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How do you save money while Geocaching?


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7 hours ago, meganlettucetomato said:

Going on excursions, buying lunches, and staying places overnight can add up. How do you save money while geocaching?

 

Maybe being a Lackey, seeing folks from other states/counties visiting HQ all the time, feel that's a normal thing ?    :)

 

Rural, our biggest expense is gas.  I travel further for caches I'll do.

When the weather's nice, the Harley's save a bit.  A bit too loud if trying to hit small parks in the morning.

A couple of uncrustables lasts quite a while.   We have met some big number, big folks "cache" fast food joint to fast food joint a few times ...

"Staying overnight" just for this hobby isn't a thing here. 

We will try to fit it in while visiting relatives though, and if hiking, there might be a couple caches nearby.

We haven't been able to find caches each time we went salmon fishing.  Maybe some day...

Our biggest savings might be in combining hobbies.  We hunt and fish, and have met others who cache while doing both too. 

Edited by cerberus1
load a truck. pipes are loud...
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49 minutes ago, meganlettucetomato said:

Going on excursions, buying lunches, and staying places overnight can add up. How do you save money while geocaching?

I generally don't travel much just for geocaching. Rather, I go geocaching when I'm already traveling for some other purpose.

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Geocaching is free.

 

...at least that's what one of the GIFF films from 2018 said. :laughing:

 

Of course, as well all know, many costs like to creep into geocaching over time. Fuel, special tools, fancy electronics, etc. Regarding the things you mentioned:

  • Excursions/staying overnight - For me, this is usually just fuel for driving to caches within my region. I usually treat larger excursions like I would any other vacation, including the anticipated increased cost of doing so.
  • Buying lunch - If I'm going to be out caching all day, I almost always take a lunch with me. This not only reduces cost, but makes things more convenient because I can have lunch anywhere I want rather than trying to find somewhere and possibly need to detour away from caches. It also allows you to have lunch while sitting at the top of a hill, at an ocean viewpoint, etc. so there's something interesting to look at while eating.
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Pack a picnic lunch; pick the salad from the vegetable garden if you have a garden.

Use a bicycle; by itself, or in conjunction with public transport.

My biggest savings after I joined (2012), was buying a GPS the following year instead of using a phone. Up to then I had printed out the caches I wanted to find on (used) paper. Even though the Garmin etrex 30 cost a lot of money up front, in the long term it saved a lot more money than using data.

When travelling for weeks I have saved money by sleeping in the car, as to stay in motels for weeks is a lot of money. If overseas I stay in motels and also at home for short trips, but for longer trips (as long as the weather is warm enough) I put a single mattress in the back of the car and make it up like a proper bed with pillows, sheets, doona, etc.

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I rarely go out solely for caching - maybe just to pick up an odd local cache for the year end/new year goal.  It has become an add-on to hiking, holiday trips, shopping trips, visits for sundry purposes etc.  When going anywhere I just check online for nearby caches & download to gps.  If I get time or inclination to find them I will.  Otherwise there is always next time.

 

If out for the day I take food & drink - & as I would be eating even if at home there is no particular cost caused by caching.  Doubt I have spent anything on petrol specifically for caching either.  Cannot imagine ever staying overnight anywhere just to seek caches.  Life is too short not to multi-task!

 

And no special equipment cost as I bought a gps for hiking, so using it for caching is again not a specific cost.

Edited by grimpil
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We don't. B)

We do exactly the same thing we did before geocaching. We used to go away for weekend to walk in the woods and/or explore cities, we still do but now let selected geocaches  lead us. The benefit of this is that we tend not to stay at places we've already been but go to different places.

 

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Although now retired, I'm still comfortably well-off and caching costs are a pretty small component of my total living costs. For caches outside my local region, I'll use public transport when I can, which is capped at $2.50 a day for seniors, so a lot of my finds in Sydney and Newcastle are done that way. I don't do anywhere near as much caching as some (it took me six years to get to 1000 finds and my find count for 2019 was just 150) and most of those are within 100km of home.

