
The 3 dragon fruits were pretty ripe, so they were all cut and are ready for a snack.

So I spent the past couple of hours cleaning all these up and for you folks who cook, you know how much time and effort it takes to process food. 
Gotta cut them up, wash, put in fridge, repeat for other products.
Then I boiled the beetroots and blanched the broccolinis and baby corn... Well, I don't have a big pot so it's pretty troublesome to blanch them efficiently. 

Ok, the pictures don't do justice to the quantity I have. It's likely going to last me WAY more than til next Wed. And not to mention, I still have around 70% of my cabbage which I collected the last time. 
This is no ordinary cabbage. It's a super huge kind. I cut off 30% cos I thought I could handle it, but after washing and slicing it up, I realized that it was too much. I had enough for 4 servings. 
And since I only cook for dinners, that means I needed to eat this for 4 days. Ok that's impossible so I kept 2 servings for myself and passed the other 2 servings to my neighbour. He said he's likely going to eat it for 2 days. 
Not to mention... that's ONLY 30% of the cabbage. I still have 70% in the fridge.

So today, once again, I over collected. The cabbage was from my previous collection so for me to still have 70% left even after 1 week, means I over collected last week as well. And I still have braised mushrooms which are still stored in the fridge also from my collection last week.
Today I took almost half of what I took last week, and it was still too much for 1 week worth of cooking. 
So I'm going to manage it better next week. Take less by a bit... and keep trying til I get my portions right. 
The thing is, I like having a bit more, cos my objective is NOT to go grocery shopping anymore. So I MUST have enough to last me for a whole week til the next collection. 

I'm also hoping to cut down meat intake except for weekends when I dine out with my wife, or during other occasions. For our daily dinner, I'm trying to keep it purely vegetables and fruits. 
Hey, we eat lots of meat, buffets, Korean barbecues, etc... So I think on normal weekdays, we just stick to the "free" stuff from Pasir Panjang. I think it's a good balance and likely healthier for us as well. 

Anyway, that's it for today, I need to prepare my dinner. I've been really busy in the kitchen for the whole day ever since I got back from PP. 


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The interesting (annoying) thing about newbies in any community.

This happens in many communities.
A newbie joins the community or chat group...
And asks the same old questions which have been discussed for countless times each and every time a newbie joins.

This happens in the financial planning community...
When some newbie wants to do financial planning and asks... How much do you need to save ar?
Or how to buy insurance ar? Or which insurance to buy? Or how much do you need to spend? etc etc...

Now, asking questions is great, that's the way to learn stuff, but an open question like that is going to irritate a lot of people especially if it is in a group chat where 100s of people have to read the same question and discussion all over again.
I think it's just polite to read up old threads or discussions or learn a little bit more about the topic before popping a super generic question which has no right or wrong answer and just hoping to get a straight out yes or not answer.

In financial planning, someone could save $100k and it might be enough for him as long as he dumpster dives and takes up a part time retirement job. 
Or someone else might need $5m to generate passive income so that he can live a high life...

As I'm part of the freegan chats, this happens very very often but on freegan topics...
People join the group and ask something like... Oh I have a XYZ item which has expired for 1 year is it ok to consume???
And the thing that crosses my mind is... this is the wrong question... the question is... is XYZ item bad? If it is bad, then it is NOT ok to consume. 
The date doesn't mean anything.  The identifier which tells whether something is edible or not is the condition of the item, not the date on the packaging.

And then the more experienced freegans might say that it is ok to eat, just test a bit and if it tastes fine then consume it...
But THEN... other newbies in the group would say... oh it's expired for 1 year, better not, better be safe than sorry, else see doctor then not worth already...
Here's where I roll my eyes... cos... if you're not willing to learn or challenge old ideas, then... what are these folks doing in the freegan community? 
These folks are the folks who just want the free stuff, but when they see the stuff, they get fussy and think... oh it looks too old, it's stained, etc etc...

This is similar to financial planning when someone says, you only need to save $500k and invest with 5% return, then you get $25k per month in returns and you can live fairly comfortably...
Then a newbie might say... but is $500k enough? Where got investments which give 5% return, cannot be la. Must be risky investments... etc etc...

It's at these folks that I roll my eyes again, cos... these people already have their own preconceived ideas of what they need. But they are insecure and when they join the community, they want to hear the answers that they have come to believe is correct, and when people tell them crazy ideas, they reject it to say it is not possible or "No la, I am not willing to live like that..."
If everything not willing to do then might as well go live a normal consumer life lor...

