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by RobertRoberts 2282 days ago
I lived with my wife in a van for months. We dumpster dived behind bakeries, pizza places and ate very simple food. Even now 24+ years later we live a very simple life with few things. (I left home at 17, and lived on the streets for a time as well, so a van was luxury to me)

My hope is that if nothing else, the current situation opens people's eyes to past indulgences with no thought toward the future. I wish I had saved as much as you had, I would be better off now. (I simply never learned good financial sense until later in life)

More than anything though, I am not afraid of going back to nothing. (I am sure you may have a similar "mental safety net?)

It's not the end of the world and we can recover from this current state. Not sure it's comforting to those that face this imminently, but many people have survived far worse.
2 comments
300bps 2282 days ago
My hunch is dumpster diving works well when food is plentiful and people are throwing perfectly edible items away willy-nilly.

Get a depression-style food shortage and suddenly what you find in the dumpster won’t be as appetizing as the donuts that Dunkin just didn’t sell that day.

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chantelles 2281 days ago
That's true. I mean, I mean the best dumpster diving is in rich neighbourhoods. Food banks also dry up in hard times. I lived in Nelson BC for a time when most people there were on welfare (it was at about 80%) and the food bank only had apples from the harvest and those decorative gourds so I got them and tried to cook them ( I was house sitting a Doukabor cabin for a Buddhist couple ) and even ate a few bowls of what was THE MOST BITTER thing I ever had even with a zillion sugar packets. But lets be real, what happens when the dumpsters dry out is folks steal. That's why it's safer to have a social net, for everyone.
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chantelles 2281 days ago
Yes vans are a luxury! My first 'home' was a tent with no zipper and then a VW rabbit for a year and so when I got a '64 Ford Econoline it was my mcmansion! I find that having a home is stressful, like stuff owning is a huge responsibility because I see each item as hours of my life sacrificed from thinking and working on relationships.
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