A woman has slashed her food bill to less than £100 a MONTH for her and her boyfriend by dumpster diving - which is helping save for a housing deposit.
Marketing manager Caitlin Weich, 29, decided to root through supermarket dumpsters for discarded goods in a bid to slash her outgoings and help her protect the planet.
She also collects unwanted food from neighbours and friends during her lunch break to ensure she keeps her food bill as low as possible.
Caitlin, who lives in Dublin, Ireland, with her boyfriend Adam, 28, says they eat like kings on a tiny budget, adding: "We spend as little as 100 euros (£85) a month for the two of us.
"My partner and I have been saving for the last couple of years to try and put together a deposit for a house, so we are definitely aware of our budget and saving where we can.
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"Some weeks, I could save 40 or 50 euros (£34-£42) by dumpster diving and getting food the supermarkets are throwing out."
In February last year, she went a month without spending a penny on food by using unwanted or leftover groceries from friends, neighbours and dumpsters.
Now she is keen to share her top tips in a bid to help others considering their options.
She said: "When I first started rummaging through supermarket bins, which is known as dumpster diving, I couldn't believe how much food was being thrown away. It was absolutely shocking.
"And while I know it is not really possible to be entirely zero-waste, I wanted to see how close I could get to it."
Growing up in Namibia, in southern Africa, before moving to New Zealand at 14, Caitlin says she learned to conserve commodities like food and energy.
She said: "In Namibia, there is a huge focus on reducing your waste because there is a tangible impact if you don't.
"If you use too much water, you will run out. If you use too much electricity, there will be a rolling blackout.
"You quickly understand that you need to be reducing your waste and making better use of what you have."
Then in 2015, Caitlin discovered the zero-waste movement, which prompted her to examine her own food habits.
She said: "I watched a video from a woman who had managed to reduce her waste to the point where she never put out a rubbish bin.
"I realised it wasn't very practical, but started to focus on things that everyone could do that would save waste and money."
Keen to take things one step further, she started dumpster diving.
When she moved to Dublin in 2019 and met a friend who also checked out supermarket bins, it became a regular way to find food and keep her bills down.
She said: "I made a friend who invited me to go dumpster diving with her.
"It felt weird at first, hanging around the bins at the back of supermarkets, but then I'd see hundreds of pastries and loaves of bread being thrown out and it was shocking."
Caitlin's first haul included puff pastry, pizza bases, lettuce, cucumber, bread rolls, salads, freshly made pasta and six cans of Guinness beer - one of which was dented.
"It was amazing really," she said.
"I was still shopping for other food I wanted, but it made such a difference to my bill.
"I started going every week after that and I could easily find enough to make three or four meals.
"Some weeks, there might not be that much and I would save maybe 10 euros (£8.50) on things like bread, but other weeks, I could save up to 50 euros (£42).
"I was telling all my friends about it. Once you get over the 'ick' factor of what you're doing, you realise how brilliant it is."
Even in lockdown, Caitlin managed to dumpster dive a few times a month - despite her boyfriend's reservations.
She said: "My partner was less enthusiastic and made me sterilise everything.
"But when I came home with beer and pizza one night, suddenly he was interested."
Having such success on her trips to the supermarket bins, Caitlin decided to take on the challenge of 'Freegan February' in 2022.
This meant trying to spend nothing at all on food and using only produce that was destined for waste streams.
She primarily relied on the food-sharing app, Olio, which connects people with groceries that are going to waste.
She said: "I'm pretty sure I actually gained weight that month, because there was so much food!
"I had some bits left in the freezer which I ate, but otherwise, I asked my friends for food they were going to get rid of and used the app.
"At the end of every day, I would go on Olio and look at who had what nearby - like someone with potatoes half a kilometre away.
"I was training for a 10k run, so I worked it into my day, going on runs and collecting food en route, or checking the app in my lunchbreak and cycling to collect it.
"For the last six months, I have basically only needed to use Olio - rather than having to rummage through bins. I can browse and select and collect what I want. It's incredible."
Caitlin's month of free food did not stop her from eating well, either.
She said: "I had plenty of greens, fibre, protein and I even managed to get multivitamins using the app - so it was a rich and diverse diet.
"We had curries, pasta bakes, salads, vegetable bakes.
"My partner was a bit miffed because it was his birthday in February, but I managed to find pasta, cream and mushrooms on the app and cycled around to collect them and made his favourite meal.
"I got to the end of the month and I thought, 'I could keep going.'"
The year before, in December 2021, Caitlin even managed to make a completely free Christmas dinner using 50 per cent Olio and 50 per cent dumpster diving.
She said: "I went dumpster diving a couple of times and I managed to find potatoes, pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, peas, potatoes, mushrooms, gravy powder, potato gratin and chicken covered in crumbs with garlic butter."
Now so many supermarkets use Olio to find a home for food destined for the bins, according to Caitlin, that she uses it more, too, and only dumpster dives when she has time.
She said: "We really like fancy food like cheese boards and wine, which probably undoes a lot of our saving, but that's the compromise we make.
"This can mean our monthly bill goes up, but we also find it possible to spend as little as 100 euros (£85) between us.
"We have been saving for the last couple of years to put a deposit together to buy our own place, so we are definitely money conscious.
"And if we have an extravagant month when we spend 300 euros (£254.40) on food and wine as a couple, we feel really bad, which our friends are amazed by."
One of Caitlin's biggest tips for cutting costs and waste is to understand the difference between use-by dates and best before dates.
She said: "If it has a use-by date, you should probably throw it out when it hits that.
"But if it is best before, that is just a suggestion. It might not be as vibrant after that date, but it is still perfectly good to eat. You just need to look at it and make a judgement.
"Planning your meals is also crucial.
"Check what is in the fridge before you go shopping and what is likely to get wasted and use that first. Then work out what meals you can make, so you can use those things."
Storing food correctly can also make a huge difference to its shelf-life, according to Caitlin.
She said: "You should consider what the best temperature is to store things at.
"If you put bananas in the fridge, they'll brown quicker.
"If you put bread in the fridge, it goes stale, on the counter, it goes mouldy. I put half a loaf in the freezer and the other half on the side in a brown paper bag.
"Potatoes and onions should be in a cool, dark cupboard, so they last longer.
"Certain fruit and veg will also make other fruit and veg ripen quickly, so it's worth checking what works together.
"Another handy trick is growing fruit and veg you have already bought.
I put my spring onions and leeks in half a centimetre of water in a glass and they continue to grow - that is free food right there!"
For anyone keen to reduce spending and food waste, Caitlin's advice is to take it "bit by bit."
"You have to start somewhere - it doesn't matter where," she said.
"Maybe take a look at your bin and ask yourself, 'How could I have avoided throwing this away?'
"Don't put too much pressure on yourself - everything you do is a step in the right direction."
What Caitlin might eat in a day:
- Breakfast - shop-bought cereal, with free sunflower seeds, peaches and yoghurt collected from Olio, costing 50 cents (42p).
- Lunch - Sandwich with tofu made with free bread, lettuce and home grown spring onions, costing one euro (85p), or leftover curry from dinner.
- Dinner - Potato salad using potatoes from Olio, home grown spinach and shop-bought parmesan cheese, oil and edamame beans, costing less than a euro.
You can follow Caitlin's food journey on her Instagram here.