 

For caches that are well away from civilisation I'll take some fruit and salad for lunch, otherwise I'm rather partial to some nice fish-and-chips as reward for a day's caching:

 

2b9d8da4-f2d9-4817-9d19-739370d4e16f_l.j

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Just now, barefootjeff said:

Although now retired, I'm still comfortably well-off and caching costs are a pretty small component of my total living costs. For caches outside my local region, I'll use public transport when I can, which is capped at $2.50 a day for seniors, so a lot of my finds in Sydney and Newcastle are done that way. I don't do anywhere near as much caching as some (it took me six years to get to 1000 finds and my find count for 2019 was just 150) and most of those are within 100km of home.

 

For caches that are well away from civilisation I'll take some fruit and salad for lunch, otherwise I'm rather partial to some nice fish-and-chips as reward for a day's caching:

 

2b9d8da4-f2d9-4817-9d19-739370d4e16f_l.j

That is one of the best looking commercial fish and chips I have seen. Nice there's no batter and has salad.

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1 minute ago, Goldenwattle said:

That is one of the best looking commercial fish and chips I have seen. Nice there's no batter and has salad.

 

Courtesy of Doyles on the wharf at Watsons Bay. There's a fish shop at Palm Beach that does a really nice grilled barra and rice, always a good excuse to take the ferry across and do a check on my adopted Barrenjoey caches :P.

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Camp for free.  Deeeep in the woods, far beyond the last private property.

 

7a03db42-8761-4212-b1d2-dbe197a5922e_l.j

 

On trips like this, all I buy is: gas, beer, ice, salad.  (The rest of my food, I bring from home.)  Every four days I show up in civilization briefly to buy those essentials - beer, ice and salad only last that long - then disappear again.

 

Tourism agencies must hate me.

 

Edited by Viajero Perdido
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Save money you ask?

 

So far all I've done is spend money.

 

I know once I have all of the TOTT the spending should slow down or stop. The only constant is gas.

 

In the last 2 weeks or so my costs have been;

Garmin GPSMAP 64sx

Screen protectors for GPS

Small day backpack

Insulated drink bottle

Misc. small things

3 month premium membership to this site

Permit to park and enter Land Trust areas

 

Next on the needed list are;

Good hiking boots

Gaiters (to help keep the thorns out)

 

I think after that I should be set.

 

Now, since I'm new and still learning, I haven't gone more than 2 miles from home. Just in my local area there are hundreds of caches to keep me busy for quite a while.

I do tend to stay home more than I'd like to, partly because I'm solo, and partly because of financial limits.

 

So to answer the question..... what was the question? Saving money?.... impossible (for this or any other of my hobbies)

Edited by Lost_not_found
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10 minutes ago, Lost_not_found said:

Now, since I'm new and still learning, I haven't gone more than 2 miles from home. Just in my local area there are hundreds of caches to keep me busy for quite a while.

 

Within 2 miles of my home there are just 11 caches that I don't own, only one of which I haven't found - it's a front-yard cache and I suspect from recent logs that the owner mightn't live there anymore.

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9 minutes ago, barefootjeff said:

 

Within 2 miles of my home there are just 11 caches that I don't own, only one of which I haven't found - it's a front-yard cache and I suspect from recent logs that the owner mightn't live there anymore.

I didn't say there are hundreds within 2 miles, just that I haven't gone more than 2 miles.

 

I did a pocket query , limited to 100 caches, and all of them are within 3 miles of my location. I've found 14.

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3 hours ago, meganlettucetomato said:

Going on excursions, buying lunches, and staying places overnight can add up. How do you save money while geocaching?

We spent 40 years working and saving to enjoy retirement - so what do we have to save money for now?  Bought a travel trailer and have been across the US 5.5 times in the last 4+ years, exploring and finding caches wherever we go.  We mostly fix our own meals (eating out 2-3 times a week), carry a cooler in the back seat with food and drink and enjoy life as we will.

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1 hour ago, Goldenwattle said:
1 hour ago, Lost_not_found said:

I haven't gone more than 2 miles from home. Just in my local area there are hundreds of caches to keep me busy for quite a while.

