My 21 day makeover

[sterlingarcher]

Me: 29 yrs, male
- Working full time
- Saved occasionally in the past.
- Increased my savings rate for the past 6 months.
- Found this forum recently.
- Now trying to save for ERE.
- Current networth about 400k (local currency. In USD this amounts to about $60.000)
- Need between 3-4 million to retire

[Hankaroundtheworld]

Welcome....What currency? What investment strategy? etc...

[sterlingarcher]

My local currency can be multiplied by 6 to correspond with US dollars.
My pay (net salary after taxes) is about 320k per year (local currency).

Day 1: Finding a place to live

Outtake from the article:

On the first day of the challenge, the idea is, therefore, to seriously consider whether your current living arrangements are optimal for early retirement.

I think there are three things that matter.
- Location relative to your work.
- Location relative to your grocery outlet.
- Cost.

What do I need/want?
I don't need much space, just a place to sleep and an outlet for storing my stuff. In addition to the above mentioned factors I do want the following:
- Proximity to social network.
- Enough space to not feel "trapped". 5x5 meters is enough for that.
- Kitchen facilities, as I enjoy cooking.
- Bedroom separated from the rest of the house, big enough for a two-person bed and closet space for me and my wife's clothes
- Living space for a sofa, dinner-eating, computer/office facilities and TV (I enjoy video/computer games)
- Empty space for working out is a big bonus (typically 3x3 m is more than enough)

Most apartments of around 30+ square metres can fit all this.

What do I have?
I rent a 60 square metres two-bedroomed apartment at market discount price (because "I know the landlord personally").
It costs 8500/month + 1000 in electricity. Market price would be 12k+.
One of the bedrooms are rented out at 4000.
Wife will pay half of everything when she moves in next year.
Net housing cost is therefore (8500+1000-4000)/2 = 2750 per month = 33k per year.

Walking distance to grocery: 1 minute.
Walking distance to downtown facilities (e.g. gym, clothing store, cheaper food shops): 15 minutes.
Walking distance to work: 45 minutes (I bike 5 months/year at 15 minutes, otherwise bus at 25 minutes costing 4k per year).

What are my options:
1. Move to a student dorm or similar costing 3000/month and upwards - no, too expensive
2. Move further out of town with a similar setup as current - no, same cost but worse location, although keeping my eyes open in case some super deal comes flying at me
3. Move home with one of my parents, unknown cost - no, although the location would be OK and the cost would go down it would make me dependent of my parents. I want independence.
4. Move abroad - maybe, living costs will probably go down, but so will salary and I believe the net effect will be negative compared to now.
5. Consider buying - maybe. The monthly cash flow will be weaker but property market has been on the rise since 2009. Downpayments can be considered a transfer between savings accounts, and the interest payments would be around 4k/month with 3% interest. With 7%, it would be 8k-9k/month. The increase in value would have to be worth the cost of interest payments, which is a gamble. When wife gets in a position to buy 50%, it will be considered further.

Conclusion
My setup is pretty good and I won't change anything for now.

I have more than my wants at a lower cost than what they are worth in the market, and at a lower cost than a student would typically pay. That being said, I could probably get closer to my workplace at 3k a month given that wifey pays the other half. It will be considered next year I think. For now, this is good and very cheap.

I am also starting a small scale business on the side of my regular job next year. Renting a large apartment like I am now makes it possible to "rent it out" to my company. This is risky in a small apartment given current tax regulations. In practice, it will mean money out of the company and into my personal account, lowering my housing cost by around 1k/month. In practice, it will mean working some 3 hrs extra every month to cover 1k of my housing.

[sterlingarcher]

Welcome....What currency? What investment strategy? etc...

Thanks
Currency: see my previous post. The US dollar is about 6 times stronger.
Investment strategy: Will be covered on day 21 Basically I am risk averse, yet impulsive by nature. Dividend stocks seems tempting, so does real estate.

[sterlingarcher]

Day 2: Decluttering and managing stuff

Outtake from the blog article:

Your task for the week, should you choose to accept it, is to find one (or several) of your unused(*) possessions and OFFER it on freecycle. See what happens. If you do not have a bicycle, your task is to get one for free.
(...)
The effects of this exercise is:

- Saving other people money.
- Saving yourself money.
- Thinking more deeply about future purchases.
- Needing less storage and fewer bedrooms.
- Having an easier time to move to a new place.

