Own Your Own Winter Sports Equipment: Shel Horowitz’s Frugal Fun Tip, 1/08
As newlyweds in 1983, my wife and I went to a local sporting goods store with some of our wedding-present money. Among the things we bought: two sets of cross-country skis. Including boots and poles, they cost about $100 each, on sale.
Those skis served us faithfully for the next 23 winters. I did replace my boots after about ten years (for about $50)–but still, owning our own equipment saved us a ton of money. If you figure that we probably averaged about six times a winter using the skis on parkland or other public areas, and maybe two more times per year at a ski center–there are reasons why that still makes sense sometimes–the dollars work out like this.
- Savings on trail fees, $9 per ticket, 6 times a winter, 2 people, 23 years: $2484
- Savings on equipment rental fees, $12 per set, 8 times a year, 2 people, 23 years $4416, less the $250 we invested in equipment, or $4166
- Total savings: $6650
- Cost per time of using our own equipment, not counting trail fees: 68 cents ($250 divided by 368 person-days of skiing)
Wow! Thats frugal fun, all right!
OK, so prices have gone up. Our replacement sets cost a bit over $200, on sale. Still, if we use them even just ten years, it will be well worth it, even buying new. If you buy used, your savings will accumulate even faster. And there are plenty of people who ski into their 70s, so we might get 20 years out of them (I just turned 51).
Downhill skiers would still have to pay trail fees, but the savings on equipment rental are worth looking into.
In fact, this principle is so sound that we just bought snowshoes, which I used for the first time today.
Note: lots more ideas on frugal recreation in my 280-page e-book The Penny-Pinching Hedonist: How to Live Like Royalty with a Peasant’s Pocketbook, available exclusively at http://www.frugalfun.com
Happy New Year to all.
