on a bootstring

An old UK pal, and geography teacher, took a year-long trip around the world a little before I joined his band. The trip sounded great. Apparently, for a long time afterwards students would draw him aside, and ask if it was OK to ask him a Personal Question. They wanted to know... how much the trip cost (the answer: just squeaking into five-figures).

Money is boring, but relevant. I'm doing the LT hike on a "bootstring" budget, definitely. For anyone interested in doing a similar trek, I'll share my budget details. I'm trying to strike a balance between thriftiness and not compromising on safety.

So far, I have spent $240.47 towards the trip. Just under $20 of this was on four flowerpots and skewers/glue to make mallets. The rest: ramen, ziploc bags, Dollar General generic poptarts (a band name if ever I heard one), Country Time pink lemonade, 3 DEET-sprays for $10, dollar baby wipes, dollar hand sanitizer, $4 for a tube of NuSkin (I've not tried it, but want all the blister-weapons in my arsenal after a very blistery Coast/Coast hike last year), $1 laundry sheets for repelling purposes, various toiletries and some spare-tyre antibiotics. Hooray for current health insurance and a kind PCP.

I spent $174.42 in CostCo -- more than I'd usually lay out on food in a month. That's 150-odd servings of instant oatmeal, two big cheese bricks, Fiber One bars (at $2 apiece and 1-2/day, my preferred MetRX bars are out of budget), 12 pounds of peanut butter, and intimidating sackfuls of raisins, trail mix, dried blueberries, coconut strips, and enough cod-liver oil to keep the levels topped up through the month. I felt a bit tired just carrying all this in from the car.

Still have to buy some camping stuff. For example, a stove. Thinking I'll go with one of those tiny solid-fuel burners that apparently makes everything taste like mothballs.

My dear mum sent 2kg of chocolate and Kendal Mint Cake from the UK. Plus a chick that apparently needs to come with: