Frugal Rock Travel- Backpacking Style

Hi Folks! It's been a while- summer is getting away from me. Been really busy enjoying life, getting outside and enjoying out of town company. Hoping to get a more regular schedule in place again for the fall; but thanks for visiting!

I'm back with a Frugal Rock Travel Segment- and want to share about the best mini-getaway I've ever taken. That's right- THE best. And it was the best for a few reasons: getting away for a long weekend, spending time with Mr. FR, having no phone, email or technology...ohhh, and the fact that it all cost less than 200 bucks. Get ready for a photo-heavy post!

Having been lucky to travel quite a bit nationally and internationally, I never would have thought to find such a cool getaway a few hours away. IF you are willing to rough it and enjoy the experience of the great outdoors, camping and backpacking are a wonderful and frugal way to go. In Wisconsin, backpacking and non-electric site (meaning no outlets nearby) costs $20 a night so a long weekend stay can be done for $40 a weekend- $50 with all taxes and fees. This would still be much below the hotel costs or even a night out for dinner and drinks.

The GEAR

Now one quick aside about gear.

Of course, the initial costs of camping gear can be expensive. Tents, backpacks, cook stoves, etc. can add up quickly. I am not advocating for the cheapest purchases all the way around ( after all, who wants to spend any money on a tent that leaks?), but neither do you need to go to REI and let them 'outfit' you with a special cook pot that costs over $100 and supposedly works better over the fire. I call hogwash. Other then our tent and backpacks, we tend to go cheaper/simpler options as best. Here is a quick rundown of our backpacking gear:                   

Only people for miles, right along Lake Michigan.

                          

1 Quechua Tent- for sure the best purchase we have made. Tight fit for two people, but with room at the foot for bags. We have been out in some heavy rain and have never had a leak. Also while a tight fit, because of the small footprint, we tend to stay warmer. The big selling point for me on this one is it springs open and other then staking it into the ground requires no assembly.

A little chilly but nothing a hat won't fix. My

bag is a GoLite.

2 Backpacks- probably out most expensive gear. To haul all of our items comfortably, it's important that the bag be the right size for you and is able to help you easily haul everything you need. In this case, we needed to hike in and out about 2 miles, carrying all of our items. While not a huge distance you would struggle without the proper bag. We have used these not only for camping, but also for train trips or other getaways. Last year the Frugal Rock household took the train to DC, and then walked to the AirBNB, about 2 miles with all of our stuff on our backs. We bought these online (thanks Amazon prime!) but I would highly recommend walking over to a outfitting/camping store and trying on some bags before buying so you know the style that works best for you.

Mr. FR loving the outdoors and outfitted to hike out after a fun weekend!

1 Foldable burner and cook fuel. We had looked at more expensive options multiple times. JetBoil is the most popular one out there, but simple and light won the day on this. We use a simple fold out burner and a small fuel cell that we light. The pot for the stove- that we use for everything, making coffee, meals etc., was an old cook pot of ours that's gotten a little warped over time. When we replaced the pot in our home kitchen, it got repurposed for our outdoor needs.

1 Water Filtration. This is the first trip where we did not have easy access to drinking water.  Due to this we did have to make some purchases, including a foldable water jug, tablets to clean the drinking water (so we could pull it right from Lake Michigan!) and water filtration straws to help filter any left over bits from our lake or stream water. This totaled just under $30 and will be items that we plan on using in the future.

Other items:
Sleeping Bags
Ax- cutting up downed wood, instead of purchasing or hauling wood in (cuts down on invasives too- so double win)
Rain Gear
Clothes/Personal Items

Every so often we need to replace some of the small items, such as flashlights, but over the last 6 years, we have slowly purchased the big items so the expenses were spread out over a long period of time.

While we spend a lot of time hiking and sitting around the fire when camping, we also bring at least one travel game. A pack of cards will do, but lately we have been bringing Travel Chess or Battleship. A book or two generally gets shoved into one of the bags as well. We bring one of our phones for emergencies, but don't use it for distraction- ie. internet surfing during downtimes, though a podcast does come in handy for rainy nights!

