Regular readers may remember that Jim and I aren’t exactly big gearheads. With our frugal lifestyle and relatively non-existent income right now, we must carefully choose the gear we need, to get the most out of our budget. And we understand that there’s a difference between being cheap, and being frugal. Buying cheap gear is always more expensive in the long run.
Take for example, this North Face jacket I’m wearing during our stay at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado. The jacket has served me well for the last 8 years, but lately I’ve been thinking that it’s time for a replacement. This one was cutting edge at the time, but by today’s standard it’s bulky, heavy, and army green isn’t exactly the most flattering color. It’s also overkill for our winter travel adventures in the temperate southwest and should probably be left at our Colorado home base.
Coincidentally, I was introduced to The North Face Resolve jacket today, through Webtogs, an online retailer specializing in quality outdoor gear.
The North Face Resolve jacket features include:
seam sealed, waterproof, breathable fabric
soft, lined collar
stow-away hood
mesh-knit liner
storm baffle front zipper with double front closure
big pockets on both sides
athletic cut with a drawstring cord for tailored fit
As you might be able to see in the photo, I’m a walking billboard for North Face gear. My boots and jacket are North Face and so are the base layers I wear. Their products last forever and hold up beautifully, making them a frugal RVer’s dream.
The North Face Resolve jacket looks compact enough to fit in our tiny RV wardrobe closet, yet sturdy enough to give me the protection I need from the spring rains in Texas.
With Christmas around the corner, I think it’s time for an upgrade, don’t you?
Now that we’re getting a new iPod, maybe I can convince René we need an iPhone! Just check out this amazing new iPhone app that lets you easily find any satellite…
This next generation satellite finder is straight out of Star Trek! What will they think of next? Simply point your iPhone anywhere towards the sky and all the satellites will appear on the live video screen. Kinda surreal and freaky, if you ask me.
The best part? Again, if you ask me … Now you can easily tell which trees will block which satellite. That’s a good enough reason for me to buy a new iPhone! Sure, like that’s gonna happen.
This new DishPointer Augmented Reality application uses the accelerometer and the compass of the new iPhone 3GS. The compass apparently has a bit of a lag, so when spinning the phone right or left the satellite belt is shifted with a slight delay but up and down works in real time.
Of course, I would have first hand experience with this if I had an iPhone. I only know because Alan let us know about this and other cool satellite iPhone apps he’s been working on over at dishpointer.com. My first post about his DishPointer satellite alignment widget has been one of our most popular posts here, so I just had to share this new cool tool!
Here’s another one of those “luxury” purchase decisions that make one contemplate that old want vs. need dilemma.
In reality, we want a new iPod because the refurbished one we bought over two years ago no longer works. But we believe we need one because traveling cross country can drive one batty when forced to consistently fuss with the radio dial only to find the same static, classic rock, and religion. And two batty people can only take being trapped in a truck for hours a day with Eddie Money and Styx for so long.
And the former is easily answered not only because I am a Mac Addict, but I did my homework. I had no idea iPods even came with such great capacity now, so we need not be selective now about which music we add. And I am still upset over the short lifespan of our refurb – the one we originally had to return for another unit. The same one in which I replaced the battery without improving it’s playtime. But there I go digressing again. I also I discovered certain lesser capacity third-party MP3 players cost even more than the Apple iPod. That, and because we don’t need an iTouch.
It was always apparent that we didn’t get rid of enough stuff when we left Eureka in June 2007. Our $250 a month storage bill said it all.
When we hit the road, we hired a moving company to store our stuff, thinking that someday we would be willing to pay to ship it to us, wherever we landed. But until the moving company actually put it all in their warehouse, we had no idea how much our storage bill would be. By the time we learned what the damage was, it was too late.
The Horrors of Excess
While in storage, our stuff took up five crates at 4′ x 7′ x 7, for a grand total of 980 cubic feet. Once we closed escrow on our house and saw what our finances looked like, that there was no way we were going to shell out the $5k the moving company wanted to deliver our stuff, so we opted to go get it ourselves.
The only problem was that I never actually saw how much space our junk took up, until we landed in Eureka for just one stealth night in August. When we arrived at the moving company’s warehouse with our 26′ moving truck, our jaws dropped.
A massive amount of boxes were stacked and waiting. At first, the two movers we hired to help load weren’t even sure if it would all fit. As they started loading, I began making piles of stuff that we would ditch if it didn’t.
I wanted to cry. All this time I thought that we had really downsized. Who was I kidding?! The excessive boxes of clothes, kitchen stuff, and knicknacks, was unreal. I kicked myself up and down the parking lot, cursing at our naivety in thinking we had gotten rid of all but our essentials.
Eventually, the movers made it all fit. We left Eureka in less than 24 hours, and lugged it back to Colorado.
Note to Self: Lesson Learned
Two years ago, I thought we were keeping only the essentials. But I’m not the same person I was then. The road has taught me that I don’t need much to have an enjoyable life. I don’t need eight pairs of jeans, or three different sets of dinner plates to feel complete.
Sure, it’s nice to have some of my favorite things back under our roof, like my card making stuff and my bread machine. But when it comes down to it, I’ll take the incredible journeys we’ve had over all of our material possessions any day.
I always knew that our stuff took up five crates at 4′ x 7′ x 7, for a grand total of 980 cubic feet, but i never actually saw how much space that takes up until we landed in Eureka for just one night, to get our stuff into our moving truck.
Fort Collins is great because it’s a small town with big city amenities, especially when it comes to food. With three farmer’s markets, and plenty of natural foods stores, including Whole Foods (aka “Whole Paycheck”), I haven’t experienced the gourmet foods deprivation I’ve felt in other small towns.
But too much of a good thing is wreaking havoc on our budget. Yesterday I went into Whole Foods chanting the usual mantra “I just need a few things.” All I wanted was some produce, some bulk foods, and good lunch meat for Jim. Two bags and $56 later, I walked out while shoving the receipt in my wallet without giving it a second glance.
To my horror, today while going over the receipt, I discovered that those tasty organic “essentials” included a small bag of bok choi that cost $5.10, and two apples at $1.56!
In preparation for our upcoming home purchase, I’m freaking out about money. We’ve been kind of careless about our food bill since escaping the grind of homeownership two years ago. So today Jim and I discussed things we can nix from our spending habits to make life a little less expensive.
At the top of our list of things to avoid is Whole Foods. Unless we want to go broke before we settle into the new digs and get another business off the ground, we won’t be setting foot in that upscale foody store again.
Regular readers may remember that Jim and I aren’t exactly big gearheads. With our frugal lifestyle and relatively non-existent income right now, we must carefully choose the gear we need, to get the most out of our budget. And we understand that there’s a difference between being cheap, and being frugal. Buying cheap gear is always more expensive in the long run.
Here’s another one of those “luxury” purchase decisions that make one contemplate that old want vs. need dilemma.
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