5 Sites that Save You Money on Your Retail Spending

As someone interested in financial freedom, you are probably pretty cognizant of where your money goes. You use cash back credit cards, put your money in high yield savings accounts, and try to save on purchases wherever you can.

Sometimes it can be difficult to find the best deals, though. We are creatures of habit and tend to look in the same, familiar places. Everyone knows that companies like Amazon have great prices and free Prime shipping, but is it always the best bargain?

Here are five lesser known resources that shoppers can use to save on retail purchases.

SnagShout

SnagShout has partnered with Amazon to offer discounted prices on a wide variety of retail products. They offer deals on everything from electronics, car accessories, and beauty supplies to home office items like printer ink and even cheesy greeting cards. While using the site, I’ve seen discounts in excess of 90%. The prices offered are legitimate, and as long as the item is listed as available on the SnagShout website, you can claim the savings on Amazon’s marketplace.

This is a great website to find outstanding discounts with minimal hassle. You are essentially getting paid to write reviews for Amazon and the product seller – and it’s a fair deal for you as the consumer. As long as you comply with the rules of the road (which are very easy) you can get great deals on the next thing you and your family need to buy. Best of all, SnagShout is free.

The retail categories include Beauty and Health, Cars (accessories), Clothing/Shoes/Jewelry, Electronics and Computers, Grocery, Home, Garden & Tools, Kids & Baby, Media, Office Supplies, Pet Supplies, Sports & Outdoors, Toys, and Vitamins/Supplements. There’s something available for everyone.

So, what’s the catch? Each deal you claim is called a snag. SnagShout provides these amazing deals through arrangements with the manufacturer and marketer of the product you buy. Sellers always need reviews, so this is one way they can quickly get honest feedback from customers. To earn these great savings, you’re just required to publish an unbiased review on the product. The review must have a disclaimer that lets everyone know you received a discounted price in exchange for that review.

The review doesn’t necessarily have to be positive, but it needs to be done quickly. Waiting too long can forfeit the credit for your review, as retailers often remove products from Amazon. In this case, you have no way of verifying your purchase with SnagShout. You’d lose out on earning a new snag credit, which you need to buy more discounted products. My suggestion? As soon as you receive the product and check it out, hop online and write a quick review. Once the comment is verified, you’re rewarded with more snags and can keep saving.

The guideline on the SnagShout FAQ is to publish no later than 2 weeks after snagging a deal (provided you’ve received the product by then). The FAQ also provides the disclaimer you should place in your review (verbatim) to ensure you’re meeting the SnagShout policy for service.

Purchases will be made on Amazon using a promo code. Simply click the “Snag It” button on the item you want to commit to the deal, copy the promo code, and complete your purchase on Amazon. Remember to enter the promo code when you’re checking out to receive your discount. Note that a snag is only good for one of each item. Initially you’ll only be able to snag one deal at a time. This means you’ll have to publish the review on your first product prior to being awarded an additional snag. Your snag limit is increased if you are faithful to review products in a timely manner, and the more you shop, the more chances you have to save.

The process is mostly pain-free, aside from the initial setup of linking your Amazon account to the SnagShout system. You can also link your Facebook account or use an email address for SnagShout’s login information.

Bonus: If you validate your phone number on SnagShout you’ll be eligible to receive more than one snag at a time.

RetailMeNot

Boasting over 500,000 coupons for 50,000 stores, RetailMeNot is your one-stop source for discount shopping at all of your favorite stores. While not all published deals are exclusive to the RetailMeNot service, you can be sure they’ll have the most up-to-date information on which stores are offering sales either online or in store.

RetailMeNot is available via their mobile phone app, which is easy to use and intuitive. When you see a deal you like, save it in your wallet with one click of the star button (on your desktop browser or in the app). If you want to find the nearest locations offering discounts, you can enter your zip code online or let the app to view your location. The RetailMeNot app will then offer discounts whenever you are near a store that has a coupon you can use. Push notifications let you know you’re in an area with qualifying coupons.

