:)

Keith and Jeremy: Thanks for the links and the encouragement. I am going to check out that freegan thing, sounds interesting.

It might be worth mentioning Freeganism, and the Freegan Information site (http://freegan.info) – a movement that is growing partly because of hidden pockets of poverty in relative affluence (like Texas French Bread) but mainly because many people just can’t bear to see waste food.

Keith

Always nice to hear from others that have lived the free life in its bits and pieces. And for better and for worse for that matter.

You mentioned some debt you had after college. did you leave that behind when you went to Texas ?

My “free” story, and excuse my english im from Denmark, began a few years ago, i had been out travelling Europe with some friends over the summer and had just got home. I had quit my education just before leaving, and no longer had a place to live, i had thrown everything out, and packed the few things i wanted to keep in two boxes in the basement at my parents house. When i got home i had the chance to live in an apartment while a friend was out travelling, i had no money and no job, so my eyes also turned to ways of living free. i quickly discovered dumpsters all over town, it was a small town so my “round” was to about 6 dumpsters.

These dumpsters however, provided me with everything i needed to live. i actually ate better and healthier food than when i had money, because the healthier food here is alot more expencive. i had onions, all types of bread, milk, coffee, potatos, cakes, fruit, rice, beans, beers and sodas. i found a place where a supermarket kept all its return bottles that was “special” in some way, which was a steady income for the little money i wanted to buy what i cound not find, and spent a little to go out a few times. i never took so many that they would notice it, just enough for what i needed. For a while i had been using some unlocked bikes i had found before i went travelling. And since i had no need to sell my time alive to work a job, i would spend all my time biking around toen or going to the forest to explore and take long walks, then back in the evening to hang out with friends and take my dumpster round.

i lived close to a friend, that did not have alot of money as he was on welfare. Together we brought home huge ammounts of food and luxurys every day for the six months i lived there.

As my friend came back some months later, i left my small home town and moved to the capital. i was offered to live without paying, at the same friend as i had started dumpster diving with, apartment, as he had moved to the big city a few months before i did. There it got even easier. The winters here are get really cold, so a dumpster just works as a big fridge half the year. And because we were in the capital the supermarkets threw out even more, and there was even more supermarkets to dumpster dive at. We lived 3 friends in a 2 bedroom apartment, and every night we would get our bikes, two of which was long john bikes, like this one:

http://www.liegeradinfo.de/sco_long.jpg

And almost every night we brought back enough to fill a fridge and cabinets with everything our hearts desired. Two times a week we would do the dishes at “peoples kitchens” ( something like Food Not Bombs ) , and get to eat for free because we did the dishes.

After about six months i started going to school again, and here you get paid to go to school. Its not much, but enough to pay the rent for a dorm room, and buy a little food. Its now been about 4-5 months since i have opened a dumpster, and i actually really miss the “lifestyle” and the freedom it provided me with. I too, lived “free” for about a year, and it will be a year i will never forget, although i dont really think my life of living for free is over at all. Im just on a short pause from it right now. I now live in a small dorm room, and the only thing i have is my computer,
( the thing i had in a box in my parents basement )

i found a bed, a small sofa, a table, a chair and a television,
( something i had not watched in a few years )
these things now make up my temporary home. i have no attachment to either of them, and im ready to give them up to go on the adventures of free living once again.

I really enjoyed reading about adventure on the other side of the endless consumption.

Stay safe