The FOOD

The way backpacking differs from most camping, is the lack of refrigeration or coolers. Most foods will either need to be packaged and/or dehydrated to prevent spoiling.

There are several store bought varietis you can purchase if you want to go the easiest route. Here is one variety that came recommended that you can buy on Amazon. If you are worried about the sodium content in some of these package meals (Mr. FR) or just want something a little more gourmet for camping (me) you can also very easily and cheaply make your own food packs. The key idea behind this is something that will taste delicious, is nutritious- in these cases also packed with protein, and can be made with just boiling water and adding the food packet. I got a lot of inspiration from this blogger who made a variety of packaged meals. I also did some comparing to this site and played around with my own variations as well. I will admit that some of these were so good that I could see making and stacking them in the pantry for nights when you may just need an instant meal and don't want to do the same old pasta or rice-a-roni.

To make the recipes above I did go on Amazon (we have a prime membership so it's often cheaper to purchase in bulk from Amazon then run to the store!) and order a few things- freezer Ziploc bags, freeze dried veggies, fruit and chicken. With the help of the link above I made the following meals for our dinners/lunches:

Sundried Tomato Pasta w/ Salmon
Fiesta Rice w/ Chicken and Veggies
Thai Peanut Sauce and Noodle Dish **my personal favorite**
Vegetable Curry

Each bag I wrote the instructions as to how much water and cook time was needed to make things really simple each night. You will notice that these are carbohydrate heavy. One reason for that is that carbs are great in making you full without tons of food. Carbs stick with you throughout the day. When you are hiking 5-8 miles a day something lighter is not going to get you through! Finally, carbs work great in these meals since they come dried, they are uniquely good at being the base in instant meals.

For breakfasts, I did something similar and made homemade instant oatmeal packets. Again for ease and speed, you could bring Quaker Oats instant packs, but if you really want to be horrified- check the sugar content in just one of those packs. In addition, Mr. FR and I combined would eat about 5 packs in a morning so over 3-4 days we would generate a bunch of garbage to pack out. Instead, I made 5 serving breakfast packs again with dried fruit and added cinnamon or one decadent morning cocoa powder. Each morning we boiled water and then threw in the one breakfast pack and a few minutes later had a meal ready.

For snacks, there was applesauce and summer sausage (some varieties don't need refrigeration until opening so we bought small ones and ate in one sitting). And of course, plenty of instant coffee.

The COST Breakdown (rounded for calculating ease)

Site Fees/Reservations- $60 for 3 night at $20 a night

Food Costs- $50- including left over freeze dried items for future meals. I gave myself a budget of $50 and stayed to it pretty exactly.

Gas-$40 - I put $20 in my tank on the way there and the way back, but never was fully empty so the actual gas price is approximate

Restaurant- $35- We did a very un-frugal thing on the way back and stopped for lunch. Being frugal is also about knowing when to splurge, and we couldn't resist the lunch spot with goats on the roof.

Total: $185

The NATURE

So in case you are asking yourself- why all this work? Was it worth it? Absolutely! These below images of the beautiful scenery we got to enjoy. Not only that, but we were completely relaxed most of the weekend, and were truly away from it all. We did not have any other campers nearby and were miles from other people. We were able to wake up each morning with a view of the lake from our tent and songbirds overhead.  Not only that, but I had a huge sense of satisfaction during the trip of being pushed out of my comfort zone, and at times, pushing our endurance. It reminded me that the best vacations are not necessarily the most expensive ones, but the ones that nourish your soul. Needless to say, we already booked our site for next summer!

After several days of rain the forest was a bright green, as only seen in spring- with wildflowers blooming in the underbrush.

Little garden snake. After Mr.FR painstakingly got close to this little guy, I almost immediately stepped on another one.

They were everywhere!

A tree with personality...

Resolution Re-cap- 6 Months In

It's time for a RESOLUTION RECAP.

Sorry to shout- but it's officially well into the 'new' year. That makes it time to find out how well those well-intentioned New Year's Resolutions are holding up. According to Psychology Today most New Year's Resolutions fall to the wayside pretty quickly. Specifically over time, 22% fail after one week, 40% after one month, 50% after three months, 60% after six months, and 81% after twenty-four months. Ouch! So if you made a resolution to exercise more or eat less, chances are you (and the rest of America) stuck with that for maybe a few weeks!

