So this comment allows me to address a very good question which many other folks might be thinking of.
Also, I've kinda run out of inspiration to type cos I'm pretty out of topics and this gives me an opportunity to write something worth talking about.
Just a frank comment. Instead of dumpster diving, do you think is more worthwhile to spend your time making some money like driving an Uber / Grab? With the money earned, you can easily buy those things that you find. - LKH
I think my initial response in the comments doesn't really reflect the whole story, and I thought about it overnight to think of how best to address this question.
Seems like an easy question but actually it's quite complex.
I'm quite concerned that my post and words might not fully express how I truly think about this.
Cos I look at this from many points of view.
I'll split the question out into 2 parts.
1) Do I think it is more worthwhile to spend my time driving Uber/working to make some money...
2) And then using the money to buy stuff... (easily afford the things that I find)
Ok so in point 1, I quit my job... so if I wanted to continue working then... I'd continue working.
It's pretty much like saying... why don't I go back to work to earn more money. Why don't I take up a part time job?
And point 2 is... If I earned money, I wouldn't buy stuff. I would just keep it as money.
When I was working, I didn't buy stuff. (I'll use the printer as an example.)
1 week ago, I didn't have a printer at home. If you asked me what I needed for my home, I would say "nothing". I was perfectly happy without a printer for the past 2 years.
I never had the thoughts of buying a printer.
Within a week, someone gave me 1 printer and I found 2 others in the dumpster.
The printer given to me works, one of those which I found works, and the last one, I haven't tested it yet.
And yet, if I earned money while working, I would never have had a printer in my home.
Working would give me money, but it doesn't provide me with things.
Cos I would rather save money cos I'm frugal.
Dumpster diving now gives me things, but it hardly provides me with any money.
If I earn money, I would pay retail prices for some of the stuff I pick up now.
But when I pick up stuff, I get it for free, but I can't sell it off at retail prices to other people.
The market is not perfect, money and items aren't perfectly exchangeable.
If I look at it from a time based and effort perspective...
Officially, I have dumpster dived 3 times. I consider an official dumpster dive to be, I bring my trolley out take a stroll around my estate and pick up stuff and look through the dumpsters. I'm a really casual dumpster diver. I don't dig through and open all the plastic bags like some of the other divers. From the feel of the plastic bags, I feel what are the probable items, and I open only those which I feel would be clean and not rubbish.
A stroll around my estate region takes around 1-1.5 hours, then I bring stuff back and wipe them down and clean up. So in all, it may take something like 3 hours per dumpster dive session, the search plus the cleaning up.
So let's say Uber pays me $20 per hour in profit, this would mean I should earn $60 per dumpster dive session to be worth it.
The loot from my first 2 dumpster dives are in 1st dumpster dive & 2nd dumpster dive.
I got a printer from each of these dives. Which I value to be more than $60.
But the problem is... I can't buy a printer for $60... BUT I also cannot sell my printer for $60.
So it's hard to value stuff when dumpster diving.
Yesterday night, I went for another dive. Total time taken also around 3 hours after cleaning up.
We have the coffee machine as a free gift from one of our credit cards previously, but after a few uses, we felt that the capsules are too expensive, cos they cost around $10 per box, so we stopped buying the capsules.
(These companies want you to own the machine so that they can sell you overpriced capsules.)
Yesterday, I found these in the dumpster. They were uncontaminated in their boxes, the boxes were already opened, all the boxes were in a plastic bag. I brought them home and gave them a light rinse.
Once again, these retail at $40, I can't sell them off at $40.
But yet I can consume $40 worth of retail value for "free".
Since they are second hand, maybe I could buy them at $20 from some 2nd hand outlets. But I doubt I would be able to sell them at $20.
Pigeon Multi-function sterilizer, a quick search I find that it retails at $169, assuming I'm looking at the correct item. Don't know how much I should value it cos it's 2nd hand. Anyway, I'm not sure if it works. I'm expecting it to work cos the dumpster was full of kids stuff, meaning that the kids have grown out of the items, so the sterilizer is just part of the kids outgrowing the need for such an item, rather than the item being faulty.
The body mist from Jill Stuart is new.
Used toys, a pair of pretty key chains, some building blocks. All washed or wiped clean.
And then there's the REST of it... which are still in fairly good condition...
What they do with the items... I don't really know. But I hope they will be put to good use and help their cause. Whether they sell it, gift it to someone else, whatever.
So I go back to the question... would it be better to go back to work to earn money to buy stuff?
I can't answer that question very well.
Cos if I work, I won't buy stuff. But yet if I look through dumpsters, I get more retail value than I would ever get in 3 hours of work.
And I don't even feel like I'm working. I'm just taking an evening stroll picking up free stuff and cleaning them up at home, although my muscles ache like hell due to the carrying of all these stuff.
And yet, do I really need all these items? Then answer is obviously no.
And similarly, do I need more money? Truthfully, I would like a lot more money, everyone does. But why do I need money? Well, I need to eat, housing, buy insurance, stuff... etc etc... But... I've already settled all the basic stuff.
Naturally, cold hard cash provides a different form of security. However, my cash usually just sits in the bank or in some form of investments.
I've never given anything to any charitable organization when I was working. And yet yesterday, after I obtained so much items, I had to scour the internet to find an organization to pass the item off to, and I expect this to happen again in the future.
And mentally, I AM conflicted whenever I dumpster dive. Cos I've never had such an experience before. The idea that everything is FREE. Allows me to give things away freely, to give to friends, pass things off to someone else whom might have more use for it. To obtain things which I would have never bought for myself previously, and yet now I just pick it up without a thought.
When I was working, I was hoarding money to be financially free. I spent little, I needed little and wanted little. Now, it's still the same, I still don't need much, but I get a lot of stuff, I keep what I want and pass the rest on and I get more stuff.
So I'm sorry, I can't answer that question directly as a yes or no answer, whether it is more worthwhile or not to work and buy stuff.
I can only express what I feel about the whole experience and the thoughts that go through my mind as I do it.
Working would provide me money, with money, I would have the option to buy stuff and be more generous. But with money, I don't exercise that option. I don't buy stuff for myself or gift stuff to others.
And yet, without money, I get stuff, and I gift stuff...
But I don't get to choose what I get and when I get the stuff. It's just a waiting game. Since most of these other stuff are just wants and not needs, I can afford to wait.
I hope I have been able to express myself sufficiently well to answer the question.
I still don't actively dumpster dive for food, as I said before, it's just messy and more troublesome.
<<PREVIOUS POST // NEXT POST>>
Did you like this post? If so, could you "blanjah" me 1/4 cup of my morning coffee pls.
Ironically, writing and posting nets me around 30-50 cents a day, whereas dumpster diving easily provides more than that.
Many thanks for continuing to come to this blog to read my posts.