Oprah and the Freegans: Dumpster-Diving for Dinner

This week, Oprah is exploring a movement with which few Americans are familiar: the "freegan" movement.

Freegans are dedicated to eliminating wasteful over-consumption, sometimes giving up so much that they're forced to dig through trash cans for sustenance.

On the show, a former business executive shows the audience how to prepare dinner using only food that has been collected out of dumpsters.

I find the movement quite extreme, but I do sympathize with their sensibilities and support a lifestyle that is efficient and waste-free. It is a movement that every lavish, financially extravagant American would be well-served to research.

Of late, my own life has taken a more "freegan" path. Initially, I didn't choose the path because I felt the need to become more of a minimalist or had disgust for nice items around the house, but I had recently graduated from university and simply couldn't afford any sort of expensive lifestyle.

I hadn't a lavish lifestyle to begin with, but I got used to receiving financial aid and being able to stay in university housing. It was only after I graduated and was without housing or aid that I realized how much those luxuries helped my academic life, and I began to cut back on the items in my life that I could afford to do without.

My first expense: entertainment. I'm a big sports fan and would always buy the NBA League Pass every season, allowing me to see every NBA game of the entire regular season. The price tag was steep: $179 per season. But now that I was out on my own, could I really afford that? After all, plenty of NBA games are shown on national television on TNT and ESPN and NBATV and ABC. So I cut it out, and saved a bundle.