Some time ago there were a string of posts on various blogs about clearing out “stuff” from your life. At around the same time, my favourite essayist Paul Graham posted an aptly titled essay “Stuff” on his site. Taken together, the general consensus seems to be that we are all struggling to deal with an abundance of material possessions, and the sad reality is that these possessions aren’t worth anywhere near what we feel they are.

When I was younger I was an avid role-player (Dungeons and Dragons in my earlier days, White Wolf towards the end). There was a seemingly infinite number of rule books, all hardbound with gorgeous illustrations (some of bare-breasted monsters such as harpies that were quite titillating, pardon the pun, to a 7 year old boy). They cost $20 each when I started playing, but a number of them sold for $30 when I was in high school (when I look at them occasionally now, they seem to be going for $40 or $50). Occasionally you’d come across some used role playing game (RPG) books at a garage sale or used book store and you’d feel like you’d discovered gold when they were going for $5 or $10 per book.

The sad thing is, I’m still sitting on about 70 lbs of RPG material that I haven’t looked at in years, and I can’t bear to give it up (because I know its old, new version have been released, and I’d basically have to give it away). This is nuts.

My brother and I were comic collectors, and we loved to buy a copy of “Wizard” (which gave all the values for comics) and “appraise” our collections. Each month we’d happily cackle over how much we’d earned as savvy comic book collectors. The sad day hits the first time you try to sell a comic and you realize that the only person selling in town in the comic book store, no one will pay Wizard prices for your comics.

Paul Graham makes the case that a spartan living environment has more value then the crap we surround ourselves with. Since my move, I’m living in a much smaller living space, which is pretty well like a warehouse (I need to climb over boxes to get in and out of my room). I fantasize about living in a sparse environment with all my worldly goods fitting in a bag or two that I can carry myself.

Sadly, a little demon in my mind keeps whispering that sometime, somehow all this stuff will suddenly be worth serious money and I need to keep it.

Every parent of young children is continually looking for new activities to do with their kids.  Preferably activities that are inexpensive or even free.

One option I have is to take my kids to Riverdale Farm which is located near the downtown core here in Toronto.  Of course this particular activity isn’t available to everyone reading this but perhaps there is something similar near where you live.  If you do live within a reasonable drive of Riverdale Farm (it is near the Don Valley and Gerrard) then I strongly suggest you check it out if you have little ones you need to entertain.  The farm is free, has free parking, open all year and even has special activities once in a while.

There are quite a few different animals there – cows, sheep, goats, horses, pigs to name a few.  Recently there were a number of baby animals – the piglets were the cutest by far.  The setting is quite scenic – it is fairly hilly and there is a path down to the Don Valley as well as a pedestrian walkway which spans the Don Valley river and parkway and ends up in Riverdale park.

My kids like the animals but their favourite activities are running around and rolling down the grass hills.

Most of these photos are from last November and a couple are from late February – you don’t need to wait until summer to enjoy the farm.

All pictures taken with my Canon 200sx.

Does your area have any free farms or petting zoos available?

Mmmmm....future bacon.

Feeding the goats (which is not allowed by the way!).

Horsies.

Unfriendly stare

Donkey.

Rasta Sheep.

Quite a few people have been expressing their admiration for my frugality to me, so I thought it was time to rein in the enthusiasm and talk a bit about the downsides of frugal living.

1. The most obvious downside, and what I don’t actually consider a downside, is frugality makes you question your buying decisions. We live in a society that wants to sell us stuff all the time, and it’s easy to just immerse yourself in this, buy buy buy. It’s harder to resist this and decide for yourself what is of importance and value.

2. Meager living spaces are a downside which would bother a lot of people. Small space without amenities definitely leads to a different lifestyle compared to mansions with indoor pools. When I was a kid growing up, like everyone, I thought about living in a big house as an adult. The reality of having to maintain so much space makes it utterly unappealing at this point in life (I doubt I’d have a mansion if I was the richest man on Earth). My brother dreams of a house on the water and being able to do outdoor activities all year round. My father wanted to buy a house with a big lot. All these things cost money, and if you’re serious about being cheap you may have to give some of them up.

