How to live in Sydney absolutely for free!

1. Free Accommodation + other bonuses working in a hostel

In Sydney, it’s pretty easy to find a job in a hostel in exchange for accommodation. For roundabout 15h per week, you can stay one week for free in the hostel. The jobs vary from receptionist, cleaner, event-planner or all together. It’s also a great way to get work experience, get to know people and improve your English, all while living for free!

Click here to get on overview of all jobs you can do and what you can expect to earn!

Depends on what hostel you’re gonna choose, you get there already free breakfast daily and can take advantage from organized free dinners 2–3 times per week as well. Most of the hostels organize a weekly activity plan which includes having a barbecue or just eat and cook together for free. On top of that, laundry is usually also for free if you work in a hostel.

But this is not the only thing you get. Typically, people leave sooner or later leave the hostel and put their food and all their stuff they don’t need in free boxes/areas in the hostels where you can find literally everything! So watch out for the free box/stuff every day!

This is how I got a hardhat, high visibility shirts, bike helmet, sunscreen, clothes, food, shirts, working pants and shorts and much other stuff absolutely for free. 

So how to contact them and which hostels to look for? You can start calling or even better show up personally for example in these hostels:

All hostels around CBD (Central Business District and Woolloomooloo), Red-light district (Kings Cross), and Central Train Station. 

Here are some budget options with good reviews I can recommend:  

Summerhouse Backpackers, Nate’s Place Backpackers, Elephant Backpackers, YHA, Wake up hostel etc. ! 

Just open booking.com, search in Sydney and put a filter to the districts mentioned above and start to contact them or even better show up personally.

You can find all kind of hostels: Luxury, middle priced or budget. Of course the more expensive a hostel is, the higher the requirements.

Summary: If you work in a hostel in Sydney, you’ll get:

• free breakfast + eventually 2–3 times per week dinner/BBQ or other
• free stuff (clothes, sport equipment you can borrow/take, and other)
• free food once or twice per week (from leaving guests)
• free events (entrance to bars, clubs etc.)
• free experience (reception, cleaning)
• contacts, contacts, contacts!
• free laundry
• free stay

2. Free Food and more on Sydney’s streets 

In Sydney there is free food everywhere on different spots and different time. Volunteers working for Australia’s NPO’s serve free food from their food trucks or directly on the streets. 

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, sandwiches, bread, coffee, tea, desserts, fruits. Jose showed me all the places where you can get free food. You will meet there all different sort of people: 

Crazy people, mentally ill people, homeless people, broke people, normal workers, some backpackers or just people passing by. Some are less crazy than others, but one thing they have in common – they are very hungry and tend to be aggressive. 

Fortunately the food trucks are very good organized and their is almost always more food than you can eat, so you can even get a second plate or save it for the next day.

Occasionally you will see trucks full of second hand, new clothes, and brand new hygiene article like shampoos, soaps, toothbrush etc.

So where are the places I’m talking about? 

One bigger place for dinner (around 8 pm) is at Martin Place Station. Just go there and wait till you see the truck. You will find there many people waiting and/or queuing already. 

If you want to know more places including when and where to go exactly, just leave a comment below or contact me and I will come back to you. Because we don’t want to see there 100’s of backpackers hanging around 😀 I think you understand. 

3. Free Restaurant

In Melbourne and Sydney there is one restaurant chain called Lentil as Anything, where the payment is based on donations. But you don’t have to pay if you don’t want. They serve delicious vegetarian food (never meat) for free, two times a day! (Lunch and dinner).

Usually you have to queue for few minutes to get in, so don’t be surprised 🙂

Everybody is volunteering there. So if you want to give something back, I highly recommend to work there. It’s also good to get some work experience in the hospitality industry! They are always busy! And always looking for people!

Enjoy your time! Follow me on FB and IG for more tips & tricks!

Eduard from Clueless? Travel!