Budget camping trip?

[la79al]

I told my girls that we could go camping for just a few nights next week. It is not going to work out great since DH would only have off 2 of the nights and one of those days we would have to drop off DSD (2.5 hour r/t) but the girls are really excited about it and it would be the only chance for us to go until the end of July. Anyhow, the question is, how can we go camping for really cheap? It's the end of the month and our budget is fine if we eat the food in our freezer but that can't translate to camping food. We have 95% of our gear and already have money for the campsite, I guess I really just need food ideas. The easier the better since it very well may be me and 3 kids but even they won't live on hot dogs.

 

[Nature Mom]

I told my girls that we could go camping for just a few nights next week. It is not going to work out great since DH would only have off 2 of the nights and one of those days we would have to drop off DSD (2.5 hour r/t) but the girls are really excited about it and it would be the only chance for us to go until the end of July. Anyhow, the question is, how can we go camping for really cheap? It's the end of the month and our budget is fine if we eat the food in our freezer but that can't translate to camping food. We have 95% of our gear and already have money for the campsite, I guess I really just need food ideas. The easier the better since it very well may be me and 3 kids but even they won't live on hot dogs.

Will you be camping with electricity? Take your crock pot and use it to cook your freezer food. Let your freezer foods stay frozen, it helps with keeping the cooler cold and reducing how much ice you need cook in order of how things defrost. When we camp (which is often), I prep everything at home to make it easy at camp and cook foods in order of defrost, like fish is always first, chicken next then beef or pork. I take my crock pot and a huge pressure cooker that I use to make a pot roast in, plus a camp stove and grill. All my veggies are cleaned and sorted into Ziploc, rice is premeasured, etc. We always use what we have at home before buying additional groceries, except for those little fun boxes of cereal. LOL I always have to buy those when I get the smores stuff.

If you are a very tight budget, double check all your gear now. You'd hate to get set up to find out you need something that will result in paying high camp store prices or having to drive back to town to get what you need.

Have fun.

 

[luvmy3]

I pre-cook some things before we camp. I do not camp with electricity so everything I make is heated on a burner or our grill. I buy disposable foil pans to put on grill grate (Do you have those things in your gear?). A cast iron dutch oven would work for over the fire too.
My pre-cook go-tos for camp are the following.
Pasta salad
BBQ chicken legs
taco meat (fixings are pre-chopped too)
sausage and pasta bake or baked ziti
grilled chicken or steak to put over a salad (you can re-warm it or just slice it cold)

 

[Dancemomof3]

Make those little foil packets of meat and potatoes that you can cook either right on or in the fire. We do a bonfire with friends every Friday and do these quite often. Make sure you double wrap them. The sky's the limit with those, you can use any type of meat you want, we often use sausage or kielbasa but have also used chicken and hamburger, add any seasonings, peppers, onions if you choose. We usually just eat these with cut up watermelon or, later in the season, roasted corn on the cob that we have soaked, pulled the silks out of, wrapped in foil and put in the fire also

 

[HeatherC]

If you have a grill grate, bring that along with a bag of charcoal. We just put charcoal in the firepit, prop the grill grate over it and you can grill anything you would make at home.

Some non cook ideas...

chicken salad
cold sliced up meats...if you have in your freezer stock...cook at home first.
fruit salad
cold couscous salad
hummus and veggies
suffed baked potatoes...toppings like broccoli, ham, bacon, etc...can cook potatoes in fire.
shrimp cocktail


Have a great time!

 

[Lisaren]

depends on what you have in your freezer. I am a big fan of foil pouch cooking over an open flame or put in the coals with heavy duty foil. We use stew beef, onions, potatoes (could add carrots but my family does not like them cooked), or pork loin with same vegetables, pork chops, roast, chicken breast (bone in or boneless), also use fish but vegetables need to be in a different pouch because they take longer to cook. Squash cut up and put in foil or just grilled is really good. Eggs, with fixings for omelets put in a ziplock bag and boiled makes a pretty tasty omelet - just does not look so pretty. Almost anything you have in your freezer or pantry can be cooked over an open flame. I do not like just heating things up so much. For some reason I always burn it, but if you have a cast iron pot and use that you could probably do that as well.

