I’ve saved £700 in two months by bin diving – ALL my food comes from the trash and I share it with homeless people
A WOMAN has told how she raids from supermarket bins for food and has managed to save £700 in two months by dumpster diving.
Íde Mhic Gabhann, 39, from Dublin, who is a maths teacher by day, will raid the rubbish each night and rescue fruit, veg, meat, ready meals and even fancy chocolates from bins
For two whole months she's lived entirely off grub found in the trash and has managed to save hundreds on food each week.
The secondary school teacher pointed out ‘freeganism’ – the practice of reclaiming and eating discarded food – adds up money-wise with her two months of full-on bin diving in February 2019 and February 2020 saving her around £700.
Íde said her scientist and wildlife photographer husband Ciarán, 38, is comfortable with her dumpster diving – but her late-night foraging caused a bit of a stir in the staff room after she first took it up regularly in late 2018.
She said: “I talked about it quite openly at work.
She said of the experiment: “We usually spend around 400 euros (£350) on food a month for the two of us so we saved a lot of money – and stopped a lot of food going to waste.”
But there were some downsides too, she admitted, since buying no food at all meant their diet was very restricted.
“We ate a lot of fruit and vegetables, pre-cut fruit salads, and basics,” she said.
“It was tricky at times because we were only eating salvaged foods so we couldn’t even buy something like soy sauce to eat with a meal of rice and vegetables.”
Having less choice and control over what she could eat “kind of got on top of me” Íde admitted.
At least there were plenty of unwanted Valentine’s chocolates to enjoy after February 14, and Íde said chocs are a regular bonus for freegans all year round.
“After Christmas, all the Christmas chocolates get thrown in the bin, even though they’re not out of date for six months,” she said.
“I’ve eaten an awful lot of chocolate reindeers!
“Sometimes even before Christmas, they clear the ordinary chocolates so they can sell the Christmas stuff because it’s more attractive looking.
“And it’s the same thing after Halloween and Easter.”
In February 2020, Íde took on a fully freegan month again – and by this time she had discovered a new dumpster bin, that offered lots of pre-packaged food, including ready meals, a better selection of fruits and vegetables, and even beverages.
She said: “There are bottles or cans that are damaged – even bottles of wine where the labels are torn.”
Keen to feel more in control of what she ate during this second full-on month, Íde changed up her foraged ready meals by adding veg or gravy – or making them into a whole new dish.
She said: “Generally, what I did with the ready meals was upcycle them into something more exciting.
“They had these roast dinner portions and I’d make them into a pie or a cottage pie and maybe add some more gravy.”
She added: “The second year was a lot easier and I was happier with my meals.”
This year, the Covid-19 lockdown has forced Íde to give her February challenge a miss as she is no longer going past her regular dumpster diving spots on the way to work or exercise classes, due to the lockdown.
But she still goes out on her freegan forays whenever she can and is determined to keep showing people how much food is needlessly wasted.
Daily Freegan Diet
Breakfast – out of date pastries
Snack – pre-cut fruit salad
Lunch – stale ready-made sandwiches made into toasties, or quesadillas made from tortilla wraps and cheese
Dinner – thrown out rice and pasta with discarded vegetables or a ready meal past its sell-by-date
Dessert – leftover Christmas chocolate reindeers, or a hot chocolate from discarded powdered milk
“Food waste is a problem and it does need to be dealt with,” she said.
“I think we as a society need to change. We need to say that, when we go into a Tesco at 10pm, we don’t need to see fully stocked shelves of doughnuts – it’s fine if they ran out earlier in the day.
“We have to accept what is available when it’s available, rather than wanting every vegetable and every type of bread there when we go shopping.”
And one day, she would love to go on a freegan hunt and find dumpsters that are not crammed with tasty food.
“I want to focus on showing people how we can stop food waste before things are thrown out,” she said.
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