Backpacking W/ money

[MeadowMushroom]

I am doing a thru-hike in 2012, what are the best methods to have money, besides credit card or having maildrop, with you the entire way?
What was the lowest amount of money spent by you or someone you know that has thru-hiked the entire Appalachian trail?

[JimHalpert]

credit card and atm card are all you need.

i always made sure to leave town with cash so that i wouldn't have to immediately get cash when i arrived at the next town.

[MeadowMushroom]

alrighty. i do have an atm card. i only use credit unions though because i don't want to drain my savings paying a 3 dollar charge at every atm. hopefully i can find some around the trail ha

[JimHalpert]

pay for your groceries in town with your debit card. almost all grocery stores will allow you to get cash back with no additional charge.

and even in the unlikely event that you have to use an atm machine every week, we're talking about $60 or so over the course of your hike. that amount is insignificant compared to your total living expenses during this time.

[whisperingwind]

Originally Posted by MeadowMushroom

What was the lowest amount of money spent by you or someone you know that has thru-hiked the entire Appalachian trail?

The lowest I spent was on my 09 hike, just over $1500.

Agree with using debit card while resupplying. No fees if store allows you to withdraw money. Safer than carrying a buttload of cash, but ALWAYS have 40 to 60 bucks with you in the event of emergency, or the next little stop does not have a debit card machine. Not all stores have them, or an ATM.

[Snickers06]

Carry both an ATM card AND a credit card. Not all places take credit cards, an the ATM card won't always work (long story).

I like to have a small amount of cash on me at all times say 20-30 bucks so I can make quick purchase when necessary.

I've heard of folks spending only around a 1000 to 1500 dollars. but that's a super austere hike and it involves missing out on a lot (no hotels, few if any restaurants etc).

Look at it this way, for 90+ percent of us, an AT thru hike is a once in a lifetime experience. Why not be able to enjoy it fully? go to the restaurants and the buffets, have a night or two in a hotel to recoup (that does wonders!). Most will spend around 5000 dollars on a thru hike and I'd recommend you budget at least that amount. If you are one of the many beer and cigarette addicts, best push that to 7,000 or more.

snickers06

snickers06

[JimHalpert]

in roland mueser's book "long distance hiking - lessons from the appalachian trail" he surveyed over 100 thru hikers on various topics. re money, the average amount spent on the hike (not including pre hike expenses such as gear) averaged $2,200.

of course, this was for the year 1989....

[MeadowMushroom]

Cool cool. Thank you hikers, I appreciate all of your opinions

[slowpace]

You can always get American Express travelers checks.

[MeadowMushroom]

yea ha i was just reading about someone else using those. i plan on doing that instead of starting a credit/debit card