Camping To Save Dollars

[MM100MOM]

During the last 4 years of the 80s my husband who had retired from the Air Force decided to go back to school…..We had 4 boys and the oldest was 10. I was a stay at home mom and neither of us wanted to give that up. We lived for 4 years on $9,000 a year.

During this time we still wanted to get away and have some fun and the best way to do that was camping. We camped because we had a tent and it was a cheap way to vacation. One year we went to Disneyland.

In Riverside County off the freeway is a county park with overnight camping. It is rustic but has nice bathrooms and showers and a “spray” water feature for the kids. It is maybe 20 miles from Disneyland.

We saved enough money for gas and the Disneyland tickets, packed up our camp stove and a ice chest of frozen meals and off we went. We had a great time. Things I cooked and took along were spaghetti sauce and pasta, sloppy joe sauce (we like to eat ours over mashed potatoes), swiss steak, beef stew, and cold cereals, bread, sandwich meats and chips.

Any main dish meals you normally freeze would work. On other actual camping trips in the woods I also take frozen hamburger patties to grill. I take 2 big ice chests.

In one I put a block of ice and all the condiments, cold cuts, etc. and in the other I pack all the frozen meals in gallon ziplock bags. The frozen food in the second chest keeps itself frozen for several days and each morning I transferred the dinner for that day to the other chest to thaw.

We put both of our ice chests in the van, of course, during the day and we ate a picnic lunch outside the main gate each day. We went to Disneyland this way twice and after that when we stayed in a hotel the kids always complained. The charge at that time was $10 a night and it’s not much more than that now.

[LunaBruja88]

Thank you so much for sharing! I think my family would really enjoy this. Also, that means more of our money could go towards the park 🙂

[sunflower34]

My family and I love camping. Thanks for the ideas. We have 4 kids and 3 grandkids.

We have a crew wen we go. So if u have anymore low budget ideas, I would be very grateful. Oh if u haven’t been to land between the lakes.

It’s a wonderful place to go camping. They have several camp grounds to choose from. It’s absolutely beautiful up there too.

[Ruthnaomi]

In some states there are places to camp for free. There are three free campgrounds on the Natchez Trace you can stay in the campgrounds and plan day excursions. I sleep in a tent.

There is no electric hookups or showers. But nice bathrooms.

[Author]

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