Budget Backpacking Gear List - Go Camping for $250

hey everybody syntax 77 here and today I want to share with you my budget backpacking gear list now I've done a lot of backpacking gear list videos over the years most of them with the emphasis on lightweight what I haven't done before though is one with the emphasis on low cost and I'm surprised I haven't done this before because looking back in my own history I know one of the things that was most prohibitive to me getting enthusiastic about backpacking was the cost aspect and just the overwhelmingness for lack of a better term of picking out gear a little background on how I came to do this video today I was not planning to do this at all I was putting together some gear for a trip I'm about to do and I'm gonna film a backpacking trip video everything you're about to see is stuff that I've used over the years some longer than others I've been backpacking I got the backpacking bug like six years ago going on seven or so some of it in expensive gear other stuff is DIY make it yourself gear which we'll see except for one item and that is the sleeping bag which I know is very important but to be honest the reason I'm taking this sleeping bag is because it's a better version of the budget sleeping bag that I originally bought back six years ago or so and I was going out to do a trip to test this sleeping bag but I started thinking as I was going through I was like this sleeping bag is only like 30 bucks and then my shelter well we'll get to that in a second that's pretty inexpensive too I wonder if I can just cobble together with all the gear I have amassed over the years a low-budget cost-conscious if you will backpacking gear list so what I'm gonna do is I'm just going to go through everything I even made up a little gear list right here on paper you can download that you can go in my video description and there's links for that now I do have it in PDF format for you to check out as I usually do I did create it on lighter pack.com so shout out to them what I'm gonna do this time is provide that link so check it out in the video description they're nice thing about that is not only does it have all all the weights listed so you can see a total of the weights but they also have a function that I didn't realize till recently for price so you can see the total price for each category and then on top of that they have the ability to link gear so to make it easy for you guys because this is all about cost if you want a specific price just click on that link and you can actually see what the real price is going for right now but that's what we're gonna do we're gonna move through this and I'm going to show you everything and then kind of tell you my experiences about it now another note as well you may notice by looking at the timestamp on this video yeah it's not the shortest video in the world right well I'm gonna put it to you like this now as a little example I'm assuming you're watching this video because you are interested in going backpacking for the first time most likely like myself six years ago you're trying to figure out what gear to buy and how not to beat your wallet up too much or on the flip side you might be another person now I'm gearing this video towards and that is the person that's trying to convince their friend they go backpacking so watch this video for tips or just give them a link to this video and maybe you can convince them to go with you that being said pretend you're the person going for the first time and pretend that I'm your friend I'm your new friend okay virtually on the internet and you call me up and you say hey syntax Sean since we're on a first-name basis Sean I'm looking to go backpacking for the first time I know that you go along I'm thinking maybe is it cool if I come over maybe sometime and pick your brain and I say yeah sure Tuesday night sounds good come on over and we'll talk and you show up and we sit down and we start talking and about 10 minutes of light warm-up conversation in you go whoa oh oh hold up it's been 10 minutes buddy what's all this too long and you walk out I would probably question how serious you are about going backpacking just saying so what we're going to do right now is kind of hang out together me and you and we're just going to have a little conversation and go through all this gear if you're down with that let's go so first things first I'm thinking just maybe let you see the actual pack let's start with the sleeping pad right here and yes it's a pad if you're familiar with the channel you might be confused right now because you know my preference will get there this is a sleeping pad that I happen to pick up from Walmart or you can go on Amazon etc it's just a foam sleeping pad it is a half inch thick keep that in mind this one is 25 inches across and I got it for 15 bucks at Walmart like I said there's like 10 to $20 versions on Amazon etc I want to take the little things off here that it comes with and it rolls out it's about 6 feet long and 25 inches across this one in particular you can get them for as low as like 7 bucks at Walmart the blue ones I'm sure you've seen them this one a is supposedly antimicrobial so that's cool and it's 25 inches which a lot of pads are 20 inches some watch out or even 19 inches with I am doing an upcoming a trip where I'm sleeping on the ground because I'm testing that sleeping bag so the extra 5 inches of width was important to me that being said I've used 20 inch wide pads before and they're fine and that's what most of them are so don't be scared of those but just know before you buy something impulsively there is a difference in width and definitely thickness on these I wouldn't go below 1/2 inch for sure and I wouldn't go below 20 inches wide but that's what I got for this pad now I want to point something out real quick and as I go through the video there's going to be times where like this where I point out maybe where you could if you want to depending on your preferences and what's important to you push it a little further with the budget when I first started backpacking I was nervous about spending money because I didn't know if I would ever do this again I mean I don't know about you maybe you're watching this because you're gung ho about doing it from the gate but I had a friend invite me on a backpacking trip I think that happens to a lot of people so like you're down to do it but at the same time you're like I don't even know if I really gonna like this to the extent that I do it again so you got to kind of balance buying gear that's gonna work for this trip versus you know you don't want to have to buy stuff twice what if you get really into backpacking and it turns out that you know you wanted something a little better so I want to point out when you look at sleeping pads the first thing you're gonna see most likely is the therm-a-rest kind of $100 model it's that thermos pro I think it's self inflates that's like ubiquitous it's like the first thing everybody goes to it seems when they backpack phones when I did my first trip there was four of us all three other people bought that therm arrest hundred-dollar guy again I was cheap and paranoid so I didn't want to