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The Ultimate Guide for Saving Money on Used Outdoor Gear

Do you love finding a great bargain deals on outdoor gear? If you do then you are well aware that getting quality used gear can save you a lot of money. Saving money allows us to spend more time outside doing the activities that we love so mastering this skill can pay big dividends in the long run. Instead of running out to get the latest and greatest, you can save money by taking your time and swooping on the best deals.

Use craigslist as your personal used gear hunter. 

People often invest in a sport and later realize they don’t have the time or are not interested in it any longer. They now must sell their barely used gear for pennies on the dollar. How do you find it? Set up craigslist email notifications.

Step 1: First create an account at craigslist.com

Step 2: Now let’s say you want to buy rock climbing equipment. Type in rock climbing into your search bar and see what comes up. Maybe a deal, or maybe nothing. That’s okay.

Step 3: On the left side of the screen set your miles from zip to the amount of miles you are willing to drive for used gear. Then set a maximum price. Then update search.

Step 4: Click save search, next to the search bar.

Step 5: Check that you want email alerts for new postings. Done! Now you can swoop on any great deals that come up. Of course you can be more specific with search terms if you only want a specific piece of gear like a rope.

Used Gear Store

If you live in an outdoor town, you might have a shop dedicated to used outdoor gear. I was recently in Moab, Utah and they have a used gear store that we stopped into and found some good bargains. Moab Gear Trader is the name of the shop in case you are in town.

Ebay

This gives you access to a huge selection of used gear. Try and be specific with your search terms and select auction to view used gear. The downside of ebay is you cannot be 100% on the quality by looking at the pictures so make sure to read the description thoroughly. I’ve had great success buying used climbing cams on ebay.

REI Garage Sales

REI now hosts monthly “garage sale” for members at most of its locations. If you live close to an REI and you don’t mind a little of the black Friday vibe than you can save some big money. https://www.rei.com/promotions/garage-sale

Ski Swaps

Local to your area. Use the craigslist tip mentioned above to find out when they are happening in your area. Just search ski swaps in the community section and follow the same steps.

I hope the tips in this guide save you time and money on the outdoor gear you need for living to adventure. 

Have a tip about used gear? Share your tip in the comments below.

Announcement!

Our vibe life will be transitioning in to a new regular project that we are very excited about! The new blog will teach and inspire us to live our dream adventures right now, all while becoming financially independent. We will discuss the careers, tools, habits, and finances of people who live a sustainable adventurous life. This will be a blog for anyone who wants to make the most out of their time and money to be exploring our epic planet. We will be diving into the topics of seasonal work, how to find discounted used adventure gear, how to live efficiently on the road, how to lower our expenses and how to stache enough cash to retire in under 10 years. I hope you are all ready to dive into this with me because I have a lot of material to cover.

Right now I am working on the name of the web domain. Please help me by voting on the name you like the best below. Put your favorite in the comments please.

sustainingadventure.com

sustaintraveladventure.com

thriftyadventurer.com

adventurelifestyleacademy.com

livetoadventure.today

livingtoadventure.com

Creating a Space For Acro Yoga

This weekend the Davis Acro-Vets performed for the first time at the UC Davis Veterinary Talent Show. It was a great experience and is one of the first formal performances I’ve ever done in my life. I am very proud of Morgan, Neda, Tyler, Krysti, and I. Without the optimism of the group we would not have been able to create such a phenomenal routine.

What enabled us to create such an amazing routine?

We had fun practicing, so we did it as often as we could.

We had a space to practice on a consistent basis. Having a garage converted into a gymnastics studio has been one of the best additions to my daily life. We used ¾” thick mats that we ordered on amazon to pad the floor for under $200.

Investing in a home gym has given such a high happiness return. I recently made a kit of the items we use everyday in our home gym and for acro yoga that you can see here. https://kit.com/Vibelife

Without further ado, our performance!

Dreaming of Van Life? Try Vibe Life

Van life has become ever more popular among outdoor enthusiast. I dreamed about the day I would have a Sprinter Van and be able to make the epic road trips around the US. Thus, my dream was put on hold. Until recently, I sold my pickup truck and purchased a Pontiac Vibe. Now I have been on two amazing road trips, one to Moab, Utah and another to Bishop California. I’m a fan of the van life movement but I have been able to achieve much of the same freedom with my Pontiac Vibe hatchback. I also get to boast that I am getting 36 mpg in my vibe which most of the f-350 vans I see at the crags could not possibly be getting. Do you need a $10,000 Volkswagen van to live the van life? No, I’ve found that I can live that same lifestyle in my $5,000 Vibe. Maybe Vibe life, or hatchback life, or extended car camping road trips are for you. The following tips are the lessons we have learned to make the most out of our space and have the most out of our time.