The mobile coupon capability is handy feature for the RetailMeNot user. If a big name retailer is offering an in-store only coupon, the app has got you covered. You can view the coupon value, terms of sale, and show the saved coupon to the cashier as you check out. If for some reason a store won’t accept your coupon, you’re instructed to contact the RetailMeNot team right away via email. You can also email coupons to yourself or to friends via the share option.

The user community at RetailMeNot has the option of submitting coupons and deals so others can share in the savings. You won’t earn any perks by doing this other than continuing the tradition of couponers and savers sharing their savings discoveries with one another.

RetailMeNot also offers international coupons. There are nine different internationally-oriented RetailMeNot websites for the likes of the U.K., Germany, Australia, Canada and more.

RetailMeNot is partnered with the Deal Squad™, a team of agents who dedicate their time to finding you the best deals on specific products. Say you’d like to find a KitchenAid mixer. You provide them with a copied-and-pasted link to the website that sells the product, and they’ll do the rest. It’s akin to having a personal shopper do the deal hunting for you. Savings rates with this special service can top 20%. For access search for Deal Squad on the RetailMeNot webpage or your favorite search engine. According to the Squad FAQ, agents are dedicated shoppers and savers like you who have years of experience hunting down the best deals. Examples of recent deals found by the agents can be seen on the DealSquad™ page. When I checked it out, it included Prada sunglasses at 50% off and Beats headphones for 28% off.

When signing up for the DealSquad™, you can opt in for alternative product recommendations (similar items or other version) and even refurbished products. After you confirm the product you’re looking for, the Squad will respond within 24 hours with the following deal types: Auctions, Coupon codes, Alternate retailers, Cash back rebates, Store card offers, and Discounted gift cards that can be used to purchase the item on your wish list.

For my test run of the Squad, I asked them to find me a deal on a KitchenAid Professional Mixer. Five hours later, I received my answer. The verdict? A savings of about $400 off the list price. This is pretty good, and it brought a price that was lower than the top result on Amazon’s marketplace. Scanning through other online retailers, the price the DealSquad™ offered was lower than roughly 50% of those I found.

DealSquad™ is still in beta (testing) phase, but it looks promising. The full version will be released at a later date.

Gift Card Zen

Gift Card Zen was recently acquired by RetailMeNot. It’s a discounted gift card retailer that allows you to purchase gift cards below face value. In essence, this equates to buying a dollar for less than a dollar. Card Zen buys cards from shoppers and retailers, then turns around and sells them.

There are cards from over 130 big name retailers in the searchable database of gift cards. I was able to find savings of over 30% on clothing stores by purchasing a $30 gift card for $20. Deals don’t last long – they often sell quickly and the supply for each retailer will fluctuate throughout the year.

Users can also sell their unused gift cards for cash. Unfortunately, you might not get as much for them as you’d hope. My test run of a $25 gift card produced an offer of $15.25! If you’re in a pinch, this can be a last resort for ditching those unused gifts. Be sure to note that Card Zen is not always accepting all cards for purchase. You’ll need to check out their website to see if they are currently buying your store’s gift card.

Retale

Focused on local shopping, Retale is a weekly ad finder that consolidates all your local ad printouts in one place. It’s available online or on Android and iOS platforms for iPhone and iPad, for easy mobile use.

I hardly ever use coupons, and I’m impressed with how easy Retale makes it to find and preserve them in a format I can use. Sign-up requires either an email account, Facebook, or Google+ account, then you’re on your way. Once you set up your location and identify the main stores you’d like to follow, you’re taken to a list of all the weekly ads in your area (including some not on your list). Retale provides the nearest store locations and operating hours inside each weekly ad you review.

The seamless interface allows you to “clip” the coupons you want and save them on your phone. Like RetailMeNot, when it’s time for checkout you can have the barcode scanned by the cashier. The mobile app includes a shopping list feature: use this to search for the product you’ve had on your wish (or shopping) list and Retale will bring up the weekly ad or coupon that addresses your need. You can add as many items as you like to your list.

If you’re not impressed yet, there’s more. Inside the ad, you can click the push pin button to bring up a magnifying glass. Place that over the item you want, give it a title (like TV), and it will save to your shopping list. From there, go back to your shopping list to reveal that Retale has identified other ads offering the same product.

