Our Favorite Camping Tips, Tricks & Hacks

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Today we're talking camping tips, tricks and hacks!

I'm so excited that you've joined me for this week's Camping Series, where I'm sharing meal and snack ideas, fun & games and lots of great tips, tricks and hacks for making your next camping trip the best it can be!

What follows are the tips & tricks that we’ve used, or decided to use this upcoming camping season.

Our Favorite Camping Tips, Tricks and Hacks at LifeInTheNerddom.com

 

Frugal Camping Tips

Every tip, trick and hack that I use serves two purposes - to make camping more comfortable, and to save us money.

I don’t want to break the budget in order to finance a camping trip. The point is to get away and have a stress free break! I can’t do that if I know I spent way too much money to get there.

Here are some tips for keeping your camping trip low cost.

  1. Camp at state parks
    There are numerous state parks that offer camping. Some have primitive sites only while others will offer both primitive and “hook-up” sites that include water and/or electricity. State parks are generally the most inexpensive places to camp. Because of that, they fill up quickly, so make sure you plan your trip well in advance. Find all of the state parks for your state at the National Park Service website.

    Camp close to home if you can. There’s no need to drive hundreds of miles to camp, unless you just want to. We don’t leave the campground once we get there, so as long as the campground itself has plenty to do it doesn’t really matter how far from home it is. Plus camping close to home saves us money in gas!

  2. Pre-plan your meals
    Don’t make the mistake of just tossing a bunch of stuff into a cooler. You’ll likely end up making unplanned and expensive trips to the campground store. Pre-planning your meals has the added benefit of allowing you to plan around what’s on sale, saving you even more money.

    Thinking about what you’ll eat ahead of time also allows you to simplify meal preparation as much as possible. All of the extra time spent planning your food before your trip will be WELL worth the time saved during your vacation.

  3. Buy supplies at the Dollar Store
    I am so thankful that we have numerous “everything’s $1” stores nearby. If you do, get everything that you can from there. It will save you so much money! Here’s a great list to get you started.
  4. Search Yard Sales & Craigslist
    I have a pretty extensive wish list of items that I’d love to add to our camping gear. Most of them cost a veritable fortune though! I love to go to yard sales in the summer so I’ll be keeping my eyes open. I’ve found that some people buy a bunch of camping equipment, go camping once, realize they don’t like it and then sell everything for pennies on the dollar. Craigslist is also a great place to look for bargains.

Camping Tricks & Hacks

Egg Carton Fire & Grill Starter
Store charcoal bricks in an egg carton for a quick and easy fire starter.
Our Favorite Camping Tips, Tricks and Hacks at LifeInTheNerddom.com

DIY Roasting Sticks
My kids always make me nervous trying to roast marshmallows and hot dogs with sticks or BBQ forks. They never seems long enough, or sterile enough! These do-it-yourself roasting sticks look like the perfect solution!
Our Favorite Camping Tips, Tricks and Hacks at LifeInTheNerddom.com

Make Your Own Travel Potty
Nobody wants to talk about the potty needs, until you have a 5 year old waking you up at 3 am needing to potty. I don’t want to walk to the bathrooms at 3 am. A travel potty seems like a great alternative! There are a couple of options to refer to, one here, and another here.
Our Favorite Camping Tips, Tricks and Hacks at LifeInTheNerddom.com

DIY Soap Pouch
Our Favorite Camping Tips, Tricks and Hacks at LifeInTheNerddom.com

Pack clothes in Ziploc bags
This is such a great idea! I won't have to provide any guidance at all for the kids to get dressed in the mornings. Awesome!
Our Favorite Camping Tips, Tricks and Hacks at LifeInTheNerddom.com

How to stay warm while sleeping
If you plan to camp while it’s cold, you don’t want to miss this information!

