Trust Fund???

he says:

How are we doing this? How can we afford it?

We don’t spend any money we don’t absolutely have to. In the last month we’ve paid for camping one time. Fourteen bucks. We took much needed showers to make it seem like it was worth it... But in reality, so called “primitive” camping is fantastic!! If you’re from the east coast, you probably are not aware, but the federal gov’t owns a vast quantity of land in the west. The U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) are the biggies, and you can camp anywhere on federal land as long as you are more than 1/4 mile from an existing campground (pay site). Every now and then you’ll find a designated primitive camp site with pit toilets (National Recreation Areas and BLM), but if not, it isn’t all that difficult to dig a hole.


So, our rent for the month of August...$14. Not bad. We don’t eat out. OK... we went to the Izzy’s pizza buffet once, after a long and fantastic week of rock climbing at Smith Rock, but it’s not the norm. We eat three meals a day, cooking on the MSR stove when a hot meal is in order. Coffee, tea, oats, rice, noodles, soups, burritos, sandwiches, etc. We don’t keep ice in the cooler, so we don’t make/keep leftovers. We cook exactly what we want to eat. As you might imagine, our food bill is quite low...probably in the neighborhood of $3 to $4 a day, including Moby.

Gas for the month of August...3 tanks, $240. Too much, I know, but we’re getting better. Unfortunately, we have a list of parks and places we really want to see, so we’ll have to spend the money on gas. While it is another blog entry, I think gas is super-cheap right now (.25 per cup), and the opportunity to see these far flung places may soon be financially out of reach for most Americans... (more on that topic later).

I am happy to report that we got over 22 mpg on the last tank!! YEAH!!!

The only other one-time, big ticket items include: State Gazetteers (detailed topographic maps of OR, WA, CA - $40), State Park, National Park, and NW Forest Pass - $110 total, and a new 60m 10.3mm climbing rope - $80 after using my REI dividend!! All one-time purchases... and we can use the maps on the trails too!

So, that is the financial picture. It does not take a big pile of cash to live small. You do have to get comfortable with uncertainty though... you must be flexible, if you will. And you really should love being outdoors! That last one really matters!!