Daisy saved $400 a month not buying groceries. Here’s how she still eats well

At a recent house party, the conversation made its way to the unsexy but prevalent subject of how we’re coping in the cost-of-living crisis. One friend shares they’ve been made redundant, and we cluck in sympathy. “A rite of passage,” someone quips.

Another laments the installation of Coles and Woolworths’ overhead self-serve cameras that detect what’s on the counter – and pick up that your French cheese is not the brown onion you tapped on the screen.

For many younger Australians, the sustained increase in the price of groceries is leading to desperate measures.Credit: Getty

A friend and I discuss our weekend ritual of visiting the local market, then Aldi, then Woolies and Coles to try and secure the best deals, no matter the inconvenience.

Then, the conversation turns to more extreme cost-saving measures. Daisy*, 28, tells me she just finished a 30-day no-buy challenge. Purchasing no groceries at all, she limited herself to spending money only on bills, rent and transport.

Initially motivated to use up the existing food in her freezer and pantry, Daisy quickly realised how easy it was to sustain, and how much money she could save – around $400 in the first month. In the second month, she allowed herself to purchase dairy and meat products on sale, but tells me: “I don’t think I’ll ever have to buy fruit and veg again.”

My jaw dropped as she showed me photos of how she was sustaining a well-rounded diet but not purchasing anything – dumpster diving. That is, visiting the large bins outside major supermarkets at closing time to see what often perfectly edible food has been thrown out.

The photos showed wheelie bins containing an assortment of fresh fruit, vegetables and bread, mostly untouched and unmarred. For Daisy, this new routine kills “two birds [with] one stone”. She explained, “I can still eat healthy food to look after myself and I can still pay rent.”

According to Foodbank, nearly 20 per cent of Australian households are skipping meals or going whole days without eating, while OzHarvest data reveals that over 80 per cent of young people who have experienced food insecurity in the past 12 months have done so for the first time.

Whether it’s small blemishes, errors on food labels or an accidental excess of stock, supermarkets consider food unfit for storefronts for many reasons, and up to 70 per cent of all food that goes into supermarket bins is still edible when it’s dumped.

“Over a third of all food produced is wasted,” OzHarvest’s national advocacy manager, Ruby Wake, tells me. “To put this another way, land the size of Victoria is needed to grow food that is thrown in the bin.” What’s more, dealing with all of this perfectly good “waste” comes at an estimated price tag of $36.6 billion a year.

When she began dumpster diving six months ago, Daisy says she felt deep embarrassment about it, explaining, “I thought it was really a very dirty thing. But now I don’t feel as much shame, I just call it rescued fruit and veg.”

Two others at the party, Tim* and Nelly* say they’ve been dumpster diving for over a decade, beginning in their early 20s and long before the cost-of-living crisis hit. They describe the practice as a “pretty normal way to fill the fridge.” Any recovered food they don’t need is shared among friends.

Besides large charity organisations such as FareShare, SecondBite and OzHarvest, volunteer-run food pantries also aim to fill in the growing food insecurity gaps. Operating mostly from Facebook groups, initiatives like Eastern Food Rescue in Ringwood, Food For Thought in Nunawading, Food is Free in Blackburn, SWell in Hawthorn, and Reaching Out in Footscray, allow locals to give and receive food from one another.

The cost-of-living crisis isn’t only impacting our grocery habits. I recently signed up for my fourth library membership, and have readjusted to drinking coffee at home. Some of my friends are choosing to buy only secondhand clothes, while others have stopped purchasing clothes altogether. Our health is pushed to the sidelines; with visits to the GP and the dentist deferred until we’ve won the lottery. We travel with co-riders to save a few dollars on Uber Pool and, for people like Daisy, Tim and Nelly, dive to keep grocery costs down.

Maggie Zhou is a Melbourne-based freelance writer and the co-host of the Culture Club podcast.

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