This year has been all about camping for our family holidays.
With money being tighter than normal and us wanting to find financial freedom from an debt we knew that for a couple of years holidays had to be altered to save more money.
We fell in love with camping 3 years ago and since as a family we love it already it was no hardship to make camping our main family holidays for a while.
During the summer we decided to take a giant leap and step out of our camping comfort zone however and book our camp site much further from home from in fact much further from home, in North Wales.
Initially I was super excited to be travelling further afield and also making it nearly a week in length but it soon faded when I realised that not only we might struggle to pack everything but also that I had to spend a week on an air bed, 2 to 3 nights is ok but a week?!
Thankfully we discovered inflatable air mattresses! Yes, the bad boy we bought from Go Outdoors had memory foam inside and with a little bit of air it made for the best sleep ever! Although the trade of for this was the sheer size of it compared to an air bed but some things are just worth the extra size!
Space Saving Storage Bags
Next was to tackle space saving. We already have a roof box but we knew that would still be tight so I invested in a battery air pump that inflates and deflates and then bought compression bags that deflate and suck all the air out of them so I used these for all the bedding and even towels which halved the space needed.
For the journey home I took extra deflation bags and put all dirty washing in them too which made for an even more comfortable journey home!
Click & Collect
We meal planned the week and took no supplies on this camping trip. Instead we ordered a click and collect from a local supermarket so we didn’t have to manage packing in any food or drinks for the trip. This in itself is was a total life saver!
Buying The Right Sleeping Bag
We learnt this trick last year. Initially we started off with super cheap sleeping bags which were a total false economy. We needed 4 times as many blankets as we need now after we upgraded all our sleeping bags to the right season bags We no longer take masses of blankets with us thank goodness.
Ditch The Cases
Ditch all your normal cases. Forget suitcases and forget bags. Instead invest in some sturdy storage bags to pack into. They keep all clothing dry and clean and are amazingly helpful to squish into gaps.
They are also available in lots of different sizes and I find them amazing for storing our sleeping bags in once we back home too!
Collapsable Kit
Another new investment this year has been collapsable kit, from washing up baskets to buckets and even storage boxes.
Out in a camping field you need to make sure food stuffs are covered so ensuring food is stored correctly is important so we invested in collapsable storage boxes and a washing up basket. These helped saved lots of room in the kit.
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