Welcome to episode 86 of the first 40 miles.

If you're new to backpacking, or if you're hopelessly in love with someone who wants you to

love backpacking, then this podcast is for you. We'll talk about the essentials, how to lighten your load,

and how to make the most of your time on the trail. I'm your host Heather Legler.

And I'm Josh Legler. And this is the first 40 miles. Today on the first 40 miles,

budget, the spending episode. Does a budget truly limit us or does it save us from stupid purchases

we would make if we had unlimited resources? Today you'll hear Josh and I work through budgeting decisions when it comes to backpacking gear.

For today's summit gear review, if you want easy access to seven leaders of M&M's,

we've got the perfect pack for you. Then on today's backpack,

hack of the week, 17 cents doesn't go very far in today's world, but on the trail it gets you through another day. And we'll wrap

up the show with a little trail wisdom from our good friend on the trail, Horace Kepphart. All this and that's about it. Today on the first 40 miles.

Heather how do you feel about budgets?

Budgets, yes, they strike fear into my heart.

They make me sweat and they make me like have to fan myself with a piece of paper.

It's really stressful at the end of the month you

print out you know our monthly spending report which is our budget and we look at it

and see how we did.

So we review the budget and how we did in the previous month

and it's like a personal performance review of you.

Right, even though it's never, like you don't make it come off that way, you print it off and you're like, okay, I just want to look at the numbers, let's look at it together.

I never get any sense like you're disappointed and you know anything that I've done but it's

very stressful experience and every time I stress out you laugh you think it's hilarious that I'm so stressed out by budgets.

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