3. It’s hard to be cheap. There’s constant social pressure to just drop coin like it doesn’t matter to you. Evaluating buying decisions certainly doesn’t make you a lot of friends. My ex was debating a limit of what she should spend for a wedding gift for a co-worker, and her mother told her “don’t be so cheap”. This can hurt sometimes.

4. Family and romance can be tough. If you really want to live cheap, you’re going to have to lose the kids. As a guy, you’re going to have a tough time dating if you’re trying not to pay for dinner and a movie too often (“come on baby, I’ll take you for a walk in the park followed by free samples out at Costco!”). I’m not too sure if being cheap would make romance harder for a woman, since the ultimate seduction hardly costs anything at all (show up naked with a sandwich). In all seriousness, I wouldn’t try to live the way I do now if a wife and/or child was involved.

5.  Eating cheap food can be bad for your health.  Try to remember that health is VERY valuable, if you find yourself grappling with food expense decisions (my beloved cheap, chicken hot dogs are delicious, but deadly!).

So there you have it, the only cost of being cheap is you’ll have trouble making decisions, be lonely (no friends or family), live in a hovel and slowly sickening of malnutrition. Any dangers I’ve missed?

Three years ago Ramit Sethi wrote a post that made me laugh and think of my parents (it also looks like it might have subconsciously been influencing my post last week).  In it he talks about how his parents are very generous with him, but they (and, according to Ramit, all Indians) HATE to pay for dry cleaning or shipping.  He claims that reluctance to spend on dry cleaning somewhat makes sense to him (same clothes, just cleaner), but he can’t understand the shipping reluctance.  To me it’s very similar (it’s the same object, it’s just in a different location).

It made me laugh because my parents live in fear of long distance phone calls and taxicabs.  When I was a kid a couple of times I wanted to order something or call somewhere long distance, and my mother made a *HUGE* deal of it saying I could make the call, but when the bill came in, I was responsible for the charges!!!  I made the call and ended up paying $0.63 or something.  Whee.  The only way I can make sense of their fear is that long distance cost FAR more when they were growing up (and maybe they haven’t internalized that it’s actually pretty cheap now).  I’m not sure what the problem is with taxis (sure public transit is cheaper and should be taken if possible, but it isn’t the end of the world to take a cab a few times a year).

My mother was once going to visit my brother when he was in England, and it happened that it was quite tough to get where he was living.  He gave her directions which involved flying to Heathrow, taking mass transit into the city, then taking a taxi to avoid a 50 minute walk to get to his place.  My mom said she’d just walk the last leg.  With her luggage.  After having just been traveling for well over 10 hours.

I suspect we all have a couple of things that it really bugs us to pay for.  There are a number of things that it kills me to pay for, but the biggest are probably:

Easily Prepared Foods at Restaurants

I find it VERY hard to order steak or lobster at a restaurant.  Not because of the price (I’ll have expensive meals out on occasion), but just because you pay such a premium and they’re *SO* easy to make at home!  It doesn’t take much to grill a steak to perfection, and the hardest part of cooking a lobster is not feeling guilty when you pop him in the boiling water.

It kills me to buy booze in a restaurant too: I can open a bottle of beer at home for half the price, thanks.

I *LOVE* getting Pad Thai, eggs Benedict, butter chicken and other, more difficult to make, dishes at restaurants.  If I can easily make it for myself at home, I’ll do so.

The flip side of this is, if a steak is what you feel like, get it.  If you’ll enjoy having a beer with your meal, who cares if it costs more than at home (your goal when enjoying a nice meal out should be to enjoy it, dammit!)

