201 Camping Tips and Tricks For Beginners! (Easy Hacks)

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1. Invest in a dutch oven. We finally bought a small one last spring and it has been my favorite camping tool ever since. I’ve baked pilsbury cinnamon rolls, cornbread chili casserole, chicken and potatoes, breakfast quiche, just to name a few. My husband and I camped for years with just our coleman stove…the dutch oven has expanded our camping recipe collection and it’s just a really fun way to cook.

   1. Do you use it on the fire?

      1. I know you can use it on the fire, it’s just a lot harder to judge the heat of your coals. We use briquettes. Get them started in the fire and then set them below and on the lid of the dutch oven. I got a free app for my phone that tells you how many briquettes you need for each temperature and the size of your dutch oven.

         1. oh I need that app! We just recently invested in a dutch oven and love it, but I get worried about the temp being right. Thanks!

            1. One of our all time favorite camping meals that is so quick and easy is Green Beans, Potatoes and Ham. Just dump it in your dutch oven and when your potatoes are done your meal is ready. Good with Rye bread & butter.

         2. I am interested in the name of that app

            1. For android it’s called “Dutch Oven Calculator” and it was free in the marketplace.

   2. I like making enchiladas in the dutch oven. You can use your canned chili beans if you want (I like cooking from scratch) then add corn tortilla chips and cheese. Makes a casserol of sorts and its good! Can also make green chili chicken enchiladas.
      Use can green chili, can of cream of chicken soup, can chicken (or cooked if you have some already) add chips and cheese.

      1. How do you make the Cornbread Chili Casserole? Sounds yummy!

2. We camp every other weekend durng the spring, summer & fall seasons. We have a RV and when we are at home we plug the unit in so our refrigerator stays cold. (we do not see an increase in our electric bill or would not do this) This way we leave all our condiments, extra beverages, frozen meat, etc in there.

   The day we are scheduled to leave I grab a laundry basket, head to our home’s refrigerator, place anything else we may need in the camper into the basket, next I open our “snack” cupboard at home & empty it’s contents into the basket. I then take the basket to the RV & place the items into refrigerator & cupboards. I will buy one “special” meal for us to take along every so often. This works for us the best. Plus if I really want to clean up our “snack” cupboard, which sometimes gets out of control. I will only take along camping the bags/boxes which seem to have just a cookie or two left, or bag of chips with practically only crumbs left. You know the ones that get forgotten about when new packages arrive. Then the kids have no choice but to eat them! Mean I know, but it works!

3. While your children are still at the age where they enjoy spending time going out with you, camping is truly a great way to bond with them. Taking time off from the television and game consoles, a nice idea huh? Just enjoy nature with them doing fun activities.

4. If you have electricity a hot pot is worth the ten bucks that it costs. We heat water for washing dishes, making hot chocolate or tea in a matter of just a couple minutes.
   We like to take peanuts in the shells and marshmallows for campfire snacks.
   Keep the food as easy as possible. Hamburgers, hot dogs, peanut butter, cold cuts, individual boxes of cereal (big treat for kids), baked beans, can corn, oranges, apples, bananas, scrambled eggs, pretzels, granola bars, yogurt. If you cook roast beef in advance and freeze it in a ziploc bag you can make hot roast beef sandwiches with bread and can gravy in no time. Bag lettuce, grape tomatoes a cucumber and one kind of dressing for a quick salad. I sometimes make homemade spaghetti sauce with meatballs and then cook the spaghetti and put in a ziploc bag. Heat the sauce, boil water in the hot pot to pour over the spaghetti, done.
   Camping is not a fashion show, take warm comfortable old clothes that you could care less what happens to them. Old towels, blankets, sheets and pillows also. Thrift stores and yard sales are good places to pick up pots, pans, linens and the like. Store camping items in a plastic tub. Umbrellas and a first aid kit are a must. Keep food in the car trunk or plastic tub at night as not to draw animals.

   1. I bought a small plastic bin with a lid and kept our camping dishes, one for each family member (keep it simple), the bin did double duty as a sink for washing dishes.

5. I love camping! I use a mesh bag from the dollar store with samples from hotels and add toothbrush, paste, soap, wash cloth, towel and a few clothspins. The kids are in charge of there own bag. You don’t spend the whole weekend doling our supplies and dealing with wet sandy towels! Always have a first aid kit, with aloe and sunscreen. I use a plastic shoe box size storage container for all the things you “might” need. After camoing season we use it over the winter. Pepto pills are a good thing to add for the kid that can’t say no to the last smore! I also always put a piece of carpet (from the $ store) I put one inside the tent and outside the door, helps with the sand and dirt!

