HOW MUCH WE SPENT ON THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL 

Hey honey because hiking the freaking Appalachian trail with 6 children including a toddler sounds a little easy let's throw a marathon in....

Well dang! $25,040.00 divided by eight people comes out to $3,130.00 per person. That's not so bad, actually.

Filia can now say that she’s the youngest female to finish the Appalachian trail :,) what an honour

$25,000 for an unforgettable long experience with a large family... after watching the 1 hour documentary, *definitely worth it.*

Awesome video! Thanks for sharing the info. I’m 40 yrs old and have been a bricklayer since I’m 17. I decided 2 yrs ago I was going to bust my a*** doing extra jobs for this journey! I leave March 14 2019! The excitement for this journey was worth every hr spent working. Thanks again Crawford’s! Love you guys!

I wouldn't mind watching an ad to help a great family!

I think that you spent your time far better than most Americans. When you left the trail, you knew your kids far better than the average person could say that they knew their kids after 6 months and that's worth more than anything. I would say you were extremely blessed. In my opinion... had you spent $1000 a day at Disney or some other vacation for 6 months you wouldn't have gotten near the value in the long run. Going to miss these trail updates. Have you thought about the PCT? LOL

If your kids can walk 2200 miles from Ga to Ma they can do anything in life. There is nonthing that can hold them back. Your kids will be stronger mentally and physically than other kids who just sit in their bedrooms on their phones. There is nonthing stopping them from achieving their dreams. I think you did an awesome job raising them and teaching them life skills.

So happy Altra came through for everyone and donated shoes.

I really think it's important for the average person to consider lost income in the expense of a 5-6 month trip. I applaud those that are able to maintain an income stream at the same time as a trip like this. Wish I could, that's for sure.

I appreciate your stance on not putting ads on your videos. Not because I mind sitting through ads, but because I like knowing what I'm watching is a wholly authentic creation. Thank you for that.

I really appreciate that you share financial vlogs with us. I don’t understand why it is such a taboo subject. If people had lines of communication about money, there may be a lot less debt and worry in the world. Money shouldn’t control us but often we don’t know how to make that happen. Now onto this vlog specifically. I believe you received so much more than you spent from your journey. What your family experienced is priceless. You all have been changed in many different ways. I’m moved to tears at the growth I was able to observe, let alone the effects this trip will have on everyone’s futures. (I’m sure there’s a ton that we don’t know because it’s so personal and ongoing.) You did a great job sharing what you spent and received, so that someone considering this journey would have an idea on how to plan for it. I believe I would be amazed and inspired by a book that shared things like your all’s journaling, trail magic, people you met, what got you through the lows, and how you each feel you’ve grown through your journey. Oh, and what does life look like now? I’m not sure how you could share all of that in vlogs. I believe people would purchase your book. It would be more than a good read. It could bring about change for individuals and families. Okay, I’m done rambling. One question. Is it wrong to stalk RU-vid for new vlogs from you? If it is, I need help!😂

What you accomplished as a family is priceless. Thank you for sharing your story🌻🌻

The funny part is... You would have spent that much or more just staying at home... So, in reality, it's not really a big number at all. Glad you could accomplish so many life goals at the same time! Very awesome and encouraging!

You two are awesome, at the start of the documentary I really was wondering how the children would stand in it (I'm 22 myself), but they were awesome and very positive on the whole experience. I hope you had an amazing experience and will continue to be an amazing family

For 13K, 23 weeks of vacation is a bargain. Imagine a 8 day rafting trip on the Colorado River for 2.8k per person.

That was very interesting. I had mentally estimated your expenses at $30,000. It's awesome you had the income from renting out your house and the generosity of viewers to offset some of your cost. Great job!

Thanks for this, and all your videos! After stumbling across one of your videos some time ago, my wife and I decided we’re going to take our two young children backpacking for the first time also! It’s no AT, but a 1,200 mile trek should be interesting nonetheless. Keep up the good work, and keep fighting for your togetherness!!!

I would love to hear from the kids now, a year from now and 5 years from now etc., at the different stages of their lives as to just how much the trip meant to them. The ages of the kids and the different ways it resonated with them would be something worth knowing. Thanks, what a trip!

