I went hiking this weekend, a 10 mile roundtrip at a fairly well traveled trail, nothing real difficult or too out of the ordinary. But after watching the hordes of hikers out there, I realize, man, I think I have way too much fancy equipment. What got me thinking was watching a couple of guys behind us hauling canvas duffelbags on their backs, and carrying wal-mart type sleeping bags in their arms. Yup, just carrying them in their arms for 10+ miles.

I started totaling up everything I was carrying, and realized I'm probably carrying well over $1000-$1500 (in retail prices) in clothes and gear, and probably more because I stopped adding after that. This is just on a dayhike, a backpacking trip might easily double that amount. To be honest, I didn't actually pay anywhere near retail for any of it (I'm not that rich), almost everything I buy is either second hand or on huge discounts from outlets, and I've been slowly accumulating everything for the past 20 years or so.

But when I look at it, I'm thinking I need to cut down on what I buy. I know when I first started going outdoors as a kid, I think everything I owned for camping probably totalled less than $100, that includes tent, backpack, boots, stove, basically everything. As I got more money, and discovered REI, I bought even more stuff. Now I'm at the point I'm could probably open a small sporting goods store in my closet. Granted, I'm probably a lot more comfortable than those other people, but I just don't know if it's worth the price.

I did start to realize this a little while ago. Now, I'm trying to be a lot more frugal with my spending. And I stopped browsing through the Annual Backpacker Gear issue, that was just like a drug for me. Has anyone else ever stopped to think about how much we are carrying, and how ironic it is? One of the reasons I liked the hiking and the outdoors was because it was simple and free. All you needed was two feet and a will to move. But so far, it's been one of the most expensive free hobbies I've ever had.

Amen! Including this site. My PSK probably cost me around $100 once I got all the little widgets crammed in (this includes my first, slightly larger version)

But, yeah, I've given up on Backpacker magazine, and I'm trying to wean myself off the knife magazines (it's a bad hobby).... Fortunately I have't bought any big ticket items in a few years (new backpack, tent, and sleeping bag). Part of the reason, though, is I've had no time, and no one, to use them with

Yes, it is.

-Blast, who finally has a little extra green to pay for stuff...

As with everything, when the kit gets better, lighter and more functional the prices go up. Just imagine what the poor cyclist has to go through if he/she wants some of the best kit to peddle along on. $8,899.00 and that is just for the bicycle frame.

http://www.wrenchscience.com/Colnago/CF4/Road_Bikes/Frames.html

You can easily spend the same amount again for all the other parts.

I think there is a line that gets crossed at times.

It is not wrong to have good gear but sometimes the magazines, websites and retailers try to load you down with all the latest greatest and expensive goodies.

My best example is the titanium spork. I know some folks like sporks but I think the make a both a poor spoon and a poor fork.
Now make one out of titanium and charge $25+ and you have IMO the most rediculous investment in gear. Lexan utensils cost $1 and are just as light and almost as durable. None the less I am sure hundreds of thousands titanium sporks have been sold.

On the other hand a well made pair of shoes / boots, a quality sleeping bag and other items are definitely worth spending money on.

The only piece of advice I can offer is what I try to adhere to myself in my decisions regarding purchases and other types of decisions in life and that is to always consider where the law of diminishing returns kicks in. I always ask myself is the increase in cost or discomfort from one item to the next really representative of the increase in value? If the answer is no then I don't go with the more expensive option.

For example, yes I could afford to go buy a $300 - $400 fixed blade knife but is it worth it? Knife guys will say yes but for me the answer is no. I have my $50 USMC Ka-Bar and it has never let me down regardless of how much abuse I have subjected it to.

Now granted there are certain areas where I personally will not compromise such as my carry pistol and my brand of toilet paper - a gun I rely on to protect my family is not a place for me to risk reliability and with toilet paper, anything designed to come into direct contact with that part of my body is not something to bargain shop for.

There can be a tendency to get caught up in brand names and keeping up with the next guy, etc even with survival gear but survival is not about bragging rights or a fashion contest.