Expensive Rentals

In many ways renting a DVD is an incredibly cheap way to spend a night with friends:  for $5 you sit around in someone’s living room and watch a movie (compared to $12 per person to go out to the theater).  When you can BUY DVDs for less than $20, it kills me to give Blockbuster 1/4 of the price to borrow it for a day (as crazy as it is, I’d almost rather buy it and just watch it once, then give it to a friend).  I keep waiting for the $1 / day DVD rental kiosks to take off.

Intellectual Property

It’s bizarre, since almost any way I’d make money involves intellectual property or selling information (programming, publishing, teaching, etc) but I find it really hard to place a value on non-tangible goods.  What I’ve read suggests I’m not alone.  From music to television to movies to books to software it really kills me to pay for content when there’s an alternative way (such as lending libraries or black markets) to get it free (or so cheap that it’s next to free).

What do you find it (irrationally) hard to spend money on?

Unfortunately, the economy is still down, and this year the pressure is still on to find cheap gifts for loved ones.  The 2008 edition of the “Four Pillars’ Last Minute Cheap Gift Guide” is still relevant for gift giving, but if you need more modern ideas for what to give on a budget, we’ve got you covered.

• A hug:  The classic way t0 let someone know “I’m broke, but I care” a hug is perfect for all ages and both genders!  As it’s most acceptable with older relatives, you can also push your luck and give this to siblings and friends.  Add a kiss or other affectionate act and you can cross that “special someone” off of your list.  Not recommended in work environments (especially with your boss).
• Burnt CDs / DVDs:  Let people know that when you steal for them, you steal the best!  Whether it be bootleg music, tv shows, movies, or even computer software this is the gift that says “I thought about something that would be perfect for you, then downloaded it off of the Internet and burnt it on a $0.10 bit of plastic instead of wasting money getting it at the store.”  Edgy and “counter-culture” this tells everyone involved in the gift giving festivities that you’re a good looking rebel who plays by his (or her) own rules!
• Home Made “Spa” Gift Basket:  If you travel regularly (perhaps for business), collect the toiletries they give out free where you stay and make your own “Bed Bath and Beyond” style gift basket.  These will be name brand products (just hotel chain names instead of cosmetic companies) at a fraction of the cost!  If you don’t travel, perhaps you can ask a friend who does to collect these for you, then you’ll be well stocked for giving indulgence on a shoestring next year.
• Home Made “Savings Book”:  Fund raisers will often sell a book of coupons for samples and discounts at local businesses.  If people will buy such a thing, it probably has value and can be given as a gift.  And why buy it when you can make it yourself?  Search through junk mail and store flyers to find as many coupons as you can.  For each recipient, put coupons for things they use at the front (and bury expired coupons and things like “$0.10 off Bengay” near the middle where the recipient probably won’t notice them after receiving the book).
• Give Services You Already Provide: Every family has a natural “division of labour” where different members specialize in different jobs.  Mom does the laundry, dad shovels snow and cuts the lawn, Johnny sets the timer on the VCR and provides tech support and Suzy makes baked treats.  Instead of selflessly and freely giving these services to loved one, give them coupons to receive these services a set number of times in the coming year.  This helps them appreciate what you do for them, prevents them from being too demanding, and makes them a little worried what will happen once the coupons are gone (“What Johnny, you don’t have any more ‘home cooked meal’ coupons?  Guess you’ll be living off of microwave popcorn until next Christmas.”)

Whether you’re shopping for someone who is starved for affection, a music geek, a woman who appreciates relaxation and luxury, someone frugal or someone who doesn’t appreciate you, with a little creativity you can find a spot-on gift that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg!

Thanksgiving made me think about fun and inexpensive ways to decorate the table and here are some of the results, a potato turkey, an apple turkey and a nutty turkey.  These food animals can be used to decorate the table at Christmas, Thanksgiving or any other time of year that you need a bit of a laugh.  I thoroughly enjoyed making them and I hope you enjoy the post.  This is a great activity to do with kids of any age.