Then those could be done by walking or cycling. No need to drive. That would save petrol :)

 

There were a lot more caches around here when I started in 2013. Over the years I've found 38 within 2 miles (3km) of home, most of which I did on foot or by bike. Of the 11 that remain, only 4 have owners who are still active in the game, so the rest will gradually disappear as they go missing or exceed the CHS's threshold for DNFs. It'd be a lot tougher for a new cacher starting out here now, particularly if they're a basic member using the app with its limit to just D/T 2/2 or less non-PMO traditionals - that would give them just 3 caches to find locally (including that questionable front-yard one) so they'd have to do a lot of driving to decide whether they liked it.

 

Edited by barefootjeff
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1 minute ago, Goldenwattle said:

Sorry. I only suggested those because you mentioned, "Good hiking boots   Gaiters (to help keep the thorns out)"

No problem. I live on the edge of (IN) a desert. Well, on the outskirts of town. It's a mix of town and desert. Everything north and east is desert...and I mean cross the street and you are in desert. To the south and west is the edge of town. The further you go the more town there is.

So, no sidewalks ..footpaths to you Aussies... rough narrow streets for a bit until you hit the middle of town. There is NO grass. Everything is sand and rocks. It's hard for healthy fit people to walk in normal shoes without risk of ankle injury.

Now, yes I can walk short distances, and I do. However, after just 2 weeks of casual geocaching I have discovered that I need a good pair of boots instead of my $8 Walmart (Big W) sneakers.

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Well, Geocaching is one of my two main hobbies since I retired.  I've convinced my sister that we need to work on our Jasmer Challenges.  So, we're headed off to Wisconsin for the two months I need, with a stop in Pennsylvania for one that my sister needs.  Not going to be cheap.

A few years ago, four of us headed for the Canadian Maritimes.  PEI, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.  Great trip.  Not cheap.

But, after Wisconsin, I'm probably done with those long trips.  Unless I decide to finish the Pennsylvania DeLorme and County Challenges.

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3 hours ago, meganlettucetomato said:

Going on excursions, buying lunches, and staying places overnight can add up. How do you save money while geocaching?

 

My answer is pretty much the same as all the others - I would normally go on excursions, buy lunch (now and then), and stay somewhere other than home overnight on occasion with or without geocaching.  I haven't done any of those EXCLUSIVELY to find geocaches - geocaching is something we do in the course of whatever else we may be doing.

 

If we are traveling to another city for whatever reason (to visit family, to shop, whatever) we'll usually check to see what caches are nearby and sleect a few to look for.  

 

Our costs for geocaching specifically, things that we spent only because we are geocaching and that we wouldn't have otherwise spent - the $30/year premium membership (X2, for hubby and me), a few trackables from the website, usually obtained by buying one of the grab bag specials from time to time, a UV flashlight and a extendable magnet for my geobag that I probably wouldn't have bought otherwise, and maybe a few containers at the dollar store that we intend to use for cache containers.  Really insignificant amounts, IMO, in the grand scheme of things.

 

Yes, gas costs money but we are spending money on gas anyway, maybe a bit extra as we go after caches but again, not significant overall.

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4 hours ago, Viajero Perdido said:

Camp for free.  Deeeep in the woods, far beyond the last private property.

 

7a03db42-8761-4212-b1d2-dbe197a5922e_l.j

 

I'm getting antsy again, and just had to see this...   A pack rod would be nice. 

Maybe a 6wt so I can sneak a cp swing to drift around too.  Well, back to chipping ice outta the drive...

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Bicycle or bicycle and train (commuter pass so extra rides for caching are “free”) is how I get my daily cache. And of course I try to do my caching when I have to travel anyway (e.g. get off the train in the middle of my commute to grab a cache and continue the commute on the next train).

 

I’m sort of planning to do a multi day cycling/caching trip next summer, but nothing concrete yet. Not super into sleeping outdoors so I’m kinda undecided about how the logistics and whether it’d involve any real money saving :)

 

 

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19 hours ago, niraD said:

I generally don't travel much just for geocaching. Rather, I go geocaching when I'm already traveling for some other purpose.

I do the same thing, although I'm making plans to travel to cities outside of my own to cache this year....something I do occasionally, although part of the reason I do it is to explore a new area and be inspired. Possibly going to the Woodstock event this year will be the first cross country trip I ever made by myself....so it'll be interesting.

