Since adding two more little ones to our family in the past five years we don’t go
camping much. What seems, on the surface,
to be a simple and affordable family adventure; the ultimate in frugal living - close to nature with only the bare
necessities – has felt too expensive.
Some of the camping gear I’ve seen for sale would need a second mortgage
to afford.
However, we were invited to go camping for three days with
two other families we know who have children the same age as ours and, despite
not having the right gear, or the cash to buy it right now, I said yes hoping I
could pull it together in a thrifted fashion.
Our family-sized tent and mattresses were borrowed (from a
family we know to whom we recently gifted a trampoline we no longer used, so
this felt like a fair exchange). Bedding and cooking equipment we brought from
home and I picked up a few bargains from the op-shop as well: an as-new large torch and an esky that saved us well over
$100 had we bought brand new.
We were fortunate to be holidaying with experienced
campers who set up a communal camp kitchen filled with contributed
equipment from us all: a giant tarp, various tables, chairs, mats, games and toys and
cooking utensils and we all shared the work involved in setting up and keeping the
space functioning.
The camp cooking was shared as well.
Breakfasts were looked after by each individual family, but
a roster was set up to share the main cooking duties so each family had to prepare one
lunch and one dinner for all. This was the idea of one of our friends, and it
makes so much sense to cook like this when camping.
Lunches included:
-pesto pasta and fresh green salad with olives
- a mix of potato, coleslaw and green salads, falafal and
freshly-baked breads
- a serve-yourself “salad-wrap table” with flat bread wraps,
cheeses, cold meats, salad and spreads such as hommus and pesto for
making individual wraps.
Dinners included:
- vegetable green Thai curry and rice
- marinated spare ribs (a marinated tofu option for the
vegetarian, me!) with salads, various sauces and rice
- Red lentil dahl and rice
I wish I’d photographed a meal for this blog post. Too busy eating
to do that, but you get the idea. As
well as the main meals we shared snacks, treats and drinks. If we had paid for
a holiday away with more formal accommodation and bought meals it would have
been out of our reach this weekend, but this three-day adventure cost us little
more than a normal grocery shopping trip.
I feel strongly that sharing resources is an important
aspect to frugal and simple living. It saves energy, money and the earth’s resources
– and it is crucial to feeling connected to your community. Collaboration can take whatever form you
choose – with just a bit of willingness and enthusiasm – and camping is no
exception.
One family could purchase different equipment (a camp oven, or a
large tarp, for example) and these could be shared, rather than each family
having to buy the equipment individually and doubling up.
I am keen now to build up a stash of decent camping
equipment so we can contribute more next time around and family camping trips can
become a more regular part of life for us. The children had the best time together, so did we adults.
When you take camping trips with other families, do you also share equipment and/or cooking duties?
~ Megan
5 comments:
We have taken a different approach because we don't camp regularly with the same families.
We use the same stuff as at home except for the tent, which was not an expensive model (and we've camped entirely without it in places/times when there aren't bugs to annoy us and the weather cooperates).
We have a couple blow-up mattresses for when we have guests at our house - we just put them in the tent and throw on some scrap quilts and fleece blankets from the beds at home. When we don't use the tent, we hang homemade hammocks between trees. You can find directions for these ultralight backpackers' hammocks online and they cost less than $10 each to make.
I bring the same pots and pans I cook with at home, and often the same food - we like the cook-in-a-weekend/eat-for-a-month meals - the ones where you freeze chicken/meat in a marinade, thaw it, then pan fry or grill it. They work fantastically well as long as you realize you need hot dogs/burgers for the first night because the frozen dinners won't thaw quick enough in the cooler. Anyway, the only splurge-type purchase has been the propane stove, for the days when a fire is not going to happen due to weather or lack of firewood. It cost $70.
Xa Lynn
we have always gone camping and we have tended to go with the same familys. We all have different equipment and we always share. But as the years have progress, we have been camping now for almost 15 yearss, we have all built up our stash of equipment so its getting easier and easier to double up. which is fine as someone always forgets something.
I started with childhood gear cadged from the folks when I moved out, and then second-hand stuff. Over time, I've replaced the oldest stuff with better technology. Sometimes we'll camp as the destination, but we often also camp when we travel, instead of paying for motel rooms (my honeymoon was a camping trip - only the last night spent in a hotel). Working together, my husband and I can set up or break camp in less than an hour, including one of us cooking a meal.
We (and sometimes even just me) camp alone sometimes, but at least once, and often 2-3 more times a year, I'll make plans to meet up with my sister camping. She lives in another state, so we'll pick a campground somewhere in between. For us, it's quality time together. We're both camping gadget girls, so when we first meet up, it's show-and-tell time. Those meals are co-operative affairs - we'll usually just bring whatever is in our refrigerators and then figure out what goes with what.
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