On Freegans and Frugalites
I just read an interesting article in the New York Times earlier today. It's called "Not Buying It," and it's an article about the "freegan" movement. As the article explains, freegans are persons who try to avoiding buying products if at all possible; this usually involves dumpster diving or otherwise rummaging through trash in order to find useable appliances, clothes, food, and so forth.
The article also notes that this lifestyle choice is generally made as a means of limiting one's involvement in the capitalist economy. That seems fair enough, although I myself would not go to such extreme measures. I adhere more to the ideals of the "frugalite" movement, which, to a certain extent, could be considered the moderate wing of freeganism. Frugalites, instead of frequenting dumpsters, are far more likely to frequent thrift stores and yard sales. (Go to frugalliving.about.com to get a feel for frugalism.) Although frugalism does not overtly espouse the strong anticapitalist stance of freeganism---many frugalites view their lifestyle as a means of using capitalism more effectively (and perhaps more equitably), not outright opposing it---there is necessarily some overlap between the two movements, since they are relatively similar.
Perhaps one of the better examples to illustrate my frugal nature is my garden (including my houseplants). I hardly ever buy plants in stores; I usually buy seeds. I am currently growing radishes and lettuce, which both were grown from seed---leftover seeds that I had from 2006, at that. I also have some carrots, which were grown from the seeds from the carrot plants that I grew last year, which themselves had been started from carrot tops that had sprouted in the fridge. I have two peanut plants, also grown from the yield of last year's (one) plant; it, in turn, had been grown from seed, which I obtained from a bag of raw peanuts that I had bought for roasting. (There are also the onions and the potatoes, but the frugal way of growing those is also what most would probably consider to be the "normal" way, so that is relatively unremarkable.)
The more illustrative examples, however, are the three bushes that I have. All three were obtained in various ways from the convenience store / fast-food restaurant where I work. One bush is a holly. It had sprouted from the seeds of one of the various holly bushes that we have around the perimeter of the store. I found it last fall while weeding, and, instead of throwing it out with the rest of the weeds, brought it home and planted it in a pot. (Truth be told, "it" is actually two plants that sprouted next to each other and became intertwined. However, I thought that it was only one plant at the time, and so I continue to think of them as constituting a single entity.) I do not know what kinds of bush the other two are. One came from a branch that I accidentally knocked off while pruning earlier in the year; I brought it home, set it in a vase, and planted it in soil once it had grown roots. The other bush came into my possession last Thursday. We were making relatively major landscaping changes at the store, and, rather than discarding one of the bushes that we no longer needed, I decided to bring it home for myself. (The other eight or so bushes were successfully unloaded on a coworker with a similarly frugal spirit.)