View Full Version : Thru-hiking on the Cheap Article
Johnny Swank
12-18-2006, 00:15
I had just a showstring budget for both the Appalachian Trail thru-hike and Mississippi River Expedition, so every dollar had to count. Check out my penny-pinching tips and tricks in my new article Thru-hiking on the Cheap (http://sourcetosea.net/Articles/articles/thru-hiking-cheap.html) and let me know what you think. This is a work in progress, and I'd love to hear any new ideas.
Johnny Swank
12-18-2006, 00:24
showstring, shoestring. I could barely afford any strings!
Minimize or eliminate smoking, sodas, and alcohol. These non-essentials can easily add up to a few hundred dollars over the course of six months.Non-essentials????
Cigs $3.50 x 180 (days) = $630. Booze and soda $20 x 26 (weeks) = $520 Grand total = $1150.00
Johnny Swank
12-18-2006, 07:45
I was thinking about all the soda I drank on my AT hike. Heck, I bet I still spend $1,000/yr on Dr. Pepper. That's the sign of my weak mind and scorching caffeine addiction, and I'm trying to cut it out.
Amigi'sLastStand
12-18-2006, 08:13
Good article JS. I enjoyed it.
Non-essentials????
Cigs $3.50 x 180 (days) = $630. Booze and soda $20 x 26 (weeks) = $520 Grand total = $1150.00
Have you tried to get cigs for $3.50 a pack outisde the Confederacy?
(Easy solution, carry pipe tobacco and roll your own.)
Have you tried to get cigs for $3.50 a pack outisde the Confederacy?
(Easy solution, carry pipe tobacco and roll your own.)
Not recently. I realize $3.50 is cheap, but I'll usually buy by the carton, which comes out less per pack. An easier solution would be to quit. The way prices are up North and out West one could almost thru-hike for the price of cigarettes alone.
Not recently. I realize $3.50 is cheap, but I'll usually buy by the carton, which comes out less per pack. An easier solution would be to quit. The way prices are up North and out West one could almost thru-hike for the price of cigarettes alone.
I never, ever bought them by the carton, and I stopped buying packs of cigs years ago. These are all ploys to slow down the consumption. These days it's three or four hand-rolled per day. A single package of Drum comes with papers and lasted through my whole 2006 section (11 days on the trail.)
I never, ever bought them by the carton, and I stopped buying packs of cigs years ago. These are all ploys to slow down the consumption. These days it's three or four hand-rolled per day. A single package of Drum comes with papers and lasted through my whole 2006 section (11 days on the trail.)
If I could make a pack last a week instead of a day (even when hiking) I'd be happy... I think I'll intentionally try next year, carrying only one pack or a package of Drum for each resupply.
gsingjane
12-18-2006, 09:32
Just a logical question for you. At the beginning of the article, you suggest splitting your gear into 3 piles, and getting rid of all non-essentials (everything that doesn't fit into the first group). You state that this will save money, but it's hard to see how that would be - if you're to the point of splitting up your gear, then you have it already, which would mean that you've already purchased it, so you can't save money by not purchasing it. If the suggestion is that you then sell the non-essential gear and use the money for the hike, that seems a pretty inefficient way of raising funds, since second hand gear typically sells for pennies on the dollar. Perhaps you might want to suggest that a hiker make a list of all that s/he might want to take and then split the list into the different groups, rather than splitting up the actual gear.
Jane in CT
Johnny Swank
12-18-2006, 09:44
That's an excellent point, and a poor cut n' paste job on my part from another piece I'd written earlier. I'll change that this evening.
I also need to put something in about waiting to buy some of those non-essentials till you actually get on the trail. You may want that walkman before the trip, but maybe once you get on the trail you find that you enjoy the birds instead.
These were just a few things off the top of my head. I found that it wasn't the big ticket items that broke the budget, but all the little things that added up. I bet I spent $700 in ATM fees, phone cards, impulse buys, and soda on my thru-hike.