spend that much and I got this $40 therm arrest Z light accordion style pad at the time I still thought I was paying a decent amount of money and I was it was 40 bucks but that being said this thing I've been using for six going on seven years and I loved it to death this is not just awesome for sleeping on the ground by itself but it's also great for supplemental insulation on deep winter trips which is a little beyond what we're talking about right now but just know that for an extra 25 bucks you could have a pad that if you continued backpacking I promise you or I would say hi guarantee you're gonna use for the rest of your backpacking career just keep that in mind so there's the 15 dollar version the ten dollar version and the 40 but on the list I have the fifteen dollar version that's the sleeping pad I want to point out everything on this gear list totals less than two hundred and fifty bucks with one caveat I'm gonna get to the sleep shelter and some of you are gonna freak out I know I would have when I was newer don't worry I'm going to provide some options besides what I'm doing two different options for a little extra money to make things a little more comfortable for you but that being said if you look at the base weight on this list it's 13 ish pounds thirteen point four is what I have right now is a working number general consensus 15 pounds and unders considered light weight and the coveted ultra light is under 10 pounds we're only three pounds above ultra light and I didn't do that on purpose it's just because I created a budget back packing list because you don't bring a lot of crap you don't need that's the main way to get ultra light so I just want to point that out because there is it's a subject for another video but I'm gonna call it a myth out there a misconception that ultralight backpacking is super expensive and it's just not true but I'll save that for another video but as you can see half the battle is not bringing crap you don't need and hopefully I'm gonna spare you from buying a bunch of stuff you don't need as we go through this video but don't be afraid to bring comfort items that work for you that can be very worth it as well psychologically all right so let's get in here let's point out something very important the backpack itself that is a major purchase right when I first bought a backpack way back yonder my friends got I think they all got gregory's which are nice packs it's like the Cadillac of backpacks but they push up on like $300 like the high 200s I just I couldn't bring myself to do it so compared to that I felt cheap and I bought a hundred and eighty dollar ems pack and I still have it to this day as my winter pack I've beaten the crap out of it it's still going strong good investment but still that's one hundred and eighty bucks and that's almost as much as my entire gear list right so this right here is by a brand called Scandinavian gear and it is fifty five dollars roughly I've had this for about a year I tested it out for them it works great not only that but another expense right when you first start backpacking is a rain cover a lot of people are surprised by that it's not already waterproof I have to buy another piece of gear to keep the rain out well yeah for the most part you do except for some very high-end kind of specific use backpacks that are basically like dry bags yeah you need a rain cover they can cost like a sea2summit rain cover can be 40 to 50 dollars by itself it's crazy this guy is fifty-five dollars and it comes with an integrated rain cover which is tucked into the bottom so there's a savings instantly right there you don't have to spend money on if you didn't get a pack with the integrated rain cover I would say still steer clear of sea2summit they're good and robust but they're expensive just my recommendation would be Dutch wear gear link in the video description they have a twenty dollar rain cover that not only works just fine for half the cost but it's half the weight which is cool too but anyway this one's integrated so you don't have to worry about that now looking at the side pockets a little bit of a con for this bag is it has very short mesh side pockets but if you use the clips on the side to secure your water bottle like this then it's really not a huge problem so I have water bottle options here it's up to you sometimes I carry just this it is a one and a half liter disposable water bottle right pretty simple you can buy it for a dollar because you're drinking water and then you just keep the bottle and that's it one and a half liters for most trips that's actually plenty of water depending on where your water sources are and where you're going there you go and on top of being super cheap it's really light this thing is like an ounce or less let's see so of course most people assume you have to have the classic Nalgene right and these bottles are awesome this is a 1 liter Nalgene little duct tape around it for utility it's got the screw on top yeah these are great under certain circumstances but for fair weather backpacking three-season non freezing temps I'll be honest with you overkill not needed not at all it's just not in my experience I think this works just fine now an advantage of this you can pour hot hot water almost boiling water into this and it won't deform that's cool but again that's something I wouldn't do unless I was winter backpacking and we're not talking about that right now this right here would melt if you did that but just don't pour boiling hot water in it and you're fine and you don't spend money on the Nalgene down the road you're excited about backpacking you want to go winter backpacking great bring one of these but even then I would say don't even bother with Nalgene still I have become a big proponent of 40-below there are more flexible water bottle and these are actually required on more hardcore a sense for say like I don't know Everest Denali I think for sure in Alaska but anyway that's another subject foot I would say don't spend money on water balls just get disposable another option it's really popular I will unclick the other side here pull it out of the pocket Gatorade so next time you get Gatorade don't throw it a bottle out these are they way a little more we're still talking a fraction of an ounce but they're more rigid and still won't hold up to boiling water and whatnot but you can beat them up a little more both of these even if it does get cold at night and it freezes they will expand they won't crack and split in my experience pretty nice all right let's keep it going let's get the top out of the way so the top of this guy's zips open and right there this right here is a rain jacket actually came as part of a set of rain parka if you will and pants and that's really the only way to buy this it's by dry ducks or frog togs they're kind of interchangeable I think they're saying people but search frog togs or use my link and it's a parka now it's ultralight which is cool because I like low weight and for the set of pants and suit it's only 18 bucks roughly 20 or less yes if you are not careful and you walk through some deep brush and you snag this I did tear one of these once it was still like five years ago