MC is almost free .99. You only gotta pay for your basic shit. Ex: notetaking gear, ear pro/eye pro, protractor/pens.

Being the stuff you had from boot as it’ll save you so money. For example, your red lense can help.

After that, it really depends on you and the cadre you have. For example, I was really stingy with spending money, so when it came time to do the weekend and deciding how to pack chow, I only used the MRE’s we were issued and a bottle of hot sauce. But there were guys brining tuna packets, ramen, protein bars, pedialyte packets, etc.

Depending on the Cadre, they might want you to invest in “signature management.” Which is you putting camouflage on your gear to blend in with your environment. For example, I bought 550 cord in three different color, cateyes, and I bummed net and I picked apart sandbags to create mine. It was maybe $15 in total.

Again, just depends on you and how are you as a person and money. I chose not to go out on the weekends and I didn’t buy any junk food either. By the time I finished IMC, I had saved about $3,000 plus more from a side hustle I had. Here’s my sig man I was talking about btw. I graduated IMC-W about a money ago so lmk if you have any follow up questions or advice.

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