I joined freecycle, but sadly there is no real community for it in my country. However there are groups on facebook and we do have our own craigslist version in my country that even has a give-away section.

My action steps for this exercise have been or will be:
1. Clear the basement storage room for garbage and unused items - done, it now remains with my tenants stuff and a table which I will try to sell.

2. I do have a bike, but I have been looking for new shoes for a while. After searhcing for three weeks I have failed to find a used pair that fits my size and quality requirements. I ended up buying a new pair on offer that I have kept my eyes on for some time now. Its a solid pair of shoes that I intend to keep for atleast 5 years, hopefully 10. They are made in leather, can be used all year and should be fixable if something breaks. I will maintain them well. They cost 700. Partly failed this one.

3. I have started decluttering the apartment:
- Most of my books have been sold, given or gifted away. I remain with cooking books and a few books I wish to re-read. I can recommend "Peter Schiff: How an economy grows and why it crashes". It amuses me and helps me teach other people about basic macro economics.
- I have sold or given away clothes that are rarely used. I remain with a bunch of old shoes and I'm thinking of making some art from them. I appreciate some decoration in the house, especially the walls, and if I can make it myself from useless stuff the better. Maybe I could even sell the art! In the future I intend to get rid of clothes whenever acquiring new (used) ones.
- I have gotten rid of 90% of my CD collection through sales. Amazing. The remaining ones will be given away.
- I have gotten rid of random items, like an icecream maker I got for xmas one year and never used, a decorative clock, unused posters and pictures, and more.
This was a highly motivating exercise and it lifted my moods. The only thing bothering me is the amount of money I have spent on all this.

Problem areas:

1. Kitchen. I don't know what to do with the kitchen. It is filled with items that are rarely used but nice to have. Some stuff is mine, some belongs to the landlord, some belongs to my tenant and I could get rid of the duplicates that belong to me, but then I would have to get most of it back when/if moving later on or if my next tenant doesn't have any kitchen supplies. I'm thinking of atleast getting rid of half the items as a start and try to learn from Jacob when it comes to having a minimalist kitchen. This will be an ongoing exercise.

2. Inherited stuff. My grandparents left me with a knife/sword collection and some silver. I feel bad for getting rid of it (emotional value), but most of it is practically useless and could be sold for money. Right now it just takes up space, but I could use the swords as decoration. They are somewhat heavy and space consuming though, like my (partly fake) ninja sword or african spear. The silver spoons could be used for daily food related activities. The cufflinks are nice to have and financially valuable but rarely used (less than 10 times a year). I do have this weird dream of one day living in a cabin in a remote area where all this stuff will have great practical and/or emotional value to me and I would pass it on to my child if I ever get one. That is future though. I just don't want to do something I will regret years down the line.

3. DVD collection. I intend to keep my TV for now, its a great way to relax for an hour a day watching a movie or playing games. The DVD collection is a nice replacement for not paying for cable TV and I could keep them as trade stock in case I want to borrow movies from friends/neighbours. My wife would be sad to see all those DVDs dissappear. On the other hand, they do take up a whole shelf of space and I am sure I can do fine without them.

4. Camping equipment (tent, sleeping bag, camping kitchen). I rarely go camping. But when I do these things are nice to find. If I didn't have them I would probably not go camping and I believe camping is healthy. They take up some space along with my winter clothes and shoes. Maybe I could keep the sleeping bag and one more (small item) and rely on other people to supply the rest. I never go camping alone, but then again, its something that would be fun to try.

Summary

I'm left with a lot of nice-to-haves that Im afraid I will regret getting rid of. Maybe I should just pack everything in boxes, dump them at my friends house and ask him to keep it for 12 months. If I'm not missing anything I could get rid of it.

However, this was an exercise that felt good and I find myself being aware of my needs/wants. I will not buy stuff without searching for a free version first, and I will not acquire stuff unless its been on my list for a good while. That way I avoid impulse shopping, save more money and this way has benefits for the community/world.

[DutchGirl]

As for valuable stuff that you just never use: consider making pictures of them and then selling them. You'll have the memory (the pictures), without them taking up space and money.

I don't think this has to be true for all the things that you mention, I too have a few things that I keep for sentimental reasons, but it could be the solution for some of them.

