znomit

: : :

saddlesores

goldangit! where's the 'sarcasm' emoticon???

chasm54

Joe, you're mistaken if you think people would have had no problem had you set up a website to ask for donations to fund your trip. As has been said, this trip is a vacation. It may be much more than that to you, but it is essentially something you are doing for your own benefit. Had you set up a website saying "please pay for my vacation" how do you think people would have reacted? Not well...

Anyway, some of the advice you have been given is good. If the issue is simply replacing the calories you are burning while cycling, oatmeal is a good answer. Not the most exciting, but cheap and easy both to carry and to prepare. Plus an excellent source of energy and not a bad source of protein.

Tansy

Ehn, I don't think the website donation button is asking too much, especially if you're putting up content. If a person puts effort into writing interesting, informative journal entries and articles, asking for donations seems fair for the effort. Actually getting those donations is another matter....

I think having an actual 'donations appreciated' sign on your bike, with your website address and maybe a goofy drawing of a dude on a bike, is fairly reasonable, as well. I did it for a week or so, but I stopped because I couldn't keep my blog updated and to me that was what justified asking for a donation. I did a lot of the TransAm with two friends who maintain a very professional website, with blog entries and excellent videos. I certainly never felt they where out of line asking for donations, both on the website via a chalkboard lashed to the bike.

chasm54

I don't disagree with this. If you're generating a lot of content and people have the option to contribute to allow you to continue doing so, that's fine. And, of course, if it's interesting enough to get a lot of traffic, that too can be remunerative if you're prepared to have advertisements on the site. But I think just asking for cash to fund one's tour is rather different.

indyfabz

If you don't see the difference between what you are asking and, say, my friend asking me to support a program that helps disadvantaged children then you have bigger issues than running out of money.

You are panhandling to finance your vacation, plain and simple.

njkayaker

People asking for donations have more-serious problems or provide a better story. You don't appear to have either.

Your case sounds like bad planning.

??? No, you asked for money. And you were lazy in how you asked. Is there anything at all that would make random strangers sympathetic to your situation?

staehpj1

You might get some helpful suggestions if you asked for cost cutting advice and maybe said what you budget is, what you have been eating, and what it has been costing. Asking for money to fund your trip is not likely to get you any support here or probably much of anywhere else, but there are folks here with a lot of experience who are generous in sharing their knowledge.

alan s 

Agreed. OP, saying you budgeted $10 a week for snacks is not responsive. If you meant to say you budgeted $10 a week for food, well that is just plain ridiculous.

Cyclebum

Joe, I get the impression that you're one of those fortunate people smart enough to deal successfully with just about any situation. You'll probably weigh more when you finish than when you started.

BTW, dumpsters at grocery stores are, I hear, good sources for free calories. I met a homeless fellow traveling on a bicycle who had a
short handle hoe for retreiving dumpster goodies. He did not look undernourished.

A long bicycle tour is an educational experience. This thread alone is a mini-course in human nature. Been interesting to see the responses if a woman had been the op.

Thanks for the fun.

loubikes

OP, I took a sabbatical of sorts from work at one time and while I had planned-out my finances realistically, I did in fact try to live on $11 a week for food. I did really well with this but I was able to use my freezer to buy certain things in bulk and of course I could buy other, large/heavy things in bulk as well, which you cannot do. You will also need more calories.

While you are in a different position, I was making/eating luxury foods like pizza. I think that if you really hunkered-down and thought-out your purchases, you could get by on close to $10. (I pretend no real knowledge of nutrition or the ramifications of what I am suggesting in that regard)

You should embrace the challenge unless you have left a financial mess at home that others are dealing with.

indyfabz

FYI...According to his other thread, 4 of his first 11 dinners have been free thanks unsolicited hospitality. Those meals came with free places to stay. Even with that, he's already claiming he needs money for food? Must have been really poor planning. Or maybe he's not as bad off as he would like us to believe.

And as I noted in response to his other thread (in which he made some quip about what he assumes to be my political views), I find it interesting that he had money for a new camera before the trip.

cycle_maven

Go away, Joe.

robbyrocks12345

Big Lew

There are many tour-cycling people out there, and on this site, that would love to ride across or around this Continent, or to tour different countries but don't have the funds or time available, so they downsize their dreams to accommodate their resources (I'm one of them). To address these restrictions I have toured only within my allowed time and budget but have continued from the end of my last tour the next year, or as soon as I was able to find more time and finances. By doing this I have ridden from the top of North America to south of San Fransisco, and as soon as I'm able, will finish my goal of reaching the Mexican border....perhaps this method would be better for you as well.

VT_Speed_TR

Give a begging bike tourist cash - feed them a meal

Teach a bike tourist to dumpster dive - feed them forever!

zoltani

beans and rice my friend, beans and rice.....

skilsaw

If you don't like dumpster diving for green meat, then catch the rats by the dumpsters... They are free, and provide nourishing protein.

DTSCDS

This is an example of a 'discussion' that could only be made possible by Al Gore's Internet and its 'gift' of anonymity.

If this situation were happening real-life-in-real-time--the OP and the more caustic respondents were face-to-face--I seriously doubt the results would be the same.

I doubt the OP would be willing to walk up to people he does not know and tell them he has been spending more money than he planned and then ask for a handout. Without the benefit of internet anonymity it takes on a much more 'panhandling'ish' quality. AND, the people responding, if they were in front of an actual human instead of a faceless screen, would probably not take such a vitriolic tone.

OldZephyr

Well put. However, I don't think that the majority of responding posts have been vitriolic.

znomit

Blog says $50 per week for food.
Unsure if that includes beer or not, but probably at the low end of the comfort zone unless you really love ramen noodles.

staehpj1

Beer isn't a given. Believe it or not many of us do not consider it a necessity. $50 per week is possible, but a tight food budget by most folks standards. It would require being pretty frugal. If you aren't careful you could spend $50 on candy bars, chocolate milk, and sport drinks in a week. On the other hand it would buy a lot of ramen noodles and instant oatmeal.

FWIW, I like ramen noodles as long as you throw in a foil pack of tuna and maybe some peas. If you want to spice it up a bit some hot sauce helps.

Rifleman

I ate a lot of cold runny oatmeal on the Natchez Trace last month.$50 buys a lot of oatmeal.I couldve cooked it but why bother.

Rifleman

P.S....I'll never eat oatmeal again.

Tansy

$50 is very doable if you're cooking simple food and maybe staying with a warmshowers host or in a church that'll let you eat their food once a week(Never stayed in a church where I wasn't also offered food. Most of them have huge pantries and tons of frozen stuff for church events and are happy to let you use some). I made it through Iowa, Mississippi and Kansas on about $15-$25 a week. Then... it was cold in Colorado, and my food intake went way up in a desperate effort to warm myself through constant digestion. Meals are easy to be had for cheap - snacks are much more expensive. Try to eat more bananas - ultimate cheap healthy fill-upper.

When I take off again in a few weeks, I'm definitely going to give dumpster diving another try. Too good of a resource to bypass in laziness.

....ung. Yeah, oatmeal. Can't even look at the stuff. Bananas, bananas, bananas.