WOW❗️. That’s awesome savings! Gotta love the trail angels 😊. Totally worth the money spent. I enjoyed your adventure too and all I did was sit at home and watch you tube 😂. The whole trip was PRICELESS 👏🏻👍🏻❤️

I like the new intro...but I suggest that you revise it one more time to "..it was hard for 14 states 161 miles and 1 marathon later we finished it...". BTW - you all ROCK :)

25,000 for a life time experience and not to mention thats like near what you said... 6 months trip... so sounds like a fairly reasonable price to have spent for the whole family.

Love love love this breakdown! I'm currently working two full time jobs back to back 6 days a week, changing a lot of my regular spending habits to afford my AT trip next year :)

Love your transparency! I’d also love to hear more about not having health insurance. Do you just pay the tax penalty? No judgement- I think it sounds smart when you can budget for paying out of pocket instead if needed- just interested in hearing more about that.

Wow. What an awesome insight. A whole family on the trail? Biggest respect!

Ben what would be more interesting is all the magic you received. Free berthing, meals, rides, hiking shoes, soda's, candy, etc. Oh and Ben, stop underestimating yourself, dude, you are such a math head, it's ridiculous. I love your algorithms and number crunching. Coffee Time!!!

Your children are so fortunate. Bless your hearts for giving them such wonderful gift. ❤️

GREAT share! I'm bringing 6k but fully intend to spend less than 4k! Love the cheers at the end!

Had to stop the video @8:16. Hahahahaha! Love your sense of humor. "I'm sure you homeschooling mom's out there want to know how much to budget for cigars and how much trail magic can we count on." Yes!!! Haha!

I like this. Thanks for combing back through those bills & sharing so openly.

Lol, I absolutely love you guys giving your kids allowances while hiking the AT! 😘

Sounds like a pretty good deal with a family of your size. Great experience to share with memories for life.

Just subscribed.... the family is amazing and seem very comfortable together. Just saw the hike and was so impressed.

Kudos to the no debt! It is a position that is definitely worth the struggle it took getting there. As always - Thanks for sharing the financial side too.

Wow I’m so happy to find your channel! Your family is amazing! Great job patents! You two are inspirational!

You're very lucky none of you have chronic health problems. If my family had no insurance we would be broke due to medical costs. I cant imagine being without insurance as a parent. That seems so irresponsible!

can i mve my family to your block ?? we are thinking of doing JMT ... as a biginner test thru hike. :)

im shocked you guys don't have health insurance let alone on the trail... it would have tripled your expenses if something happened...

Great choice opt out for ad revenue! Thank youuu! And you should do another calculation on what it cost for 5 months @ home

No this was an investment IN your family. But seriously Ben we all know you are into numbers and “frugal”

I am going thru a hard time in my personal life, facing loss, and needed to distract my mind and look forward, stumbked across your AT video and was impressed and inspired. I am sorry you had negative feedback, and hope it was far outweighed by positive and support. Your family seems lovely, kids well balanced, thoughtful, intelligent and life embracing. Good luck to you.

What’s next for the fam pct ? Or maybe cycling? You guys killed it thanks for carrying me on ur back the whole way too!

Thanks for the information. I was thinking you all would have spent at least $40,000..... great job with your finances

Posting patron-only videos isn’t what I’d call “not about the money” but okay. If you can’t afford the lifestyle on your own, maybe one of you should take a shower and get a real job. If you ever have an emergency medical expense, you’d come to your viewers asking for money for it I bet, and it’s not fair to expect other people to support you all the time 🤷🏻‍♀️you chose to have a big family in a world that’s already overpopulated and running out of resources. Don’t make it a burden to the rest of us.

swear i have watched 30 videos and still dont know what they did to make there original money .. what was his career :( did i miss it ?

This breakdown was really simple and easy to follow thank you for that! We have been planning our hike for two years now. We wanted to work on being debt free, and also have the best and lightest equipment which is always expensive. As of yesterday we are 100% with our gear and now we have just over a year to save our trail money. We are only two people so you guys doing it with 8 is just amazing. I hope you guys keep going on adventures and allow us all to come along via video of course lol.