Potato Turkey

This could be a great Thanksgiving or Christmas dish for the vegetarian at your dinner table.  Healthy potato and yummy radish make a pretty good little snack.  Or you can just make gobble, gobble noises while you play with the potato turkey.

Ingredients for 1 turkey:

• 1 Potato
• 1 Radish
• 1 Asparagus stalk
• 3-4 Bok choy leaves
• 2 Peppercorns

Ingredients for Potato Turkey

You can substitute any of these if your fridge is missing something.  Any leafy vegetable can be used in place of bok choy, a sweet potato for the potato, spring onion for the asparagus and so on.   Initially, I had rosemary stalks for the tail, but it ended up looking too much like a peacock that way.

1.  Bake the potato.  This will be the body of the bird.

2.  Once it is cool enough to handle, cut a slit in the front and scoop out a little hole.  This will be for inserting the asparagus stalk as the neck.  Cut slits across the back of the potato for the tail.  Cut the asparagus down to about 2-3 inches for the neck.

3.  Prepare the bok choy leaves by cutting the stalks into points.   Insert them into the slits at the back of the potato.

4.  Prepare the radish by  scooping out a hole for the neck and little holes for the eyes.  Push the peppercorns into the eye holes.  I found that the hardest part of making this turkey was getting the neck hole just right for the neck.

Cut small holes for the eyes.

Cut one larger hole for the neck.

5. Insert the asparagus into the neck hole in the potato.  Add the radish on top and enjoy your handiwork.

One potato turkey

If you find that the peppercorns are stubbornly refusing to stay in place, then a dab of mayonnaise or sour cream will work wonders as glue.  I used mayonnaise to put a leaf of rosemary on the beak for the photo.  In person, so to speak, you could see the tip of the radish just fine for the turkey’s beak.

Apple Turkey

This design is extremely healthy (since it is just an apple) and it looks very modern so if you have one of those modern-style box houses then this might be the proper table decoration for your holiday party.

1.  Choose a nicely shaped apple and wash it.

2.  Make a cut straight down from the top starting about 2/3 of the way down.  This vertical cut should be about 1 1/2 inches long.  Then make a horizontal cut just deep enough to meet the first one and be able to take the piece off.

3.  Make another vertical cut 3/8 of an inch or so higher than the first one and a corresponding horizontal cut to take that piece off.  Keep doing this until you have 4 or more pieces.

4. On the opposite side, make two shallow cuts to take out a wide pie-shaped slice and repeat that to make 4 or more slices.

5. To finish it, make cuts on both sides of the smallest slice to hint at eyes and a beak.  Then slide the slices on both sides upwards, each the same small distance apart. Turn the smallest slice upside down.  The moisture from the apple should hold it all together.

Turkey apple

The apple turkey is easy to do, but needs to be eaten before it starts to discolor.  Some varieties of apples take longer to discolor.  This one was a Honeycrisp.

Nutty Turkey

You can get very creative with nuts – this one is fun and funny.  All it takes is a walnut, a peanut in the shell, a couple of lentils, 5 pumpkins seeds and some glue.

Ingredients for Nutty Turkey

1.  Glue the two lentils to the peanut as eyes and one of the pumpkin seeds on as a beak.

2.  Glue the peanut to the walnut.  I had to put an elastic around this to make it stay in place while the glue dried.

3.  Glue two pumpkin seeds together for feet.  Once the glue has dried glue the feet to the bottom of the bird.

4.  Laugh at the result.

Nutty Turkey

I’ve done a number of posts on extremely cheap individuals (Daniel Suelo, Charles Long, Don Schrader) and groups (Freegans) but have always had a soft spot for stories about the Economides (self-professed to be “America’s Cheapest Family”).

