Michael: U.C.M.B.

Washing the dishes
Twice a day everyday
Is therapeutic.

Monday, July 27,2015

I have spent an unhealthy amount of time and energy preparing for our trip to the states on-line looking for items I want to buy there. To try and curb my appetite and save my pocket book, I’ve created a little acrostic like device that I hope will at least give me pause before clicking the submit button.

It goes like this:

U - Use what you have.
C - Change what you can.
M - Make what you need.
B - Buy the best.

Here’s an example of how this should play out in my thought process and possibly inhibit an unnecessary purchase. I’ve been looking at hydration systems for trail racing and running. U - I already have a variety of packs. I should use one of them. C - I can easily modify my favorite vest pack to trim it down and make it more race ready. M - This doesn’t apply to packs, but does apply to what I often carry in them; energy gels, which I do now concoct myself. B - I have. For a single bottle pack, I can’t think of a better one than my Hydraquiver, and for a bladder pack, either the small capacity Hydrapak or medium Osprey work great.

Will this stop me from purchasing a new pack? For the foreseeable future, yes. But equipment wears out, bodies change, significant improvements happen. However, I don’t anticipate any of these occurring for a while.

U.C.M.B. It’s saving me in this case. I need to apply it more consistently and hopefully it’ll allow me to focus using my resources where there’ll be more wisely applied.