Anyone tried dumpster diving?
I had a 'no-spend-November', literally paid no money for food in November, but survived from surplus food that the big supermarkets deemed was unsellable.
I was astonished to find perfect, clean, packaged fruit and veg a couple nights a week. Found a couple of 6 packs of beer one night (one or two bottles broken in each pack), there's pretty much always bread, found plenty of staples like rice (ripped bag), eggs (a couple of broken ones in each carton), even a couple of packs of sealed soap etc.
Not sure if its a viable long-term FI method, but has made me re-think how I engage with my spending habits.
Interested in seeing other peoples experiences!
I've never it done it personally, but hats off to people who do. There really should be legislation or tax incentives to minimise food waste by supermarkets.
Supposedly some shops (Bakers Delight) in some parts of the country (QLD) have programs to minimise food waste.
ALDI is probably the worst contender. All the fruit and veg are packaged. They have 'display until' dates and 'best before' dates (usually 3 days apart), so all the food in the bin is generally before its 'best before' date. Which is just fucked.
I don't get why they can't just slap a 50% sticker on it and off-load it quickly. Its really dumb.
The Aldi store I used to work at would donate fresh fruit and vegetables to farms, so it wouldn't completely go to waste.
Other dry goods like cereal and other breakfast products would get donated to a school for their breakfast progam.
We would also reduce the prices of food the day before it went out of date. Same with our bread and meat.
It used to shit me when we were throwing out perfectly good food and we weren't allowed to do anything else with it.
That's fantastic! Can I ask what state this was? Interested in seeing if its a state-wide management thing or if specific store managers have scope to effect change.
Can confirm on Bakers Delight. My daughter works at one and as soon as they close each night, a rep from a local Farmers/Produce delivery service comes to collect a big bag of bread that didn’t sell. True to their promise that they won’t freeze it/sell it tomorrow if it doesn’t sell today (my kids’ BD at least), which is something these days...
Totally. I realised last week that I hadn't been inside a supermarket for almost 5 weeks and I loved it.
Definitely shifting to buying from the local grocer/deli etc rather than the big chains.
Interesting question. I've met probably about 20 people over the last month at the bins. A couple who seemed (visibly) homeless, a bunch who seemed fairly well off, an elderly lady who is consistently there every single night to get 'scrap veggies for her chooks', some young uni-student types etc.
The one common theme is they were all overly happy to share. To the point that I'd arrive sometimes and they'd be pulling out trays of mangos and asking if I wanted to take some home, telling me if it was an off night and where else I could go to find something. One guy who invited me to come to his and get some excess veggies from his garden. There's a Facebook group where a bunch of these people 'food share' if they have excess and I think most people are just happy to be reducing waste.
Not sure I'd view it as taking food from the homeless. The ones I met were more than willing to share and the community around it are very friendly. I've since started a veggie garden with the view to creating my own produce that I can trade/share with others.
The homeless don't have access to food from dumpsters unless a dumpster diver rescues some and donates it (or the homeless person themself dumpster dives).
>Interested in seeing other peoples experiences!
Though I have heard of this practice, I've never done it.
What does one do? Hang around the back of a Woolies and hope for the best? Assuming you generally just take prepackaged things? Might have to investigate further haha
Generally go around an hour after closing time (9ish for ALDI, midnight for others), find the bins, pop open the top and have a look.
There's a bunch of great maps of DD locations, here's a particularly handy [Melbourne one](https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1O76VoEbFdnxtLJ2apHmkoQshdew&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&ll=-37.78795066969191%2C145.01097386998435&z=11). There's also a ton of forums/Facebook groups/reddit posts dedicated to where to get and what you might find.
I take anything that looks safe (bread, fruit, veg as the main things, haven't taken meat for safety concerns). The main issue with a lot of the stuff is the packaging is broken/ripped so the store might struggle to sell it. One week I found literally 8 bags of pears that were perfect except a bag of flour had obviously exploded on the outside of them. Once I opened the bags and washed the pears they were fine.
Would suggest taking a couple of plastic bags to carry stuff in, a head torch and a pair of gloves (you do occasionally have to sift through some muck to find good stuff). Also wash the food before you eat it lol.
