Freeganisim enlightens me to look beyond materialism and what I have gravely misunderstood about how I can live my life. You need so little to survive and what's more, there are so many freebies out there that doesn't make sense to try so hard to earn money.
— Dickson Idlier
I adopted partial-freeganism (I still spend money, but mainly necessities like taxes, bills, food, etc) for more than two years now. Mainly involved in dumpster diving and Filiporean Project. I retired from work since 2018. My life changed dramatically but is what I always wanted. Here I would like to give some details of the gains and losses til now.
GAINS
- More free time. I try to improve my health by exercising more often and spending my time managing my dumpster diving activities, writing blogs and reading manga. Just doing what I want.
- Retire from work. Since I don't spend much money, practically I don't need to work to earn money. I have enough savings and investment to get by.
- Financial Independence. My investment in unit trusts are doing well and also my endowment just matured so I have decided to reinvest in more unit trust to get monthly returns. These dividends will pay for my insurance or my wants.
- Creativity. I think I am more creative now, in how I handle my personal matters or like writing a blog. I have better ideas or what to do write compared to my previous busy and stressful life.
LOSSES
- Stress. Without work, the stress level dropped to almost zero.
- Toxic relationships. It becomes clearer what is the intentions of people around me and I trashed most I think are not worth keeping. Those trying to use, back stab, waste my time, negative people, deviate from my interests are gone. Such people are better to minimise contact, avoid or get rid of from your life.
- "Fire"(anger) in me. I felt like the Hulk (He is always angry). I suspect anxiety, anger, stress, injustice and unbalanced feeling caused this. Even if meditation calms me a lot, I suspect my retirement helps more. I don't really felt the "fire" much nowadays.
- Weight. After my retirement, I actually lost close to 8-9kg of my body weight (From 65Kg to about 57kg). This was my ideal weight in my 20s. I am also into Intermediate Fasting (I am on 12-16hrs fasting, 8h eating routine). I look healthier and fitter now. The dumpster diving activity and routine exercise does wonders.
- Stiff muscles. I have less still muscles on my shoulders and back now. Saves money to go massage every month.
Related post: Uniquely Freegans In Singapore, One Man’s Trash Is Another Man’s Treasure
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