Backpacks and boots!

photo by danielle. hence it being out of focus :p Notice to world map in the background and the thumbs up as if to say "I'm awesome."

Danielle and I went down to the city to Camper's Village and bought some stuff for our trip on Wednesday.

Off the list:
Backpacks
Boots

First off, it's pretty much the best store I've ever been to if you're into the sort of adventure/travel/camping kind of thing. Not to advertise for them, but they don't get commission and yet are extremely helpful. I think it's because they're all adventure junkies and like helping people out.

Anyway, we purchased backpacks and boots for our adventure of epic awesomeness.

We went with Eagle Creek backpacks, which are from my understanding the top of the line in terms of technology, but thankfully not price point. We were going to go for Asolo bags but were talked out of it by the clerks.

I went with the Thrive 65L (right), and Danielle went with some kind of Tubular 55L for women, which I think has the model name Thuist (the straps are slightly different).

Mine is more in the shape of a rectangular suitcase with a backpack attached to it, and Danielle's is pretty much a tube with a little detachable fanny pack.

They are sweet, they were the best purchases I ever bought. Anyway, once again not to advertise, but they feature detachable day pack thing, rain covers, fully adjustable straps and supports, random material, and mine includes a cover for the straps so it's easier to carry around before you get into the airport.

They were both about $250.

As well we also bought boots. I don't have the box in front of me, but I believe they are Keen brand Targhee II's. Danielly got the girly couloured ones.

They have a breathable, waterproof membrane, leather on the outside, and what the sales guy called "sink heel principle," which is a fancy way of saying arch support.

What's potentially the most important thing is that they could be considered "trail runners" meaning that they're somewhere between boots and running shoes. It makes them comfortable and versatile, and will probably help reduce the type of shoes I'll bring with me on the trip by one pair.

Maybe it's because I've been wearing flat-bottomed skater shoes for the best... 10 or so years, but my god, these are the BEST shoes I've ever warn. Not only are they structuarlly designed for the whole backpacking/travel thing, they're simply the best shoes I've ever felt on my feet. Once again not advertising, just saying.

They ran at about $150, making them the most expensive shoes I've ever bought, but then again I'm cheap. The second most expensive pair was probably... a $39.99 pair of pro skater shoes by some guy I can't remember that was on sale, and after that, it's been Wal-Mart since like Grade 9.

But Seriously, they are the best, most comfortable, and I assume the most durable shoes I've ever had. I say assume because I've owned them for 2 days, but I've been wearing them in the spirit of breaking them in, but really just like wearing them.

Lastly, we bought cool socks for travelling. I've never owned fancy, expensive socks, so I'm just seeing if they're worth the hype. They're some random company's wool from some place I don't remember. But they're supposed to have the wick effect, pulling moisture away from your feet and all. So I'm testing both the shoe and the sock out.

Anyway, it's all part of gathering supplies for the world trip. The reason I can afford these stupidly expensive (for me) things is that I've cut almost all of my other stupid expenses. Note that cutting expenses doesn't mean giving up cool things, it means giving up stupid things, like say, pop, chips, smokes and drugs for ultimately more actually awesome things like skydiving and world travel.

And finally, for those who don't know who Danielle is, here she is fake packing her pack so we could wear them and feel cool!

Happy bday to me!

My birthday was on Saturday. I was on boat with my buddy Bryan Hall, his wife Melissa and someonther people whose names I can't immediately remember. It was a good time.

When I came back, I noticed my car had been hit. Weak. (I'll post a picture soon). It's the perfect time to point out why I'm glad that my first goal was to save $2000 as an emergency fund so I wouldn't all of a sudden be out of all my savings for my trip.

As you can see on the side menu, I've made it up to $1000. Modest I know, and it did take a while, but I count all victories as such so woot, $1000! 1/10th of the way there! Now I have 10 paycheques, from which I save about $500 each, plus money from my dental insurance, and some other random monies some in. Bam $10,000. And if I'm short I'm really not too worried because I've been learning about other ways to make money while abroad, which I'll discuss as they become appropriate in later posts.

Anyway, back to why saving money was important. When I came back to my car, there were conflicting reports about what had happened. The person who put their phone number on my car told me that they didn't do it. I don't really know how to prove it either way, so I just claimed it through insurance. That's why I pay $170 a month, to claim things?

