Mail resupply boxes or buy as I go on a tight three week budget Trip Planning

Hybrid, weighted by town size. Post boxes only to the two small towns where the single shop might not have what you need, and buy in the three larger ones.

The budget angle usually favours buying as you go, because posting adds real cost per box and you buy in bulk at home which then sits in a box for three weeks. But the failure mode of buying is arriving at a village shop with three shelves and a dietary constraint, which is a genuinely bad day.

Being tied to opening hours is the thing people underestimate. Check whether each collection point holds parcels at weekends before you commit, because a box you cannot collect until Monday morning costs you a day.

Whatever you decide, do not post food you have not eaten repeatedly at home. Three weeks of a bar you turn out to hate by day four is a genuinely miserable and expensive mistake, and you cannot swap it out of a sealed box in a village.

Small logistics point that saves money: pack the boxes but have someone at home post them on a schedule rather than sending them all before you leave. You can call and adjust contents or cancel one if your pace changes, and you are not paying to store food in a post office for a month.

220 over 21 days is about 10.50 a day, which is doable but not luxurious if you are buying in small town shops where everything is marked up. That arithmetic on its own pushes me toward posting the bulk staples — oats, dried milk, rice, dense bars — and buying only fresh and treat items on the trail.