View similar ads with the click of a button and search within the weekly ads to cross compare prices with other stores. There are interactive ads with video and direct links to the online retailers. If the weekly ad contains coupons, you can clip all coupons with one click. Then, share your finds with your friends on Facebook, Twitter, and email via the in-app feature.

ThreadStats

I stumbled across a unique website for lovers of J. Crew clothing. While ThreadStats won’t help you save on other brands, you’re sure to find a great deal and know the best time to buy any J. Crew product. A savings-minded shopper transformed his passion for J. Crew into a functional search engine. It provides users with the information they need to get the best deal from that company either online or in-store. I highlight this particular website to show that there are frugal-minded shoppers out there who will share their money-saving resources with others.

You can search among five categories on ThreadStats: Men, Women, Boys, Girls, and Baby. Narrow your search results with rankings for Sale %-off, Construction Materials, 30 Day Low, Fit Type, and Sale Price Range. The 30-day low option identifies whether or not the price trend for that product is at the lowest in recent history.

Prices are updated daily, and you can opt in for email alerts. The site provides a daily price history chart for each product and advanced product search features.

Break Out of Your Echo Chamber

As internet users, we tend to get lost in our little niche of websites and information sources. It’s hard to break out of these echo chambers we create for ourselves, where the same web searches and sites produce the same results. I hope these five resources will help you expand your horizons when it comes to online shopping and getting the best deal for you and your family.

An internet query or a browse through your favorite app is all it takes to break free and save extra dough. Check them out and find which one works best for you. Then, drop us a note in the comments with your favorite(s)!

The post 5 Sites that Save You Money on Your Retail Spending appeared first on The Dough Roller.

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Camping Fears: Eastern Black Bears and Safety

The best way to avoid black bear encounters is to make a lot of noise when hiking and keep a clean camp when sleeping. Fear is a natural response though and learning to cope with it can take time.

Had a reader contact me recently asking me how I managed to get any sleep when backpacking solo. They’d gone on their first overnight trip in Dolly Sods (WV), and been freaked out worrying about eastern bears at night and being attacked while they lay in their hammock.

My response:

“I am afraid sometimes too, but not at night. I sing songs when hiking through dense high berry bushes, for example. This last trip, I sang Shakedown Street and California Dreamin a lot. But at night, I sleep fine. Too exhausted. The Bears aren’t interested in you and they have no idea what a hammock is. I don’t worry about it.”

But there was a time when I worried about nighttime animal encounters too. Here’s are some of the things I did to ameliorate my fears.

Backpacking with other people

There’s something, probably instinctive, about safety in numbers. I’d backpack with other people, especially when I was starting out and my wife insisted on it. Mind you, I never shared a tent with someone else, but knowing that they were near by was comforting. The same holds for camping at group campsites, like shelters along the Appalachian Trail. There is comfort knowing that others are around, maybe even sleeping next to you in a lean-to. Of course, the opposite is often true. Bears come to well established AT campsites because they know food is available there, but sleeping near others still helps relieve the fear.

Hang my food at night

While some people dispute the effectiveness of hanging a bear bag, it just makes sense that storing your food and “smellables” (toiletries, cookpot, utensils)  outside your tent/hammock and at some distance, will help reduce your attractiveness as a food source. I used to hang my food until I discovered an Ursack, which is far easier to use than hanging a bear bag since you can just tie it to a tree trunk. The way I see it, bears are far more likely to investigate a food source that isn’t snoring and likely to fight back, than one that is. That said, I’ve NEVER noticed any sign of ursine tampering with a bear bag or Ursack in all my years of backpacking.

Keep a clean camp

I keep a very clean camp at night. I don’t burn my garbage and rarely even make a campfire, which is sure to alert bears to my presences from miles around. I try to avoid leaving crumbs on the ground when eating and pick up all garbage and stow it in my bear bag before going to sleep. Some people go as far as to cook dinner along the trail before they get to a campsite to avoid bring food smells into camp with them. I haven’t done this, but I might if I ever decide to cook the fish I catch instead of releasing them.