We get the same questions like... isn't dumpster diving dirty, you will get sick, etc etc...
Which our response is, if you are scared, you can wear gloves and a N95 mask when you dumpster dive, that's your choice...
Then instead of saying "ok, yes, or no" they will continue... my professional friend recommends that we don't do this because... legally XYZ, or medically XYZ... etc etc.
And in my mind, I think... this person likely joined the community after seeing Daniel Tay's interviews on various media platforms, they already know what he does... so why are they so concerned now that they have chosen to join the community? 

So the question again isn't about getting sick or dirt...
The question should be rephrased to be... HOW should I do this safely? How does the community take care of themselves when doing such activities. 

It's like when someone asks in the finance community, is $1m enough for retirement? IF you fall sick one time then all wiped out already... and then the more experienced people in the community will again roll their eyes and say... that's what insurance is for...
And some people will continue to try to poke holes in the use of insurance... and at this point the thoughts running through my mind would be... "AIYAH you just go back and work la. Just work til you're 70."

There's pretty much 2 points here.
1) Newbies tend to ask the same questions which have at many times been addressed...
2) Even after hearing the answers, they don't believe it... although they themselves chose to join whatever community. 

Of which I think... then WHY do these people join the community? It's like they want to learn something but don't want to learn it. Then go back to how they've been living their lives lor. 

Anyway, I gotta go to Pasir Panjang to collect vegetables for my this week's food. 
Maybe I'll post again if I get back early.


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Ahh... The Chinese/Lunar New Year is coming... 
And for us, it's usually the time to stock up on inventory. Cos that's when all the sales are available.

People may think... woah this means induced spending... but to me... it's something like stocking up for the whole year.
There's some stuff that we use throughout the whole year and it's really optimal to get during this period cos prices get really low and it's really worth stocking up.

So first on our list is packet Ribena... ok this is  a luxury, cos most people would just say to use the syrup and mix with water. My wife likes her packet Ribena so she gets it... but we stock up on it during this CNY period. Usually we would stock up something like 10 cartons for the whole year, usually 1 carton per month.
Just recently, one of my neighbours said he had 3 cartons of expired Ribena... and I was so happy to take it off him. Past best before for 1 year already... but what the heck... it's sugared water sealed in a tetra pack, we're absolutely ok with this.
So drinks are really one of the best items to stock up during the CNY. IF you have regular consumption of bottled drinks or packet drinks, this is the best time to stock up for the rest of the year. 
Hmmm... maybe it's cos my storeroom is well maintained so I can still stock stuff up, cos I know many folks have a messy storeroom so they don't even have space to stock up inventory... Oh well, moving on...

Abalone... Another luxury. CNY period is the time when we are able to get $20 cans of abalone. This is the max price I will pay for a can of 120 gm drained weight. We are ok with one big abalone or 6-8 small abalones per can. This is another thing which we usually get and stock up for the whole year. Our consumption rate is around 1 can every 1-2 months. Usually on lazy weekends when we're too lazy to go out to eat so we make some instant noodles and open a can of abalone for dinner.

Box tissues and toilet paper. I don't know how much box tissues cost these days, cos I stocked up mine 2 years back and I'm still using them. No, we didn't buy a lot, it's just that we don't usually use tissues very much. We tend to use wet wipes, which are $1 per box of 80 sheets, but those can be bought any time of the year. 
Toilet paper is one of the more crazy things which I stock up for maybe 6 months. I usually buy 9-12 ten roll packs during sale period. They really do take up quite a lot of space. I would buy for the whole year if I had space to store them, but if I bought more then my storeroom would be messy and that's just intolerable for an OCD like me.

Beer is also really cheap during this period. I bought a couple of cartons couple of years back. I've since stopped stocking up on beer. Beer can get as cheap as $1.50 per can for Carlsberg. But no one really drinks it so I don't stock up anymore. But for folks who drink regularly... Hey! It's a perfect time to stock up.
Other canned drinks like Coke is also super cheap during this period. 

I'm not really sure what else is worthy to stock up during this period, cos we don't really prepare for CNY. For me, it's just a time for some sales of some of the stuff which we regularly consume. But besides that, we don't get melon seeds or special sweets, sugared preserved fruits, etc... we don't really buy all that stuff.
To us, CNY isn't a period of increased consumption. It's a period to just stock up for normal consumption. I personally don't understand the rationale behind buying overpriced "goodies" during this period. I still send a couple of containers to my parents and in-laws but  we try to keep that expense controlled. It's like the mooncake season all over again... so I'm hoping to maybe go Malaysia to buy some CNY goodies this year.

