what was your average $$/per day expenditure thru-hiking?

[Trailbender]

No way I would pay rent while I am hiking. If I am not living there, why the hell would I pay rent?

[chazaq]

I find that when I spend all day hiking, I can't find many stores to spend money. Stay on the trail to save money. Poor college kid here who managed to scrape 2000 dollars together. Less than $1 per mile.

[jersey joe]

$.65 per mile.
But that was a 3.5mo thru with very little time in towns.

[Star Walker]

ffrom what i understand, i will be roughing it on 2100 bucks. im sure i can do it and everything but i wont be one of the fellows sitting at the bar in fontana village drinking a 6 dollar beer lol. on my section hikes i average about 5-7 dollars a day and that is eatting pretty damn good if i do say so myself.

[Amigi'sLastStand]

Does anyone ever figure how much they SAVE on a thru hike and see how this balances the expenses to figure a NET cost?

Depending on your situation and needs on the trail, you can cancel or cut back on expenses at home, such as utilities, cable TV, internet, cell phone, auto insurance, entertainment, etc...

Plus, if you spend 50$ per week on food at home and 75$ per week for food on the trail, your net cost for food is really only 25$.

I can see that a single retired person might even make a profit while thru hiking!

No, but I just did. Not thinking an AT thru, but the wife and I did a two week trek through Ocala last year. Come to think of it, we saved money if you factor in gas, utilities we didnt use, bar tabs hehe, etc. If I did a six month hike, I could actually save a boat load by dropping all of my insurances to real low cost, no utilities, gas, steaks, etc.

[sbhikes]

I paid rent because I live with someone and planned to come home.

[Trailbender]

I paid rent because I live with someone and planned to come home.

I guess that makes sense, but being fairly frugal, I just couldn't stand the thought of paying rent every month and not even living there. I think rents are too high as it is.

[Sickmont]

I guess that makes sense, but being fairly frugal, I just couldn't stand the thought of paying rent every month and not even living there. I think rents are too high as it is.

It would be the same type of situation even if you put your stuff in storage.

[sbhikes]

I guess that makes sense, but being fairly frugal, I just couldn't stand the thought of paying rent every month and not even living there. I think rents are too high as it is.

I agree. If you are young and have few posessions, ditch the apartment. I have a partner and several very expensive pets. It cost more to board our birds for a 3 week trip to India than it did to pay our business-class luxury hotel bill in Mumbai. So I went hiking by myself and the idea was that my partner could go by himself later and I'll stay home and take care of the birds and house and stuff.

Now I have another idea which is we could leap-frog the trail. I could hike a section while he is resupplying and taking care of the birds living out of the car, then when I meet up with him, he hikes the next section and I spend the time resupplying and taking care of the birds. We each do every-other section and then the following year we start over and switch sections. All this so we don't have to get rid of the birds. Doubt it will work, though.

[Trailbender]

It would be the same type of situation even if you put your stuff in storage.

I don't own enough stuff to even fill half a standard closet. It would be cheaper in a storage unit, even if I had a ton of stuff like "normal" people. I refuse to be chained down by tons of possessions or a mortgage.

[skooch]

Lots of good info here guys. thanks. I think I'm going to budget $150 per wk. I have a husband with a bad back (motorcycle injury) that flairs up without notice so he will not be joining me. He is awesome and will stay home caring for the house, pool, yard and pets while working fulltime. I wish we could shut everything down and go together but it's not to be. I'm happy for those who are not anchored with responsibilities. At least those like me can pretend while out on the trail. Isn't it amazing how little we need to be happy?

[skooch]

Damn, my profile read 49yrs old up until this last post. guess I'll have to change my trail name to oldchick.

[tirebiter]

Shooting for $2000, but I'm a cheap date.

[Spunk 6]

Irrelevant to today but in 1986 we shot for under $1 a day ... I did it in much less because I was good at making friends with day hikers, picnic people, locals and such I worked my way through the Whites for free room and board as well as most hostels.
What would be interesting would be to see the cost over years compared to inflation. I can't believe people are spending so much money today... are you all sleeping in the woods these days or what? haha

[Torch09]

I learned in 2010...hiking with $2500 meant ramen every day every meal, and no trail towns.. definitely consider about $5k

you ate $13 worth of ramen each day? That's like 86 packs...

[the judge]

I definitely do not plan on sleeping in town at all. beds kill my back and I'm better off in a tent or sleeping under the stars, spend most nights on friends' floors anyway. I pretty much live on rice, beans, and ramon the way it is, so that's not going to be a big deal for me. throw in a cheese burger while resupplying in town once in a while and I'm good. I've all but quit drinking, so there wont be much if any expense there. might ship myself some home made wine in a bounce box... (conveniences of making your own wine) if you wanna get a rough idea of what it will cost you personally, go to livestrong.com find the calorie counter, figure out what you should be getting, then look for the cheapest rout based off of that and what you can stand to eat and what will pack well.

[fehchet]

Irrelevant to today but in 1986 we shot for under $1 a day ... I did it in much less because I was good at making friends with day hikers, picnic people, locals and such I worked my way through the Whites for free room and board as well as most hostels.
What would be interesting would be to see the cost over years compared to inflation. I can't believe people are spending so much money today... are you all sleeping in the woods these days or what? haha

So if I do the math, then you hiked the trail for less that $180.00?

[mweinstone]

the formula for the cheapest hike is:
do all laundry in woods
eat only from larger stores even if this means futher hitch
take no shuttle
stay in no hostel or motel or paid site
buy only the cheapest bare minnimum diet
never buy gear or sox but repair and make do
never smoke or drink
look for day work every chance
have something to sell, art carvings,macrame etc.

[mweinstone]

the formula for the cheapest hike is:
do all laundry in woods
eat only from larger stores even if this means futher hitch
take no shuttle
stay in no hostel or motel or paid site
buy only the cheapest bare minnimum diet
never buy gear or sox but repair and make do
never smoke or drink
look for day work every chance
have something to sell, art carvings,macrame etc.

[coheterojo]

I put $5000 in a debit card account exclusively for my hike last year. Surprisingly enough I spent it.
It appears that I may do the trail again this year but I'm going to have to be far more economical seeing as how I have remained footloose and fancy-free (unemployed) since my (attempted)return to society. I don't really see that as being a problem because I wasn't exactly careful with the money last time. Fewer hotel rooms and more hostels, work-for-stay, hiker boxes, zero days spent on the trail instead of in town, etc.

We'll see what happens this time but it was nice to have the 5 grand in the bank last year. It freed me from potential financial roadblocks on the trail.

Hasta la proxima,

El Flaco