Campsite selection

Bears, moose and other animals need to drink water, so I make a point not to locate my campsite anyplace blocking animals access to water. The same holds for camping in the middle of berry patches: probably not a good idea, since berries are a prime food source for bears. I also avoid camping at campsites that I know will be crowded, since I like going to sleep very early and hate noise at night. But crowded campsites, like lean-tos, are probably viewed as good food sources by bears since there’s bound to be someone who’s not as careful about their food storage and camp hygiene as me.

Exhaustion

I sleep great on backpacking trips because I’m usually so exhausted that I couldn’t stay awake if I tried. I eat dinner, clean up, and I’m usually asleep by the time the sun sets.

Trip wires

To this day, I occasionally set up obstacles at night near my tent or hammock that are designed to fluster a bear or moose who gets inquisitive when I’m asleep in order to fluster them and scare them off. For example, I set up my hiking poles at the ends of my hammock so that a bear will knock them over if he tries to come in at the head end and investigate my head. The same goes with some of my hammock tarp guy lines. Weaving through the 10 guy lines on my tarp is hard enough for me…

Camp alarm

I once tented in the Serengeti in Africa and woke up at night to cries of “Simba, Simba” when our guides chased wild lions out of camp. (I promptly fell back asleep). To this day, I often hang my whistle, the loud one I carry attached to my pack’s shoulder strap, over my hammock ridgeline (inches from my face) at night so I can blow it loudly if I hear a bear near me to frighten it off.  Earlier in my backpacking career, my wife once gave me a mini-lantern with a built-in motion detector to frighten off inquisitive animals at night, but it never worked reliably and I discarded it.

Not to freak you out, but I used to have a recurring nightmare about hearing a bear investigating me while I slept. It happened very periodically: I think three times in total over the span of 10 years, and always when I was solo backpacking. In it, I want to yell at the bear but find that I cannot shout anything or utter a sound because I’m paralyzed in fear. That’s why I still drape the whistle over my hammock ridgeline.

Fear of Bears is Natural

Fear is a natural part of backpacking and hiking, especially when you’re alone and in the wilderness. I’m still afraid of unexpected animal encounters during when hiking through dense bear and moose habitat (berry patches and head high grass/shrubbery) which is why I make a lot of noise when traveling through them. My advice: learn everything you can about bear and large animal behavior and habitat and use some of the techniques I outline above to help manage your fear level at night.

It takes time, but your fear of nighttime animal encounters will eventually recede when you come to appreciate the immensity of the biomass and natural processes at play in the wilderness around you. Think of it this way. How often do you take time off during the middle of the work day to go to the art museum? You have too much to do, right? Pardon the anthropomorphism, but bears would rather spend time gathering food and eating their natural food sources than checking you out. When you realize that you, as a human, are largely irrelevant to a bear’s day-to-day existence, you’ll sleep better at night.

Afterward: This post is about eastern black bears which are fairly docile, shy creatures, unless habituated to eat human food by careless campers. I don’t hike in the Western US or Alaska because I’d rather not deal with large predators like Grizzly Bears that I don’t know anything about. Hiking in Scotland (which has no bears) and the eastern US keep me fully occupied.

How do you manage your fear of bears on backpacking trips?

           

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How to Choose a Backpacking Stove and Pot

Trail Designs Caldera Cone Alcohol Stove

A lot of backpackers own multiple pots, stoves, and windscreens, because like other backpacking gear, there’s often no perfect combination of components that will fit all of your needs.

Here are some factors that you should weigh when selecting the components of your own stove system.

• Do you plan to hike outside of the USA?
• Do you need to cook in temperatures under 20 degrees?
• Do you need to melt snow?
• Do you hike at higher elevations?
• Do you just need to boil water or do you like to cook complete meals?
• How long are your trips?
• How often can you resupply in towns?
• How many people are you cooking for?
• How windy is it where you’re going?
• Does a sooty pot bother you?
• Are you trying to shave every extra gram of weight out of your backpack?
• Are you trying to assemble a very compact cooking system that take up minimal space?
• How fast do you want your water to boil/cook?
• How much are you willing to spend?
• Do you only want one stove or are you willing to own a few?

Let me take a few example scenarios from my experience and apply these questions to them:

Section Hiking the Appalachian Trail

I typically Section Hike the AT between April and November for 1-2 weeks at a time.