Ok anyone have any other nice stuff that they would like to recommend to stock up on? Please comment below. I'd love to know what else I can stock up on during this period.

Thanks!


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In one of my recent post. I talked about whether I would reno my place again.
And I was talking about getting a new desk and I got "suan" by SMOL that a new desk isn't considered renovation. LOL. Yes, he's right. I had nothing more to write about in my previous post.

Anyway... YAY I got my "new" free desk today. That's why my post is pretty late. 

The picture of the table I grabbed it from IKEA website. 
And I got a side table to store my stationary and stuff.

Ok... so the condition of both the items aren't perfect. The table is a bit bent in the center cos of too much weight in the center for an extended period of time. No problem for me, I'll just put a counter weight and eventually it will revert back to a flat table top again.
The side table is also pretty old. I'm not complaining. I needed a desk and a side table so that I can store all the stationary so that the table will be nice and uncluttered.

And of course, best of all, both of them were "free"...
Yes yes... it's not really free. I had to make the effort to go down, left house at 7:15 am, take an MRT change to a bus, reach the home at 8:30 am, dismantle the table, put them both on my trolley, walk 1km back to the MRT cos I could not get on a bus with a trolley... then at the MRT station, they almost didn't allow me past the gantry cos it looked like a lot of items... I told them the space I took up was the same as a wheelchair, and after some chatting, the station control told me to wait til 10:30 am where there would be less people. So I sat around for 30 minutes and they allowed me in with some words of advice, to move slowly and be careful and to go to the last cabin... all of which I was intending to do anyway... Then I had to walk back from the MRT to my own home and clean up the items and reassemble the desk. After cleaning up and everything is around 12:30 pm.
So around 5 hours of "work" and transport fees as the cost of the items...
The retail value if these were new is likely around $120 or so?? I don't know. 

Anyway, these are second hand. So maybe they are worth half that amount... it doesn't matter. 
I'm not thinking about this on a per hour basis... that's not the point... 
If we always think about our lives on a per hour basis then no one would ever retire cos every additional hour worked would generate X amount of income. 

I found the experience very interesting... cos I intentionally did not drive. Cos it would not be worth it in terms of transport costs, and I would likely get hit with ERP charges as well. 
I was really crossing my fingers at the MRT station cos I felt it was a 50/50 chance. If they turned me away then I would likely have to walk back home!!! OMG! It's really really far.

So now that I got a new desk, the old "desk" which was a mahjong table is now redundant. I posted it on my neighbour chat to give it to anyone and someone was willing to take it... how wonderful.

Now my only challenge is to unbend the table. Cos it will take some time to flip the table around and put a weight on the underside of the table and wait for the table to unbend.

Ok so some people would have instead recommended that I drive Uber or take up a part time job for 1 day and just buy new items. The amount of time and effort would probably have been around the same. 

As strange as this may sound, that might not work... cos IF I had worked for the money... I would likely NOT have bought a new desk. Cos... the mahjong table was good enough. It's a table. Good enough. It's like I have a good enough dining table. It would be nice to have a nicer looking one. But my current dining table is good enough to eat on. Similarly, the mahjong table was good enough to double up as a study table for my wife to work for maybe 2 hours after dinner if/when necessary.
You see... when money gets involved, things change, the mental perception changes. At least this is the case for me. I know some people wouldn't even bat an eyelid to buy stuff... but that's not me... And I think everyone has their own things which they feel is "good enough" and won't need a replacement even though it is good to have a new one. 

It's the same as when I help out at Pasir Panjang... If/When I was working, I never helped out at charities or donated money... simply cos... I didn't know which organization was worth my money or effort... but when money has been removed from the equation, then I am more willing to help out. Cos I have time and I can slowly explore.

It's also the same as why I would give my extra mahjong table to my neighbour... previously, I would just fold it up and keep it in the storeroom "just in case"... that's the thing about it... many of the things we do, we do it just in case, we stock up and keep stuff in the storeroom, just in case... and it becomes excess clutter. Now that I get my stuff for "free" or at least I perceive it to be free cos I'm not spending money, but I'm spending effort, the "value" of things is really different. 

