On Monday it felt like I won the lottery. I needed to just purchase a few things to get ready for our upcoming Kilimanjaro climb, so I needed a new day pack. I have blown through my trail runners and I'm probably going to start off the climb wearing trail runners and then move over into hiking boots when the trail gets a little more technical. But I've put a lot of miles on my trail runners the past couple of months and so I needed a new pair of trail runners. I don't typically use trekking poles, but I feel like for this climb I'm gonna need trekking poles. So I thought you know I should, I should buy some trekking poles for this trip. And then I thought I need a sleeping bag liner, because I don't think it's going to be cold enough on the mountain for a zero degree sleeping bag, and I have a 20 degree down sleeping bag that I want to take because it's super light and super comfortable, but I just want to add a little bit more warmth on the trip. I also want to have a sleeping bag liner to use just in case the hotel that I'm staying at before and after the trip is kind of sketchy. I like to be able to sleep in a sleeping bag liner. It's just a good extra thing to have around that doesn't cost a whole lot of money and that doesn't add a lot of weight. So I lately have been on this budget shopping kick and budget shopping is a new thing for me. I used to own an outdoor retail store so for the past six, seven years I've been able to get all of my outdoor clothing and gear at cost. I can still get it at cost if I want to talk to the person who bought my outdoor retail store from me, but I don't want to because it didn't end very well. Budget shopping for outdoor gear is new to me, but I don't want to because it didn't end very well. Budget shopping for outdoor gear is new to me and I've been trying to take advantage of sales. I've been trying to take advantage of pro deals. I've also been trying to just get rid of a bunch of extra clothing and gear that my family has that we don't use and then using the money from selling that old gear to buy whatever new gear I need. It's a whole thing.
Speaker 1:
You guys, on Monday was the last day of this big REI sale and I guess it's not really a big sale, but they were offering 20% off of one regular priced item. I also realized that I had $56.38 in reward points. It was time for me to do some shopping and buy those things through the REI website. Now I do like to shop locally and support local outdoor retail stores, but sometimes the prices just can't match and since selling my outdoor retail store, my family's on a budget because I'm not bringing in the consistent income that I was when I owned that store.
Speaker 1:
I bought all of these things. I got 20% off of the day pack that I purchased. They actually put that 20% off coupon on the most expensive thing in my shopping cart, which I thought was pretty nice. I used my $56.38 in rewards points and then I put this purchase on my United credit card so that I could get the points, to which I immediately went and paid the balance in full. That's the only way that I'll put something on a credit card is if I have the money in my checking or savings account to pay off that balance in full immediately.
Speaker 1:
Here's what I bought from REI. Here is my haul you can't see it because it's not here yet and because this is a podcast but I bought the Mystery Ranch Scree pack. I'm really excited about this pack, and the regular price was $275. I used the 20% off coupon and got it for $220. What was cool about this was REI applied the 20% off coupon to the most expensive thing in my cart, which was the Mystery Ranch Scree 33 pack, and so the regular price for that was $275. I got it for $220 using that discount code, so that was pretty nice.
Speaker 1:
When it was all said and done, my subtotal for all of those things was $614.90. Free shipping through REIcom, of course. I think if you're an online retailer and you don't offer free shipping, you should Sales tax $36.89. My order total was $651.79, but I had $56.38 in REI rewards, so that knocked it down to $595.41. So I saved a total of $56.38 because of the REI rewards, plus another $55 because of the 20% off coupon. So I felt pretty good.
Speaker 1:
Going to add, what was it? $39.49 in reward points that I can use next year. That's a lot of math, and the only reason I'm bringing this up is because recently we had a conversation in our Facebook page and that conversation was centered around a central theme, and that theme was how can I purchase outdoor clothing and gear on a budget. Lauren asked gear on a budget. Ruth said light backpacking tips on a budget. Having limited funds means that I can't go backpacking because things are just too heavy for me Dripping wet. I'm about 115 pounds with a bad back, so I need to restrict that to 15% of my body weight and that puts me below 18 pounds. I want to go solo backpacking but currently it seems out of reach without buying a bunch of high-end gear. I'm looking for hope. Chrissy wrote travel tips and budgets. Sometimes I read what gear people are using and wonder how they're affording it and the travel.
Speaker 1:
Here's a few things that I personally do to save money when it comes to purchasing outdoor clothing and gear. First, for me, that's really trying to make a decision whether or not I even need to buy that new piece of outdoor clothing or gear or if there's something that I'm already using that works. And if I decide that I really want to buy something new, then I try to sell something used and use that money to buy the new thing, and we already talked about that. I also like to shop with companies that offer reward points for shopping there, and for me that's places like Aria. I also do this personally, and I couldn't do this when I was owned a business and was working ridiculous hours. I like to shop at local grocery stores instead of Walmart and I like to buy what's on sale, and then, if I can add a digital coupon on top of that, I feel like that's really fun and I save my family about $100 a week on groceries because I'm shopping sales and using digital coupons. It takes a little extra time, but it's fun and I enjoy saving that money because then we have that money to spend on something else.