I would LOVE to help out by watching ads. 30 seconds of my life to provide you guys with financial abundance? Totally worth it

Love this! Been waiting for this run down! Also loved the ‘homeschool moms/cigars’ comment. 😂😂😂 Glad to know I need to bring my own pipe tobacco. 😏 (Ozark hillbilly here) But really thank you for this. We are planning a smaller through hike for next summer. And will decide after that our thoughts on the AT. We have been obsessively checking for new videos since you finished. 😂

These guys are genius! Since this video/ trip of which they speak is legally considered "business", almost all these expenses, if not ALL are tax write offs! Just wish I thought of it first! Daaamn. Always wanted to hike Appalachian trail! 👣 👣 👣💓 Nice one fam! Very smart, savy and fun. Not to mention their converting their home to an air b n b while they were hiking so it may seem as if they spent alot but...in the long run not only was this a free trip but they made money👋👋👋

All great points guys.... my favorite comments, the NO DEBT part.. lol I too, am a huge believer in the no debt lifestyle, and as of this moment in time, have only 2 recurring bills every month(vehicle insurance, and Cell phone bills). (Now..... to get the monthly income to go up a lot more... :-) )

What your family did was Priceless Can’t put a price tag on the memories created and impact you all made ❤️ When I suddenly became disabled (was RN and worked and took care of patients day it happened) my daughter and I decided to simplify our lives It’s all about priorities and I spent their childhood teaching them material items come and go Memories are a lifetime Helped when our world suddenly changed

Hi! I want to do this with my kids. What did you guys do about school?

My favorite childhood memories are camping with my family. There's nothing more wholesome than that 🥰 You all really amaze me!! Not to mention inspire and motivate me. Thank you so much for sharing your lives with us! Peace,Love,&Light ☮️☯️🕉

Be smart, get health insurance. Shout out to no future debts!!!

I found that food was definitely the most expensive part for me. I'm planning to budget about twice as much next time for eating out and quality resupplies, because I definitely skimped in towns when I should have been eating everything in sight in order to keep my calorie intake on track!

This trip was obviously a huge bonding experience and that alone must have been worth it.

Thank you for your video, thank you for your encouragement, I currently don't have a 9 to 5 job but A 24/7 God. What a mighty God we serve. He has placed it in my heart to do the Appalachian trail and He will provide all my needs. He is training me and preparing me.

Ok, I get it, you're into cigars.

An ad popped up about a minute after he mentioned no ads

That was a good trip and the money was not the part that makes it !!! The family spirit is going on a lifelong journey!!! Try part of the PCT next!!!! I recommend from the redwoods up through Oregon and I promise the sites will blow you away!!!!

Is ur wife ok? She always looks so sad..

Thanks for sharing your AT budget and finances with us. Ben is a math wizard to keep all those records and make sense out of them. Your family certainly got value out of the $25,000 when compared with visits to theme parks etc. --- in addition you and kids have videos of your unique AT journey that should last a lifetime. I certainly miss seeing your new AT videos every few days. Thanks for sharing a unique part of your family life with us.

I spent over $13 000 for a 10 Disneyworld vacation.

I have not done massive trip like this, but I have done some multi day hikes. But one thing I would definitely invest in is good lightweight gear. I think especially for longer trips it will definitely pay off to be comfortable, aka not carry a lot of weight.

13:00 not having health insurance is a poker game, not for the both of you, but for the whole family. Who are you going to beg for money if one gets severely ill or has an accident - family, friends, strangers on the internet? Don't gamble this game on the back of your children. For me this just ruined the spirit of your hike.

This was a great video guys! Thanks for being so open regarding the finances for the trail. I found it very interesting!

yes let's go home mis the house and garden and the kid working out and schooling and dove playing the piano winter is here love you guys love from the high desert 🌰🍓

You all got a ton of help from trail angels.

Nice to see you again : ) I was curious about how much you spent on this trip and appreciate you sharing the details. I agree that having a flexible budget when thru-hiking is a great benefit. I like to say to people that ask me what to plan on spending on an AT thru-hike that money and time are your best friends on the AT. Start as early as you can, enjoy the food and drink in town, and the respite of an air-conditioned hotel room when you need it. It is hard to quantify the benefits of the experience. I don't think we are the same people we were before hiking the AT, at some level (not always perceivable) we are indelibly marked by the experience, the people, the suck and the wonder. In my opinion, you guys rocked the AT. You spent much less than I imagined, comparing my own experience of the trail as someone who spent whatever I felt like, including splitting a $350 room with another person at a ski resort in New Jersey for 2 nights. (The plan was to hang out by the pool and have lots of refreshments but I mostly stayed in bed and watched a marathon showing of season 6 of the Walking Dead). And you did the trail in a pretty amazing 5 months and 9 days. I didn't think a family of 8 would be able to do that. Way to go!