• Nighttime temperatures tend to be between 20 degrees in spring and autumn up to 80 degrees in summer.
• I seldom sleep more than 4,000 feet above sea level.
• For dinner, I mainly cook 1-pot solo meals, made around a soup base, that I add pasta and other ingredients too.
• For breakfast, I like to drink sweetened back tea and eat pound cake or logan bread.
• Weight and bulk are important to me, so I like to use my cook pot as a cup rather than carry a separate one.
• I loathe pot grippers, so my pots always have foldout handles.
• I usually camp in sheltered locations like an AT shelter or under a tarp, so I avoid stoves that produce fireballs.
• I often cook with unfiltered water, so it’s important that I can bring it to a roiling boil to purify it before I cook with it.
• I don’t need to resupply fuel on trips that last 1 week or less. On longer trips, I’ve found it difficult to find isobutane canisters in small towns along the east coast of the USA, although denatured alcohol is very easy to come by.
• I hike on rainy days when the woods are wet.
  

  Soto OD-1R Isobutane Canister Stove

Section Hiking: Stove & Pot Selection

On Section Hikes lasting a week or less, I almost always bring a SOTO OD-1R Microregulator isobutane canister stove with a small fuel canister for short trips and a large 220-240 gram canister if I plan to be out all week. My main cook pot on these trips is a much dented 0.9 liter Evernew Titanium pasta pot with a colander lid but I sometimes also use an Olicamp aluminum pot with built in heat exchanger coils that reduces the amount of fuel needed by about 40%.

The nice thing about my canister stove/post system  is that it is very packable. The canister and stove slip into the pot and I use rubber bands to keep the lid on.  It’s worth noting that my system is almost identical to a Jetboil Flash Personal Cooking System setup, except that I can mix and match it with other stove components from other manufacturers. I prefer the latter for flexibility since I hike in a very wide range of conditions, but if you only do 3 season hikes that are a week or less in duration, the JetBoil’s fully integrated stove-pot-heat-exchanger-windscreen is a very attractive option.

For longer section hiking trips that last more than 1 week, I bring an alcohol stove that burns denatured alcohol and the same cook pot. Denatured alcohol is very easy to resupply along the Appalachian Trail, even in small stores, while canister-based fuel is not. You can also find it in any hardware store, paint store, or Walmart.

The only downside with alcohol is when the weather gets colder because it takes more fuel to prime your stove. To prime an alcohol (or liquid fuel stove) you need to set fire to the stove for a few minutes, so it will be warm enough to vaporize the fuel. This just requires a little extra patience and room, to avoid setting your shelter on fire.

Unfortunately, alcohol stoves are very sensitive to wind and a windscreen is really required to use them. The best alcohol stove/windscreen system I’ve used so far is the Trail Designs Caldera Cone, which burns very efficiently. Trails Designs sells a wide variety of models including ones that stow completely in your cook pot like the Sidewinder or that can burn alcohol, esbit (solid fuel), and even wood, all using the same stove / windscreen setup. The latter can be a very attractive option for long distance hiking, since it’s legal to send Esbit tablets via the US Mail for mail drops.

Winter Backpacking in New Hampshire

I typically hike in winter conditions from December – March, mainly in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

• Nighttime temperatures range from -20 degrees to 30 degrees a night.
• I seldom sleep above 4,000 feet above sea level.
• For dinner, I mainly cook 1-pot solo meals, made around a soup base, that I add pasta and other ingredients too.
• For breakfast, I like to drink sweetened back tea and eat pound cake or logan bread.
• I bring a separate insulated cup to eat and drink out of so I can still melt snow while I’m eating.
• I loathe pot grippers, so my pots always have foldout handles.
• I always cook outside of my shelter, usually in a kitchen area that we dig out of the snow. Even then a wind screen is absolutely necessary.
• I melt 6-7 liters of water from snow per day. Snowmelt does not have to be purified, but I like to boil it anyway so that it doesn’t freeze solid when stored overnight in an insulated container.
• I never go on trips that last more than 3 days/2 nights.