[sterlingarcher]

Excellent idea. Thanks. I think I'll do that with the weapons. Except for the ninja sword. I wish to learn sword mastery and become ninja-like.

[JamesR]

That's kind of a neat idea from Dutchgirl, since I was thinking "oh, decorative swords & spears on the wall", but if you take a high quality photo of the swords/spears, then you can make a poster of it, and use the poster as the decoration without continuing owning the swords/spears. The poster could potentially be a lot cooler than the actual stuff if done right.. Hmm, i wonder if there's a business idea in here somewhere. I have a friend that is pretty serious about his totally fashionable collection of posters.

I also have some sort of diamond (?) studded cufflinks that I've only ever worn once (got them as a groomsman gift), no idea if they're worth anything, good reminder to sell them though.

Paying 700 (~$116?) for good quality 5+ years shoes seems totally acceptable. ERE isn't against large one-time purchases if the item lasts a long time and get a lot of use/value out of it.

[sterlingarcher]

Paying 700 (~$116?) for good quality 5+ years shoes seems totally acceptable. ERE isn't against large one-time purchases if the item lasts a long time and get a lot of use/value out of it.

You're right. I just wanted used shoes this once, so I could prove to myself that this ERE thing is very doable! But it was a good purchase nevertheless. Some $116 yes.

Good suggestion on the posters. Part of the idea of keeping the swords (atleast the ninja sword) is to use them in the future though. Not for killing, but for show off and fun. Waking up with no boss to tell you what to do, practising your ninja sword skills must be the perfect start to any day. After a cup of coffee of course.

[sterlingarcher]

Day 3: Grocery shopping

From the blog:

Food limit: Depending on where you live: $50-75/person/month.

Current situation:
I usually have an apple/banana/glass of juice for breakfast at 8am and eat lunch at work 2-3 hours later. Lunch is free so I eat alot! Then I get home at 5pm and have dinner. Between dinner and bedtime I have another apple/banana or eat whatever was left after dinner.

I thought I had a pretty decent setup before I read this blog post. What I usually do is withdraw cash every month, divide it in 4 and then have a weekly budget. But what really made the budget go low was to skip the meat (most of it, not all) and replace it with beans and lentils. Cooking beans from scratch is time consuming so I only do it once every 1 or 2 months. I buy a big bag of beans, soak them for a day, boil them and freeze them in small packets. They usually last for a month if eaten daily. I admit to using a microwave oven to defrost them, but will improve on this and plan ahead henceforth.

I do the same with vegetables. I buy the cheapest ones (carrots, kale, onion, whatever is on offer), slice them and freeze them. This way I can make stir fry with rice or a tasty soup/stew in a matter of 10-15 minutes.

This is one of the random blog posts I read when I first found this site some weeks back, so I already started incorporating some of these tips a while ago and it is going well. Adding what I learned from the blog (buy on sale, skip meat, keep a cheap/basic but healthy diet) to what I already did (plan ahead, having a budget, freeze stuff in portions) has reduced both time and cost for the kitchen activities. I spend 150/week on food now ($20).

Problems:
1. On days of doing heavy workouts I tend to get very hungry, sometimes to the point of eating double sized dinner portions or making two dinners in the same evening. I don't know how to come around this except doing easier workouts. I am fit and don't have to loose weight.

2. I enjoy alcohol and its been a natural thing for me to drink in social settings from time to time, just like "everybody else". I don't drink much, maybe 1-2 sixpacks a month divided on 2-3 days of consuming it, but it is costly (adding 25% on top of my food budget) and quite unnecessary I guess. But enjoyable. I realize it will take a good portion of personal leadership to be a non-drinker, but maybe theres a compromise to be found somewhere. Maybe drinking but never get drunk is a good start.

3. There's a clear connection between alcohol and fast food cravings. Take-away fast food is something that has a 75% chance of happening when/after getting drunk. Unhealthy, expensive, not good. But oh the joy those 10 minutes that meal lasts and the removing effect it has on my hangover headache!

Future steps:
- Find a solution to the alcohol problem, so that the fast food problem also gets solved
- Try different kinds of rice to find my favorite
- Do the same with beans
- Identify the cheaper fruits and learn how to add them into my cooking
- Learn to cook perfect ugali (made only from maize flour and water it is so cheap you will laugh all the way to the grocery store)
- Learn to cook other african dishes, both east- and west african.
- Master indian cooking
- Be smarter when it comes to picking up free food (take home some after visiting mum/dad, be more available to get invited to friends, look for expired foods in the shop)
- Try cooking one huge dinner to last the whole week
- Start eating tuna fish again
I realize all these future steps looks like Im going to expand my grocery shopping in turn increasing the cost, but for me its all about learning how to cook with different (cheap) ingredients off-head. That way I could get rid of my cooking books!