 

When I geocache, I tend to stick to my city, which has a solid transit system...and plenty more geocaches to hunt for, so spending is minimal.

Edited by DreamMachine74
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2 hours ago, arisoft said:

 

I just bought an EV to save fuel. It costs some money to buy but it is almost free to drive.

Electric cars would be nice, but here in Australia the distances are too big for the present electric cars, or at least those most people could afford to buy. Most electric vehicles can't do the long distances that I sometimes drive. We can have hundreds of kms between towns in some places. Hydrogen powered vehicles are likely the way for large countries such as Australia, although there will be places for electric vehicles that only stay in urban areas, or don't venture very far into the country.

Example: The Barkly highway. It's 260kms between the petrol station at Barkly Homestead in the Northern Territory and Camooweal in Queensland. Barkly Homestead is not on the electric grid and needs to generate its power with brought in diesel, so I don't imagine they could handle too many electric cars. The next petrol station the other side of Barkly Homestead is Three Ways, another 187kms, meaning a trip of 447kms, and I'm not sure if Three Ways could handle many electric cars either. Then factor in a head wind, the weight of luggage and not everyone's battery being new; all of which would reduce the distance an electric car could drive.

Photographs: Two of Three Ways. Talking of diesel generators, that appears to be diesel electric generators on the back of that road train (the long truck) that is entering Three Ways. Then on the Barkly Highway in a good year (there's grass) and then Barkly Homestead. There's a very well hidden cache on the old steam engine; the only cache for over 400 kms.

Three Ways Roadhouse, early morning.jpg

Road train entering Threeways, NT.jpg

View towards Barkly Hwy.jpg

Barkly Roadhouse 2.jpg

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17 minutes ago, Goldenwattle said:

Electric cars would be nice, but here in Australia the distances are too big for the present electric cars, or at least those most people could afford to buy. Most electric vehicles can't do the long distances that I sometimes drive. We can have hundreds of kms between towns in some places. Hydrogen powered vehicles are likely the way for large countries such as Australia, although there will be places for electric vehicles that only stay in urban areas, or don't venture very far into the country.

 

Some of the latest EVs will do 500km or more on a charge, which is comparable to a petrol-powered car, and the technology's still very much in its infancy. The cost is also going to plummet once production volumes ramp up, as electric motors have far fewer moving parts than combustion engines. It's also much easier for, say, motels to provide power points in their car parks than it is petrol/diesel bowsers or hydrogen tanks. The big problem I see with hydrogen is the enormous pressures needed to contain enough of it to be useful and the need to contain those pressures, or safely release them, in an accident.

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I save money by driving the same car for the last [counts on fingers] 7 or 8 years now.  It goes up to 800km on a tank of regular, and I want a very full tank when I turn onto the Forestry Trunk Road loaded with camping supplies and coords to some very remote caches.

 

That car is also my camper, my portable hotel room.  It has pinstripes from roads that are narrower than the car itself (yes, wood can scratch paint), and the underside is somewhat banged/torn up from rocks, but overall the thing still works: it gets me there.

 

Check email one last time while there's still signal, then let's go caching!  :)

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Just now, barefootjeff said:

 

Some of the latest EVs will do 500km or more on a charge, which is comparable to a petrol-powered car, and the technology's still very much in its infancy. The cost is also going to plummet once production volumes ramp up, as electric motors have far fewer moving parts than combustion engines. It's also much easier for, say, motels to provide power points in their car parks than it is petrol/diesel bowsers or hydrogen tanks. The big problem I see with hydrogen is the enormous pressures needed to contain enough of it to be useful and the need to contain those pressures, or safely release them, in an accident.