Split the Water
If you have a water hookup at your campsite, use a splitter to get more access to the water.
Our Favorite Camping Tips, Tricks and Hacks at LifeInTheNerddom.com

DIY Hand-Washing Station
Genius!
Our Favorite Camping Tips, Tricks and Hacks at LifeInTheNerddom.com

Portable Pop-Up Trash Can
This is so much better than tying the bag somewhere or just leaving it on the ground.
Our Favorite Camping Tips, Tricks and Hacks at LifeInTheNerddom.com

Car Pantry
Keep everything organized and safe from critters!
Our Favorite Camping Tips, Tricks and Hacks at LifeInTheNerddom.com

Store Eggs in a Bottle
An easy way to store eggs for the trip without worrying about breakage.
Our Favorite Camping Tips, Tricks and Hacks at LifeInTheNerddom.com

Hanging Organizer
This works great for getting your supplies organized and  up off the ground.
Our Favorite Camping Tips, Tricks and Hacks at LifeInTheNerddom.com

DIY Camping Kitchen
This doesn’t include a lot of instruction, but I think I can figure out it’s construction from the photos. I might have to try this with a no-longer-in-use shelf that we have in the garage!

Ice Jugs
Fill empty milk jugs with water and freeze. Keeps food cool longer and provides drinking water when it melts.
Our Favorite Camping Tips, Tricks and Hacks at LifeInTheNerddom.com

Hang a Fan
A great way to keep cool in the hot summer months if you have electricity at your camp site.
Our Favorite Camping Tips, Tricks and Hacks at LifeInTheNerddom.com
I'm not sure of the original source for this one. If you know, please share!

DIY Fire Starters
Cheap and easy fire starters. Princess Dork made a bunch of these for an AHG camping trip and they worked great!
Our Favorite Camping Tips, Tricks and Hacks at LifeInTheNerddom.com

Solar Light Centerpieces
Keep your camping area nice and homey with these inexpensive solar light projects.
Our Favorite Camping Tips, Tricks and Hacks at LifeInTheNerddom.com

And finally…

Here’s some awesome tent hacks from One Crazy House that make life in a tent so much more bearable!

Gear Line Organizer
Our Favorite Camping Tips, Tricks and Hacks at LifeInTheNerddom.com

Cover your tent with a reflective blanket to keep it cool.
Our Favorite Camping Tips, Tricks and Hacks at LifeInTheNerddom.com

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That wraps up our week of all things camping! I hope you’ve found lots of things to help you plan your next trip.

If you missed a post along the way, here’s a convenient list with links to all of the articles.

Monday - Camping Meals: Breakfast

Tuesday - Camping Meals: Lunch & Snacks

Wednesday - Camping Meals: Dinner & Desserts

Thursday - Games & Fun for Kids While Camping

Friday - The Best Camping Tips, Tricks and Hacks

 

 

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7 Comments

  1. Awesome content. Great and helpful content which will be very useful for my family and I. Buying stuff from the dollar store and saving some cash and also camping at state parks are quite great hacks. Thank you very much for sharing these tips and helping me save some money.

  2. My old high school buddies wanted to arrange a camping get-together so I want to find out what are some helpful tips. I really liked how you suggested pre-planning meals to save time and money while camping because I’ve developed a hobby of home-cooking for my family and for my own leisure so this gives me a good opportunity to show my friends some of the recipes I’ve learned over the years. I’ll be sure to keep the rest of your tips in mind when we look for campgrounds or resorts we can visit. Thank you!

  3. After reading this article everyone must say yes this is the best camping tips tricks hacks that’s I ever read. I just love. Thanks

  4. Thank you for the useful tips! I’m an avid camper, I’ll be taking my kids this time to camp in woods. Hopefully, it’ll be a fun experience for them

  5. Great tips. For meals, I cook a few ahead and freeze them, (like chilli, soup) to make life easier. This is especially handy on the first night. After driving, setting up camp, and all the rest, the last thing I feel like doing is cooking. So grab a thawed something and reheat it and dinner is ready in minutes. The frozen ones help keep your cooler cold too.

  6. We are avid campers. We live in Tennessee so fall and spring are most ideal and we plan all winter for our first trip. Last year we forgot our “hand washing” water jugs. We made it to the shower house to quickly learn that the jugs would not fit in the hand sink. So…we removed the shower head filled our jugs and replaced the shower head. Lol We have wonderful family memories 🙂 now we just carry the empty jugs and worry about the hand washing station when we get there lol

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