this one's five years old so they're not super resilient but again I've made this one last a while and because it's thin it is super lightweight it has a material inside it wicks away sweat so it still breathes and yet repels water so here's your rain jacket if it rains but even if there isn't rain in the forecast I still would recommend bringing this which let's see the stats 5.75 ounces just from a jacket so under six ounces for this guy right here it can be called in the morning or cold at night depending how late you're staying up doing chores hanging out with your friends whatever add a little wind in it gets real chilly even in the summer depending where you are and where you're going this right here don't think of it as just a rain jacket I use this often as a windbreaker and just overall parka to keep my heat in and on me with my layers so this is a great asset for warmth as well and I do want to point out that everything I'm doing here is three season Fairweather backpacking so we're not anticipating going below the 50s or so right alright cool so that's that anything else in the top no let's look at the bottom because that's gonna bring up shelter which is important and I said some of you will be scared away and don't worry hang with me I'm gonna explain options etc so when I open this up here what do I have it's a big old no frills eight by ten basically truck or tarp now this one's a little fancier it's got a camo print but picture a blue tarp that you would cover the back of a truck bed with this was like tennis dollars it's a eight by ten tarp I know I was packing for a trip where I had to ground sleep with a sleeping bag my normal go to and we'll talk about it in a minute is hammock camping which can be very lightweight and cost-efficient as well but I was tested this sleeping bag or at least I'm going to be testing this sleeping bag on the upcoming video so that requires sleeping on the ground and I haven't done a tent in years and I like to cut weight so I just said hey I'm bringing this tarp right here which weighs 30 1.25 ounces so just a little under 2 pounds yeah that's a lot but not compared to a tent which we'll get into so for around 2 pounds in 10 bucks you can have a tarp set up and then you'll also need some guidelines which I have from my other tarps it's a zing it line but linked in the video for like 13 bucks you can get a hundred foot of guy line which I'm going to tie to all four corners of this and each end of it so I can make like an a-frame kind of structure that I'll show in that video I don't even need two trees just one tree to tie to and then pitch the other one into the ground and make an a-frame if that's hard to visualize just stay tuned for the trip video that goes along with this one hey everybody since axe 77 from the future here just want to pop in real quick to make a little point another great way to set up a tarp that requires no trees at all is to simply use your hiking poles you would really only need one for a lot of configurations that's a whole other subject speaking of other subjects to kind of get into but not too deep you may also notice as you go through this video I do not have on my list or in my pack a set of hiking poles this is a topic that I've gone over on several videos so you can please feel free to check those out I won't go into a too deep right now I will just say this I am a proponent of hiking poles they can be very useful for people depending on their needs check it out look into it personally I don't use them on for air weather trips I do use them on deep winter trips for snowshoeing there's just no way around it but personally the reason I don't carry them is because I'm filming and using my hands all the time so I've just gotten into the mode of not carrying them but do keep that in mind hiking poles do not have to be expensive I have ones that are really expensive because they're ultralight but I also have other ones just check out my video description I actually picked out a pair that's around 20 bucks for the full pair and you can use those so just something to keep in mind on hiking if that is important to you I have aluminum tent spikes nothing fancy I have titanium ones over there that I bought that are like 5 bucks apiece but honestly you can get like ten of these for 10 bucks or something like that all right back to the vid but that will be my shelter under which I'll have a sleeping pad and the bag you're about to see I know if you told me that when I first started backpacking I'd be like heck now and maybe some of you are on board because it is light and cheap and minimalist but I know that's gonna scare some people away so check it out in the video description I also have some links for under or around 100 bucks or so so we're talking right now we're at two hundred and fifty dollars all in to do this by yourself for around three hundred and fifty bucks I got some ideas down there or suggestions for how to do either a tent or hammock that being said if you're going out I would say it's probably rare the person watching this that you're going out solo for the first time you're probably gonna go on a trip with a friend who's asked you to go or is dragging you to go depending on your outlook so hopefully they already have a tent and you can just say hey I'm sleeping in your tent with you and you don't have to worry about buying a tent right now or perhaps maybe you are going on a solo trip for the first time in which case your mentality is probably a little more hardcore and you might not be above doing a tarp thing which I would highly suggest thinking about because it's not a whole lot different than just being in a tent other than maybe some bugs getting at your face but depending where you're going not a big deal but let's say that it's not an option or it's two of you you and a significant other or a friend that are both getting started for the first time and there's no tent involved alright first tent I got was a Kelty Salida - it's a two-person Kelty tent for you beginners out there just know any tent when they say the rating of how many people can fit in it that is like a best-case like sleeping only scenario so a two-person tent is honestly like in my opinion a one-person tent comfortably yes I've slept in my Kelty silly - with my wife and it was fine but you're literally side by side like you're not moving so if we want some space we would get a three person but that being said if it's just you or you and a friend you can get by on a two person tent the Kelty Selita I just mentioned I really like it but it's a hundred and eighty bucks because you're paying for lighter weight materials it's around three and a half pounds or something like that for four and a half pounds there's the one eye link below I think it's the Kelty venture basically it looks like the Selita but made out of some slightly heavier grade materials and it runs around four and a half pounds and it's seventy bucks not bad so for seventy dollars you can get yourself a whole tent I would suggest that because I do like Kelty I've had experience with them I bought that tent like almost seven years ago and it worked well so check that out and then also there is a Coleman Sun dome