Anyway, that's in the process and I'll let you know what happens.

But if it wasn't for my savings I'd be severly in the hole once all the repair costs and deductibles come through. Thankfully I saved $2000 with ING Direct, and I got them to send me a debit card, which I keep under lock and key and can now whip it out for these repairs. Woot.

But yeah, that was my birthday. Other than that, I'm still along way off from talking about anything interesting related to that trip, ALTHOUGH this week, I'm going to the city to look at backpacks and boots and some other stuff.

So stay frosty...

really?

Sadly, my last post dealt with summer, but then two days ago it snowed like a beast:

It was a random foot of snowfall in the middle of May. That kind of thing is hard on the spirits, but you may be happy to know that within two days the snow was all gone again!

But you'd probably less happy to know that during the crazy snowstorm there were probably dozens, if not hundreds of little tiny birds that were killed.

What happened was they were sitting on the side of the road and then flying into cars that passed. Kinda sad. I talked to a Fish and Wildlife Officer about it. He told me that because of the snow, the cute little birds had nowhere to sit that was dry so they sat on the road. How ironic.

This is what the little birds looked like. I was walking back to my office and I almost stepped on him. He didn't do anything, so i nudged him. Still nothing. So I took a picture of him.

I was late for something so I nudged him to the side of the sidewalk so as to not get trampled. About ten minutes later he was gone. I assume he was eaten because the crows here try to eat other animals. I thought I posted a picture but I didn't. It was a crow chasing a mouse that I saw. I was amazed.

Pictures and saving...

So it approaced summer like qualities in Athabasca this last week, though it has now dipped back to sub artic temperatures with an expectation of snow. Thankfully that's pretty much it and when it gets hot it gets hot.

Here's a picture of the other day. It was 20 degrees. Though most trees are still dormant, you can see little tinges of green if you look close enough.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day and I took four good pictures that I will endeavour to make a long enough post for them all the be present.

So, in my saving-for-the-trip efforts I've been following, almost religiously Get Rich Slowly. It is possibly the best collection of practical advice about money management on the web. It's also been growing in popularity so now they're benefitting from guest posts from a plethora of other knowledgable staff.

So I've adopted many of the practices outlined on the website. It should be noted that I didn't blindly decided I'd follow these. I already had the raw ideas in my head, and this website just helped solidify them.

Anyway, here are somethings I've done to increase my savings, because my girlfriend and I are planning on a world trip.

- I have drastically reduced general spending. This includes trying to eat out as little as possible and thereby buying more raw ingredients and cooking them. It should be noted that it is not a equal substitute to go from restaurants to portioned, frozen food. You need to buy the raw vegetables, meats and grains and make cool things out of them. I just made like 200 meatballs and it cost me $26. 200 meatballs is like 12 meals for me and girlfriend and we just do whatever to make it different for every meal: curries, stirfries, pastas – it works for everything.

I've also reduced how much I use my car, and therefore gas by purchasing a bike. I've outline this before. The bike cost me $100. If i manage to use if for a month or so, I will have paid itself off in gas savings, and from there on, now that it's summer will save me an extra $600 or so for the trip. Sweet.

- I've gone to things that cost nothing. I moved from my CIBC chequing account to a PC Financial Chequing account. The former cost me between 5 and 20 dollars a month with all the service chargs, the latter is free, always for everything, forever. Sure, that's not a lot of money, but, why should I pay for my own money? And as an added bonus, I get PC points, which is essentially just free groceries once it adds it.

More importantly, I've paid off my credit card. That was probably the biggest drain on my money. Even though I have a small limit, I was often just carrying a balance because I didn't have enough money to just pay it off in one go.

Sure that's fine, but I was paying about $20/month just to do that and I've had that card for 3 years. You do the math.

- I've automated everything. Right now when I get a paycheque, it gets directly deposited into my accounted, is automatically directed so savings and RRSPs and all my bills, including my phone and my credit card are paid off, in full automatically. It saves time and though. No all I have to do is monitor my accounts, watch my money stack up and sit back and do my job.