While they certainly aren’t shy about self-promotion, I think they’ve actually built a unique lifestyle that works for their entire family (at least they seem to all be in it together when the TV cameras are rolling).  Basing their philosophy around tips like “Don’t go to the grocery store often”, “Leave the kids at home” and “Slice your own luncheon meat” (for grocery shopping), they’ve raised a family of 7 on $350 / month of groceries.  They also managed to pay off their first house in 9 years (while earning an average income of $35k), so they’re definitely living on the cheap.

I mentioned in a comment on my Charles Long post that I’d worry about putting my children through a lifestyle like this.  By the time your kids have really made up their mind whether this is ok or not (once they’d seen how differently their friends live), they’d probably already feel scarred for life if they were unhappy about it.  In interviews the kids seemed fine and happy with the lifestyle.  Their daughter fielded questions about this in one interview and said that she wears brand named clothes she got at the thrift store and drives a fixed up used truck that she loves.  The one part that bothers me is one of their few splurges is for professional hair styling for the mother.  If I was in their shoes I’d focus on “we’re all in this together” and either everyone in the family who wants a store haircut get one or none of them do (“sorry honey, your mother needs to look as good as possible, but you can go to the prom with a brush cut”).  Who knows though, maybe the mother is the only one able to cut hair and no one else has ever been interested in learning in order to cut hers.

I think it’s really cool that this family has been able to turn their frugal philosophy into a “family business” of spreading the gospel (through their website and newsletter). Much as with Charles Long, I get the feeling that by choosing not to chase the “consumer dream” they’re able to focus on spending time with one another and what they really value (beyond “stuff”).

Videos

Blog Write Ups

• The Digerati Life (and another post about them on the author’s other blog The Smarter Wallet)
• The Consumerist
• The Simple Dollar (focus is on their book, including a chapter-by-chapter rundown)

Mainstream News Sites

• ABC News
• Dr. Phil
• The Today Show (with video)
• People Magazine

Would you want to be a part of a family like this?  How would you handle it if part of the family wanted to live this way and part didn’t?

I touched on hitchhiking in a previous post, but felt that it deserved a deeper treatment than I gave it at the time.

For those not familiar with the term, hitchhiking refers to getting rides, for free, from generous motorists who have a free seat and are willing to take you to (or at least closer to) your destination.

To give a bit of personal background, I’ve hitchhiked in Canada and across Europe (throughout the UK, Holland, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, etc).  I based my philosophy initially on Europe on 84¢ a Day, then developed my own approach after getting bit of experience under my belt.  I haven’t hitchhiked in years myself, but I do pick up hitchhikers (and keep thinking I should try hitchhiking up to my hometown at some point).

Why Hitchhike?

First and foremost hitchhiking is a way to minimize travel costs (and save money for more important things, like beer).  Whether to allow a trip that couldn’t be afforded, travel further on a set budget, or just to save money, hitchhiking lets you go further on less (in 1996 I traveled Europe for 4 months on $5000, including airfare).

Often when traveling you end up in a bubble that protects you from the locals.  You’ll spend time with other travelers, which is great for learning about the world, but somewhat sad that you’re finding out about India when you’re staying at an Amsterdam hostel.  Often the locals that you do interact with, such as hostel staff, don’t have much interest in you as a person (they’re just doing their job) and aren’t particularly keen on a cultural exchange. Hitchhiking makes it FAR more likely you’ll be talking to a typical member of the culture you’re traveling in, and it will probably be someone very interested in talking to you (as often that’s why they picked you up).

Social Contract

There’s a number of unspoken rules when hitchhiking.  Both parties are interested in safely and enjoyably spending time with one another.  The hitchhiker does this to get closer to her destination, the driver does this to have company on the road (or to feel good about himself for helping someone out).

When someone picks you up your have an obligation to be a pleasant traveling companion.  Talking to the driver and keeping the conversation friendly and enjoyable are necessary – this isn’t the time to debate religion or politics.  I still feel badly about one time I got picked up with a woman I was traveling with at the time.  We’d tried to camp out the night before, and slept VERY badly, so shortly after being picked up we both fell asleep for the next 4 hours of the drive.  The driver didn’t pick us up to listen to us snore, and was very gracious when I apologized profusely after waking up at our destination.

