Emelie and Jon Watson have taken the ethos of "living with less" to an impressive new level.

The Brisbane couple and their two children are radical adopters of the growing sustainability movement in Australia.

They live car-free, dumpster-dive for groceries, aggressively thrift shop for clothes and have avoided buying "brand new" since 2008.

It's not a glamorous lifestyle. But the money they save affords the Watsons a life they always dreamed of having.

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"Living simply and inexpensively has given us the opportunity to give far more and do more good," Jon told Nine.com.au.

"Our overall lifestyle involves quite minimal consumption, but it's not a sacrifice."

"We are very, very lucky in Australia to have so much. And just because we can [consume so much] doesn't mean we should," Emelie added.

Emelie and Jon are mortgage-free and are able to choose when they work.

To fund their family's lifestyle, they take up casual or part-time jobs relief teaching and in engineering, jointly earning about $190,000 per year.

"We've only ever worked a maximum of four days a week for a year," Jon said, adding that the couple is now "trialling retirement".

There's no need for full-time hours when they rarely spend money on groceries.

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Meat, bread, fruit, vegetables and everything in between can be found discarded in a waste trip near the supermarket loading docks.

The family, on average, will spend less than $40 per week on extra food they may need – but say they go weeks without spending a cent.

"A year's worth of dumpster diving for our family of four saves us between $7,000 and $10,000 on groceries," Jon said.

"From Friday night until Sunday or Monday morning, we go twice a day, morning and night, until we find that the bin has been replenished."

Emelie said it is "startling" to see just how much edible food goes straight into the bins of an evening.

Supermarkets habitually throw out food that is either past its "best before" date or are slightly imperfect.

"We've shared some of our spoils with other people who've not been into dumpster diving, and when they see the quality of the food that we get out of the dumpster and the quantity, they're shocked," Emelie said.

"There's no compromise really on our diet or our nutrition," Jon added.

"In fact, we probably eat better eating what we take out of the waste stream than what we would normally."

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Donald Trump is seeking more than $A220 million to turn Alcatraz back into a functioning federal prison.

The White House included its request in a budget proposal released overnight.

The request was made as part of a billion-dollar investment into repairing "crumbling detention facilities" and paying correctional officers more money.

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"Within this level, the Budget also affirms the President's commitment to rebuild Alcatraz as a state-of-the-art secure prison facility, providing $US152 million ($A220 million) to cover the first year of project costs," the proposal states.

Alcatraz closed as a federal prison in 1963 because of its high operating costs.

As an island, everything had to be shipped in to the prison by boat, including fresh water.

Exposure to the salty air had caused tremendous damage to the facilities in the time it was open.

The prison cost more than triple an equivalent facility in Atlanta cost to operate per inmate.

Now it is one of the most popular tourism attractions in San Francisco, with more than a million visitors each year.

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The proposal has drawn the ire of San Francisco locals, including state senator Scott Wiener.

"Trump is once again proposing to destroy Alcatraz — a globally popular tourist attraction — by wasting billions to turn it into some sort of prison gulag," Wiener said. 

"It's an absurd, idiotic idea, a complete waste of taxpayer money, and yet another sign of Trump's dementia."

The president first proposed reopening Alcatraz in a Truth Social post in May last year.

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"When we were a more serious Nation, in times past, we did not hesitate to lock up the most dangerous criminals, and keep them far away from anyone they could harm," he wrote.

"That's the way it's supposed to be.

"That is why, today, I am directing the Bureau of Prisons, together with the Department of Justice, FBI, and Homeland Security, to reopen a substantially enlarged and rebuilt ALCATRAZ, to house America's most ruthless and violent Offenders."

The Hollywood Reporter wryly noted his post came two hours after the movie Escape From Alcatraz aired on TV in Palm Beach when Trump was at his Mar-a-Lago country club.

Trump's budget proposal also included a 50 per cent increase in defence spending, taking it to more than $A2.1 trillion.

"Every dollar we spend on Trump's wars is a dollar that could go toward more affordable healthcare, childcare, housing and more," top Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen said.

 "We cannot let this pass."

READ MORE: Crew member missing after US fighter plane crashes over Iran

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A crew member of a US fighter plane shot down over Iran yesterday has been rescued, the Pentagon said.

But the fate of the second person aboard the F-15E is not known.

The New York Times reports one of the crew of the jet was rescued by a US Air Force Black Hawk helicopter.

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The helicopter was struck by ground fire but was able to fly back to safety in Iraq, officials were quoted as saying.

About the same time the F-15E was struck, a second US plane was also shot down.

An A-10 Warthog crashed near the Strait of Hormuz, and the pilot was rescued.

The Warthog is a single-person fighter plane, while F-15Es have a crew of two.

Iran's parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf responded to the planes being shot down with a sarcastic comment on X.

"After defeating Iran 37 times in a row, this brilliant no-strategy war they started has now been downgraded from 'regime change' to 'Hey! Can anyone find our pilots? Please?'"

He added a teary-eyed emoji.

"Wow. What incredible progress. Absolute geniuses."

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Iranian state television called on civilians to find the other crew member and offered a reward for their capture.

The US has continued their bombing campaign against Iran with more strikes on civilian infrastructure.

"Our Military, the greatest and most powerful (by far!) anywhere in the World, hasn't even started destroying what's left in Iran," US President Donald Trump said on Truth Social. 

"Bridges next, then Electric Power Plants!"

Trump threatened to bomb the country "back to the Stone Age" in a national address earlier this week.

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Today Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian specifically referenced Trump's comments.

"Does threatening to send an entire nation back to the Stone Age mean anything other than a massive war crime?" he said.

"History is full of those who paid a heavy price for their silence in the face of criminals."

Overnight Iran has also targeted a desalination plant in Kuwait. Drone and missile attacks were reported over Bahrain, Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

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