Still failing, but scheming afoot

I still haven't found anywhere I can delve into.  This is somewhat disheartening, and I had to buy some essentials, like fruit, yesterday to stop me from starving/boring myself to death with just pasta.  The whole of college has come down with "swine flu" (or as I prefer to call it, a bit of a cold), including myself, so it seems unlikely that any headway will be made any time soon.  However, we have been plotting.

At the weekend, we plan to go for another wander into town, intending to be a little more proactive, this time.  Upon failing to discover any suitable sites from which to forage (which seems, unfortunately, likely) we intend to speak to members of authority at the supermarkets to see just what they do with their waste food, and why we can't seem to get hold of it!  Unlikely to get us far, but worth a try.

Meanwhile, seeing as how it's autumn now, I'm interested to find out the scope for mushroom foraging around the area.  Watch this space to see whether I find anything out.

Scouting for Bins, the lesser known, more inventive sister group of Scouting for Girls.

I cheated.  Granted, I always intended to cheat, but I cheated mega-time by taking a wee trip to Tesco-on-the-ringroad.  Cue lots of tins of chopped tomatoes and bottles of wine, as my parents being there in the car meant that I didn't have to carry anything back.  I have enough rice to last for approximately three years.

We went Scouting for Bins on Sunday, which was not fruitful.  We need to have another proper look, but as far as I can tell, rubbish is locked away in secret locations behind big gates and doors.  As my associate said, we need an insider, but the likelihood of that happening is quite possibly nil.  Still haven't checked out little Tesco or little Sainsbury's, but will need to do so soon.  Possibly under cover of darkness, as sneaking around the back areas of shops during daylight seems somewhat conspicuous.

This shall not occur tonight - the near-fabled advent of College Family Curry in Chutney's is upon us.  Updates will arrive as and when, but currently I am failing abysmally in my task.  Hopefully there are places less keen to keep hold of their rubbish than M&S...

I smell like a massage ^_^

I got home from work today and my mum told me she'd got me a present.  This pleased me, as I like presents.  So off I trotted to make a cup of tea, when she told me it had come from the tip.  Intriguing...

It turns out that her friend had been there while someone was getting rid of a whole load of 100ml boxes of Espa Essential Moisturising Balm.  A girl can never have too many products with which to beautify herself.  It smells gorgeous, all full of lovely essential oils and rosewood and macadamia and stuff, and a quick little Google search informs me that it should cost at least £15.

I think we can agree that this amounts to a good start for my freeganistic ways, albeit not under my own steam.

Fabulously colour co-ordinated to my blog! :o)

The Plan...

I got a text message a few weeks ago, from a friend at uni, saying she had a "cunning plan...which involves not paying for stuff and le cookery".  This intrigued me.  All of my friends know me as someone who loves to cook - I do it to procrastinate when I could be doing other things - as well as someone who'll buy anything if it's a bargain, even better if it's free.

So I set about wondering what on earth she could be talking about, and thoughts of selling home-cooked dinners to other students floated through my head.  It was only when she came to visit a couple of days later that freeganism was first suggested, and so began the journey upon which we are about to embark...

What is Freeganism?

Freegan (ˈfriˌɡʌn)

1. Neologism, created by combining the words "free" and "vegan".
   
2. A person who subsists on the waste of others.
3. An anti-consumerist movement begun in America in the 1980s.

I am not going to lie.  I do not intend to embrace the movement in its fullest capacity.  True freegans denounce consumerism in its entirety, many refusing to have a job and squatting rather than buying or renting a property.  While the thought of not having to pay for my accommodation at university is tempting, I'm not quite that brave.

It would be more accurate to describe us "Dustbin Divers", or as I prefer to describe us, a Waste Reduction Team.  It sounds somewhat less disgusting, and more noble.

The principle is that Western society as a whole is wasteful.  Food is cheap, and as a result many people have no qualms about throwing an awful lot of it away.  This is bad for the environment, makes a mockery of those, both in this country and abroad, who cannot afford to eat or have experienced true hunger in their lives, and (sadly the closest thing to home for many of us in the West) it is bad for our pockets too.  Hundreds of tonnes of food every year is produced, and then thrown away because it is past its best before date.  This happens in our homes, in restaurants, in cafes, pubs, supermarkets, even in the warehouses where food is stored before it's made its way to the supermarkets.  According to www.lovefoodhatewaste.com, the food discarded at homes in the UK runs to 6.7 million tonnes every single year.  By my calculations, that's over 100kg per person living in the UK (please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!)

And so, as a student with little money to waste, who has always seen the merit in boiling up the carcuss of a roast chicken to make tomorrow's soup, I am conducting a social experiment this term, Michaelmas 2009.  Can you live healthily off of Oxford's waste?

I'll keep a diary of what I can scavenge, and what I do with it.  And what I buy.  I don't expect to be able to get away with never buying food, and particularly teabags.  I can't do without a cup of tea!

Hopefully this will prove interesting for all of us...