Ouch, this is all too real for me...

A couple of weeks ago, when we had the topic going of how you'd outfit a friends daypack for $25 was a real eye opener. I started to realize that my keychain stuff costs more than that, let alone filling a daypack with appropriate items!

I think now my ridiculous cache of flashlights are probably worth more than ALL of the gear I had as a boy, and I was going on 10-14 day treks back then! (My flashlight back then was a right angle 2 D cell thing, but, it did have the BSA logo on it, which made it the envy of the other guys in my patrol.)

At least decades later I still get out there every month and get to sleep under the stars. Maybe all the extra gear is just a bonus for sticking with this stuff long enough for my son to get interested. Now my wife doesn't blame me as much, it's for my son you see

My wife graciously helped me to see the wisdom of being more frugal about the gear that I buy.

I guess it started when I went out to buy a backpack, and came home with an RV instead...

Duck? I am worse than you an I am "Sportsmans Guide" best customer, if they make it I'd probably have it.

The way I see it WTSHTF any excess that I have I can always trade it for something else...... is better to have more than not enough.

"TO BE READY IS NOT"...Ponce

I have purchased 3 photon freedom lights. $60
One is in my PSK, One for my Wifes, and now one as my EDC.


I could have been frugal and stuck with the batterys and LEDs.
$10

The dimming function sold me on the freedom.

I don't even want to add up all the other stuff.

I am going the cheap rout on the 55 gallon drums for water storage.
$60-80 bucks new, used from local coke bottler $5.

As with most things, camping/survival gear has a maximum value point. That is to say, cheap stuff is really crappy, then as the price goes up the value goes up until you hit some point where the price keeps going up but the value doesn't go up as much. This corner is where you should choose your gear.
For a concrete example, cheap LED flashlights can be had for a few dollars, but they are plastic and not waterproof, better ones are metal and like $10-$30 and are very durable and are probably the best value, then you have the crazy surefire, fenix ones that are $75 and up and they may be somewhat brighter, but really, how bright do you need to light up your stairs in a blackout?
Must...fight...the...gadget...lust...

Backpacker ads, "The Best New Gear for 2007", CountyComm, Cheaper than Dirt, Sportsmans Guide, Cabelas, REI...

It's called "Gear Porn", guys!

Sue

Blasphemy!

If you like it, buy it. It's the American way. If it serves a purpose too, bonus.

DTG, I'm going to ask the obvious question- how long ago was the $100 worth of stuff? Inflation sucks.

But if you are carrying a grand of gear, that is a little high, but not horrible. As others have said, quality has a price. My ditch kit lives in a vest that if I had purchased it new would have been over a hundred dollars. But it holds everything I need, has it where I like, and becuase of the modular magic of MOLLE, can be changed in the future if I need to. Ditto my three season pack- if I had to replace just the nylon, that would be over $250 new. But also know that this gear can take at least as much abuse as my body can, if not more.

When I made my first serious bug out stash, it was a milk crate full of gear that might have totaled $150 back in '98, and it would have been packed into a rucksack that cost me something like $40 that had about $30 worth of surplus ALICE gear attached to it. I would say that I had too much weight in the wrong places then, with things like canned foods. But guess what- two thirds of that $150 was tools, like my Ka-bar and the Leatherman that is currently digging into my hip. *squirms* (I gotta get a better chair here.) And the $10 on clearance Grundig mini shortwave receiver that I still own.

So don't sweat it too much. You've got good gear. Truely good gear is working family heirloom stuff, in the same class as a good hammer or a rifle. Look to see how much of what you have is "survival bling"- stuff bought becuase it has a flashy name. While I'm not fond of a lot of it, it actually serves a purpose- you'll look like all the middle class slobs who, unlike you and I and the others here, are in dangerous need of a clue. It's suburban camouflage.

I guess it's all relative. When I was young and broke, but a lot more tolerant of doing without, I made what I had or could afford work. Now I am older, I've done my time, and I have some coin to blow. I still consider myself frugal, but if I see something I want, I am more inclined to buy it without scrutinizing whether or not it is essential, or if I could make do with something lower quality or slightly less functional.