The 500kms is for a new battery. Older batteries will do less. Then if it's anything like the quote that is given for how many litres of petrol a car will use to do a km, the distance a car will do on a full charge, even with a new battery, will be less than the given distance in the real world. Then as I mentioned there's the problem of head winds, luggage weight, etc that will reduce that distance further. Then having enough charging stations so people don't need to wait for hours. I have seen queues of cars (and their caravans, another hindrance which will reduce the distance the electric car will travel further) lined up at some petrol stations now in the outback. Cars can be filled much quicker with petrol than they can be charged with electricity, and that I have been told is mostly to 80% at those charging stations, further reducing the distance a car is quoted as doing. Also (saying what I have been told by people with more knowledge in this matter than me) not fully charging the battery reduces the life of the battery. To charge the equivalent amount of cars that those large road house service stations are handling now would require huge amounts of land to park all those cars for the time it takes to charge then. It's fine if a car can go home each night and plug in, but not all cars can do this; they will need to use a public charging station. Imagine street after street with a charging station at each parking spot and the infrastructure needed to put those in and improve the electric supply network to cope. It's fine when there are only a few electric cars as now, but if all the fuel cars were replaced, imagine what then. There are problems with hydrogen but compared to what electric cars need, especially away from urban areas, it appears hydrogen is the future for Australia.

Not everyone stays at motels when travelling. Look at the masses of grey nomads travelling. Many free camp, where there is no mains power. I am talking about situations away from urban areas, which is a lot of Australia. Electric cars will work well in urban areas, especially where a person can plug their car in at home. Also is semi urban areas, which many areas along the east coast could be classified as. But head inland and it can be long distances, often with limited power available, and what there is might be diesel generated, or small solar farms, that don't have the capacity to handle lots of electric cars.

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Just now, Viajero Perdido said:

I save money by driving the same car for the last [counts on fingers] 7 or 8 years now.

Still young :). My present car has just turned five. The previous car was 15 years old when someone drove in the back of it and wrote it off. The car before that was 25 when I sold it (still running very well) and the one before that a mere 13. (Photograph: 25 years old and still looking good.)

 

Just now, Viajero Perdido said:

That car is also my camper, my portable hotel room.  It has pinstripes from roads that are narrower than the car itself

I sometimes sleep in the back of my present car. I have a single mattress in there and I set it up with sheets, pillows and doona/duvet/quilt/eiderdown..., so it's a real bed. I can relate to the "pinstripes".

1 Car driver's side number plate hidden.jpg

Edited by Goldenwattle
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45 minutes ago, Viajero Perdido said:

I save money by driving the same car for the last [counts on fingers] 7 or 8 years now.  It goes up to 800km on a tank of regular, and I want a very full tank when I turn onto the Forestry Trunk Road loaded with camping supplies and coords to some very remote caches.

My current and only car is 27 years old, yes 27. I'm lucky if I get 10mpg which is 120 miles on a tank and I MUST use premium gas. Not a big V8, just a 3.0L V6.

I should be getting way better mileage and I think on a long trip I would, but in city stop-go traffic and since most of my trips are less than 3 miles ... 10mpg is about it on a good day.  I pay a lot for gas per month.

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On 1/11/2020 at 1:53 AM, Goldenwattle said:

Electric cars would be nice, but here in Australia the distances are too big for the present electric cars, or at least those most people could afford to buy. Most electric vehicles can't do the long distances that I sometimes drive. We can have hundreds of kms between towns in some places.

 

In the United States, there are about 3.5 thousand miles between Miami and Seattle, and some EVs allow you to drive between them for free. What a nice way to save money if you want to find  power trails.

Edited by arisoft
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On 1/9/2020 at 10:53 PM, meganlettucetomato said:

Going on excursions, buying lunches, and staying places overnight can add up. How do you save money while geocaching?

 

Stop eating and stop sleeping!?

That's a fun fact: If you do more night caches you might save the money for the overnight stay?!

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Just now, arisoft said:

 

In the United States, there are about 3.5 thousand miles between Miami and Atlanta, and some EVs allow you to drive between them for free. What a nice way to save money if you want to find  power trails.

Towns are a lot closer to each other in central USA than Australia, so electric vehicles would work better there. It's more urbanised with a far bigger population.

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On 1/11/2020 at 5:22 PM, arisoft said:

 

In the United States, there are about 3.5 thousand miles between Miami and Atlanta, and some EVs allow you to drive between them for free. What a nice way to save money if you want to find  power trails.

 

Actually, Miami, FL to Atlanta, GA is only 665 miles.

 

Miami to Seattle, WA is 3,300 miles.

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