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How We Saved Money on Our First Camping Trip    

August 7, 2023 By MelissaB Leave a Comment

Three tents together at night

The last time my husband and I last went camping was 22 years ago. We weren’t fans of the experience, so we never made camping a priority. However, several of our friends decided to go camping with their families this summer, and we somewhat hesitantly agreed to join. Even though we had no camping supplies, we saved money on our first camping trip using several different techniques. By the way, we didn’t mind camping this time, especially since our kids enjoyed it so much. We have another trip planned in October.

How We Saved Money on Our First Camping Trip

We didn’t want to buy a lot of items in case we decided (again) that camping wasn’t for us. We only purchased the following:

A Tent

We bought a 9-person tent from Amazon that was $149.99. However, we bought it on sale for $99.99. In hindsight, I should have bought it in person. I didn’t realize that the tent had large mesh openings that didn’t have flaps inside to close them. Instead, there’s a rain flap that goes over the whole tent. While the design is acceptable for summer camping, I think we’ll get cold when we go in October because we can’t close off the mesh openings.

Sleeping Bags

We had one sleeping bag at home, so we bought three more. I also purchased these on Amazon during a sale. Each sleeping bag was $22.99. After our first camping trip, our daughter’s sleeping bag already had a hole. We weren’t happy with that.

Camping Cooking Utensil Set

We bought a camping cooking utensil set for $24.99, which included a sharp knife and roasting sticks. Because we didn’t want to spend any more money on cooking gear, we cooked all our food on a stick over the fire—hot dogs, s’mores, breakfast sausage. We called it stick cooking. Anything that we couldn’t cook on a stick we ate cold.

Wood

On the day of the camping trip, we bought wood for $7.99. We went through that wood in one day, so we’ll need to buy a larger quantity when we go in October.

We spent $202 on the abovementioned necessities for our first camping trip.

What I’d Like to Buy in the Future

If we continue to camp, there are a few other items we’d like to make the experience more enjoyable:

Inflatable Mattresses

My husband and I aren’t young anymore, so we’d prefer sleeping on an air mattress rather than on the ground.

A Grill Grate

While cooking with a stick was fine for the first trip, it might get old on the second trip. If we camp more often, we’d like to buy a grill grate to put over the fire and hold a pan to cook eggs and other foods.

A Better Tent

Our tent is fine for warm weather, but if we continue to camp in the fall and spring, we’d like one that does a better job keeping us warm.

Final Thoughts

We spent $202 on our original outlay of camping supplies. We’ll likely wait until we’ve had another camping trip or two to see if we need to buy more. Meanwhile, each camping trip we take helps reduce the price of our initial outlay of supplies.

Do you camp regularly? If so, which supplies do you find essential?

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MelissaB
MelissaB

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in New York, where she loves the natural beauty of the area.

www.momsplans.com/

Filed Under: frugal living Tagged With: camping, Family activities, family vacation, frugal

Take an Off Season Fall Vacation and Save Big

August 20, 2012 By MelissaB 6 Comments

The summer is rapidly drawing to a close, and you may think that your summer vacation window is closing.  However, if you are looking to take a trip on the cheap, now is the perfect time to take a late summer vacation and save some serious money.

For many destinations, the summer is the top vacation season.  Families pack up and take road trips to a variety of locations.  Once school begins, tourism drops off significantly.  In fact, “The Travel Industry Association says that 38 percent of trips are taken during the summer; the number drops sharply to 23 percent in fall” (MSNBC.com).

You can take advantage of this drop off by scoring better rates and benefiting from thinning crowds.  Here are some trips you may want to consider:

Take a trip to the beach—in September.  This isn’t possible for everyone, but if you don’t yet have children or you home-school, September may be the perfect time to hit the beach.  It is still warm, but the crowds have left and you benefit from discounted rates.  Great destinations include beaches on the coast of North Carolina or even Key West, where the prime tourist season doesn’t ramp up until November and December.

Visit Mickey—Take a trip to Disneyland.  Disneyland can be very expensive, but if you plan a trip in the fall, you will benefit from reduced rates and shorter to no lines for rides.  The trade off is that the park closes earlier and that there may not be as many shows being performed.  However, I will take that trade off if it means I will save a few hundred dollars on accommodations and will save time not waiting in line!

family vacation camping

Take a trip to the big city—Cities also experience a drop in tourism after the crisp fall weather sets in.  While New York City, Chicago and Miami may be prohibitively expensive in the summer months, hotels often discount their rates in the fall, making a trip to the city a bit more affordable.  Most of the big city locales, regardless of location around the country, still have relatively comfortable weather.  In Chicago and New York City, you don’t generally have to worry about biting cold weather and snow at least until November, leaving you the entire fall to enjoy.

Go big guns and visit Europe—I made the mistake of traveling in Europe in August, and it was packed and expensive.  Unbeknownst to me, many Europeans have August off and vacation with their families in addition to all of the travelers who come from outside Europe.  Save yourself money and the need to fight the crowds by traveling to Europe in the fall.  The only drawback?  You may have to deal with some rain (or sometimes a lot of rain), especially if you are traveling to a Mediterranean country.  You can defeat this drawback in part by scheduling museum days and other indoor attractions for the rainy days.

While the dog days of summer may be past us, there is still plenty of warmth left.  Take advantage of the lovely fall weather to take an off season vacation and save some serious money.

img credit: librarygroover, on Flickr.

MelissaB
MelissaB

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in New York, where she loves the natural beauty of the area.

www.momsplans.com/

Filed Under: Frugality, Saving, Travel Tagged With: budget travel, budget vacation, fall vacation, family vacation, travel, vacation

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