two-person tent that's like 40 bucks ish there's the link down there below as well that's pretty cool if you really want to do an on tarp thing I don't blame you at first for 40 bucks you can do that but just keep in mind there's really good ratings on that tent but it's like seven and a quarter pounds so that's a lot considering our whole base weight so far which is everything not including like food and water that's what base weight is our whole base weight it's like 13 pounds for this system so you'd be pushing up on 20 pounds if you added that but you'd have an actual tent that you could zip down and keep the bugs away and stuff like that on the flip side if you're thinking that if you know that you're going to stick with backpacking I don't think you're gonna want to keep using that forty dollar seven pound tent unless you expect to go car camping which is a whole nother animal but if you do go ahead and buy that heavy tent slug it for now and then in the future retire it for car camping but I would say maybe save up put the extra money into the the Kelty at least the Kelty venture at four and a half pounds and if you really want to invest maybe the Kelty Salida which is three and a half pounds but we're talking 170 180 bucks at that point my main suggestion though if you want to spend like a hundred extra dollars go hammock I love hammocks there's tons of videos on this channel I won't go too deep on it but just know I'll put links down there as well go to Dutch for our gear and there's a couple options personally I would go with a Dutch where half-wit hammock it is 90 ish it's under a hundred bucks put it that way for the hammock body itself it's very minimal just has a bug net that drapes over the top of you and then you could buy suspension just webbing straps which I'll link as well and for like 15 bucks so you're talking 115 dollars to 70 dollars and you could have either a tent or a hammock system and then if you don't want to be that minimalist I still recommend Dutch wear four hammocks they have what does it flip in the bird and also the chameleon just check them out there's other options out there for hammocks now I'm not going to get into it now but the ideal situation for him at camping is under quilts but don't worry about that right now just by the hammock and use your pad that you already own and that works just fine along with your sleeping bag in the hammock I did that for years it worked just great but let's erase all that for right now because the trip I'm gonna do is with just this tarp and trust me it's not as bad as it sounds because you're gonna put the tarp up that'll keep the rain off of this as well as block wind and then we're going to have this piece of Tyvek this is a six foot long piece of Tyvek and three foot wide now you can buy Tyvek on amazon much like all my Amazon links but I would say speaking of Dutch where gear they sell it by the foot so you don't have to buy more than you need which is going to save you money and for about six bucks or ninety cents a foot or something you can buy as much as you want so six dollars you can get this and this will be my ground cloth and I'll put this underneath of me and spread it all on the ground and then on top of that I'll put my sleeping pad right and then my sleeping bag which we're about to see and I'll be good to go that sums up the bottom compartment which on this scandinavian gear bag is a separate compartment here but if i unzip you can turn it into one big compartment but I kind of like keeping things separate all right so now we're gonna finally get into the main body of the bag and then we'll go into the side pockets for some smaller gear let's open it up do that drawstring so what do I have first in here okay first thing I have looks like a shopping bag because it is what's inside here my backpacking food now this video is not about backpacking food I have a separate video on that which I'll link above kind of carb heavy but that's basically how it is for most average backpackers nowadays I also do a ketogenic diet but I cycle on and off so sometimes I hike like you're gonna see in that food video with a lot of carbs and sometimes I don't which I'll have to create a new video soon about how to go backpacking on keto but anyway food is another subject but just as an example I have some stuff from packet gourmet which I love this is dehydrated food all you do is add boiling water if you're completely new to backpacking one that you've probably seen before is mountain house the shelf life on these is like multiple years like five years or something right best buy January 20 47 yes 20 47 holy God is that real they're pretty good a lot of it for me is probably nostalgia because they remind me of my early backpacking trips but I still like them especially like chili mac and beef and whatnot now if you know you're gonna go backpacking on a regular or right away a tastier more natural tasting thing would be packet gourmet but these only last about six months instead of 40 years apparently but these taste more like real food their goods also some other brands out there like backpacker pantry Alpine air which is kind of new to the game etc right what I usually do is I just put all my food like you just saw in a shopping bag from the supermarket keeps it all together it's a top of my pack so if I need something I can go in and get it snacks I'll keep in my pockets as I go but that keeps it organized I'm gonna get to camp we're gonna look at my bear but well let's talk about bear bag system right now I got some line in there which you'll see but all I do is take this and tie it in a knot and put it on my bear bag line it's water-resistant right put it up in the tree you're good to go for a couple night trip no big deal if you're doing the whole Appalachian Trail maybe you want to buy a more substantial bag when we first started backpack and we bought this crazy or Mike my friend bought this crazy hardcore huge bag as like a bear bag but in retrospect it was like something he would take rafting it was like a dry bag it was serious not only was it probably expensive but it was really heavy for most trips just out in the woods no big deal couple nights this is gonna work fine next level a little more resilient because you know you can poke some holes in this especially with these dehydrated sharp edges on these bags I just bring a 13 gallon kitchen bag garbage bag and you can use this as your bear bag and pull it up on the tree so that works that's food all right let's get in here now we're getting to clothing items I'm gonna talk about this briefly but those of you playing the home game looking at the beer list slash price list will realize I put a list of clothing in the pack but there's no prices and there's a reason for that I'm gonna get into right now I'm also not going to go too deep on clothing because I have a separate video on clothing so to keep this video moving along check that out I'll link it above it's all about clothing I talk about all kinds of backpacking clothing options alright now we'll talk a little bit about it and you can check that one out for more depth if you will now the reason there isn't prices well look you can go out and buy