Now, I'm not saying money is bad, money is great, it allows us to do a lot of stuff. But after a while, money may get confusing, our perception of value changes. We think of our time as an hourly rate, or people may hoard money without knowing why... especially for folks who don't want much.  
It's like... I know a rich guy who will never be able to spend all his money... cos his expense is less than $200 per month... and he admitted that he worked an additional 10 years for nothing... cos 10 years ago he already had all his finances in shape. But he didn't know how to quit. 
But after he started freegan living, he's very happy, his money will never run out and he knows he won't need much for the rest of his life... his finances are healthy, he is properly insured, etc etc...
The thing about it is that the freegan way of living gave him the mental security and confidence to quit his job cos it helped him reduce his expenses as he managed to find many ways to obtain things for free and not touch much of his capital.

Anyway, I've rambled for too long... I've gotten a nice new desk and side table... That's all that today's post is supposed to be able... 


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I don't really like doing a lot of charity work. Basically, cos I think many charities are hoaxes.

A lot of time, the money is channeled to running the organization and the beneficiaries get a small percentage of the total donated. I'm thinking something like 10%-30%.
But of course I don't discourage people from doing charity work. I mean 10%-30% is better than 0%. 
Although on a flip side, my other brain tells me, the more that people donate, the more they incentivize bad behavior. By continuously donating, the people feed the large pays of the CEOs and the cycle continues. I'm a believer of, the people have the power to choose, and they should choose correct organizations to pump their resources into. 

So I'm very picky over helping charities or supporting activities and I don't like pouring resources down a drain. Resources could be money or time. So if the organization or activity isn't sustainable or doesn't do very much in terms of real values, or is too idealistic, I don't care about it. 

So recently, I've started kinda supporting the Pasir Panjang vegetable hunts. See post on that here.
Simply cos, it's simple and pretty sustainable. And a lot of the resources go to the beneficiaries. 
The freegans volunteer and get paid in terms of free fruits and vegetables, there is less wastage of food, a whole truckload of around 1.2-1.5 tonnes of food gets transported to organizations which provide free food for the less fortunate. And there is some reimbursement of around $20-$30 for the fuel costs. So essentially, the organization gets 1.5 tonnes of food for around $20. Which is really great. The volunteers get "paid" but not a lot, but sufficient to keep them happy and for them to return to help again. 
So to me, this is sustainable, the beneficiaries get a lot of the donated resources and the people helping out get a small token of appreciation.
An organization like Willing Hearts provide something like 5000 daily meals for their beneficiaries. 
http://www.willinghearts.org.sg/what-willing-hearts-does/
So I know where my efforts are going towards.

The freegan group tends to attract people who are environmentally conscious. That's the point of freegan-ism, they tend to reuse other peoples' products so it reduces consumption and in turn is somewhat good for the environment. 

There are passionate individuals who take it upon themselves (and their group) to stand outside supermarkets to educate customers on bringing their own reusable carrying bags and try to get people to agree to use less plastic bags and switch to canvas bags instead. 
Now, these are the activities which I find idealistic and not sustainable. By all means, if they want to do it, go ahead, but personally, I'd rather put my efforts to somewhere else. 
There are folks who are environmentally conscious and some people will be convinced to switch to reusable bags. Many others will just continue with their daily lives. Or they may try it out once or twice then continue with their daily lives. 
So maybe their conversion rate could be 1-2 people per day. I think even that number is idealistic. But to me, I look around and I see that this is just a drop in the ocean. How much plastics do we use? Toys, Lego, my rubbish bin, water bottles, TV, printers, etc etc... there are 7 billion people in this world. To change the minds of a few people to stop using plastic bags is just a small number and that's only for plastic bags. What about all the other plastic consumables that they use? 
For me, I would prefer to spend my efforts on more realistic causes which will be able to impact lives. 
But everyone has their own pet project so... to each their own.

Today, someone in the community requested for help to collect tabs for drink cans. This is just the ring tab of drink cans. The cause that this person is supporting is irrelevant. Cos there are many organizations which request for drink can tabs.