It's like anything else I suppose. I could make a $700 POS vehicle work just fine for me, provided I don't rely on it too much. I can make a $5,000 vehicle do just as well, and maybe get a bit more complacent about checking on it regularly to make sure nothing is about to fall off or blow up. I will probably never own a brand new vehicle because getting one two or three years old that is mechanically sound seems more than I would ever need, regardless of how much money I have in my pocket.

I have a lot of dutch ovens that I haven't used in the past 3 years. In fact, I am hard pressed to think of a time when I ever had to use all of them at once for anything except when I taught camp cooking. Even when I worked as a camp cook I never needed more than maybe 6 with me. They are all good ovens that passed a fair amount of scrutiny at the time of purchase, even though most of them are from no-name manufacturers. A couple are from the best in the business, just because they are exactly what I was looking for at the time, or they were something special that caught my eye. There's still a few models I don't own that I wish I had, like the bigger Maca ones, but I just can't seem to justify spending $300 or more for a pot I will seldom use and is so heavy and bulky. However, if I came across one that was on sale or someone gave me one (yeah, that's not gonna happen), I would probably keep it and use it when I could.

I guess when it comes to survival gear, there's a time and place to be cheap, and then there's things that you will want to spare no expense on. Frugal isn't always about being a penny pincher, it is value for money. Like in another thread, it just doesn't make sense to me to own 100 lbs of bug out gear, regardless of how much or little it costs, but you can be sure that I will pay as much as I can afford to get the best in certain cases. A 99 cent bic lighter will get me by most of the time, a $7.00 refillable piezo electric/catalytic wind/waterproof butane lighter will always be my primary go to firestarting source, and I will never pay $50 or more for any kind of lighter, even though there's plenty of them out there.

Welcome to the wonderful world of the gearaholic! It is no worse than being in law enforcement and going in to a uniform store, where they always have some new toy that you are sure will save your life ten times over, so you buy it. Over and over again. Hence the saying, "if you die first, we're splitting up your gear"...

Yeah, its good to take a look at your spending. I still get a few bg ticket items, but also buy much of my gear* used on eay or at the local goodwill type store.

As I've aged I've found ...

My sleeping pads are getting thicker (and more expensive) and my tents are getting taller (and more expensive)

My sleeping bags are getting wider (but not too much more expensive)

My flashlights and stoves are getting smaller and more reliable(and more expensive)

My knives are getting much nicer, thanks to Doug (and more expensive). I tend to justify the cost of Doug's knives by convincing myself that most of that money goes to equipped.org. "See [wife's name] I'm helping Doug save lives!!"

The one place that things are still very reasonable, as billym says, is my plastic (lexan) eating gear. I did try the Countycom.com spork once - just once. Now I bring both a lexan fork and spoon. Try eating spaghetti with a spork

[I never could spell "spaghetti" - I had to look it up in a dictionary.]

I have the same problem. Since money is not so forthcoming now I have two children I still find myself getting new stuff just because I want it. Just this week I spent around 80$ at Countycomm. Now i think I am gonna put some money back for some things i really want. There are some times when I feel I am working hard enough I deserve some of my wants but it can't happen every week. Whewn your needs are taken care of you can then take care of your wants (which there is a whole list of).

As far as the titanium spork goes I have one and it stays in my lunchbox for when i want to eat some canned fruit (works well on sliced peaches). I just like titanium then again i am a ironworker/welder by trade so i like playing with all kinds of steel.

Ah, I don't think I've ever really had that attitude. I'm quite happy to spend money on things which make me more comfortable.

I am concerned about looking conspicuously rich, but that's another matter. I have found that cheap stuff is sometimes better - especially smaller and lighter - than the more expensive stuff, but again that's another matter.

For me, any attempt at minimalism is balanced by a desire for safety and comfort. It's not about managing with the least gear, it's about being comfortable with the least gear.

Amen to that, Brother!!!