And I think some people may be wondering what kind of people this community is.
Are we all a bunch of weirdos?
So I'd like to put across some points and share about the people I have encountered during my journey.
You see, freegan-ism is like vegetarianism.
It's not easy.
WOAH!!! Freegan-ism isn't easy...??? Tell me something new genius? There's nothing free in this world.
I'd like to clarify this idea. Firstly, getting basic things for free isn't difficult.
Food and vegetables are super easy to obtain for free, in large quantities, clean and hygienic. You can even da-bao it home and eat for a few days.
Utilities and telco bills are unfortunately not easy to obtain for free, same for housing.
Ok anyway, let's just say that most stuff can be found free. Cos I want to move on in this topic.
What's hard about freegan-ism is convenience. Very similar to vegetarianism.
Some people might want to be vegetarian, but it's hard to truly convert. They can do it for one day, or one week, but it gets troublesome. Cos they go out with their friends and get tempted and all that.
This is entirely the same as being a total freegan.
Cos it's so easy to just spend another dollar to just buy a small thing instead of looking for it for free. And somethings are really worth just paying a dollar for.
But that's not the point! That's like vegetarianism, "Oh what's another bite of meat... I am vegetarian for 95% of the time...". It just doesn't work that way.
So for the few folk who spend under $100 a month, they are the folks who really walk the talk and even though it would be more convenient to buy something for a dollar, they would rather find ways to get it for free.
So a lot of people say, it's disgusting, or it won't work if everyone does it, etc etc...
So if I draw a parallel, it's pretty much like... most of us eat vegetables, some of us become vegetarians.
Not everyone is going to do it and not everyone is going to dumpster dive or look for free food or eat left overs.
In the community, most of them just like getting free stuff. But most of them are not full freegans. There are only a handful who spend $100 per month. Most of the others are normal working people who are using freegan ideas to improve their lives and cut their costs.
And as the frugal community, we should also try to incorporate some of these ideas into our lives.
Example... if you can get one week worth of vegetables for free, you just need to take an MRT to XXX location at XXX time and go and collect it. You will get a lot of vegetables, but you won't know what you are going to get, you can pick and choose from whatever is available.
One weeks worth of vegetables could cost $50-$100 depending on the size of your family. Taking an MRT down and back would cost maybe $5, and maybe 2 hours of time.
Some people will say it's not worth it, others will think it is worth it.
Similarly, like in the frugal community, some of us will monitor our expenses and try to hit certain credit card rebate limits and other people might think that that is too troublesome to do.
More often than not, in any idea, there are all the same comments just phrased in different ways.
If everyone does this then...
It's too troublesome...
Does it really work? Is it a scam?
He's lying...
If he overdoes this then... <insert negative effect>
He's not a true... <XXX>... he still does... <insert action which counters the idea>
Ok... so what kind of people do I encounter?
Now, I'm not talking about dumpster diving, I'm talking about freegan ideas in general. Like asking bakeries for their excess after they close shop for the day, you'll be amazed how many bakeries are willing to give away their excess.
Many are the working folk who do this for fun, to get free stuff. These folk aren't really interesting cos they still spend the usual amounts of money but just get these stuff for fun or to save a little bit more. I am somewhat classified under this category. People who don't need to do it but just do it for fun.
Some people are the lower income group, who want to use this method to save some additional money. I think it's a positive thing for them that they are willing to find additional avenues of "income".
However, unfortunately, I do not think that they will succeed in saving more.
I'm not trying to be negative. Cos it's very similar to the normal society.
A lot of times people save in one area and just "lose" their money in another area. For many people, the money just fills the month and they will just spend it all, so additional savings in free groceries would not result in additional savings in the bank account. Cos the additional disposable income will just go to spending on movie tickets or another Starbucks, or whatever.
I hope they will succeed though. It's not that I am certain they won't be able to save, it's just that based on statistics and talking with people I meet, more often than not, most people would end up in the scenario which I mentioned.
And then there are the really poor people... almost homeless or staying in subsidized rental flats. Although I think now, after joining the freegan community, this person... Let's call him B... I think he's kinda gaming the system. Cos he now has sufficient food and shelter and lives in low cost housing. Personally, I don't care, I think the system is meant to be gamed, and I see that he helps the other people in his neighbourhood, so he doesn't work, although I think he's looking for a job, he goes around getting free food and items and sharing them with the other low income people around him. He does this on a daily basis.
If you think about it, this actually puts most of us to shame. Most of the frugal community earn good sums of money, but have never or rarely give out food or items to the less fortunate.