[DutchGirl]

The "eating double dinners because I worked out hard" and the "drink some beer because I enjoy it" seem to be two examples of where you have to decide what you value more: the enjoyment of doing an intensive workout / the enjoyment of drinking beer with friends vs. saving money.

I have never been drunk in my whole 36 years of life and I live in a country where you could drink beer from age 14. And I still consider my life a pretty good one. So I don't think you HAVE to be drunk now and then to have a good life. Still, you have to decide what you want more: the dollars or the beers. Maybe you indeed need to "practice" how to get mildly intoxicated but not drunk, saving you a few bucks on beer and definitely saving you some money on take out meals .

Also, I admire your ability to spend only $20 on food every week. I think we spend much more, even though we don't spend a dime on alcohol... I must admit that I'm not tracking our grocery spending - I just transfer the same amount every month to our shared bank account, and we buy groceries using that bank account. My guy doesn't want to handle money like I do (track every cent of it), so our shared account is not tracked and we're both spending more money on groceries than the minimum required (f.e., bite-sized tomatoes, coffee pads, sugar sticks so I don't overeat on sugar (but I could of course also just measure with a spoon instead)).

[viking]

.

[sterlingarcher]

Day 4: Drop the cell phone plan

From the blog:

Is your cell phone worth it? This is easy to answer. Multiply your monthly bill with 300. Then divide this with your monthly savings rate. This is the number of months, that your cell phone is keeping you from retiring-

Is it worth it?
In my case the math would be: (50 x 300)/11000 = 1,4 months. So my cell phone is delaying my retirement by 42 days. In comparison my transportation costs (taking the bus) is delaying it by 284 days. To me 42 days is an acceptable cost even though I haven't included the cost of the cell phone itself. But I have a feeling you can get them quite cheap if you go for the used ones. Besides I don't need/want smartphones. An old Nokia will do fine.

For now though I have an Iphone supported by my workplace. My private cell phone is rarely used and I pay 50 a month on the subscription. I think this will be the case when I retire too. Cell phones add so much flexibility to my life and cost so little. I also think you can miss out on potential income sources by not having a cell phone, e.g. some people not bothering to contact you to reply on your ad when you're selling dvd's on ebay, because you have no phone number. I'm not on my laptop (email) 24/7 now and I won't be when retiring. I will be outside alot. Being available to friends/family and taking possible emergencies into account, cell phones are a useful asset.

Conclusion:
I refuse to drop the cell phone plan! But I wish to setup my life in a way were cell phone is not really needed, where I can keep one with prepaid bundles in a drawer somewhere for emergency/urgent calls. Theres also a difference between being available 24/7 and being available enough.

[sterlingarcher]

Day 5: Find a free hobby

The initial blog post lead me to a couple of links which I also read. The basic outtake from all the posts are nicely summarized here:

1. Pick a hobby where you can grow as a person. This means that you should get better and better with time passing through the stages of beginner, competent, master, and expert. If improvement stops, drop the hobby.
2. Pick a hobby that can makes you healthier, wealthier or wiser. If the hobby does none of the three. Drop it.
3. Get involved. Be productive. If you create something other people enjoy

My current hobbies:
1. Computer games. They are free or very cheap, I rarely buy new ones. For the past few years they have been my main relaxation activity instead of watching TV. Now I'm at a point where the only reason I have a TV is to be able to play Skyrim on PS3 or my old Super Nintendo. So in a way they do have a positive contribution to my life.
But: Gaming can be addictive, and it doesnt create fitness nor wealth. Some of the games have made me wiser though and some of them are social. I am the type of person who needs some sort of unproductive escape to get physical and mental surplus for productive hours. Maybe it has to do with the fact I go to work 10 hours a day. That being said, I'm sure there are hobbies that feel unproductive but in reality aren't. I think painting is a good example of this.

2. Running. I also do occasional boxing or strength exercise just using my body or whatever I have in the house. This fits the health criteria well and it can be social too.