some fancy backpacking gear specifically for backpacking like cargo pants and all this fancy stuff right but my thinking on this is this really you don't need specific backpacking clothes to go backpacking any type of I'm big on synthetics so don't bring anything like cotton or like ideally not like denim or stuff like that but I would assume if you're thinking about doing a backpacking trip you're probably the type of person that might already own some athletic gear and even if you're not the type of person to use it athletically a lot of us just have athletic type clothes anyway all you really need as you'll see is synthetic like workout shirts really cheap if you don't have them get them on Amazon or go to Target buy champion brand Walmart whatever you want to do just synthetic t-shirt right you don't need like a super fancy thing I mean it's great they have really fun stuff at REI but like all you need is a synthetic workout t-shirt anything meant for the gym is gonna work fine in the woods for three season mild relaxed stuff if we're talking winter trips which I've done that's a whole nother ballgame you can watch my videos on that but we're not talking about that right now right so the other thing would be like and again everything in the pack is not what I'm wearing it is my spare clothes so I'm gonna hike in one pair of clothes and you're more than welcome especially in warm weather to hike in some gym shorts or just if you find pair pants that you like that is synthetic although it's a little more rare than shorts but go for it this I would switch into a round camp to be comfortable and sleep in and then the next day I would probably switch back into my dirty or hiking clothes or if it's the last day then I'll just hike out in these so just regular old gym shorts asleep and it's fine with the shirt that I would have a spare of in the backpack as well as one worn if you're really hardcore and you know it's not going to be life-threatening conditions I've gone out on trips where I don't have any spare clothes which cuts my weight down and I just sleep in the same thing I hiked in but you know that's a little more hardcore it's up to you depending on the weather if you're somewhere you'd be surprised how cold it can get in the morning even in the summer so these are just some Reno glove liners you might not need these that's why I didn't price them out but if you think it's gonna be a little chilly like below 50 in the morning and you have some gloves just grab them and bring them with you these are really thin and they take gel off in the morning same thing with a hat just a regular old ski style hat but just bring something like this if you think it's going to be below 50 in the morning or the night it'll add a lot of warmth it's also nice to sleep in it will keep your body temperature higher then of course our socks now you can buy traditional hiking socks these are great I love these these are darn tough I believe are they smart roll but they are a merino wool blend a medium type sock and they're high and that's great merino wool wool in general is great but that being said they're like 15 bucks apiece might not seem a lot somebody who's been backpacking but for somebody new like myself years ago I was like 15 dollars for one pair of socks no way I pay less than that for a six pack of socks and it's fine kind of going back to what I said in the warmer months 3 season especially summer you could just wear some regular old athletic socks and you might already have those which is the reason that I didn't price them in otherwise just get some sort of synthetic activewear sock and you'll be fine now you're also probably thinking boots yes boots are traditional for backpacking and if you already have a pair of great if you don't I guess you'll have to buy some if you need or want some but keep this in mind usually you need those full boots for either really rugged terrain ok which I don't know you might be going to or because you have a lot of weight on your back which a beginner backpack almost always is way too heavy but that's because they bought a bunch of crap they didn't need this gear list is paired down pretty well it's only 13 pounds were three pounds above ultralight ultralight backpacking general consensus is you don't need boots and I found that to be true myself as well I don't wear big old hiking boots anymore I bought a pair and they were nice years ago but then I switched to when I got my weight down which is how this pack is to trail runners and trail runners for the uninitiated are basically just stout rigid sneakers running shoes really you can get a pair probably on sale locally pretty cheap so check that out and you may already have a pair so that's why I didn't include that but if you are really concerned about ankle protection etc I understand that especially as a new hiker so you might want to buy some boots but that's kind of open-ended just keep in mind that you might be able to get away with just some decent sneakers on the trail if you follow my advice and do a light load like this synthetic underwear of course no that's a uh that's Carol she's a voodoo doll I don't know how she ended up in there but you don't need the pack that I probably wouldn't recommend packing that so moving on we're getting into cookware this right here is my cook set this is just about a hundred percent DIY okay years ago when I got started in backpacking kind of like a lot of you out here as I've alluded to I went with a friend and now think about it what stove did we use I don't remember I know I didn't buy one so you're probably going with a friend that has a stove that's what I did if not perhaps it's just you solo or you're with a friend who hasn't bought a stove either and you can't mooch off of their stove capabilities this right here is my cook set now there's the lid so I'm going to talk about this in a second this is optional you don't necessarily need that this right here you see I had a little elastic band on there you can do a rubber band whatever holds the lid in place all this is and I have a separate video on this so I'll link that and you can check it out for more details so I won't waste time here but DIY cook pot 32-ounce can picture canned goods ideally get one without the lining inside the plastic lining like the BPA get one that's nice and silver and well like I said watch that video for how to make it but this is basically free and it weighs less than a lot of those expensive titanium pots and inside is all my cookware so sit right there now it's black because I spray-painted it with some heat-resistant paint that you would use for like a barbecue grill or an engine again that's in my videos as well check those out but that's all there is to it and this is all you really need to heat up water to rehydrate your backpacking meal that's all you're doing you're not like cooking a roast out there are doing some stir-fry teriyaki you're just boiling water it's all you need to do very simple it is like three and a half ounces again like I said you could get a titanium cook pot I have one but they're like 40 bucks this is virtually free the lid is just well the lid you cut off of it and I hammered through a