- I've moved in with my girlfriend. Of course, this wasn't directly associated with money, though it was a big factor for both of us. My moving in cut her rent in half, and I no longer have to pay utilities, which means I save another $100 dollars a month. Plus we can split on food, cook larger meals and reap the benefits of our pooled resources (she has a costco card). Also I love her so hey, it's win-win.

- I've quit smoking. It's not rocket science. I was essentially paying money to get cancer, lose teeth be addicted and have no lung capacity. It's probably healthier (and in some ways cooler) to just burn a ten dollar bill every couple of days.

- I've used my work's benefits. This may seem obvious to adults out there, but I'm young. I didn't know how these things work. I've got my wisdom teeth removed and had associated perscriptions that would have otherwise cost me more than $2200. Now I get 80 per cent of that back, because I mailed some forms in. Sweet.

- I did my own taxes. I don't think this has as much to do with my doing them as it did having things to claim. I claimed, moving expenses (which was a hell of a lot moving to alberta), education costs ( I was still a student last year) bus passes from living toronto and RRSP contributions. I received more than $2000 back! Sweet. Because of that I've been putting more in RRSPs and applied to Athabasca University. That may cost money upfront, but at the end of the day I'll make more money from having a degree, and in the immediate (read: next year) future, I'll get more money back on taxes.

- I got a library card. Since I got hard into libraries, I've taken out 20 or so books and some movies. It cost me nothing, I have more friends (librarians) and I have access to knowledge, arguably worth more than money anyway. Plus I never have to buy books again essentially.

All these things have helped me attain a huge savings milestone of 60 per cent of total earnings. A full 60 per cent, into savings, piling up earning interest, while at the same time, I eat, read, exercise, and am generally happy. It's sweet.

And, the most important part is that I plan on taking a world trip! That will make it all worth it, and the attitudes and practices I'm developing will make me able to travel longer and, when I come back, live just as easy. I mean, I've already saved $2000 for when I get back. That means when I'm tired of travelling the world, I've got a few months before I have to care again. And really, at the end of the day, I'm not cutting out anything important. I can miss a few meals, skip out on a couple of bar nights and take slightly longer to get places all for that if you ask me.

Once again, I'm sorry to bore you with this, but hey, I'm just given'r. I promise to sooner or later have more interesting things.

Anyway that's it. About the pictures. That's a bridge that goes over the Athabasca River in town. It's sort of the landmark structure in the area.

More attempts at saving

Today I bought a bicycle. It's a CCM Nitro XT aka the cheapest bike Canadian Tire had. But actually, it wasn't. I went online to find the cheapest bike I could find, and was satisfied with a $99.99 from Canadian Tire.

As I'm figuring out about the bike, the website tells me that they have them at the (new) Athabasca one. I take the trek down there and they don't have any on the racks.

So I look around and find the back storage area, which curiously enough, wasn't blocked off in anyway from the public.

Using my iPhone, I determine the bikes product number to try to find it on the shelves, unassembled myself.

Eventually of course I just gave up, and asked customer service to help me. They get the bike and spend 45 minutes putting it together, only to find out it has a kink in the wiring for the gears.

So the manager tells me he'll give me any bike at its sale price. So I pick the next least expensive bike at $129.99 that I had already tried a little and he gives it to me for $99. Sweet.

ANYWAY, the point of me buying a bike is three-fold. First fold: I won't have to spend money on gas. Last month I spent $80 on gas (about $60 is still in my tank) and that to me is just too much. So my plan is to keep my car parked near my work, move it every few days and then just bike back and forth, which leads to the second fold.

Second fold: Health. I live up a big ass hill from my work. There's decent benefits to that. One is that commuting to work takes nothing but rolling down it. It may actually take less time to just roll down the hill and taking all the bikable shortcuts then just driving.

Anyway, it seems counterintuitive to try to save money by buying something, but the benefits are obvious. I essentially only drive to work so i'll save the gas that way, and by parking by my work if I do need it when it's important I just run out of my office. Further, if I'm at home and need it, I just roll down the hill, quick and easy.

Anyway, other than that, I'm moving in my girlfriend, therefore paying less rent and not having to pay for utilities, so I'm saving $600 a paycheque. That's a full 60 per cent!

At this rate I'll have the goal of $10,000 in the bank for the trip. As well, I've established a side goal of having $2000 in an emergency fund/when I get back fund, and now I'm just right on the way.