Don't let that bring you down though because the same research on why resolutions fail gives us good insight in how to be successful. The research shows that people who had solid concrete goals- with measurable and trackable outcomes were more likely to be successful. When personal motivation is lacking, the use of a support system for personal accountability also comes into play!

So how'd Ms. Frugal Rock do on those resolutions? Here's a status report:

1. Do something with that old 401K account.

I'm embarrassed to start with this one, because until I started this post- I had completely forgotten about this resolution. Whoops. Probably the easiest out of the 5 resolution goals there is nothing sexy about exploring your 401k roll-over options. That being said, it should be a pretty simple way to condense my portfolio and get all of my accounts in the same place. I'm adding it to my list for this next week and will report back!

2. Find a way to reduce my commute by biking 1 day a week.

Sweet, sweet progress. I had initially mentioned my hope of purchasing an electric bike, but super-savy, Mr. Frugal Rock managed to find a pretty reasonable kit online to outfit my current bike into an electric. As of about two monhs ago, I can be found zooming along the bike trails knocking over pedestrians with my speed...well not quite, but I'm able to cruise at about 13mph without pedaling, and with pedaling am able to make a pretty nice clip. I have been buzzing back and forth to work now 10+ times and have stuck with my goal of biking at least once a week. Now that it's truly summer (with less damp weather going around hopefully!) I'll be able to bike in more often.  Finger's crossed!

As someone who has never been a confident street biker- being able to bike downtown fairly confidently feels like a huge milestone for me, as I could not have imagined myself biking to work even a year ago! Life is funny sometimes!

3. Aggressively save to pay off our mortgage early

I posted in January on our goals for our mortgage, and am proud to announce that we have knocked our mortgage down to 5 figures, instead of 6. It's satisfying to see one less digit at the end of our loan amount. In addition, there is a super-saving-scheme (alliteration makes saving more fun, I promise) in the works that if followed will keep us on track to knock even more off this year. One potential set-back in our saving is a new roof, which is needed for the Frugal Rock home this year. While an expected expense, anytime you have to spend thousands of dollars on a home improvement project it hurts a bit!

4. Continue to explore side jobs or 'side hustles'

No new updates on this for Ms. Frugal Rock yet to share. BUT, I hope to have news to share soon about a potential side hustle. Mr. Frugal Rock has been leaving me in the dust and has developed his own Etsy Store to sell Nintendo Themed Wood Block Sets- no joke, they are the best!

5. Embrace budget travel.

This one has been thoroughly embraced. As I shared in a previous Frugal Road Trip post, I loved going on a cross-country road trip, and the fact that also didn't deplete our bank accounts was another huge bonus. Last month brought on a last minute road trip to the corn-loving state of Iowa, to see a friend in on business. While no means the most exciting vacation destination I've ever been to- it was a great time anyway! Frugal trips have been planned for this summer including some camping and backpacking, so stay tuned for posts on those, as well as other Frugal Travel features.

How have your resolutions been going? Any frugal resolution you have made and stuck with?



Frugal Rock Travel- Road Trippin' on the Cheap!

I am excited to announce a new series here on Frugal Rock: The Frugal Rock Travel Segment! The first post of this series is on the frugal road trip. I hope to post on other travel ideas throughout the year, like frugal destinations, backpacking/camping and other travel tips.  

As I mentioned in this recent post, Mr. Frugal Rock and I spent the beginning of the year on the road for a week, hoofing it (not literally) to destinations in Georgia and Florida. With gas prices being so low, and our love of road trips- it made perfect sense for us to drive and avoid the hassle of flying. 2 people, one car, 22 hours of driving (one way), and roughly 1,200 miles. What could possibly go wrong? Surprisingly little, as it turned out!

A 'sherbet sunrise, during an early start'

While I've always loved the classic American road trip- I wasn't sure how it would really measure up price wise, compared to the cost of airfare. I was particularly worried about racking up additional costs along the way. Since we were traveling for a long period of time over two days, I figured that we could end up spending more on meals and possible hotel costs.