Small exchanges are certainly appropriate (if you’ve packed a small lunch and want to eat, certainly offer to share – standard etiquette applies).  SOME hitchhikers will offer payment (in cash or gas), but to me this kind of defeats the whole point: if I’m going to pay for transportation, why not just take a bus?  I took a small bag with Canadian pins, coins and other small gifts that I gave to drivers (especially if they picked me up with children, the kids were delighted with small trinkets).

Since drivers have been good enough to pick me up in the past, I feel obligated to pick up hitchhikers when I’m driving.

Appearances Matter

Sadly, as in many areas in life, first impressions matter.  Particularly when drivers are speeding past at 80 km / hour, often they’ll be too far down the road by the time they decide to pick you up if its a tough decision.  Everyone should be clean and decently dressed when hitchhiking.  For men, having short hair and no facial hair is probably a good idea.  For women I’d probably err on the side of modest dress (the last things you want drivers to think is that you’re offering physical affection).  Standing on the side of the road puffing a cigarette is probably not the best idea (I’ve never smoke cigarettes, so this wasn’t an issue for me, but I recently hesitated to pick a guy up because he was smoking).

If you can do something to get attention, look harmless, and look like fun it’s probably worth doing.  While traveling Europe, if I had to wait more than 5 or 10 minutes I’d pull out a Canadian flag I was traveling with and start dancing with it on the side of the road.  One time a bus full of Asian tourists slowed down, they all took pictures of me, then it sped up and disappeared (I felt so used ).  I giggled at the time thinking about the starring role I was going to have when they went home and showed their friends the European vacation pics.

Two guys will have a tough time getting picked up (most drivers would find it intimidating to be in a car with two young guys).  Traveling on your own, or with a woman, is probably the best approach.  Two women traveling together have an easier time getting rides than two men.

Location, Location, Location

Where you hitchhike is probably the biggest factor to determine how long you’ll wait for a ride.  Sometimes the country itself is a problem:  when I was in Sweden, I couldn’t get picked up to save my life.  I was told that all students in the country can take buses for free, so motorists had the feeling that no one should have to hitchhike and wouldn’t pick you up.  After spending a morning on the side of the road, I sprang for a bus ticket to Stockholm and got out of the country.

The best places to hitchhike are where drivers are traveling slowly or stopped (giving them more time to decide they want to pick you up).  A gas station is therefore a MUCH better place to find a ride than a highway on-ramp, which in turn is better than along the shoulder of the highway.  Often drivers will be happy to drop you off at a restaurant or gas station if you ask.

In some countries (and in certain areas within them) it is illegal to hitchhike.  The Dutch police pulled over and told me that they’d be back in 10 minutes and would arrest me if I was still there.  Usually I think the police will understand that you aren’t a local and hopefully give you a warning if you’re somewhere you shouldn’t be.

Safety

Hitchhiking has a higher chance of getting into a dangerous situation than many other forms of travel.  The first comment on my review of 84¢ a day was a fear of ending up in a Hostel horror movie.  If you’re worried about this to the point that it makes you uncomfortable (or worse, decide to carry a weapon to protect yourself), you’re better off just paying for travel and avoiding the hitchhiking experience entirely.  I had two bad experiences over four months (a German guy tried to talk me into letting him fondle me, and two stinking drunk Fins offered me a ride) and in both cases I just stayed polite, alert and got out of the situation as soon as I could.

I’ve met a woman was raped while hitchhiking, so bad experiences happen (although I’ve met men and women who have hitchhiked extensively and had overwhelmingly positive experiences).  Weigh your feelings of the pros and cons and decide for yourself if it’s worth hitchhiking as a form of travel.

Have you ever hitchhiked?  Have you ever picked up a hitchhiker?  What was the experience like?

