How much money have you spent in the last 5 years on gear?

gross or net?

:-)

About $1500 is what my current gear retails for, but I spent more than that getting there, some advice, buy right the first time and save money from the start.

I think you need to ask a more specific question like:

How much is your backpack worth at the trail head?

And how much would it suck to have it stolen or lost?

Too much but I'm really happy with my kit now and feel it's 90% of where I want it to be.

Most of the big purchases have been in the past year and I'm well over $1500 since I had to buy some gear for my kids as well.

Wait a minute….is this the warden(my wife) going undercover to get some info???? Hehehee

Can't say. Selling and buying here for quite a while. Some years I come out ahead. Other times I am behind. Now that so much is available off the shelf for UL, I think it would be a lot easier to spend less if you do your homework first.

As Michael brings up, "How much is your backpack worth at the trail head?"
That is a question I have thought about before. Does anyone offer full coverage backpackers insurance?

Far, far, far, far, far too much.

Too much, and largely because I got ahead of myself. Had I been patient, read reviews here and waited for items to come up on Gearswap, I could have saved a lot of money. Instead I ended up buying twice or three times to get what I *really* wanted. I have enough gear to outfit two other people right now.

Too much and more than I will during the next five years.

:)

Enjoy.

I prefer to know I've spent exactly $????? on gear.

The last five years? Oh heck, I’ve soldiered on for decades since 1985 with the same pack, rain gear, sleeping bag and stove.
I’d never buy new gear until the old was flat wore out.
But wear out they finally did and it was time to re-equip myself and my wife, so in the last five years I’ve spent WAY to much coin on gear, plus I got into cycle touring and have been bitten by the “lightweight bug” which did indeed knock 10-15 pounds offa our packs – But at quite a price!

Let’s see if I can total it all up, or at least the high points –

Used bike set up for touring – 600

Panniers – 75

Sleeping bag – 100

Rainshadow 2 – 200

Squall 2 – 250

Timberline 2 – 100

Sierra clip flashlight – 200

Ponchos – 20

Dri Ducks – 40

New pad – 80

Old pad – 40

Frame pack – 40

Jams – 200

Pillows – 40

Ray way stuff – 200

Trangia – 100

Svea 123 – 50

Whisperlight – 80

Umbrellas – 30

Spinn Twinn – 175?

Trekking poles – 70

Ye Gods and Little Fishes!
That’s 2,690 clams!

To help put this in prospective, I’m a guy who doesn’t have running water at home, poops in an outhouse, heats his cottage with only wood, and shoots and butchers all the meat we eat. The car I drive cost me half the amount I spent on backpacking gear in recent years!

We don't talk about that.

It isn't so much that I prefer not to know, it's that I prefer my wife not find out.

I couldn't say. I'm a total newbie – just started camping for the first time in my life when my son joined cub scouts – and backpacking for the first time since he crossed over to Boy Scouts. I've loved it however, and my gearhead tendencies have served me both well, and not so well given a desire to try new things.

So I've pretty much anything I've purchased related to camping/backpacking has been over the past 5 years. I've made "rookie" mistakes aplenty. I've also bought as much as I can used on the gear swap, at REI sales of various sorts, and other discount sites like STP (timing coupons/discounts as much as possible). Realistically I'd say it's around $2k all in between my stuff and my sons stuff. And while we both work to hike light – none of that is bleeding edge stuff – cuben fiber, etc… We both multipurpose as much as possible – his rain gear gets used all year long during the school year for daily commuting and school trips. We both hike in synthetic shirts, underwear etc… that are used for other athletic endeavors. His fleece is worn all during colder months, etc…

At some point I need to do a closet cleaning myself as I've got some things we don't and likely won't use… plus some redundancies. Like many things – sometimes the only way to figure out what works for you is to try different things.

" Ye Gods and Little Fishes!
That’s 2,690 clams! "

so .. only about as much as the cheapie model kayak from FeatherCraft ??

2x yes on the "i should have studied and waited" format.
thank goodness i can burn up disoptimally purchased clothing at work.

Is that hunting/shooting gear? My Y-T-Date total is well over $4,000. for shooting.

Backpacking, not so much.

OK, I did buy a pair of REI Kimtah eVent rain pants for $89. on sale.

And a few pair of ThorLo hiking sox.

Eric,

I have a sneaking suspicion, that you also have purchased a tarptent or two in the last couple of years…..some might call it intuition.