Road trips can be a good alternative for family travel, especially when your family starts growing in number and you have to look at purchasing 3-4 plane tickets. My family is just the two of us, so while ticket prices wouldn't be THAT outrageous, my hypothesis was that we could road trip it for cheaper, while also enjoying the time together for fun and hilarity. To be fair the only thing that probably would talk me out of road trips is if it ever became more expensive than flying, so I clearly already have a 'slant'- but don't worry, I will breakdown our spending for you so you can see for yourself how it compares, and can judge for yourselves.

Cost Break Down:

$200 in gas- this came out almost exact so I rounded it up to $200 for the way there and back. Note: We had ridiculously low gas prices this January, combined with a pretty fuel efficient car, kept gas costs lower than anticipated.

$0 for meals on the road. Our goal was to not spend any money on gas station food (you can keep your dried out and stale hot dogs Citgo!) or other fast food/chain joints (what the hell is the deal with all the Cracker Barrels between here and Florida anyway??! We counted- no joke- 23. Gross.)

$46 for meal prep. So we did eat during our road trip- don't let our no fast food costs fool you! As an incurable snack-er I made sure that there were plenty of go-to munchies for the trip, as well as healthy and frugal lunch ideas.

$86 for hotel costs, 1 night on the drive. This one I'm a bit ashamed of- Mr. Frugal Rock was advocating for us sleeping in the car for a few hours and than continuing on our way. But I'll admit, it was unexpectedly cool on our drive south and I wanted a shower. Luxury won over frugality this time!

Total Cost for the Road Trip: $332
*Note, I'm not taking into account our expenses for the remainder of the trip, as in theory they would be about the same, whether we flew or drove, mainly comparing the cost of driving versus flying here!*

Flight Cost Estimator: Using Kayak (a great way to travel cheap), I was able to look for flights on a variety of airlines to try and find the best deals. The flights that matched the dates we wanted to travel ended up being about $300 a person= $600 for us total. There are ways to get cheaper flights, leave on 'off days' avoiding weekends, Mondays or Fridays, and being willing to have multiple stops en route but in viewing this, I am ready to declare the road trip, the frugal winner this time!


Traveling by car can expose you to some great views!

3 MUSTS for a Frugal Road Trip

Ready to try a road trip? Here are the three things, that can make or break your trip (or your wallet).

1. Bring your own food-  the cooler is a must...

One of the things about traveling and vacation is trying new restaurants, so you are probably already eating out more than normal. Why waste your dollars on the fast food/chain places en route? I guarantee that avoiding these places will make you feel better in the long-run as well. For our frugal road trip I stocked our cooler and snack bag with:

-Fresh fruit, grapes, apples and oranges for snacking
-trail mix and granola bars
-peanut butter/jelly and a lot of bread
-fresh veggies and hummus, for wraps
-mozzarella balls, tomatoes and basil for caprese wraps on the go
-made ahead spicy curry chicken salad

2. Avoid hotels when possible...

Obviously, didn't follow my own advice on this one! Ways you can avoid hotels, may be planning your route so that you can stop at a truck stop or camp ground to park the car and get some sleep. You can also check out vacation rental sites or couch crashing options to keep your costs lower. If you have to stop, make sure you call around. When we stopped for the night, we saw 4 hotels on the off ramp, and in calling each found a high variance in pricing between equally nice looking places. It pays to call in advance, even if it's only two minutes in advance.

3. Plan activities for your car ride!



Local library for the win!

I can honestly say that I love road trips. But, if you are going to spend 20+ hours in the car, even with your most favorite person, you better be prepared! Mr. Frugal and I went online and picked our 4 books on cd- we made it through two of them. I would highly recommend Mary Roach if you haven't read her books. She is a fascinating science author, that often focuses on the unique people behind the interesting facts she shares. We also came stocked with plenty of music (road trip playlist anyone?!) and podcasts. Since Serial just came out with their second season, we saved up the episodes we hadn't heard yet and binged listened all at once!

Are you a fan of the road trip? What's the farthest you have traveled by car? Any secrets to a good, frugal road trip?