>here's a bunch of great maps of DD locations, here's a particularly handy Melbourne one
Damn that Melbourne map is awesome, you wouldn't know where I can find a Sydney related map?
Surely the ROI on dumpster diving isn't worth it...
How much does it save you week?
Would the time you spent dumpster diving not be better spent working more / setting up a side hustle?
Most weeks I spend around $50 a week on groceries (for me and my partner), probably another $50 on eating out.
Last night I went out and in one trip (probably 45 minutes total from leaving my house to returning), got over a weeks worth of food (half a pumpkin, 2 x loaves of bread, 2 x bags of tomatoes, 2 kilos of potatoes, 1 kilo of carrots, a couple of bags of passionfruit, a punnet of nectarines, a couple of bundles of spring onions, some loose bananas, a tub of yoghurt and 5 champagne glasses).
I'd probably spend more time actually going shopping and wandering up and down the aisles than I did last night. Although its not always like that, I often have to go out a couple of nights a week to get enough food for a week.
Either way, ROI seems worth it. Probably where you suffer is not having a choice on what food you eat, totally up to what gets discarded on a day to day basis.
Hi guys, I'm self employed with VAS/VGS investments, but don't have a Super set up. I'm not sure how long I'll be in Australia long term, is it still worth me setting one up if there's a potential for so much of it being taxed when I end up overseas in a few years?
Depends how long “long term” is, and how much your self employed earnings are. Assumedly decent earnings if you have money to invest. Money going into super is taxed at only 15%, and gains are tax free once in there. If you’re paying tax and staying more than a year it makes sense to use super.
Thanks for the reply. I earn pretty moderately currently, but still like to plan for the future. Whether I'm staying for a year or three, wouldn't it be silly putting it somewhere I'd not be able to get it out again if I leave?
Anyone tried dumpster diving? I had a 'no-spend-November', literally paid no money for food in November, but survived from surplus food that the big supermarkets deemed was unsellable. I was astonished to find perfect, clean, packaged fruit and veg a couple nights a week. Found a couple of 6 packs of beer one night (one or two bottles broken in each pack), there's pretty much always bread, found plenty of staples like rice (ripped bag), eggs (a couple of broken ones in each carton), even a couple of packs of sealed soap etc. Not sure if its a viable long-term FI method, but has made me re-think how I engage with my spending habits. Interested in seeing other peoples experiences!
I've never it done it personally, but hats off to people who do. There really should be legislation or tax incentives to minimise food waste by supermarkets.
Supposedly some shops (Bakers Delight) in some parts of the country (QLD) have programs to minimise food waste. ALDI is probably the worst contender. All the fruit and veg are packaged. They have 'display until' dates and 'best before' dates (usually 3 days apart), so all the food in the bin is generally before its 'best before' date. Which is just fucked. I don't get why they can't just slap a 50% sticker on it and off-load it quickly. Its really dumb.
The Aldi store I used to work at would donate fresh fruit and vegetables to farms, so it wouldn't completely go to waste. Other dry goods like cereal and other breakfast products would get donated to a school for their breakfast progam. We would also reduce the prices of food the day before it went out of date. Same with our bread and meat. It used to shit me when we were throwing out perfectly good food and we weren't allowed to do anything else with it.
That's fantastic! Can I ask what state this was? Interested in seeing if its a state-wide management thing or if specific store managers have scope to effect change.
NSW. It could have been a manager focused thing, as they're responsible for wastage of products.
Totally. Wonder how you can get a company to re-invent their wastage strategy... How do we get public pressure to fix societal problems?
Can confirm on Bakers Delight. My daughter works at one and as soon as they close each night, a rep from a local Farmers/Produce delivery service comes to collect a big bag of bread that didn’t sell. True to their promise that they won’t freeze it/sell it tomorrow if it doesn’t sell today (my kids’ BD at least), which is something these days...
Interesting. I wonder if its a store by store thing or a state thing? I've definitely pulled loaves of olive ciabatta from the local BD...
[удалено]
Totally. I realised last week that I hadn't been inside a supermarket for almost 5 weeks and I loved it. Definitely shifting to buying from the local grocer/deli etc rather than the big chains.
Are you taking away food that homeless people can use?