Winter Backpacking: Stove & Pot Selection

For Winter Backpacking, I always bring a liquid fuel stove that burns super-refined white gas. Liquid fuel will burn in temperatures under 20 degrees and burns hot enough to melt snow. The effective limit of an isobutane canister is about  15 degrees (although I know people who claim to use them at even colder temperatures, however they won’t share the secret because they want to patent it.) Alcohol and Esbit stoves don’t cut it for winter backpacking because they don’t generate enough heat, and wood is sub-optimal because it’s hard to collect enough of it that is dry and not buried.

I use a MSR Whisperlite because it’s field repairable and has a built-in pot stand. For a pot, I am using an Evernew 1.3 liter Titanium pot with fold out handles. That’s proven a bit small and I will probably upgrade to a 2 liter pot within the next year if I can find one with built-in heat exchanger coils to improve fuel efficiency.

Bulk-wise, liquid fuel stoves tend to have a larger footprint than other fuel/stove types. While my Whisperlite stove, pump, and windscreen fit into my pot, I also need to carry a lot of fuel in a separate 22 or 30 ounce bottle. On the flip side, I never backpack alone in winter so it’s easy to share a stove between several people, as long as they all carry the same brand of fuel bottle.

What do you think are the most important reasons to pick one stove or pot over another?

Written 2012. Updated 2015.

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How to Fit a Backpack

If you routinely experience back pain, shoulder pain, or hip pain when you carry a backpack, there’s a good chance that your backpack doesn’t fit you or that you’re not wearing it properly. This is surprisingly common among backpackers, and one of the main reasons why people don’t go hiking more often.

The Biggest Mistakes that People Make

The number #1 reason why backpacks don’t fit is because people buy packs with the wrong torso size. Before you buy a pack, measure your torso (click for directions). Backpacks with adjustable torso lengths can ameliorate this problem, but they are heavier.

The number #2 reason why backpacks don’t fit is because the hip belt is too big or too small. Many manufacturers only make hipbelts in one size for their backpacks, and that size might not fit you. Come to terms with this and find a backpack that fits your waist, as it is today. Some manufacturers also offer replaceable hipbelts that can be switched out on backpacks, ensuring a perfect fit.

Don’t be tempted to buy a pack because it’s on sale, unless it fits your torso and hip size. Doing that is a mistake and you’ll suffer needlessly for it.

Here are a few things to check to make sure your pack is properly fitted:

Hip Belt

1. Does the hip belt cover your hip bones (illiac crest) or has it slid below them?
2. If you can’t tighten your hip belt enough and it keeps falling below your hips, it may be too long.
3. If your hip belt rests on your lower back and not the sides of your hips, it may be too short.
4. Is your hip belt snug, but not so tight that it causes back pain?
5. If you loosen your shoulder straps completely, can you feel the pack resting on your hips?
6. Drop your arms so they hang along your sides. If your hip belts pocket are behind your arms, your hip belt is probably too short.

Torso Length

1. Do you know the length of your torso and does it match the torso size of your backpack?
2. If there is space between the tops of your shoulders and your shoulder straps, your pack’s torso length is too long. If your pack is adjustable, make the torso length shorter. Otherwise, return your backpack and get one with a shorter torso length.
3. If you are carrying all of the weight of your pack on your shoulders, your torso length is too short. If your pack is adjustable, make the torso length longer, so most of the weight rests on your hip belt. Otherwise, return your backpack and get one with a longer torso length.

Shoulder Straps

1. If the front of your shoulders get very sore when your backpack, make sure that most of the weight is on your hips and not your shoulders. If the cause of the pain is because your pack is too heavy, get a new pack with wider or more padded shoulder straps, or lighten your load.
2. If the shoulder straps on your pack rub against your neck, loosen the sternum strap. If this doesn’t work, your pack may have a harness that is too narrow for you and you should exchange it.

Sternum Strap

1. If you can feel your sternum strap on your neck, try lowering it. It is too high. If that still doesn’t work, try getting a pack with a larger torso size.
2. If tightening the sternum strap doesn’t keep the shoulder pads on your shoulders, you probably need a backpack with a narrower shoulder harness.