The Bag Lady recently posted about Daniel Suelo, a man who has “quit using money like a bad drug“. I always find people, like Charles Long, Don Schrader or the Freegans to be interesting in their ability to opt-out of the Western economic and social system and chart their own course, living how they want.

Much like the others, there’s a very specific philosophy behind Suelo’s life. He was doing development work with Ecuadorean tribespeople and saw that as they became more prosperous, their health declined. He took the view that, counter-intuitively, money was impoverishing them. He spent time with the sadhus (“the revered ascetics who go penniless for their gods”) and decided that it would be easy to be a sadhu in India along with others doing the same thing, but how much harder (and more worthwhile) it would be to do the same thing in hyper-consumption America?

The “noble savage” has been a particularly obnoxious idea that glorifies living primitive lifestyle close to nature. I think Suelo is buying into an illusion that money is corrupting a society that he would rather see continue to live as subsistence farmers. Some people will make unhealthy choices, when they have the option to make them. To keep a group poor (or hope for their continued or future poverty) so they can’t access these choices is short-sighted and patronizing.

A quote I love from a Danny Devito movie (I never saw the actual movie, this was just from the trailer) was “a million dollars is a motive with a universal adapter”. This is true about any amount of money. If someone has desires in life, money can assist them (directly or indirectly) in fulfilling them. Money can help you find love (ask any guy who has taken someone out on a date or any woman who has bought makeup or a push-up bra), food, knowledge (bookstores, internet connections), or pretty well anything else you might want.

Money is the ultimate symbol: it can be anything. As Suelo (and the Bag Lady) point out, money only has meaning in the context of the marketplace it is used in. They say if you gave an alien a trillion dollars it would be meaningless to them. This is true, but so what? Money is incredibly useful WITHIN this context. It’s like saying computer software wouldn’t be anything other than long strings of 0′s and 1′s if there wasn’t any hardware to run it on. This is true, but it doesn’t make software useless (it’s just part of a system).

Heidemarie Schwermer (also mentioned by the Bag Lady) apparently has lived without money for about 12 years, by bartering within “exchange circles”. I can’t understand for the life of me why she feels this is a more noble lifestyle than bartering with the global exchange circle that money makes possible (I guess I’ll have to watch the documentary). Similar I don’t understand why Daniel Suelo will accept a winter jacket from a friend, but he won’t accept money from the same friend to go buy a jacket.

In each case, people (including Mr. Suelo) are able to adopt their lifestyle because of the excess from Western living. He uses a library provided free computer and internet connection to maintain his website, and often receives food and goods from friends in the nearby town. I don’t have a problem with this, but some may attack a lifestyle that is so completely dependent on the society it rejects.

For retirement, Suelo plans to die in the canyon he has been living in instead of in a geriatric ward. I respect his fortitude to live his own life in such a manner that is radically different (and far harsher) from the society he exists in. I don’t completely understand (or agree with) his outlook on money, but I admire his resolve and the courage of his convictions.

Mr. Cheap is on vacation this week but eagerly looks forward to reading your comments when he’s back in town.

I’ve written in the past about people like Charles Long and Don Schrader who make me seem like I should be called Mr. Spendthrift, not Mr. Cheap.  An entire group who also makes me look like I’m throwing money around like a drunken sailor are the Freegans.  At our recent get together, neither Preet nor Mike had heard of Freegans, so I thought it might make an interesting post.

What Are Freegans?

People who have embraced Freeganism are scavengers, trying to minimize the social and environmental impact of our consumer society by extreme reuse of the waste of others.  They dumpster dive to secure the necessities of life (and for non-necessities discarded by others), and by doing so are able to release themselves from having to be a wage-slave.  They’re basically human raccoons.

Freegan is derived from “free” and “vegan”.  Some Freegans eat discarded meat (yum), but these are more accurately called “Meagans” (no, I’m not making this up.  If you’re wondering if this is a joke post, it’s not).