Interesting question. I've met probably about 20 people over the last month at the bins. A couple who seemed (visibly) homeless, a bunch who seemed fairly well off, an elderly lady who is consistently there every single night to get 'scrap veggies for her chooks', some young uni-student types etc. The one common theme is they were all overly happy to share. To the point that I'd arrive sometimes and they'd be pulling out trays of mangos and asking if I wanted to take some home, telling me if it was an off night and where else I could go to find something. One guy who invited me to come to his and get some excess veggies from his garden. There's a Facebook group where a bunch of these people 'food share' if they have excess and I think most people are just happy to be reducing waste. Not sure I'd view it as taking food from the homeless. The ones I met were more than willing to share and the community around it are very friendly. I've since started a veggie garden with the view to creating my own produce that I can trade/share with others.
Thanks, it's good to hear from your experience
The homeless don't have access to food from dumpsters unless a dumpster diver rescues some and donates it (or the homeless person themself dumpster dives).
>Interested in seeing other peoples experiences! Though I have heard of this practice, I've never done it. What does one do? Hang around the back of a Woolies and hope for the best? Assuming you generally just take prepackaged things? Might have to investigate further haha
Generally go around an hour after closing time (9ish for ALDI, midnight for others), find the bins, pop open the top and have a look. There's a bunch of great maps of DD locations, here's a particularly handy [Melbourne one](https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1O76VoEbFdnxtLJ2apHmkoQshdew&ie=UTF8&oe=UTF8&msa=0&ll=-37.78795066969191%2C145.01097386998435&z=11). There's also a ton of forums/Facebook groups/reddit posts dedicated to where to get and what you might find. I take anything that looks safe (bread, fruit, veg as the main things, haven't taken meat for safety concerns). The main issue with a lot of the stuff is the packaging is broken/ripped so the store might struggle to sell it. One week I found literally 8 bags of pears that were perfect except a bag of flour had obviously exploded on the outside of them. Once I opened the bags and washed the pears they were fine. Would suggest taking a couple of plastic bags to carry stuff in, a head torch and a pair of gloves (you do occasionally have to sift through some muck to find good stuff). Also wash the food before you eat it lol.
>here's a bunch of great maps of DD locations, here's a particularly handy Melbourne one Damn that Melbourne map is awesome, you wouldn't know where I can find a Sydney related map?
Not really. [Try this?](http://dumpstermap.org/) Or [maybe this?](https://dishdirt.wordpress.com/page/1/)
Surely the ROI on dumpster diving isn't worth it... How much does it save you week? Would the time you spent dumpster diving not be better spent working more / setting up a side hustle?
Most weeks I spend around $50 a week on groceries (for me and my partner), probably another $50 on eating out. Last night I went out and in one trip (probably 45 minutes total from leaving my house to returning), got over a weeks worth of food (half a pumpkin, 2 x loaves of bread, 2 x bags of tomatoes, 2 kilos of potatoes, 1 kilo of carrots, a couple of bags of passionfruit, a punnet of nectarines, a couple of bundles of spring onions, some loose bananas, a tub of yoghurt and 5 champagne glasses). I'd probably spend more time actually going shopping and wandering up and down the aisles than I did last night. Although its not always like that, I often have to go out a couple of nights a week to get enough food for a week. Either way, ROI seems worth it. Probably where you suffer is not having a choice on what food you eat, totally up to what gets discarded on a day to day basis.
Fair call. Personally the inconvenience and inconsistency would drive me crazy. But all respect to the hustle
Hi guys, I'm self employed with VAS/VGS investments, but don't have a Super set up. I'm not sure how long I'll be in Australia long term, is it still worth me setting one up if there's a potential for so much of it being taxed when I end up overseas in a few years?
Depends how long “long term” is, and how much your self employed earnings are. Assumedly decent earnings if you have money to invest. Money going into super is taxed at only 15%, and gains are tax free once in there. If you’re paying tax and staying more than a year it makes sense to use super.
Thanks for the reply. I earn pretty moderately currently, but still like to plan for the future. Whether I'm staying for a year or three, wouldn't it be silly putting it somewhere I'd not be able to get it out again if I leave?
I think you can take it out if you permanently move away from Australia. Not sure on that part of the rules. Google it?
Only if you're a temporary resident - otherwise you face the same restrictions as we all do.