Ballin' on a Budget suggested Gear!

Here goes another mad rant that some of you might find sanity in! Drink of this Kool-Aid and tell me you are a believer. Bonnaroo does not need to be expensive! You do not need technological gear to persevere. Some of the best camping equipment is self-made! Now let me give you a down and dirty boot camp. First off let me introduce you to another forum I visit. BushcraftUSA bushcraftusa.com/forum/index.php this is probably one of the most thorough camping sight I have ever come across. I rarely ever post on there there is to much stuff to read. It covers everything from improvised shelters to constructing hammocks to building alcohol stoves etc. More on this in a minute. This sight is overkill I stumbled upon it while researching camping stoves for Bonnaroo. A chief concern of mine in planning meals etc. is temperature. Nothing like some food borne illness two days in after all that stuff in your cooler is melting mixing blood bacteria etc. on that ice cold bottle of water that will not be cooked you are putting to your lips. Can you imagine having food poisoning on a 12 hour ride home from Bonnaroo or getting diarrhea on Sunday after you are already dehydrated? Loosing that much water can be deadly! So to counter that I have decided on dehydrated foods as my weapon against that. Their are some very good backpacking meals out there and as I discovered last year even cheaper options. Just need some lipton noodles etc? how abotu some true backpacking dehydrated meals like Mountain House line that is usually available at Wal-Mart in Sporting goods section where you will be rambling soon looking for your gear like Camelbaks etc. and Those Healthy Choice Microwave meals that need no refrigeration. These all pass under the HASSAP program something construceted to help ensure that there is no food born illnesses for NASA Astronauts as it is a great expense to pull someone out of orbit for the screamin squirts. How about breakfast? Hormel makes canned ham patties like you get at Mcdonald's grab you some English Muffins etc. and a sealed package of cheese slices and you are good to go for breakfast. That and some peanut butter and jelly bread trail mix and Nutella and you are set! Now basically I have knocked my cooking chores down to boiling water and yes drink some Instant Coffee etc. get some fancy Starbucks and shell out big bucks if you are concerned about taste if not get some cheap Folgers and you can pretend you are a cowboy choking down grounds. So basically boil water and maybe pan fry some ham slices and toast some English Muffins right? How do you cook it? The penny alcohol stove! You can make it out of aluminum cans that are normally trash or make them when you get there just bring a Swiss Army Knife and pry one from the hands of a passed out WOOK. here is the stove in it's simpelest form. okay this just saved you about thirty bucks in getting gas canisters and a cheap coleman single burner stove that is literally all you need for this cooking method bring a cheap pan from the dollar store or one from home. Or cut the top off of an aluminum can to boil in. You can get a throwaway pie pan to toast bread ham slices etc. in. It is flat and you can do a couple at once. you can also put it in the recycling bin etc. and do not have a big stinky mess laying around to go clean up in the troughs. Or stick in the trunk of your ca rlike my cousin did last year and arrived home and a week discovered a pan in a container he had been soaking that had putrid gravy water in where his dumb as sinsisted on dragging down a camping oven to slave over in the heat and get heat exhaustion to start off his day. Calories are burned to help keep you warm give you energy by variable sin the environment. you do not need a Denny's Grand Slam at Bonnaroo you ar enot going to freeze to death. I speak about this strictly on a physiology based viewpoint. here is an even more complex system you just need some aluminum Budweiser, Venom Energy Drink Bottles i just saved you all a ton of money and grief and packing space and ice purchases!