All excellent advise by those above! And I can see why you said you where living paycheck to paycheck. Take your $500 and hang on to it and let it make additional money for you (it's a life lesson).

Just a suggestion, take your paycheck: 50 percent put into savings/investments (never to young to start compounding interest), 30 percent for hobbies (trapping/hunting/fishing/or whatever), 20 percent for outside home living expenses ( eating out, girls in your future, etc). JMHO YMMV.

Go through the archives, again, and see what you actually need minimally, a lot of stuff you can make or scrounge. Stop thinking your a Mountain Man and will be cornering the market..

and do the math,, how much do you realistically think you'll make on the handful of fur you might catch, subtract your expenses, do the work yourself and stay in school. Work around your existing duties, save for a vehicle so you might actually be able to cover some ground when you get your license.

Use this time as an apprenticeship, you've never done this stuff before, pay attention to sign, and set on that with simple sets. Learn stuff.

Ok, I'm trapping like a mile or 2 away so ima be buying a mini bike. After that I'm saving up for a truck because I know I will be wishing I did when I turn 16

you ought to just walk. a used back pack from a thrift store, yard sale, auction, is lots cheaper.

I walked and pulled a plastic sled when I first started. After that, I had access to a 3 wheeler with a basket on the front and a box on the back. I would look for an older cheap 4 wheeler. Way more useful than a mini bike. You may be able to find one under a grand if you look long enough and you’ll get most of your money back if you resell it later.

Ok I will do that

Kinda sounds like you farm if so there must be a tractor As far as buying a lttle corn or dogfood mixed with jello for dp's fish or bacon grease for legholds is good enough When you make it big you can buy everything else Trapsheds full of big spenders

Boss Paul sells all kinds of stuff here, click on the "Store" at the bottom of this page!

How far away is the dairy? If you are only trapping 2 miles away and you have to go to the dairy everyday to milk, how do you get there? I assume someone drives you there and back? Cant you just check the traps then if your parents are taking you? Checking traps on one section is going to take very little time; setting up might be a different story. Do you have a bicycle? That might be better use of money at first than a mini bike or four wheeler

We can’t really suggest what you should buy. Have you taken inventory on what you have and what you need?

$500 isn’t much and you are targeting quite a few different critters. Possibly focus on what you can use to catch as many different types or focus on one at a time until you build up your inventory.

Idk, it’s your money, and $500 won’t get you far. But, I would evaluate what is an absolute need to get through the season.

Then look into a spreadsheet of what you will need next.

I like spreadsheets, I’ve given up on worrying about ROI. I just buy things if they are a need and don’t buy things that are nice to have, but not needed. Unless you are doing NWCO or ADC you aren’t going to make money so just look at it as a hobby that you are going to “lose” money on but have a great time doing.



Best of luck to you buddy.

You don't need those expensive alphabet (KB MB etc) traps to start. Go to the next convention and get some used duke 1 1/2s and a few Number 3 for you first few years then listen and read and after a few years can get some of those expensive ones if you so feel like they are good for you. I do a lot of trapping with the dukes, I wear the hat at conventions too join your local district and go to their events, don;t rush.....jk

A day of 1 on 1 instruction from someone would be money well spent. I took a day in about 1980 and it was well worth it IMO... cleared out a lot of the BS that I had been led to believe and just simplified it.

Start a Roth IRA?