Apparently restaurants and grocery stores will often wrap up food that’s being discarded, so it’s possible to dig out food from the trash that’s still quite clean and hygienic (if you’ll allow a broad definition of both terms ).  Restaurants and grocery stores have been sued in the past when food they donated made people sick. Rationally, they’ve responded to these lawsuits by no longer donating food, which is a shame for everyone involved (why do a few bad apples always need to spoil things?).  There was a recent bill signed into law in Florida that provides liability protection for restaurants to donate food.  Clinton signed The Federal Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act which supposedly does the same thing (I’m not sure why Florida had to create a similar law if there was Federal protection provided 13 years ago).

Things I Like About Freeganism

I admire people who are able to take their dissatisfaction with some part of modern living and change how they live.  I’m perpetually annoyed at people who complain endlessly, but do nothing to change things.  I’m even more annoyed at people who try to force change on everyone else (most activists).  People who say “I don’t like this part of the system, so I’m going to change how *I* live so that I’m not part of the problem and to show people that there’s another way” are very, very cool.

I find efficient resource consumption endlessly appealing.  I like the Walden-esque element of structuring their life such that they can be fairly independent from society at large.  Beyond the positive impact of not having products produced for them, they also save all the associated costs and impact of distribution.

Apparently Freegans don’t panhandle, which is a very good thing (in my opinion).

People make the criticism of Charles Long that his system of living wouldn’t work if everyone does it (which he acknowledges, but rightfully responds that most people won’t).  Similarly Freegans need people to generate the trash for them to live off of, so we can’t all live this way (and, I suspect, very few people would be willing to).  We can’t all live this way (and won’t), but it’s great for some people to do it if they’re willing.  Some people criticize Freegans for living indirectly off of a system they condemn, but I don’t have a problem with this.

I love that Freegans are able, by drastically reducing their cost of living, to be far more selective about what employment they take on.  Often they will volunteer or focus on projects of personal interest to them.

Freegans tend to find good garbage dumps that they’ll visit regularly.  Hopefully this means that they don’t make a mess when garbage picking.  I’m disgusted by littering in general and it always annoys me when I see homeless people dumping trash, sorting through it, then leaving the mess for someone else to clean up.

Things I Don’ t Like About Freeganism

I’m a pretty easy-going, open guy, but eating garbage is past where I draw the line.  I’m happy for other people to do it, but I’m not going to.

Part of the Freegan philosophy is moral support of theft (look about 2/3rds of the way down the page).  They advocate shoplifting as “better than forking over big bucks”, employee theft (they’re “stealing” your time, so steal things from the workplace), and scams such as returning goods they’ve dug out of the trash (for a refund).  I think they lose the moral high ground in a hurry when petty thievery becomes a part of the lifestyle.

While I like the libertarian elements and philosophy behind Freeganism, I think I’d have a very different perspective on life and society compared to most Freegans.  I don’t think our economic system is broken to the degree that it requires a complete boycott.  Ironically, it could be argued that the incredible strength of our modern economic system is what allows them to live a decent (debatable perhaps) lifestyle off of the system’s discarded trash.

More Info About Freeganism

A couple blog posts about Freegans are available at the Go Frugal blog, Tigers & Strawberries (a pretty blistering criticism of the movement) and at The Everyday Economist.  Two very comprehensive overviews are at “How Stuff Works” and a “lens” at Squidoo.  More mainstream news coverage is available at MSNBC (with video), Green Living Tips and Mother Nature Network (also with video).  If you don’t mind some really ugly English accents, there’s also a YouTube video.  An interesting critique of Freeganism is available here (it’s Tribe.ca, a message board about club culture in Toronto).

You can read what Freegans say about themselves at their main US website, their main Canadian website, and on the Canadian Activism Archives.

What do you think of Freeganism?  Would you ever consider a Freegan lifestyle yourself?  Have you ever met a Freegan (or know one as a friend / family)?