I chanced upon freeganism when reviewing my retirement plans. I just left my stressful job and recovering from a stress-induced migraine. I wish to retire from work by age 45 but no concrete plans yet.
I felt freeganism is a path to fulfill my early retirement dream. The idea behind freeganism is to get what you need for free and use your money only on necessities. I joined "Freegan in Singapore" Facebook group, where Colin Lau's articles on freeganism opened my mind. Initially, I dumpster diving twice daily. Later reduced to once daily. Then finally every weekend only. At first, I only managed to rescue merchandise but limited food. Now, with some luck, I can rescue food, bread, and cakes to pack my fridge so I have enough to eat with my wife. I still pay for food when I'm lazy to cook as I hate cleaning up.
I felt freeganism is a path to fulfill my early retirement dream. The idea behind freeganism is to get what you need for free and use your money only on necessities. I joined "Freegan in Singapore" Facebook group, where Colin Lau's articles on freeganism opened my mind. Initially, I dumpster diving twice daily. Later reduced to once daily. Then finally every weekend only. At first, I only managed to rescue merchandise but limited food. Now, with some luck, I can rescue food, bread, and cakes to pack my fridge so I have enough to eat with my wife. I still pay for food when I'm lazy to cook as I hate cleaning up.
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| Not anti-consumerism but not waste the limited resources we have. |
Below are my 6 reasons for becoming a Freegan:
1. Sick of work
Mainly due to office politics, backstabbing and no sense of job satisfaction. Worse is working in Info Technology (IT) industry, always fire-fighting. Felt tired both physically and mentally. So quitting my job makes logical sense.
2. No idea why I earn money for
From young, I never put too much emphasis on money. I want to retire early but working so hard for money just for retirement isn't worthwhile to me. To me, the value of money is only when used, not in a bank or investment. I am a thrifty person by nature. However, I would splurge on anything I like but the stuff is collecting dust in the cupboards or shelves now.
3. Want a healthier life
My health was fine until diagnosed with stress-induced migraines. I suspect I have mild depression too, as I have some of the associated symptoms. I take care of my health and exercise regularly. However, those exercises have limited effects on my mental illnesses. It was then I made up my mind to change myself before change changed me for the worse.
4. Want to reduce stress
In my work, I am hit with stress of different magnitude. Last minute changes, urgent requests, demanding customers, unrealistic expectations, etc. These caused me to have stress-induced migraines. Since all these stress comes from work, logically stop working is the most logical solution. However, if I still need to find a job, the same or more stress may be waiting for me. So unless I can quit working, I am unable to remove these work stress. So freeganism is the way for me to go.
5. Calm down my mind
I realized that my mind is always trying to be ahead of anything. It can never keep still for a moment. Always trying to give me ideas or tasks to get me to work on. I felt I am always chasing time and always do not have enough time but even if I can rest, I will still waste my time on social media, surfing the net. I lack rest. Quality rest for the mind and body. Even on vacation, I would pack the days with places to visit, shopping malls, eating places and anything that I can think of. Anything but rest as the mentality is to make your money's worth overseas. Resting should be done at home but I wonder how is that possible. I did try meditation but it has limited benefits on me. That is why if I can retire early and not bother about money, I may be able to slow my mind down. With freeganism, I found the ticket to retire early and make it happen.
6. I am cheapo by nature(Likes cheap or free stuff)
Who in the world doesn't like cheap or free stuff? It's human nature. I don't have "Everything also wants and always upgrading" mentality like normal Singaporeans though. I always have some financial sense, maybe due to my family not well off when I was little, so I make sure I get the cheapest/best deals I can find. However, I do not have the much urge to buy stuff, except only those I am interested in, which is limited to computing, feng shui stuff, and Thai amulets. Through freeganism, I found that I am up my game on this and can even get things for free. This got me very interested and as I tried it, the more I like it.
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