These are my top car camping tips.

Have all your camping gear set up in storage bins that you can move easily into your vehicle. I want to be able to load up the car and get on the road in under an hour. Being prepacked is how I am able to do so.

Have two clear “under-bed” storage bins for food and food preparation items. This makes it so easy to access your dry foods without rummaging through bags.

Bring body wipes for the times showers are unavailable. You’re on the road and time is valuable. Just use a wipe before bed and you will be feeling fresh as a daisy.

Use Frisbees with wax paper on top as reusable plates. Throw the wax paper away after the meal and be thankful for less camping dishes. Less dishes = more time to look at the stars.

When packing away sleeping mats on multi day trips I just roll it up and stuff it into my pillow case. No need to get it perfect. = More time to climb rocks!

The items I have packed in our camping storage container include;

 Food preparation; Colman stove and propane, frying wok, fish filet spatula, Frisbees for plates, wax paper, aluminum foil, can opener, zip lock bags, jet boil, and small cooler.

Sleeping; inflatable sleeping mats, sleeping bags, and I bring my pillow because I’m spoiled.

Food; eggs, spinach, canned black beans, coconut oil, seasoning, oatmeal, coffee, avocados, water etc.

Vibe life looks like this. We fold down the seats and load up the car with our bins. We get our cooler packed, loaded, and we head off.

If it is a long trip we can stop at a rest stop, unload two bins and setup our mats in the back of the vibe. We sleep in the Vibe for free. Wake up, drive to our destination, and enjoy adventuring to our hearts content.

Our cost of a week long climbing trip in Moab, Utah was $200 each. This includes our $60 mountain bike rentals, food, and gas. This is the best vacation I have ever had in my entire life! 

My challenge is this. If you plan to continue to live in a home and dream of van life, consider the alternative of vibe life. It’s inexpensive, efficient, and a hell of a good time. 

The No Phone for One Week Challenge.

I decided to make the glorious switch to Google Fi about two weeks ago. My plan was to sell my iPhone and order a Google phone off of Amazon. I posted my phone on Craigslist and two days later I had a buyer drive 60 miles to buy my used iPhone. I wouldn’t have my Google phone for another week so I decided to live life without a phone for a week. The representative at Verizon overheard my conversation and chimed in, “You are going to hate it.” I thought to myself, “I live a life of adventure, I’ll be fine without a phone for a week.”

I walked out of the Verizon store without the iPhone that lived in my pocket for the past three years, or did I live in it for the past three years? What did I learn from that week without a phone?

I learned that having access to my social network or the entire world, 24/7 produces a current of anxiety. I no longer worried that I forgot to respond to Tyler’s text about acro yoga and it was fine.

I learned that my phone distracts me from social interaction more than I would have admit. Posting the picture of the selfie we just took at dinner only takes two minutes right? It does, but without a phone I’m engaged with my partner at dinner on a deeper level. I never left the room (into my phone) to post that picture and I feel more connected to the human next to me because of it.

I learned most communication is not urgent and can wait until a face to face conversation is possible.

I learned that I would have compulsive urges to check my phone throughout the day. I would reach toward my pocket unconsciously and realize that there is no phone to pull out. The key here is that it was an unconscious urge or craving.

I learned that I did not miss the things I used my precious data on. Morgan and I were able to download 10 podcasts before our road trip to Bishop and spent more time reading or having conversation in the car. I didn’t need to check my email twice a day or my budget, or Facebook.

I learned that I really enjoy a morning routine that does not involve my phone. I loved waking up, brewing an artisan cup of pour over coffee with coconut oil and starting a gymnastic work out. I have read that the easiest way to make a habit change is to make the new habit easy to do. Not having a phone to distract me first thing in the morning made it so easy to follow my desired routine.

I learned that Morgan (my girlfriend) felt like I was less distracted without a phone. Wow, it really hits home when your loved one tells you that. I thought I was good about not being distracted by my phone before this experiment.

During this week I had the time to travel to Bishop for a climbing and hot spring excursion. I was not missing my phone.

So now that I have my new google phone and I pay $33 a month for my phone service what will I do differently?

I have moved the nightly charging station of my phone into the kitchen. My phone sits on the fridge and normally I don’t even see it in the morning. This is great because I jump into my desired routine instead of getting sucked into an email or text message response.

