How do you fund your expeditions?

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Ben Cleveland

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I knew I liked you OB guys for some reason....I've found more YNAB fans in this thread than I've ever met in person. I tell lots of people about it, but when I get to the point where I explain coding every transaction, people's eyes glaze over and they say something like oh, that sounds like a lot of work. And then I'm sad because I know they're not going to try it.

I feel like I'm lucky that my wife loves being outdoors. She doesn't get into wrenching though. That would be super fun, but she does lots of other hard work so I can't fault her.
 
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Inthewoods

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Work for money.
I used to do all my repairs and builds and you can save money doing it yourself, its even more fun till you cross that line when you lose more money doing it yourself than having someone else do it. Now as an employer of three companies I am running around check in on everything that it leaves little time for other things. It is cheaper for me to pay some one to fix or make them for me then to take time off and do it myself (currently having a custom rear bumper with swing arm for tire and Jerry cans right now). I work and travel so much that my wife and I eat out 7 days a week, all 3 meals ( we cut back to 2.175 meals). My wife was a stay home mom for her whole life for the kids and then they went to college and didn't come back, well, she now runs one of my office. My wife will camp with me if not to cold all other times its Laska (My Dog) and me. Though the funds are there, the time is not always there when your booked way into Jan 2019.
On the back of my Dodge it says "sponsored by CSS" my company.

The yardman has better hours then me, where did I go wrong?
 

GatorDoc

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butt
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This:
Surely I'm not alone in this, but our trips are something we budget and save for months in advance. A short 1 or 2 nighter to a state park is easy, we can normally wiggle that into our monthly budget, its really just $50 in gas and some food, plus a state park fee or two. ... You can do an awful lot of things with your money when you budget and plan carefully. ...
and this:
IronJackWhitton said:
For most stuff, our budget determines our travel goal, not the other way around.
When I was pretty young, up thru my mid-20s, I was one of those typical kids who you hear complaining that "there's nothing to do" because I lived in a relatively small town. I joined the Marines, spent a decade away, then moved back to the same general area, though I'm in a larger nearby city now. I also had kids during that time frame.

Familiarity breeds contempt, and what my time away helped me realize is that there is tons of stuff to do in my local area (within a 1-2 hour drive), I just hadn't found much of it before, largely because I hadn't really been looking very hard.

As a consequence, most of my adventures are more pedestrian in nature, and are relatively local to me since they tend to take place over 2-4 day weekends. I still have lots of fun, and still get to enjoy off roading, camping, hiking, hunting, etc..., but it's MUCH more affordable than most things you see with #hashtagoverland on social media.

That being said, I am also planning to take two weeks off next year to attend Overland Expo West and explore the area while I'm there. I'll hopefully be able to pull this off by being stingy about using vacation time and putting in lots of extra effort at work (monthly budget is covered by my base, commission is for saving/fun), and keeping my spending in check by driving an older, relatively high mileage vehicle and sticking to the essentials with respect to mods and gear. Even though I am saving for that trip, because I'm being frugal, I am still going out camping at least once or twice a month, refining my gear, learning skills, and making awesome memories with my family and friends for not much more that I would have spent staying at home and doing the usual, boring weekend routine of eating out, going to see a movie, etc...

Adventure can be had every day, if you just learn where to look for it. By all means dream big, but manage your expectations and make it point to continue to enjoy the little things. I guarantee you that even the folks who have "made it" in the scene still take simple weekend or overnight trips just to get out there in between their epic expeditions; take that model an scale it appropriately to match your situation.
 

Correus

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I'm hoping to have a rather unique way of funding some of the gear I'd like to have as well as adventures - modeling.

Grover is a unique vehicle for my area of the country. Even tough it is still in the rebuild stage (1st batch of body panels are at the paint shop) people are asking if they could use it for photo shoots and such. I had no idea that vehicles could be registered as models just like people can be.
 
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Pathfinder I

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I'm hoping to have a rather unique way of funding some of the gear I'd like to have as well as adventures - modeling.

Grover is a unique vehicle for my area of the country. Even tough it is still in the rebuild stage (1st batch of body panels are at the paint shop) people are asking if they could use it for photo shoots and such. I had no idea that vehicles could be registered as models just like people can be.
That's a great idea -- it's a huge investment, you might as well make it earn you some money when you are not using it!

Are there agencies for this kind of thing?
 

Correus

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That's a great idea -- it's a huge investment, you might as well make it earn you some money when you are not using it!

Are there agencies for this kind of thing?
From what I've been told and have read yes and no to agencies. In the larger metro areas - think NYC, LA, Dallas/Ft. Worth - there are agencies the handle locations and props. For smaller urban areas you contact talent/modeling agencies and just have to ask. It doesn't hurt to get the word out to professional photographers either.
 
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