One of the many things I enjoy about this site is the diversity of means among members. It’s fun to read about the adventures of the multimillionaire and the avg. Joe hunting his backyard just the same.
For many years I had put off many hunting opportunities as too unrealistic, or too expensive, so I mostly sat on the sidelines. But the reality was that my $ was going all over the place, much of it going to “ok” experiences. I wrote down all my activities, and rated them. All of the top 5 were hunting-related. I was determined to make better use of my time and my money.
I scoured the internet and discovered HT, and was amazed to see so many people with similar means elk hunting and going on all kinds of fun adventures. I was in.
I all but quit funding my other hobbies (except fishing), I quit buying alcohol, I rarely eat out, I spend less on clothes. I budget for hunting 12 months in advance, and I set aside $800 a year for tags.
This translates to a couple of self-guided public land camping trips out West a year and lot of local hunting. Nothing glamorous, and it’s the most I can stretch my $. It only starts to look like something “less” when I start comparing it to what some others are able to do who have more hunting $.
My wife and I are aggressive savers and investors and we sacrifice a lot of lifestyle (mostly vehicles), and in about 15 years when I’m in my early 50’s we’ll be in a position to expand our recreation budget. In the meantime I plan on having just as much fun as when I’m able to add more frequent mostly public land self-guided camping trips
