Getting Wool on the Cheap

I realized that I have done two article this week on money related issues. Since I’m a very frugal guy I decided to keep this trend going a bit longer. Today I’m going to show you how you can get prepared for enjoying the winter months outside without freezing and on a budget.I’m going to focus on wool but will throw in a few others to round out the list. So lets get into the basics of saving money while keeping warm and protected during the cold and wet months.

Cold and wet

Last winter I got into more cold weather and hiking and camping.  I went with the guys from Skills and Gear on a nasty rainy hike one day in my all cotton clothes. The temps were probably in the 40’s or so. My clothes got pretty wet from the constant drizzle of rain. I had too many layers on at first and got sweaty, making the clothes now soaked through inside and out. Once properly sopping wet I got really cold. For the rest of the hike I alternated between being cold then getting hot and sweating more. Maybe I’m a glutton for pain but I had a blast. I decided that it would have been many times better though if I had been wearing the right clothes. I started doing some research to find what wold work best for me.

Fork in the Road

My research took me into two very different directions. One direction is wool the other man-made material such as nylon, gortex and primaloft. With wool I had a long tradition of proven performance.  Wool is a wicking material that allows the moisture to pass through. This ability to get the moisture away from your body is essential for winter survivability. Wool retains 80% of it’s insulating value when wet. Wool is heavy though and does not compress well. Wool garments and blankets can cost a lot of money. Most of the man-made fabrics are hydrophobic, meaning they do not absorb moisture. Each of the different materials has unique properties. I found a great article explaining all the properties here. These fabrics have a lot going on for them. They are all much lighter than wool. Many of them can pack down to almost nothing. Most can also outperform wool in insulation value. To my knowledge though none of them are fire/ flame resistant like wool. A stray spark from the fire will melt holes in your gear. All the man-made fabrics are very expensive and hard to find used. Wool however is very possible to find in the second hand markets.

And the winner is: Wool

After all my research was done I decided that wool was the clear winner. I liked the long history of wool. It has been used to keep people warm for a very long time. The art of wool spinning was developed around 4,000 B.C. I would not have to worry about it melting from being too close to a fire. The main factor though came down to price. If you check the price of new wool and compare it with the man-made’s there’s not a big difference. Price checking a smart wool sweeter I came up with a $120 price. Gor-Tex comes in at $179 at the cheapest. Both way too pricey for me. I hit the streets looking in every local thrift store and Goodwill. I found more wool than I could believe at prices a fraction of new.

Second Hand Savings

Over the course of a few weeks of hitting up all the second hand stores around me I got the majority of my winter gear. I found all kinda of 100% wool garments. Wool sweaters, mostly hideous, were abundant. I picked up a sweater or two that looked good. Both were plain green. I aimed for earthy colors without designs. Although it would keep you alive I don’t want to be hiking in the snow wearing a tacky Christmas sweater. Your millage may vary. I found one really nice button down shirt made from wool. All in all I spent maybe $25 bucks on wool shirts and sweaters and got several high quality wool garments.

I had a harder time finding pants. After weeks and months of checking the thrift stores. I came up with one pair of nylon snow pants. Also in the nylon category I got a few nylon and underarmour type shirts  and long johns for base layers. This probably added another $30 to my total. At this point I’m still missing an outer layer for my legs. I tried looking in the Army Surplus stores for old WW1 wool pants but could not find any my size. Now that I’m a few sizes smaller I may check back again. I did pick up a wool watch cap at the Surplus store for a few bucks.  This is how I got most of my winter gear.

REI Scratch and Dent Sales

I had shopped at REI a while before becoming a member. I thought the benefits sounded good I just kept putting it off. Last year they were having one of their huge scratch and dent sales, where they sale off returned and damaged merchandise. John Willis from SOE said he was going to go there and hit the sale up. I figured since I had been meaning to check out a sale and I had the spare cash I would go check it out. If you have on in your area you should too. The membership is only $20 for life. At that first sale I picked up a pair of nylon winter pants and a soft shell jacket. It was probably under $30 for both items. Another big benefit though is the no questions asked return policy for members. Call me a dick but now I only buy my wool socks from REI now with the intention of returning them when they get holes in them. That was my intention however the REI brand wool socks are so well built after a year they are still in perfect shape.

Fully Clothed

In the end I got a full wardrobe of winter clothes for about the price of one new garment. My solution on the lack of winter pants has been to wear a nylon or polypro underlayer beneath cotton cargo pants. Now I would probably hike with my 5.11 taclites. However the nylon base layer worked just fine. I think this proves that you can get out there and enjoy the outdoors in nasty weather without spending a fortune. Now you have no excuses get out there and hit the thrift stores and enjoy nature in the cold.

What do you wear in the winter time? Wool, Nylon, Gor-Tex or something else? Why and what did it cost you?

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