All of you should know that I've been getting free food since around my first week. I'm talking about groceries.
I sometimes go out and eat with my wife, but that's pretty rare, maybe once in 2 weeks on average.
Today I'll like to talk about my mentality changes during this period when I collect free food.
And I'll compare this to how we live our lives.
Phase 1
I just started collecting free food. I collect 3 times a week when the market opens. I got a little bit of meat. I knew it was rare, I froze them and slowly consumed them over a period. I got a lot of vegetables and consumed mainly vegetables and a little bit of meat.
Days worked, 3 days a week, I went down multiple times between 8am to 11am. Collecting a bit every time I went down.
Food resource was just about enough, not really enough meat sources, I didn't have much excess to freeze. I ate more vegetables and lost some weight.
Phase 2
I got better at collecting food. I still went 3 times a week when the market opens, this time I could get salmon and tuna regularly cos I knew when to go and where to get the fish. I froze quite a lot of the fish so that I can eat it during days when I can't get any fish. I continued to get vegetables but I don't consume so much vegetables cos I could eat fish instead.
Days worked, 3 days a week, I went down multiple times between 8am to 11am. Collecting a bit every time I went down.
Food resource was good. I got a lot of salmon and tuna, but no other kinds of meat. It was weird cos I was really getting "sian" of eating salmon everyday. I had a lot of salmon to freeze for the future. I cut down on my vegetable consumption cos... I have salmon, why would I want to eat vegetables right?!
Phase 3
I expanded my search area. I found a supermarket and started obtaining food from there as well. I started getting eggs, minced beef, sometimes chicken, pork, etc... I still continued to get vegetables from the fresh market 3 times a week, BUT I went to the supermarket DAILY. Everyday I can get on average 2 days worth of food resource. ON AVERAGE! Meaning, somedays I get 4 packs of meat, some days I get 20 eggs, some days I get a bit of yogurt, some days I get some cheese, etc.
Somehow during this period, I stopped being able to get salmon and tuna. Maybe it's cos I got lazier and stopped going at the right time, or maybe the season has changed and salmon and tuna isn't as available anymore.
Days worked 6 days a week for supermarkets 6:15-6:45 AND 3 days a week for fresh food markets, I went down multiple times between 8am to 9am.
This period, I got A LOT of food. I had to freeze even more food, find people to give the food away to, etc. This was also a period where I started getting stressed with too much food. For me, getting free stuff is fun. And more is always better. Take first talk later. But I started getting stressed cos I got so much and needed to find people to give the food away to.
Why did I continue to do it even though I was stressed? Cos it can be done, cos it has benefit to me, I can get even MORE things for myself, and the stuff that I don't really consume, I can give away.
Phase 4
I expanded my search again and found another supermarket. So... think about Phase 3 and double it.
I went to 2 supermarkets DAILY... AND the fresh market 3 times a week.
Both supermarkets provided around the same kind of food but... MORE IS BETTER THAN LESS RIGHT?
If I have 4 packs of sausages last time, now, I can get 8... well... it's average so sometimes I get sausages from one supermarket, sometimes I get eggs, etc...
BUT on average, I could get maybe 4 days worth of food PER DAY!
And this is when my stress level rocketed.
Days worked 6 days a week for supermarkets, 6:15am-7am AND 3 days a week for fresh food market. But this time, I went down only once for fresh food at 8am and took whatever I could find and if I can't find anything, then it's ok. Cos I already had a lot of excess from the supermarkets.
"Work" became a chore, it wasn't really fun to get free food anymore. I continued to give away my food to others cos I couldn't consume the food fast enough. I had frozen salmon and tuna and minced meat and sausages which haven't been eaten.
I did this for 2 weeks and couldn't sustain it... it was just no fun anymore.
Phase 5
I stopped going to the 2nd supermarket.
I only took food from the first supermarket cos it's a lot closer to my place, less than 100m.
I found out that the fresh food market has a disposal corner where they leave the stuff they don't want in boxes on the ground. It's a very small pile before the cleaners clear it away at 7am. But it's convenient for me to grab it if I can get there early.
Days worked, 6 days a week, 6:15am-6:45 AND 3 days a week for fresh food but the timing is still the same cos I quickly pick up the stuff from the small pile before I go to the supermarket.
Food resource is definitely less, than phase 3 or 4. But the amount of time spent getting food is just 30 mins a day. On average, I still have excess everyday, but not a lot. I still can get around 1.5days worth of food every time I go down.
The "workload" is more manageable and it's a bit more fun. I didn't need to look for people to give my food to, or I just call someone to take my excess around once in 2 weeks.
Phase 6
Today I started phase 6. I decided that I would only go down 3 days a week and cover both the fresh food market AND the supermarket on the same 3 days.
My intention is to eat the frozen food in the fridge cos... well, there's really a lot of food in the freezer.
Today I got enough food for 1 day. Since I'm planning to go down only 3 days a week, then I'll be running a deficit and start finishing up the food which has been there for awhile. Cos... well... I'm leaving Paris and I gotta eat up all the food before I leave. I'll talk more about that tomorrow.
OK! So what's the point of this whole post?
Well... Think about how we live our lives and our phases through our lives...
When we are younger, we earn less, but good enough. This is similar to phase 1.
Then we work for 2-3 years and earn more and life gets better. Which is phase 2.
Then we get into phase 3, we start earning much more, but stress starts to build up, which is around 5+ years of work, I think...
Then phase 4 is when we earn a lot of money but the stress levels are really high and maybe things are no fun anymore.
And I think many people are stuck in phase 4. Where they are just working and storing up money and some people aren't having fun but they are still working cos... well the money is good...
But actually, there is phase 3 and phase 5. And that's good as well. And there's excess and enough to eat and enough to save. But somehow, we like to stay in phase 4 and remain stressed cos we think we need to earn more money, to be productive, etc.
But... well phase 3 and phase 5 are pretty good options too.
I don't think in normal life, we should get into phase 6, cos I don't like the idea of drawing down.
For me, I want to finish eating my food before I leave Paris, but in real life, I think I'll want to keep my assets robust even in my later years.
For now... when I'm in Paris, even IF I finish eating my food before I leave, I know I will be able to go back into phase 5 and start collecting more food again if I ever need to. But in real life, it's not so simple. Cos we can't move between phases so easily.
The thing is... there are other options to making money. We don't always need high paying jobs with loads of stress. Having a good paying job, with lower levels of stress is fine as well. As long as there's food to eat, money for clothes and housing and insurance, and some fun and travel and savings... we have a choice to choose which phase we want to be in.
<<PREVIOUS POST // NEXT POST>>
Did you like this post? If so, could you "blanjah" me 1/4 cup of my morning coffee pls.
You may also consider subscribing to receive the articles in your email, link in the column on the right.