I am more intentional with the apps I download onto my phone. If I don’t want to be distracted the best way is to just not download those distracting apps. If I want to go on Facebook I can use my laptop.

When I’m at home I keep my phone on a shelf and not on my person. It’s not something I need to compulsively check every 30 minutes.

This week experiment was a great experience for my life. It has helped shift my perspective and hopefully my awareness into the present moment. 

Are you thinking life without a phone sounds like some sissy first world problem. I'd have say that you're correct, it is. That's why I challenge you to live life for one week without your phone. See what you learn and let me know. I'm sure after one week you will be feeling like Tyler in the picture below, standing atop a 400 foot desert tower in Moab, Utah.

How to Save $5,000 on Your Phone Bill

If you are like me, then you have been paying Verizon, Sprint, or AT&T thousands of dollars over your lifetime. It all started for me in 8^th grade when I got my first flip phone. Since that time I have loved the many advances in my phone and service provided by these carriers. Except, I slowly accepted that I had to deal with the moments of excruciatingly painful customer service calls and at least a $70 phone bill to have a smart phone. These have become the assumptions of owning the glorious pocket computer that can connect us with the anyone in the world, navigate us through any city during rush hour, and can take 10 mega pixel shots of your breakfast. We are stuck paying the premium for this right?  Not anymore. There is a new service in town!

The new service is called Google Fi and here is the rundown.

The requirements are; You must use one of three Google phones available. The Pixel, Nexus 6p, or Nexus 5x. That’s the only requirement! So if you were like me and you have an iPhone, you need to ask yourself, “When was the last time I looked at an Android phone, and is my iPhone really worth paying at least an extra $500 a year more for phone service.” I can say now after making the switch that I like my Nexus 6p more than my IPhone 6.

The basic details of the plan are as follows.

Cost is $20 a month and you pay $10 for every GB of data you use. So I will be paying $32.29 a month for a super computer in my pocket. I just download all my podcasts at home on my Wi-Fi which is what I previously spent my data on because I did not have the option of a 1 GB plan.

So what if you go over your data plan? You just pay for the amount of data you used. No fee. Thank goodness.

If you have a 4GB plan and you use only 1GB you will be credited the cost for the amount of data you did not use on your next bill. Say what! I’ve been waiting 10 years for this moment.

That’s all I needed to hear to think about make the switch. You can get all the details, including a cell coverage map here. https://g.co/fi/r/3988t5

Doing the math on this decision is what really sold me. Here is what my savings calculation looks like.

Sale of iPhone: +$300 - Purchase of Nexus: -$400 = -$100

Cost of Verizon Monthly: $75

Cost of Google fi monthly: $33

Monthly savings: $42

First year savings: $404

Yearly savings: $504

That means over the next 10 years I will save $4,940 on phone service! Plus, I am happier with the service from google. Plus if I invest my monthly savings and earn a 5% return over 10 years I will have a total of $6,591. That’s certainly not just pocket change to me! I’ll gladly download my podcasts at home.

If you want to make the switch head over to https://g.co/fi/r/3988t5

If you use the link I provided you will be given a $20 credit off of your first Google fi bill.

Are You Missing Out On a Friend Education?

Learning from Friend Education

What is a friend-ication? It’s a word that I made up of course. It is short for friend education. These are dinners you host for your friends where you can get together and share something you are passionate about. We all have friends that are knowledgeable in areas of life that we would love to know more about. I think we should give our friends the honor of sharing what they are passionate about and teaching something in the process.

So how does this work? Simple. Invite a group of 3-5 friends over to your house for dinner. Of course you can invite more friends if you'd like but we have done smaller groups. Make a great dinner or have everyone pitch in some delicious food. Prepare a 10-20 minute lesson on something you are an expert on. Teach that topic to your friends. I have a friend who is incredibly knowledgeable about rock climbing. He taught us all how to tie knots and build climbing anchors. We are all more knowledgeable when we go climbing together and he loved being able to teach us something.

I challenge you to try this with your friend group. Your relationships will grow, and you will get to learn about your friends in the process. Future friend education topics in the future of our group include a Pilates class, personal finance, acro yoga instruction and rock climbing skills.

I would love to see this idea sweep across the nation and become an idea for dinner party's for years to come. We would all know more about our friends and have deeper relationships, smarter for the knowledge they impart to us, and better communicators after preparing for and teaching a topic.

I was unable to find a picture from our friend education night but I have this goofy picture of the friend group climbing in Yosemite instead.

Let me know what topic you would love to teach your friends about in the comments below.