I am 24 years old and have been saving for this thru hike for the past year now. I’ve been keeping up with you guys and you’ve kept me inspired and informed throughout your entire journey

19 bucks a day per person that’s awesome then you figure that that’s not far off from everyday cost of living even if you were at home

I'm curious, what do you mean you don't have health insurance? Like, where do you receive care for your kids; a local pediatrician that accepts cash? If something 'catastrophic' were to happen, could it not pretty quickly wreck you financially and undo all of your hard work? Or do you have catastrophic insurance only? I'm just intrigued because so often medical bills become astronomical fairly quickly (in the U.S., at least). If these are too personal or specific, please ignore them. Thanks in advance. Your videos have been very helpful to me, the financial related ones in particular. So thank you very much for continuing to make them. I'm so glad I've rediscovered you guys! I thought you'd left RU-vid, I must've become unsubscribed somehow. ETA: I totally agree with the adventure over entertainment bit! Right on! If only more parents had your philosophy.

Very cool video

No one has commented yet ? 109 views. I'll leave an actual comment later when I rewatch this and think about how I want to say what I think. Awesome trip and experience for the family. Thanks for letting us follow along.

I had to stop at no health insurance. Just what, guys you have 6 kids, that’s incredibly irresponsible! Especially for people who avoid debt. I was diagnosed with Crohn’s out of the blue and my medication alone would be $80000 a year out of pocket. This past year was particularly bad and I was in the hospital for a few days 4 separate times. I hope health issues don’t affect your family, but if you want to stay debt free it’s got to be in your budget!

y'all seeing incredibles 2 is so worth it

You all ‘ lived it up, ‘ but it wasn’t easy Thank you two for sharing your experience with us. I think you two are great parents. Your children are strong.

I’m so surprised you went on this trip without health insurance. I suppose if something awful had happened, you would have just paid for it out of pocket?

Great job on keeping the costs down those #s are really pretty low. One thing you can't put a price on are the life long friendships you've made and the memories logged together as a family so yes money well spent many times over!!!

So you said you have no health insurance? How do you pay for healthcare?

My dad brought up us doing this and I wasn't so sure about it, but after watching your trip I am more confident. I camp on weekends often so I believe this would be fun.

Execellent job and congrats on your achievement. Could we have a follow up video about "Fresh Ground"? Would like to make a donation to him for the great work he will do next year.

ok, super deal. now you really need to think about traildays 2019.

You are Pioneers of Independent Kids. Free Ranging Thinkers is our future.

That's crazy!!! Its so awesome that you guys have no debt!!! I would agree that it was all $$$ well spent!

Probably the best investment you could ever make for family, time and shared experiences

As much as you had, pumpkins. Some have ten percent of that and have a great hike, others have twice that and have a sucky experience. It's your money. Nobody cares. It's like saying the next family who tries with that much budget will surely succeed and have a great time, but one with less will never make it. Neup.

Hi, could u make a short video re fitness. I would be interested how the family body change *sounds weird* changed. For example what did you walk in the beginning, how much were you able to walk in the end. Did u loose weight, build up muscles ect. might be of interest for others as well. And, is it back on, now that u are being back.

You two are awesome! What a great experience as a family. You rock!

Cigars? Is that some kind of tradition on the trail?

I'm so surprised you guys don't try to get ad money! You have your reasons for sure but I think no one would mind or even question if you did. Either way love you guys!!!

They will always remember it. I've been all over the world with my family. My parents and other family from missionary's to engineers and it is the best parts of my life. You guys did the right thing for your fam! Brilliant. ❤️☮🌷🌺

Amazing!!!

What's the deal with cigars?

$25,000 is a fantastic number! Well done!

Hey Ben if you haven't been employed how do you guys pay for this kind of stuff? (I love the way you and your family live life, keep it up!)

Has the idea of doing the pacific crest trail here on the west coast?

$13,000 . Wow. You guys rock

Wow, $1900 to fly all of you from Maine to Oregon is really a great deal. It cost me $900 to fly me and my daughter from Texas to Maine last month. Can't imagine how much the trip would cost you to do today. The trip sounds like it was worth every penny!

My husband and I spent $2000 for an 8 month hike (we took our time)