Speaker 1:
We already talked a little bit about using a credit card attached to a reward program. This is great, but only if you pay off the entire balance every month, because credit cards have horrific interest rates. At one point my outdoor retail store had over $40,000 in credit card debt with really high interest, and it was horrible trying to dig out of that mountain of credit card debt, and I never want that again. So if I don't have the cash in my account to make a purchase with a card, then I don't even think about using it. I also like to stick to a budget, so for the past five or six months I've been kind of auditing my clothing and gear to figure out what I really need for Kilimanjaro, and I have written those items down in my notebook and then I've just been checking my account. I've been waiting for deals, I've been looking for sale coupons, and I haven't felt like I had to hurry up and make any of those purchase decisions.
Speaker 1:
I actually was at a local retail store and it was a big box store, so I wasn't like screwing over a small business. But I picked up a pair of trekking poles that I wanted and there was a sign that said they were 40% off, and so I went to check out and they rang the trekking poles up at full price and then I said, oh, those were on the 40% off rack. And they said, oh, they're not on sale, and so the old Rebecca would have just paid the full price, but the new Rebecca just walked away because I didn't want to pay full price for that item. There is just one more thing that I want to buy for this Kilimanjaro trip, and that's a really cool pair of sunglasses, and right now I can get a small pro deal on them, but I'm not sure if I need them or if I just want them. So those sunglasses are in my shopping cart and I'm thinking about it and that's another strategy that I use to save money is I just put the item that I'm looking at in my cart and then I give it a few days to see if I really want it or if it's something that I actually need.
Speaker 1:
This is kind of a personal thing, but my family has budget meetings. That sounds weird, but on Sunday nights my husband and I sit at the kitchen table after the dishes are done after dinner and we pull up the weekly calendar on our computers and we go through the calendar for the week so we don't miss any of our kids' activities. And we also look at our budget and we look at every single transaction from the previous week and we really scrutinize it. And that's just for our family budget. My husband has his own law firm which is kept completely separate financially from our personal finances. I have Hike, like a Woman, which doesn't bring in a lot of money but just brings in a little bit of money, and that money is completely separate from our family finances and we pay ourselves out of those two pots. But we went from a family with two adults earning a consistent income to really just my husband's income and whatever I can squeak by with Hike Like a Woman.
Speaker 1:
So our financial situation has really changed in the past couple months, now that I'm not working full-time outside of Hike Like a Woman, which has forced us to really clean up our budget. So we don't eat out anymore. We don't order HelloFresh. I used to have a house cleaning service when I was working full-time. I don't do that anymore. We used to get monthly massages and acupuncture. We've cut that from our budget and those are all amazing things and they all support other businesses.
Speaker 1:
But we're really trying to stay on a budget because we want to save our money for big adventures. We just got back from a big adventure in Washington DC. We're headed to Europe this summer and so we realized that if we don't spend money on little stuff, then we can really splurge on the big stuff, and the big stuff for my family is definitely adventure travel. That budget meeting every week really helps keep us on track and if we needed to buy a new tent for the family, we would just make that a line item in our monthly budget and then we would look for deals. I asked our hike like a woman community once again on Facebook, which, if you're not following us on Facebook and you're on Facebook, come check us out, but not in a creepy, weird way. Anyway, I asked our Facebook community how they save money on outdoor clothing and gear, how they save money on outdoor clothing and gear, and I really liked the response. I'm going to just mention a few.
Speaker 1:
Cynthia said trade with friends, hand-me-downs, use your old stuff, consignment shops, thrift stores. Renee hikes naked. Sarah says she's a gear tester for REI. Shannon mentioned that she works for a company that gives them a be well, $650 a year that she uses for outdoor gear, which I think is great.
Speaker 1:
June shops online sales and clearance sales. Holly says Goodwill. Stephanie says REI Resell. Lynn says that she buys good quality stuff so she doesn't have to keep on rebuying. Jill says she wears it and uses it until it literally falls apart and then she uses REI rewards Amazon points Kate thrift borrowing from friends investing in quality gear. Christina uses a staff discount and pro deals. Deb shops a lot on Amazon. Hannah recommends mending and repairing your gear by second hand. She also says she writes it in her to buy list on her phone and then she watches for sales or she waits until Christmas. Bonita recommends volunteering and getting brand discounts.
Speaker 1:
Paige likes to buy used. Michelle buys on eBay. Anna shops thrift stores, ebay Gear trade. Pam likes gear trade. Don shops thrift stores, ebay Gear trade. Pam likes gear trade. Don likes Eastern Mountain Sports. Emily likes Facebook Marketplace. Lisa likes Poshmark, sierra, or Sarah excuse me likes Sierra Trading Post clearance sales.
Speaker 1:
Tiffany likes used gear exchanges thrifting. Jan likes Goodwill. Karen watches for sales and clearance except for shoes, only new. So her feet don't have issues. I agree with that one. Lisa says is there a way to save money? Consignment stores, so many things. So if you have a tight budget and you're looking to upgrade some outdoor clothing and gear, I hope that today's conversation has been useful. I will say before I sign out that there's one thing that I don't do to save money and I don't buy used outdoor clothing and gear, and I don't know if that's just trauma from my childhood, where everything was used, because I was one of four kids. But I'd rather splurge and buy something new, and so you can judge me by leaving a comment, but before you do, make sure you like, subscribe, do all the things, share this with your friends and then go hang out with us on social media so you can enjoy some of our community conversations. Thanks so much and I'll catch you next time. Bye-bye.