And yet this guy, yes, he may be gaming the system, but he collects stuff EVERYDAY and passes them on to the less fortunate people around him.
Think about what you could do with your $5000 per month pay. But as I indicated in my previous post (My Precious), if we earn money, we don't want to part with our money. Cos we think it's hard earned money, all my blood, sweat and tears. I think few of us would give away $20 cash to a homeless person. But if I asked for someone to donate a sack of rice worth $20 to a less fortunate family, I think more people would be willing to help.
Hey, I'm no saint, I also don't donate my money. I'm just highlighting some fallacies of the human mind and how we perceive price and value and how we donate and help others.
There are also the people who don't walk the talk...
After Daniel Tay, one of the co-founders gained lots of media attention, there has been more people joining the Facebook group and Whatsapp chats.
Most of these people join to get free stuff or want to learn how to get it.
So we introduce them to how to get free vegetables and dumpster diving, or eating food past the best before date, etc...
Then all the excuses would come about.... some folks don't turn up for the vegetable collection, cos it's too late, or too early, or too far.
People would be grossed out by dumpster diving, paiseh la... smelly, question the legality, don't want to use second hand items, etc etc. This is very common. There are actually only a handful of people who actively dumpster dive in the community. Most people just want free vegetables and free bread, cos those are the easiest to get.
Or they would question the logic of eating food past the best before date cos they have been brought up with the idea that such foods shouldn't be consumed. Most of the freegan community are ok with it, some might not be.
Basically, these bunch of people are the folks who are interested in getting free stuff, but are yet fussy over what they get. So in the end, they just keep giving excuses not to try out the different activities.
Usually these people just leave after a while.
Then there are those super siao-on folks...
These bunch are those who go crazy over free stuff, they travel around the island collecting free stuff from almost everyone. They attend every single event and are all over the place.
That's fine, it's their hobby, it's always exciting to get free stuff, I don't know what they do with it so... Not for me to say anything.
Some times, I do think about the rationale behind their actions. To me, traveling around the country to collect free stuff isn't really worth it, especially if the items are stuff that they don't intend to use for themselves or stuff that they really really like. Cos if they want random free stuff, they could just walk around their estate and get stuff from the dumpsters, or just pick stuff up from the void decks. It's more convenient, easier, closer to home, etc.
And of course, there are the free loaders or leechers...
People who just join the community to get free stuff. They don't do anything, they don't contribute to the community, but when someone's giving out something for free, they try to obtain the items.
That's fine. To each their own. It's a freegan community, so people get stuff for free and share the items. The leechers do provide a service. It allows those who have large quantities of items to push out their items faster, although at times, the items might be put to better use if someone else gets it.
The rule in the freegan community is you can choose who to give things to. It's not always first come first served. I'm still pretty new to this community so I'm trying to sift out who are the folks who are just taking stuff and not giving back to the community. Some people are ok with the leechers. For me, I think it builds a bad community cos there are people who really need or want the stuff and the leechers do get in the way of better resource allocation.
I do think that there is a "reputation" in the community and eventually, the more prominent people would have first dibs on items which are given away, cos they are deemed as contributing to the community more than others. Although... most of the time, the prominent people are the folks who don't need anything in the first place and they are the ones who are struggling to pass their items away.
Ok so some people may think I'm getting boring cos I keep talking about freegan-ism and dumpster diving and getting free stuff.
I do admit that my mind has taken a turn to focus on this for the moment. Essentially, it's been a steep learning curve and I'd like to share the stuff that I am going through currently.
It's actually very similar to what I've been sharing previously.
If there's a good credit card or rebate, I'll try to share it with readers. Or if there are any funky ways to change our perception or how we see things, I try to share with readers.
And now, the topic is freegan-ism... Cos free stuff is better than to pay for stuff. Cos that's the new IN thing. To me, why would I be talking about rebates, which come in AFTER spending, when I might be able to get things for free?
I will still cover those from time to time, but most of the stuff has already been talked about. Savings, investments, reduce expenses, credit cards, etc...
And by writing about this, I hope that readers can learn a bit or maybe even join the community so that they might be able to get free stuff, so that they can save more or keep spending constant but get more stuff to enrich their lives.
To me, it's not about which is best... some people say it's better to be minimalist, others want more stuff, etc etc... to me, the point is to live an enriching life and whichever way you choose, that's your choice, for me, I explore and I share my journey, and maybe if you find certain aspects interesting, you can incorporate it in your life. Different people have different wants and desires and how they want to live their lives. And it's for them to cut and paste different aspects to make your own lives complete.
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