Personal growth and saving money through experience

Having an experience in Norway, May 2017 Total cost £300. Reward-Bonding, stories, experiences.

Buying shit wont make you happy. What a revelation. I bet your glad you came now. I have realized over the years that experiences far out weigh stuff in terms of perceived reward. The best times of your life are very often free or very cheap!

I am into the outdoors in a big way and have met many friends through this pastime. One of my best memories of time in the mountains was when I was 18 and spent a few nights camping in the Mournes area of Ireland. My kit on this occasion was completely borrowed down to the boots. I think the only thing I actually owned was my pants and socks but in truth these may have been my older brothers pants and socks. So technically without the good will of friends and family I would have had to hike naked there by terrifying local sheep. What a great experience. I still talk about it today over 20 years later and even bore my kids with my tales of woe.

Since then I have fallen afoul of the shiny kit trap many times and spent a small fortune on the latest must have tent, waterproof jacket or boots. Now i have gone full circle and keep things very simple.

Having the latest kit is nice but what I have noticed is that a set of perfect gear stops a lot of good/ memorable experiences happening. Safety is one thing but a bit of improvisation never hurt anyone.

Kit insulates you from experience. Its a fact.

As a person who loves traditional skills like shelter building, hunting, foraging I notice that different environment throw up difference challenges. Well this is only the case if you leave stuff behind and pack light. A trip to the mountains, moors or coast can be a vastly different thing. But if you have a tent , sleeping bag and lots of protective gear then all of these places become just pictures. no adaption is required. You rob yourself of valuable experiences.

I once met a team of 4 guys at the top of Ben Nevis in February. These 4 guys were working their way through all of the Munros in Scotland (over 1000m in height) of which  there are 250+. I was amazed at their achievement, young age and lack of top of the range gear. In fact they had a collection of borrowed, old and cheap equipment which snobs would say is not good enough for the type of mountaineering they were doing. Any yet they were doing it and were having a whale of a time! I still admire thoses guys to this day and often think of them when my shiny gear brain kicks in trying to convince my sensible brain we need new boots or waterproof hats.

The same goes for DIY projects. Paying somebody is easy to do, though expensive. There are many jobs which can be done easily by somebody with no skill but a little time.

Enrich your life and save money by simply trying stuff and not always taking the easy/ commercial way.