This is the term for problems mainly faced by freegans.
It's like, when people are complaining that their nail polish that they bought is of a wrong colour than as advertised... usually people refer to those as first world problems.
So what are freegan problems?
Well... they are usually about an overload of stuff.
Now... I don't collect many items. I just put out word to my neighbours that I'm willing to accept their second hand stuff so they pass me stuff and I just redirect them to other people. I don't proactively open dumpsters anymore. That's just too much effort when I am not really looking for anything in particular.
However, I do pick up stuff if they are left obviously beside the lift lobby or beside the bin near the lift lobby. I take those as easy wins, cos they are usually in nice neat plastic bags and relatively clean.
And similarly, I just usually pass those on to other people. So it's pretty fine, no real clutter at home cos every week people drop by my place to collect items.
I know other freegans who regularly go out and collect stuff from dumpsters and they clog up their house and... personally, I feel that's just terrible... Unless they have a quick way to sell or pass on the stuff... I don't think living in a cluttered house is healthy.
Ok... so what are my "problems" now that I've pretty much integrated some freegan aspects into my life...
Well... I've an absurd influx of food. Now, I'm not complaining about it. My mum has always said, when there's more, don't complain. It means you're doing well. So I take it very positively that I have more... or an abundance of food.
Every week, I go and collect vegetables. One collection will provide me with enough vegetables for 2-3 weeks, IF I can preserve them. Cos I only cook around 5 meals a week, I don't really use the food very quickly. But, I'd rather give away the vegetables to neighbours and go and collect more vegetables the following week.
I also get some other food, meats, fish cake, etc from other freegans, I either go and collect it near my place or they bring some over when they collect stuff from me. So I also have a surplus of meat related food, butter, eggs. I don't get them on a regular basis, but I also don't use them very quickly. It's like, if I eat a bit of my eggs, then my fishcake supply grows, or if I eat more of my fishcake, another item will get stocked up. It's an ongoing cycle of consumption and stocking up.
I picked up some "atas" beer by the lift lobby, 5 bottles, and my neighbour passed me 4 bottles of apple cider, those sweet alcoholic kinds. All are past best before date, but I'm ok with consuming them, and yet, I hardly drink... I'll likely use them for cooking.
Someone passed me 6 bottles of taiwanese tea/coffee, you know the one which used to be removed from shelves in Singapore cos of an ingredient which was not registered, or something like that. Well, I think they are back on shelves and I received 6 bottles of it. Unexpired.
And I get my stocks of morning coffee from the hotel when I travel with my wife, I have enough instant coffee to last probably 2 months, and yet, I will be following my wife again in March and I will be collecting more.
I get biscuits, chocolates and other snacks from other freegans. It's on a relatively regular basis. Once again, it's like the other food items, I open a pack of biscuits, the chocolate stash builds up, I eat some chocolate... the biscuits build up.
Then there's the weekly vouchers as well. $10 every week to buy non-food items at Cold Storage, cos I have surplus food. So I look at toiletries, and yet... there's nothing to buy YET. Cos I stocked up toiletries during discounts during my pre-freegan days. So I still have 5 bottles of shampoo, 5 tubes of toothpaste, boxes of tissues, many rolls of toilet paper, etc. As the inventory drops, I'll slowly be using the vouchers to replenish the stocks. But between now til then, I have to find other stuff to stock up on...
And remember, months ago... when I was a regular consumer? I already had issues with hitting the $500 spend on my UOB card, in articles such as this, or this... Guess what's going to happen this month?
It's not that I don't spend money buying stuff. I still do. But the expenses have dropped significantly, and yet I'm getting stockpiles of food. I did see an increase in $10 this month for my utility bill though, cos I've been cooking more and using more water to wash vegetables.
Anyway, I'm expecting to be heavily pre-paying my utility bill and telco bill this month.
Looks like I've kind of hit my objective of cutting $500 from my expenses monthly.
But I'll monitor it for a few more months to see if the reduction in expenses is sustainable. Also, I haven't really made much changes to my lifestyle, just adjusting how I obtain certain stuff, so it's not like I've put in a lot of effort to achieve this.
I'm not complaining about any of these, all these are good things. Having a surplus of food, being able to give away food, reducing expenses, having nothing much to buy using vouchers or cash... all these are very good things which I have been experiencing.
Cos it really breaks the whole mental framework which I was used to. The idea of, "Why have I been paying for XYZ item my whole life?", whenever I find a sustainable supply of a certain product which I need regularly.
I don't like randomness, so the idea of sifting through trash doesn't really appeal to me much these days, cos I can't determine what I get and I don't know if I will need it, etc. So I tend to prefer to do activities which will provide me stuff that I need/want on a regular basis, so that my efforts are more focused on minimizing my spending, instead of just getting random stuff.
I do hope that more people get to experience this. But it does require quite a bit of change, cos it does take effort to change a daily routine. However, after the routine has been changed, and a new routine is formed, then things are nice and abundant. Of course another point is that I don't WANT to spend money. So any savings from food doesn't get pushed to other forms of spending.
There are some freegans who say that they have found extra money to spend on other forms of entertainment, now that they get their food for free... which I found kinda defeats the purpose.
But oh well to each their own.
Ahh... freegan problems...
I reckon freegan problems is what many people keep talking about during CNY... abundance...
年年有魚, 多于... instead of just wishing for it only during CNY and spending money to stock up on food during CNY to signify abundance of food, maybe they should try freegan living to experience it on a constant basis.
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