thumbtack and there you go easy lift for the lid and you're just going to boil your water in there so how do you boil your water though right I mean you have to buy a fancy stove for that now you don't this again once again not only cheap but lightweight two birds one stone the Fancy Feast cat can stove this is an alcohol stove all I did to make this was get a can of cat food and I punched holes in it kind of two rows in an offset pattern you can look up videos on all the ways to do this but it's pretty simple you take a cat can and punch holes in it and then you take denatured alcohol which I have right here got it from Home Depot this same can God how much is this this is one gallon I would imagine it costs 10 ish bucks years ago now granted I use all different fuel systems but this it's a lot of uses so it's very cost efficient in terms of fuel and all you do it's a whole nother subject so check out those other videos but you just pour a little bit in here of alcohol and you light it on fire and then obviously on solid ground put your pot on top this works as both a pot stand and the stove the flames come out the side your water boils and then you just add it to your food oh there it is just pour it in here rehydrates and you're good to go with your meal so that's all you really need now if you want to do something fancier like saute up a steak or some sausage then maybe you want to get into some other realms of possibility but for just rehydrating food this is all you need I promise you and you'll be good to go and it costs you nothing and at weighs a quarter of an ounce for that stove there I dare you to find a lighter stove system than that the other thing about alcohol it's nice as well we'll see you in a little bit but you can bring exactly how much fuel you need unlike the canister stove fuel which you're kind of stuck with well whatever is left in the bottle right so next thing up though for efficiency of a stove is always wind screens wind really Rob's the efficiency of a stove so this right here is like a half-ounce and it's just some aluminum flashing that I cut out to the right dimensions and what happens is it fits perfectly it's kind of hard to show because I should be on the ground but say I'm on the ground with my stove right there it fits perfectly around three-quarters two-thirds of it cuts off the wind so you can position it in the direction of wherever the prevailing winds are coming from and that will keep your flame from blowing around and make your fuel get a lot more bang for its buck basically if you will now where do you get aluminum flashing well I mean if you have some scrap around the house go for it even an old soda can might do the trick but in my case just go to Jeff our gear comm and he sells this by the foot it's actually like eight inches like so I had to cut it down but you can buy this probably the equivalent of less than one dollar and you got a windscreen I have bought wind screens for like 15 bucks foldable ones off of Amazon that's great those are cool and convenient but honestly for a dollar you can make your own or for free you can probably find some scrap metal and do it yourself alright so that's that inside here as well we have a bag of goodies what do we got that's important I have two lighters one is in my cook set all the time ones in my backpack which you'll see I like redundancy you got some matches these are waterproof camp matches I did list these as an expense some items like ziplock bags I didn't list as an expense because I figured you already have them but a waterproof match I figured it's not something everybody has so for around 2 bucks you can get a package of these and they got a little wax on them just to keep them alive if things get wet but I always keep them in a plastic bag a little reflectix thumb protector now what is that well I made up some scratch reflectix we'll get to that in a second this is a striker off of a box of matches just as a backup precaution and then I always carry some spare pieces of tin foil which can work for cooking on top of a rock or just a lid in case you lose yours as an emergency and a spare water bottle cap I have lost water bottle caps before and it sucks so if you lose one for say said disposable water bottle well don't worry you're back in business next up you don't have to bring this if I was going minimalist I can drink out of this as well as heat up water for my backpacking meal but let's say you're hanging out with friends and you want to both cook water for your meal and simultaneously I don't know have a cocktail around camp well same idea DIY backpacking cup very lightweight like under an ounce for sure this is like probably used to be a can of canned creamed corn or green beans just cut the top off get an unlined version and you got a cup then if you want to be real fancy for coffee in the morning or hot chocolate at night put it in this little cozy and you are styling your hands won't burn and your drink is going to last I don't know this will keep your drink hot for a while this is like the poor man's Yeti right here this material right here is the same stuff that you saw around my cook set earlier right because I have one that I made for it as well and it's called reflectix it's also what I made my little pot holder out of ultra light pot holder it goes around like water heaters and whatnot and it insulates things it's basically bubble wrap with some mylar space blanket kind of material on it you can get a giant roll for 15 bucks I didn't include it in the price analysis for this video because well you really don't need this to start backpacking and honestly you probably don't care if you're first starting but let me tell you after like one or two trips when you start to really nerd out you're gonna you're gonna like this idea I think and you just buy a roll and you can DIY make your own gear or insulators for all of your gear if you want to you can buy tape for it as well it's like a aluminum kind of reflective tape and yeah you can go to town I have video on this as well but anyway that's pretty cool so that's my cup and for like two ounces a little bit of space it's kind of worth it so hey drink up we're down to one item and that is a pretty important item right the sleeping bag this is the one item I said I hadn't used yet everything else is tried and true but this honestly years ago I bought a cheap synthetic $30 sleeping bag on Amazon it was bright blue it's my dog's sleeping bag now Denali but this looks way nicer it's a synthetic mummy bag by a company called animado they sent it to me for review stuff stack right there temper ating they say forty to fifty degrees so normally you don't get like a reading range like that I should say but they're saying forty to fifty so me I sleep with a decent amount of clothing on so I'm pretty confident I'll get forty degrees out of this but stay tuned for my companion video and we'll see what really happens but synthetic sleeping bag all right thirty bucks and I got two of these opposite zippers they zipped together for me my wife to make one big kind of queen-size sleeping bag but the weight on this now down is always the lightest of course but that would be around 200 bucks and