I just realized I only have those two things I can call hobbies. A typical day in my life is this: Sleep 00-08, work 09-18, workout/dinner 18-20, relax 20-24. Sometimes I have errands, household stuff or social stuff happening in between. Its hard for me to find energy for another hobby, but I think I should try.

Possible future hobbies:

In my case I think I would benefit from trying out hobbies that would make me more competent at frugal living, e.g. making or doing something I would otherwise pay for. But it has to be interesting or fun, otherwise I will obviously lose interest or get bored. One challenge here is that I never had a great interest in physics, chemistry, electronics or mechanics. I was just never exposed to it. So to me there is a certain barrier to overcome if I want to get into e.g. bike repair.

This leads me to my second realization: I have very few practical skills to show for.

Below are possible hobbies I could get into that fills two criteria that I've put:
- Make me competent at my future life
- Be rewarding, either financially or as a skill/product I could barter or offer to other people

1. Brewing beer. There is a small startup cost to it, but it can definetely make some money or in my case replace expenses for alcohol. I imagine the same principle goes for growing weed, growing vegetables or keeping animals for their produce but in the case of beer brewing it can be done indoor and doesn't require much space on a hobby/tryout basis.

2. Painting, drawing, arts. I was good at this as a youngster and I am curious to know if I can regain my talent. There are cheap ways of doing this hobby, even free ways. Making art out of old items and litter is also something that intrigues me and fits with the ERE way of thinking and in this sense it would make me more competent at my future life.

3. Volunteering. Animal shelters comes to mind. There are numerous youth groups and activities in the city intended to socialize people. I'm sure I could find one that would be fun, social and meaningful. It doesn't directly fit the criterias but it could with time.

The third criteria is:
- Must be fun or interesting enough to keep me motivated to continue with the hobby and theres only one way to find out!

[JamesR]

You could try going by the local library and look through the books for hobby ideas. There might be some books that will jump out as interesting/fun/useful and you could read/try them out.

[sterlingarcher]

Day 6: Clothes

I found out that I don't have to buy clothes in atleast a couple years. I took the opportunity to clear my closets last week for clothes that haven't been used in ages and started donating/selling them. Most of it is gone now. It just felt good to create some space in the apartment. There are still more clothes than needed that I actually have been using for the past 2 months and will keep as a "stock" for clothes.

My challenge here is skills required to maintain my clothes. I have two pairs of leather shoes for winter/summer which I simply impregnate. Apart from that I need to learn how to do proper patchwork and sewing, maybe learn how to fix shoes. With time I'm planning to upgrade parts of my wardrobe to classic gear which will require some maintenance to make it durable. In regards to laundry I typically wear the same clothes for a full week and then wash them, except underwear.

There are quite a few needs to be covered when it comes to clothes. From the top of my head this is what I can think of for now:
- Work clothes. Casual office wear, although I tend to get on the "lower scale" here occasionally showing up in a simple Tshirt if its hot.
- Workout clothes
- Casual stuff for outings, parties
- Official clothes for Xmas, weddings etc.
- Indoor clothes

Some of the above can somehow be combined, e.g. a Tshirt for work can also be a Tshirt for indoor, workout or a party. I'm trying to come up with a wardrobe that leans more to the minimalistic side of me:

- atleast 8-10 boxers/pair of socks (gets me through a full week of work/workout without needing to wash midweek)
- about in total 10-12 mix of Tshirts, sweaters & shirts (need to cover work, daily use/summer wear, and workouts)
- 2 pairs of jeans
- 1 full suit incl. tie and shoes

In addition comes:
- Seasonal wear (winter)
- Hiking/camping wear & gear
- Shoes

Have I forgotten anything?

[sterlingarcher]

I've had a few days break from ERE forums because of family visits. That hasn't stopped me thinking about it and I may also add that the visits have been financially succesful in that I had several free meals.

Considering my holiday from ERE, I will amuse you with a 3-days-in-one special today.

Day 7: Going car free

This one is simple. Despite having a driver's licence I never owned a car.

I do spend money on transport though. During the winter I take the bus to work. It takes about 25 minutes each way and costs 4100 in total for those months. The alternative would be to walk (50 minutes each way), bike (25 minutes with a short cut) or run (30 minutes). Each alternative has a downside. Walking takes almost 2 hrs daily, biking is quite risky during winter (and cold/uncomfortable) and running requires me to shower upon arriving work, which adds a cluster of small problems in my world like having to bring a whole set of clothes to and from work every day.

