Oprah Profiles Freegan Lifestyle

This week, Oprah is profiling people who live the freegan lifestyle. The freegan lifestyle are people who live off of scavenging what others throw away, so they can save as much money as possible; and thus, they get away from lifestyle of the religion of ultra-consumerism. Here's more about the subject matter this week on Oprah, as well as my own personal applications freegan living!

According to website of Oprah, one freegan by the name of Madeline gives trash tours of New York City, where she's been able to find plenty of food to eat. This has saved her lots of money, as she purportedly spends only $10-$20 a week on food. She's been able to store up on fruit, vegetables, milk, eggs, etc., much of which is still in its original packaging and still edible. For instance, Madeline has found whole cartons of eggs, where just one egg is broken in the cartons. She's gathered $100-$300 worth of food (retail value) after roughly an hour's work.

Such a freegan like Madeline is a person that I can certainly relate to. If you've read my articles at Associated Content, you'll know that I'm an avid runner. You'd be surprised what I find on my runs. I carry a sack around to put in aluminum cans, which I take in every other month or so and get a bit of money for. I also find a lot of stray coins, especially pennies and nickels that most people don't care about, and I might even be lucky enough to find a dollar bill every now and then. When I go by vending machines and pay phones, I stick my fingers in the change area, and have sometimes found coins. It's not going to make me rich, but that found money helps pay sales tax! I've also found unopened bottles of pop and flavored water. If the seal hasn't been broken and there are no puncture wounds, guess what, I drink it! And I've never gotten sick from doing so. And I've also found unopened candy bars and even once a box of gourmet popcorn on one of my runs. Yes, you can call me a freegan of this world that Oprah has been discussing.

I used to do a lot of dumpster diving in order to get Sunday coupon inserts and aluminum cans, but I've cut back on it. Still, at Holiday Park in Cheyenne, Wyoming, next to the Cheyenne Family YMCA, I once found a few unopened 12 packs of cola at a park dumpster. Years ago, in 1998, I found a lady's purse in a dumpster that had her credit cards and identification cards in it. It had been stolen from her and she was really worried about replacing all her lost cards, but I made her day, and she gave me $20 for retrieving it. I think Oprah would say I did a good deed! And some of my furniture has come out of the dumpster. I found a nice rocking chair several years ago in a business dumpster, and it's still being used, but mostly by my cat and my mother's dachshund, who've made the most of some freegan bounty, as Oprah has been profiling.

Dumpster diving and taking things off the road (what a freegan can do to be called such) can be done safely if you use common sense. If there's a lot of icky stuff on the containers, leave it alone. And when you get home after a dumpster dive, wash your hands and wash the outside of the containers of food if you're going to be keeping that food in those containers or storing in the fridge. Remember, a lot of things found on the side of the road were accidently dropped by people or fell out of their cars, and things like coins or popcorn won't have an owner's identification on them. So what if people touched it...do you think the hands of the people who work in markets handling food or other items are any cleaner? Just make sure you use cleaner on the old furniture you find, too. And remember to wash your hands before touching the food, as you should do anyway no matter where you got the food.

I don't come close to what Madeline, as profiled on Oprah this week, does. But every bit helps, and it helps me realize that I, a proud freegan, need to make the most of what's already in existence instead of chasing after more stuff!