we're not going there today right people so the weight of this guy is forty four point five ounces or two and three quarters pounds not the lightest thing in the world sure if you're comparing it to down right but down also is about Oh at least four times as much right maybe six times as much in terms of cost you're not gonna find a down bag ever at least not right now in this lifetime for thirty dollars so cost wise this is great quality wise looks pretty good the cool thing about this is elastic straps on the back so that I can put my sleeping pad through it and kind of get it affixed on there so won't roll around especially for this roll out kind of pad it wants to curl up that can be a bit of a pain in the you-know-what with this it should keep it affixed to it and keep it from rolling up otherwise it's another reason I would really suggest a pad like this again a little more expensive but still only around 40 bucks a therm-a-rest Z light it's gonna stay flat once you put it there but with those elastic bands I should be able to keep it hooked on there also claims to have a water-resistant finish to it so if I do get a little bit of water on there from precipitation do etc I should be okay specially because I'm not gonna be in a tent I'm gonna be in well not in anything I'm gonna have a tarp and a frame over top of me so technically or definitely I will be kind of opening or camping with this keeping direct precipitation off of me now if you decide to go the hammock or the tent route you won't have to worry about that as much but that is an interesting factor that I will test out on the trail and yeah I'm looking forward to using this so we'll try that out I like the color to kind of subdued olive drab color that's right up my alley all right so moving along you know what I've noticed I didn't mention it's laying on the ground here but I also have some paper towel squares that I cut up into like little squares like this big and I just put them in a ziplock bag that's part of my cook kit for cleaning up and whatnot so it doesn't really cost much weight but it's a nice piece of mine and now alright so inside of the Scandinavian gear backpack there is this pouch here that is for a hydration pack but I just use my water bottles so I don't use this pouch for that I use it for storage in here I have toilet paper pretty important a lot of new backpackers will grab an entire roll cost-wise which is what we're talking about not the end of the world but volume in bulk wise I mean unless you have some serious issues going on you probably don't need that much toilet paper for a weekend so just unravel and wrap up whatever you need put it in a little bag and you're good to go next up these are wet wipes okay just take a couple of wet wipes put them in a ziploc bag newer backpackers will probably bring the entire pack I just want to let you know that an entire pack of hydrated wet wipes can be like a pound to two pounds so just take what you need I even prefer to cut them in half you really don't need to use that much at once or at least I like to have the ability to choose you know just do a little touch-up on my face versus like a full body wash so cut them in half just bring a few and you're good to go I've even had somebody suggest and I haven't tried this yet but I'm I want to they said just let them sit out and dry out and then on the trail they just add a little water and they come back to life and they can you unlike a regular wet wipe but they will weigh basically nothing compared to their wet weight so that's something I gotta try out but coupl wet wipes it's my toiletry kit it's really just a ziploc bag with what have I got here again cheap stuff I did count this as a cost because most people probably well they might not have a travel toothbrush already so travel toothbrush which for a dollar or so usually comes with travel size toothpaste in my case I wear contacts so I have a little eyedropper bottle with some saline solution now I don't have it here but another favorite of mine for hot weather I don't do it in cool weather it's not worth it I don't bother a deodorant but for hot weather you can just take a chapstick tube that is empty like completely used get some deodorant microwave it in the microwave till it liquefies pour it into the chapstick tube let it cool and now you have a chapstick tubes it's actually a mini deodorant just don't get it confused with your real chapstick that can be a problem other than that that's about it I don't really take trips long enough or care enough to worry about like I don't know like shampoos conditioners all that stuff but if you want you can get a little travel bottle and bring some soap you know if that's what you're into on a longer trip next up okay kind of a for mentioned right it's just some generic it's almost like a paracord kind of line paracord is popular video need to go that route if you follow my gear list suggestions in the description below that same guy line that I used for all the tiles and I don't know if I mention this but for my tarp for the four corners and then the two a-frame areas so six points I have 12-foot lines coming off very easy and then it came with these little tension or things which I'll show in the trip video but that leaves me with around 27 25 feet of additional line from a hundred-foot pack so that additional 25 ish feet I will use as a bear bag line so all that is is that 25 foot of rope a little carabiner and you just wrap that around like I said before your grocery bag or garbage bag and haul it up in the tree to keep the critters away now we're down to actually before I get into the hip belts another pouch that you can put stuff in inside I have my first-aid kit let's talk about this real quick I've mentioned it on other videos I don't get too hardcore with first-aid that's kind of controversial it's up to you and what your risk tolerance is but what I do and I only wrote this up it's like five bucks because it's a lot of stuff you already have at home most likely some ibuprofen in one of those an assortment of band-aids and bandages some moleskin which is great for blisters this right here is a little piece of cardboard with some thread already on a needle wrapped around it so it's basically a sewing kit you know you can sew something up real quick with that even if you don't know what you're doing you can get it done next thing right here this is usually in here as an emergency all the time this is a fast-food spoon this one happens to be in a little plastic bag but this actually brings up a good point for a DIY or I should say a low-budget budget-conscious backpacking you can buy some fancy spoons I have one here just as a reminder for me but it's still probably six or eight bucks you don't have to do that you can just get a fast-food spoon and that's what I'm gonna do for this trip spoon spork knife whatever you want it's free it's light I mean we're talking grams nothing and you don't have to get a specific backpacking spoon now the downside of these is they're pretty short and most of your backpacking food as you saw wears it that is in these big old bags right and they're pretty deep so that is a downside you're gonna it's a little weird to