 

[pocomom]

We make just about anything when we are camping! Key for me is just to preprep the food in advance.
Maybe tell us what's in your freezer and we can help you come up with ideas?

 

[MAD4EEYORE]

We are headed out for a 3 week camping trip and looking for some ideas as well.


My family likes to have breakfast for dinner. We also make hot sandwiches like grilled ham and cheese or philly (sometimes chicken) cheesesteak. We make bbq chicken in the crock pot. We also cook and freeze spaghetti or chilli depending on the season.

 

[Disneyaddictz]

Pancakes if you have a griddle, one box and your set for each morning. Crock pot or the grill and your set!! If you gave a list of your freezer stuff I bet we could give you plenty more ideas!!

 

[pjlla]

Hard to know what to suggest if we don't know what you have on hand and what you normally eat.

Since it is only a few days and you are trying to stick with a budget, you could think less traditionally for each meal (breakfast for dinner, grilled cheese for breakfast, etc)...and if you don't have a stove and are planning on cooking over an open flame, I'll tell you now that it takes some practice. I second the idea of the crockpot if you have electricity!

Pancakes, baked beans and toast, cold cereal (or even instant hot cereal) and fruit, yogurt parfaits, hamburgers/veggie burgers, chili and cornbread, foil packets of chicken/veggies/potatoes....all stuff I would normally have on hand and reasonably healthy enough, at least for a few days.

If you aren't well supplied with camping gear you may want to borrow from friends...outfitting a family to tent camp can be pricey to start! But you can make -do with bedrolls if you don't have sleeping bags...plastic plates or Corelleware (not too breakable) can be picked up cheaply at a thrift store and reused (better for your wallet and the environment)...one plate/cup/bowl per person is all you really need (plus flatware from home). Instead of flimsy foil pans I bought pots and pans from the thrift store....I don't care if they get black on the outside from smoke and if I ruin them I can toss them.....plus at about $1.00 each they were only marginally more expensive than a foil roasting pan! Just be careful that the handles aren't plastic or you could melt them!

Good luck and have fun creating memories with your kiddos! ..........P

 

[3boymthr]

When we go as a family we tend to go with the simple is best method - hamburgers, hotdogs, grilled chicken (strips are great cut up in foil packets). We also like to make grilled pizza. If you have steaks or pork chops in the freezer bring them, they are great on the grill. We also used to cook a whole chicken on the grill. Rub with BBQ spices and it's amazing.

My two older DS' are Boy Scouts and EVERYTHING they eat has to be on a budget of $10/kid for a weekend. Makes for some creative cooking and a lot of Ramen . Every other campout they have to do their supper cooking in Dutch Ovens and things they make include lasagna, stew, spaghetti and meatballs, etc.

 

[TLuvsD]

For D's Girl Scout troop I would make pasta. Just pre cook the sausage (I took it out of the casings and browned it like ground meat for chili). Add the sausage to sauce (I have homemade in the freezer), cool, then pour into ziploc bag for flat freezing. I'd precook the pasta. At camp we would heat the sauce, then add the pasta for a fast meal. If you have the ingredients on hand, it's cheap, too.
Other favorites: Baked potato bar (prebake potatos, stash in cooler they stay warm for a couple of hours), taco salad (precook/preseason grd meat, just reheat at camp).
Sloppy joes would work as well, if you have the ground meat on hand.

 

[princesspiglet]

We camp a lot and my DH and DD10's favorite food is walking tacos. I pre-make the taco meat at home and heat it up in a pan over the fire. You get a bag of fritos and pile your taco meat on top and add your fixins. I bring a storage bag of shredded lettuce mixed with mexican shredded cheese and a jar of salsa. It's very simple, but fills you up and is yummy. All you need is plastic spoons and you can throw everything away at the end of the meal.

 

[ShariVT]

Make a menu and then make a list of everything you need for each meal will save multi trips to the store while on vacation.