Diving Into The Topic Of Freegans And Frugal Living

Freegans Compared To 1930s and 1940's Frugal Housewives

While doing research on junk collecting I kept coming across the term "Freegan" and decided it was time for me to dive right into the subject (no pun intended). Being totally clueless about Freegans, my first thought was whether Freegans and Vegans were related? In essence the words do share a relationship; both Freegans and Vegans are concerned with "excluding" certain practices. Many Freegans are Vegans who forsake all animal products. Freegans forsake "consumerism".

What Are Freegans?

Freeganism (which started in the 1990's) is an anti-consumerism lifestyle whereby people employ alternative living strategies based on "limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources".Freegans are scavengers who live off consumer waste.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeganism

Freegans are interested in eliminating wasteful consumption. They are big on rescuing, re-cycling, re-purposing and re-using everything. Advanced Freegans live totally off goods recovered from trash or thrown away. Freegaans rummage through supernmarket trash, dress in hand me down clothes and furnish their home from cast off furnish. Many items are found on the street or from groups such as freecycle.org or at so called freemeets or swap meets.

Freegan-Inspired Lifestyles

While many Freegans adopt the whole package, others live a Freegan inspired life or what some call Freegan-lite. Freegans have been compared to frugal housewives of earlier generations, learning how to conserve, save and repair. http://www.savingadvice.com/blog/2008/10/24/103132_freegan-tips-for-the-frugal.html

Freegan Tips For The Frugal

1. Swap- organize group swaps in your home. Invite friends to exchange such items as books, clothing, art suppplies, plants etc.

2. Get Stuff For Free: Check out Craigslist and Free Cycle online.

3. Rescue Food Before It Gets Trashed. Collect excess food from bakeries, restaurants and volunteer to bring to a Shelter or Soup Kitchen. Bring containers to work...and collect extra food from group functions.

4. Dumpster Dive: While you don't have to actually go into a dumpster, you can rescue old furniture, useble household items and perfectly good trash from others, curbsides, and dump sites.

5. Host a Free Martket where everything is literally free. http://www.reallyreallyfree.org/

6. Particicpate in community gardens. Grown your own food and share with others.

7. Barter: Exchange gooods and servces.


Freegan And Frugal Resources

Freegan Info
http://freegan.info/?page_id=2

Not Buying It
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/21/garden/21freegan.html?_r=1

Freegan Meet Up Groups
http://dumpsterdiving.meetup.com/

Freegan Info
http://freegan.info/?page_id=2

Freegan Tips For The Frugal
http://www.savingadvice.com/blog/2008/10/24/103132_freegan-tips-for-the-frugal.html

Reuse Centers For Artist Supplies
http://generationgreen.com/text/reuse_materials.html

Bottom Feeders
http://home.earthlink.net/~astrology/confessi.html

Dumpster Diving
http://www.allthingsfrugal.com/dumpster.htm

http://www.thelivingweb.net/dumpster_diving_for_fun_and_profit.html
http://www.jgpress.com/IBArticles/1999/MJ%2015.htm

http://oksr.tripod.com/dive.html

Curbside Diving
http://www.angelfire.com/id/furrania/refuse.html

Garden Junk
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/junk/

Frugal Living
http://frugalliving.about.com/od/bargainshopping/p/Freegan.htm

Free Cycle http://www.freecycle.org/

Craigslist.org

C. Dianne Zweig is the author of Hot Kitchen & Home Collectibles of the 30s, 40s, 50s and Hot Cottage Collectibles for Vintage Style Homes. She is also the Editor of Iantiqueonline.com an actively growing internet based resource community for people who buy, sell or collect antiques, collectibles and art. You can find Dianne’s fabulous retro and vintage kitchen, home and cottage collectibles at The Collinsville Antiques Company of New Hartford, CT, a 22,000 feet antique emporium with an in-house retro café.

To read more articles by C. Dianne Zweig click on this link:
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