Tag Archives: freegans

Minimalist vs Freegans, Money Fight Matchup #1

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I’ve been far to soft here at www.moneyreasons.com!  It’s time to get some opponents into a “Cage Ring” and have them tear into each other.

Today, two opponents are going to go for the gold by duking it out for three rounds in the rusty cage!

In this corner we have the Freegans – They are heavily into recycling food and other products by digging for them in dumpsters and other such locations.

In the other corner, Minimalist – People that try to restrict the amount of products they consume in life.

Who is the Greenest of Them All?

Freegans, consume mainly recycled furnishing and thrown away food that was found out in dumpsters.

Minimalist live with as little furniture as possible, but they still have to buy their food!

Round 1 goes to the Freegans.  Why?  Because it’s better to get rid of trash that would be sitting in a landfill (via recycling) vs creating a minimal amount of trash.  While it is close, Freegans win.

Who has the Healthier Lifestyle?

You probably would expect the Minimalist would win this one, and you would be corrected!  The Freegans go out after nights on their “shopping” trips to pick up food and goods out of the dumpsters.  There is way to much potential for getting sick from some sort of bacteria or virus, not to mention safety concerns…

Round 2 goes to the minimalist.

Which group has the potential to make more money?

Both work in similar settings.  Both can be well-educated, but the minimalist edge ahead just by the slightest of margins!  And this is because they would be healthier and live a tighter existence, so that they have fewer distractions.  This enables them to focus effectively on things in their life such as their jobs, significant others, and whatever else they choose to value.

So round 3 goes to the minimalist!

So the winner of this first Money Matchup goes to the Minimalist!

I’d like to thank both contestants and wish them well 🙂

If you have any interesting point to make between the two, please do tell 😉

-MR

Freegan’s lifestyle isn’t for me.

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I take great personal pride in being frugal and green both at the same time.  I try to put a green spin on my frugal ways, but I will never have the courage (or health) to be green in the freegan way.

If you’ve never heard of a freegan (free + vegan) before, basically they are people that hate waste and they hate that way people waste resources.  To counter the waste of other people, they will go dumpster diving for food and other items that they believe still have value.  Now don’t confuse freegans with the homeless, most of the freegans have jobs or other sources of money.  These people just care about the environment and are doing something (extreme as it might be) about it.  I think of freegans are kind of like the ultimate modern-day hippies (minus the association with drugs aspect) kind of…

The vegans part of the freegan’s name is becoming more optional than the rule of thumb.  After all, why waste meat products?

I’m not against this, and I commend them for doing so.  But when it comes to getting food in a dumpster, I have to personally draw the line there.  Some of the freegans are very clever.  So have informal arrangements with restaurants, so that when the restaurants discard their trash, some of the better pieces of food are separated in plastic bags separated from the rest of the regular trash.

freegan

freegan.info picture – Saiya

The closest I’ve come to this kind of activity is when I sometimes get a bowl of popcorn when a co-worker goes down to our cafeteria.  He brings a big bowl of leftover popcorn from the cafeteria back to his cube and offers it to us surrounding cubicle dwellers.  He doesn’t do it because he needs the money (he’s rich compared to me, he does it because he hates to see it wasted).

On the other hand, I think I might consider using freecycle.org.  Especially if I was younger and on a limited budget. 🙂

This freegan wiki provides further descriptions of the freegan way.