Load Lifters

If your backpack doesn’t come with load lifters, don’t panic. They are often provided on higher volume packs where you need to carry heavy loads, but not on smaller volume or ultralight backpacks.

1. If your backpack has load lifters and the back of your head hits the top of your pack, try loosening the load lifters.
2. If there is a gap between the tops of your shoulders and your load lifters, loosen them.
3. If you can feel your pack pulling you backwards, tighten them. This will narrow the gap between your back and the pack and tilt the pack forward, so more of the load is carried by your hips. Also make sure that the heaviest items in your pack, such as water, are located as close to your back or sides as possible and not in the back of your pack.

Try on Lots of Backpacks

Buying a backpack should never be an impulse decision. Try on lots of different packs and test them fully loaded on a long day hike before you commit to keep them. Come to grips with the fact that some packs will never fit you because you are too tall, too short, too round, too skinny, or you have no hips. Backpacks are just like business suits (men’s and women’s): some fit and some don’t.

Manufacturer and retailer return policies are also flexible enough these days, that you can try lots of backpacks before committing to one, guilt free. Backpack makers want you to enjoy your backpack and tell your friends how much you love it. Buying a backpack is one of the most important decisions you can make if you like hiking, so take your time in making a decision.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I’ll try to answer them.

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Chafing and How to Prevent It

Don’t Tuck your Shirt into Your Pants in Hot Weather

There’s nothing worse than chafing on a hike – chafing between your thighs or butt cheeks. It is absolute agony when you can’t stop because your schedule or a limited supply of food requires that you keep hiking.

Here are a few tips to prevent chafing or worst case, how to treat it, while you are hiking or backpacking.

Hiking Underwear

The most important way to prevent thigh chafing is to wear synthetic underwear that will not absorb moisture. This means NO COTTON underwear. Cotton absorbs your sweat when you hike and sticks to your skin. The seams of cotton underwear will then scrunch up between your thighs and rub your skin raw.

You should also avoid wearing underwear made out of modal, rayon, viscose, tencel, lyocell and bamboo. All of these materials are made out of wood fibers and behave very similarly to cotton when they get damp or wet. I don’t wear wool baselayers because they absorb too much sweat and are slow to dry, but YMMV.

I recommend that your hiking underwear have at least a 6″ long leg to protect the top of your thighs from friction. In cooler weather, wearing a 9″ long leg will also keep you warmer. I prefer Under Armour Heatgear Mesh Boxer Jocks in hot weather and have never had any chafing while wearing them.

Pre-Treat Your Skin

Many hikers pre-treat their skin with an anti-friction lubricant like Body Glide which is a mixture of zinc oxide and antiperspirant. If you take this route you need to apply Body Glide before your skin is rubbed raw or else it will sting like hell when you apply it.

I prefer using generic zinc oxide because it is far less expensive and can be used for prevention as well as a cure. I also use it as sun block on my nose and ears. Zinc oxide is the white cream your mum used to put on your bum when you had diaper rash. It immediately soothes and protects raw areas and lubricates them. I carry a tube with me on every hike I take, in the same bag as my TP. You can also apply it before you go to sleep to help promote healing at night. It’s amazing!

Don’t Tuck in your Shirt

If you’re wearing a backpack in summer, you are going to be sweating. That sweat is going to drip down your back and soak your underwear if you tuck your hiking shirt into your pants. So don’t tuck your shirt into your hiking pants. This works very well. It also explains why I always look like such a slob in my summer hiking photos. :-)

Washing and Clean Clothes

This is common sense, but you’d be surprised how many people forget to wash or rinse their nether regions if they’re on a backpacking trip.

1. Rinse the salt off your skin at night. 
2. Put on a clean pair of clothes – top and bottom – to sleep in at night – even if it’s hot.
3. Rinse the salt and sweat out of your clothes every day. This is a good way to cool off in the heat too. If you wear thin synthetic clothing, it will dry off very quickly after you put it back on.

How do you prevent chafing?

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Comments

• I section hiked through Shenandoah last year and after 2 nights ... by Pete
• also keep yourself well hydrated as dehydration is a big cause ... by scott
• Blue Steel Sports Anti-Chafe Cream is another excellent ... by John Joyner
• Plus 15 more...

 

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