eat out of these with this but even some of the ones you pay for backpacking spoon and spork wise have the same problem so when you're on the trail you can just cut this down with a knife and you'll be fine or you just deal with it but this is really cheap effective and lightweight and then I also have a tea candle you can provide a little bit of light as well as it's a fire starter speaking of fire starter in here I do have some wet fire tablets but you know those are a little pricey I got them for experimentation honestly Google DIY fire starters and a ton of stuff out there my friend Mike his favorite thing is very simple everybody has this you get dryer lint out of your dryer like when you change the filter right you take that you get a candle next time you're burning a candle and you pour it over top of the dryer lint you mush it in you let it dry that's a fire starter another super simple one with even less work than that cotton balls and you just dip them in some Vaseline and then you put them in a separate little baggie that's a good fire starter put a flame to it you're good to go and some little straws that I cut into sections and filled with neosporin and heat sealed it with just a lighter to seal it shut some superglue travel-size just in case this can work to fix your gear as well as if you have a cut that just will not stop bleeding stitching yourself on the trail isn't great but a little bit of superglue will actually seal it together pretty nicely and last but not least some benadryl so that's that that is my first aid kit and a couple more important items in this side pocket that I didn't get to fuel of course for the aforementioned cat canned stove so take a bottle I mark it very clearly this is fuel don't drink me and I put my fuel in it about 1 ounce will do 2 cups of water roughly at a neutral temperature of around 70 degrees depending how cold it is last item in the side pocket here this is very important as well a water filter you're gonna need a water filter this is a katadyn be free separate video on this as well so I won't go too in depth this is a point six liter bag for a solo hike it's just fine even with you and one other person I think it's just fine all you do with this thing to keep it short you just scoop up some water screw that back in because the filters inside flip the top and either drink directly out of it which is super awesome or squeeze it right into your Gatorade bottle or whatever you have check out my other videos if you want to know more about it but that thinks super awesome and that yep that kills that so now we finally go home stretch into these hip pouch or hip pockets I should say and then we'll wrap this up I guess so first thing I see in here little thing of hand sanitizer I'd say just invest the one time get a dollar travel size bottle and then you can refill it in the future with the big old bottle after chores bathroom breaks etc for you know keeping yourself clean on top of that back to fire-starting you can squeeze some of this kind of same idea on a stick let it soak in for a minute and light it up it is very flammable and a great fire source compass old-school compass Brunton classic compass you can get these for around 10 to 15 bucks well worth it I don't care what you're carrying in terms of maps GPS cell phones walkie-talkies satellite phones have an old-school compass to tell you where North is here's a knife look online or more likely in like a gas station or something you can get like a $5 knife all you need is something that's basically just gonna open up your mountain house meals maybe cut some cloth if you have to repair a piece of clothing with said needle and thread stuff like that but for the most part you're just going to be opening up food containers so this even right here is a little overkill it's a little big I usually like something a little smaller but you can get something like this for like five bucks like I said a flea market gas station etc have some sort of pocket knife that's that hip pocket and then the other one last one what do we got light source right I like to keep this on the hip because I went it close to me and it is my headlamp I actually bought this myself recently for two reasons hey I had this budget backpacking video coming up and I wanted to have something that was budget and this is only 15 bucks on top of that I'm gonna hand it down to my wife after I do the companion video where I take this on a trip this one has a 10 lumen mode on two triple a's that will run for in a dozens of hours I'll pop it up right here and then it also has a high mode that goes up to 100 and something if you really have to like night hike and look around but for the most part I find it's important for a headlamp have something with a long runtime really anything 5 to 10 lumens is fine for around camp when your eyes are adjusted runtime is more important unless you plan on night hiking but that's a little more advanced and I would think you will probably get to that down the road if you've hiked a little more but for now you're just thinking about time at camp so something like this is good next up a secondary lighter like I said I like to so that's a bit clicked lighter this is some sunscreen that I put in a little bottle you can get a travel sized thing of sunscreen for like three bucks right or you probably already have sunscreen you can buy one of these bottles I got mine from Detroit literally ten cents for this bottle and it's a ten mil bottle and I filled it up with sunscreen and I'm good to go and then bug spray that's important too right depending where you are bug spray is going to be a big factor when I went on my first trip we brought these big aerosol cans that were like a pound apiece it's crazy thinking back that we did that they were like twenty percent DEET and you like sprayed it on your whole you like fumigated yourself just get yourself a hundred percent DEET it's very concentrated you rub it around and the bugs will leave you alone and that yep is the end of the pockets so we did it we went through everything in my budget backpacking gear list again under two hundred and fifty dollars if you're down we're doing the tarp sleeping I know a newbie out there is probably saying that sounds ridiculous but I'll be posting a video to see how it goes with this setup everything right here on an actual backpacking trip otherwise you can do my tent or hammock camping suggestions those will work just fine and you're still under what three hundred and fifty bucks not bad considering my wife and I probably spent I don't even want to think about it but hopefully my experience will help you all out there as well that pretty much covers it my budget backpacking gear lists until next time i'm syntek 77 and you have fun out there you

Channel: sintax77

Views: 323,246

Rating: 4.8184872 out of 5

Keywords: sintax, sintax77, budget backpacking gear list, backpacking gear, backpacking gear list, camping, backpacking, hiking, camping gear, camping gear list, backpacking on a budget, cheap backpacking gear, cheap camping gear, inexpensive, budget, gear list

Id: BATobrOEK5Q

Length: 61min 53sec (3713 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 08 2018