In truth, the whole drink can is valuable aluminum smelted from the same kind of material. But many organizations request for just the ring tabs. Basically, cos it is slightly more valuable cos it requires less processing to clean up the drink and remove the ink to recycle back into aluminum. 
Organizations request the ring tabs cos this helps incentivize people to donate the ring tabs. It's easy to call people to remove the rings to bring it home and stock it up and donate it when the time comes. Imagine if the organizations call people to store the WHOLE drink can instead... How many people would be willing to store the whole drink can to send to organizations for recycling? So this is also pretty much a marketing thing, to get people interested in the first place.
But do you know the value of donating ring tabs? 
One pound in weight equals approximately 1,000 tabs... 
OR one kilogram equals approximately 2,205 tabs...
BUT
1 pound is also around 31 empty cans. 
1 kg is around 68 cans...
Which would take less time to collect? But which would people prefer to help to collect?

I did some simple searches for prices for scrap metal. Cos that's what these are... They are just scrap metal to be melted back into aluminum and reused for whatever purpose. 
The price is around US$1 (S$1.32 today) per pound. 
So let me overestimate S$5 per KG. 
That's S$5 for 2,205 drink can tabs... This is S$0.0022676 PER tab... not even 1 cent each.

This is when I scratch my head and think... what the hell???
And I go back to the start of this topic... someone in the freegan chat asked the other freegans to help to collect drink can tabs... Is the effort even worth it? Any form of transport to deliver the tabs would render the value to nil, unless the amount transported is very large. 

In essence, I think this is pretty much a feel good initiative. Or maybe to raise awareness... maybe to encourage kids to collect drink can tabs so that they will learn about recycling and when they exchange the tabs for money, they get a kick out of it. Truthfully, that's what it is... a feel good type of activity.
But once again, everyone is a free man, they can do whatever they want. And people would probably criticize me for being negative and not encouraging...

But to me, energy and resources are finite. So time and effort need to be put into initiative that are worth doing. It's not about just doing something just cos someone said to do it. Like financial planning, everything needs to be well thought out else, a plan with holes isn't very much of a plan at all. Someone who saves a lot but spends freely with his credit card and gets into debt isn't doing very well financially. There's no point doing some good things and doing other things which are just wasting all the good effects.

I'm sure many of you have heard about Earth Hour... how wonderful, people switch off power for 1 hour simultaneously, how nice, everyone gets a warm fuzzy feeling of togetherness...
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/maggie-koerthbaker/earth-hour_b_1390247.html 
​I'll cut out some key parts... emphasis my own...
​

Another point from the same article... it's not about living in the dark cold stone ages that we are talking about... so why off the lights? This may make people think that to counteract climate change, we need to suffer and be deprived of the luxuries of electricity... certainly makes people less interested in it...

Or maybe people would think it's too easy... Just turn off the lights... and climate change will reverse it's course?

I wonder... do people really think it is more energy efficient to light a candle instead of turning on the LED lights at home?
Gram for gram for the amount of light provided... fuel burnt in a power generator is much more efficient than lighting a candle...
A candle has less complete burning releases more harmful chemicals into the atmosphere, it produces heat unnecessarily... that's the same reason why LED lights are more efficient than incandescent lights. Cos LED lights produce less heat, so there's less wastage of electricity. Cos energy is wasted producing unnecessary heat in an incandescent light bulb, when all people really want is just light. 

So maybe Earth Hour is really just about the feel good factor... just to raise awareness... but without real active change... that's all that it really is... just a warm fuzzy feeling in peoples' hearts, thinking that they did their part....

Anyway... I'm just an individual and I think anyone can do what they want. If they want a warm fuzzy feeling, then so be it... to me... I prefer to put my efforts into things which I feel are worth my effort... I have no false hopes that there will be less wastage due to my efforts at Pasir Panjang... in our current economic system, demand and supply, there will definitely be wastage. It is just how the business model works.
For me, I'm just putting in the effort to gather the excess and passing them on to the less fortunate. This also doesn't mean that they will be any more fortunate... but at least they will not be hungry for the day. And that is good enough for me, for the amount of effort, reward, resources put in, for the benefits that it passes on, I believe that this is worth my effort if my time permits. 

As for other people and causes... I wonder... do they really think about what they are contributing to? Do they know how much resources get channeled to the beneficiaries? Are they doing more harm than good? Is it all just a cause for feeling good but the effect isn't there?

Now I'm not judging... I'm sure there are plenty of good causes. And any cause is a fair enough cause, different people want to help different causes. I also am fully aware that charitable organizations are run by normal people who need to eat and sustain a family just like everyone else. Although I question the remuneration of the top brass in such organizations. I would just like to put across the idea for people to think more about what they do and why they do it, and the value of what they do. Instead of just doing it cos it's easy, or cos it makes them feel warm and fuzzy inside.



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