Being that the bus is cheap (less than 1% of my income) and there is a clear downside with each of the other options, I find the current solution acceptable. I'm car free but I do take the bus.

Day 8: Get engaged!

This almost feels like day 5 - Find a free hobby. But this one is more of a question on how you identify yourself. Like I wrote earlier, I spend most of my evenings after work relaxing with computer games, educating myself online and doing physical exercise. My problem with getting engaged is that these activities are enough for me, I simply don't feel like doing more. But if I wasn't working I would definetely get engaged, because I would have the energy for it. So for now I will mainly stick to identifying myself as an office worker because that is my main activity in life. But I will experiment with different hobbies that makes me more competent at living my future life. For example, tonight I plan to read up on how to grow herbs indoor and learn more about herbs in cooking.

Day 9: Budgeting

Ah, one of my favorite activities. Making budgets. The point of the blog post wasn't a "how-to" on making budgets though. It was rather an introduction to the line of thought where a monthly expense of 100 represents savings worth 30 000. And conversely, having 30 000 in your account simply means getting 100 every month.

This is one of the most insightful points I have taken from ERE as a whole. I have learned to think like this and I have noticed very few others do. Atleast in my circles.

Another point to be taken from Day 9 is that each and every expense is like a problem to be solved. Me paying 400/month on a gym membership is simply an expression for my desire to do physical exercise. This problem could be solved for free by doing pushups and running rounds around my block. This is where I have more to learn. I need to look at each and every possession I have, expense I commit to, action I perform and money I spend to see where I can get more efficient and solve problems without exerting money from my pocket. Doing so will increase the speed at which I am travelling towards complete freedom and wealth.

[sterlingarcher]

Day 10: Calculating net worth

I think i listed my networth in the first post. I don't mind going into detail about my finances as they are not much to brag about anyway:) So here goes:

Savings/brokerage accounts: 107.000
Real estate (rented out): 1.300.000

Real estate debt: -887.000
Student loan: -107.000

Net worth: 400.000

What I like about my setup is that the real estate is expected to increase in value over time, as it is located in an attractive area. At the same time the rental income is automatically paying down the loan. So even with a 0% savings rate my net worth would still rise.

Calculate your annual expenses. Multiply this by 25. Is it lower than your net worth?

My expected annual expenses are different this year than they will be next year, and the year after that. Maybe the smartest would be to use an estimated annual expenses if (when) retired? If so, the number is 130.000.

130.000 x 25 = 3.250.000.

Still a long way to go. But I am reducing expenses to speed things up. In 2015 I expect to save about 170.000 and use parts of it to clear the student loan completely. In 2016-2017-2018 I expect to save about 220.000 each year + interest and clear the other loan and be debt free. At that point the real estate will yield some 60.000 a year. Everything is sorted in my excel sheet and I just need to execute.

[sterlingarcher]

Day 11: Connecting your stuff with your neighbors

Great initiative. And I just had an epiphany. In the past few weeks I have been asking friends, family and others if there is anything they might need, casually mentioning things I've intended to sell or give away. No one needs anything. No one. It just struck me that everyone I know have everything they need, yet they still buy each other stuff for birthdays and xmas. It would be interesting to see if I could get by on just borrowing everything I want/need from these people. Reading about Jacob he has taken the minimalist approach to the extreme. He has one dinner plate for himself. I have 10. But maybe I could get by on 3 or 5, and in case of many guests I could simply borrow more.
Same goes for other stuff I occasionally use, like my Playstation, DVD's, camping gear, tools etc.

I'm not sure if I'm ready to approach all my neighbours and work mates with this yet. My neighbours are strangers to me so I could just as well ask random people on the street. At my work place I would probably be perceived as a weirdo with this initiative, and I'd rather just pretend to be "one of them" and just suck it up for a few more years.

In other words, I'm not done decluttering just yet.

[George the original one]

In case it hasn't been said, thanks for posting your 21-day makeover! It's always interesting (dare I say entertaining?) to see how different people approach it.

***
I consider camping gear part of the emergency prep, so would rather not be borrowing it. For instance, we usually use the camp stove & cookware every winter during a power outage. Sleeping bags next, occasionally used for spare warmth, and then tent is least useful.