   1. You can get the mesh bags at walmart as lingerie bags for washing. We use a different colored carabiners so we can identify whose bag is whose. By doing this it’s easy to hang your shower bag in the shower or on the clothes line when finished. This way, they also don’t get lost in the tent.

      1. Wow great idea. I will defintely use it.

6. Love that Firestarter tip! Do you seperate them into sections or put the whole egg carton on?

   1. seperate

   2. Believe it or not, hand sanitizer is an Excellent fire starter!!! Just use your imagination and be careful!

      1. perfume also works

   3. I would avoid using styrofoam egg cartons…the fumes when burned are bad for you and the environment. Toilet paper rollers with dryer lint will work well for this purpose.

7. We camp every weekend all summer the key for me is to cook like I was at home. I don’t by special camping foods becAuse that’s usually a pricey trip. Foil and a camp pot can do any thing! I use an old kitchen kettle that is for over the fire only. Rummage sale all the supplies like plastic plates utensils etc.
   An old coffee pot is my savior for heating water quickly. Kids tip / buy glow sticks at the dollar store and pack your own popcorn if they have a movie night! Camping is cheap fun! Kids game – make them a scavenger hunt. Great fun and gives mom some down time while all the searching is going on!

   1. I have a great idea for heating water. You take old coffee cans and fill them 3/4 full of water and freeze before the camping trip. This helps with keeping your cooler cold. Then you can just place these on the fire after cooking and then when you’re ready to do dishes, you will have hot water when you get finished eating.

8. If you want to REALLY be cheap, find a campground with a primitive area. You just go out in the woods and find a place to pitch your tent. No barbecue pits, no campsite, and definitely no bathrooms.

   1. For these type of situations, you might want to invest in a small port-a-potty along with a port-a-potty tent!!! My husband has found that he would rather put up this extra small tent than to wake up to accompany his wife and daughters to the bathroom in the middle of the night!

      1. I agree! I have further potty set up advice. We got a chemical toilet and it was not worth the money. We got the 5 gal bucket with snap on lid and we line it with a heavy duty trash bag and keep a container of kitty litter next to it. Just sprinkle the top with litter when your done. A tent from salvation army that even has a tear here and there works fine for this setup. Duct tape is your friend it works great to hold a small tear together in a tent!

         1. Love the kitty litter idea! The chemical toilet-thing very expensive mistake!

            1. Buy a cheap toilet seat to add a little more comfort as well!

9. Free fire starter: You’ll need an empty cardboard egg carton, dryer lint, wax from a candle that is almost burned down. Fill egg “holders” about 1/4 way with wax, put some dryer lint on top and push into the wax a bit leaving some sticking out to light, and let cool. Use these instead of little starter logs!

   1. Are you supposed to cut apart each section of the egg carton? So that one dozen egg carton could start 12 fires?

      1. keep the egg carton together and rip off a section as you need them. They work great.

         1. Another idea for a fire starter is just use cotton balls dipped in Vaseline, They work great and easy to make or store.

         2. We buy small gas containers and start the fire with a hose with long metal piece with holes, just place under the wood. Very nice gadget that we can buy here in SA at any hardware shop!

      2. all u need is several toilet paper rolls and dryer lint,I use them every year when I go camping

   2. What a great idea!!! I knew about the dryer lint but not the other stuff. Now if I can just get cage free eggs in somthing other than plastic… hm!

   3. These make great fire starters. Yes you can cut them apart. We usually cut ours in groups of two.

      1. AWESOME idea! I am going to use it for my fireplace 🙂

         1. Similar to this tip, I stuff dryer lint into empty TP rolls when I remove it from the dryer lint trap. Then, use these for at-home (or camping?) fire starters.

   4. We did this for our Easter camping trip this year and they worked so much better than the firestarters that we buy. Another trick we learned because it was vvery windy so we had trouble keeping the lighter lit to start the fire, we take juice pouches when we camp and we cut the box in half and placed the fire starter inside half of it to light it and then put our kindling and logs on top of the box. The box serves as a wind block as well as extra kindling to start the logs.

   5. Another great idea is to fill toilet paper tubes with shredded newspaper then dip them in wax. I’ve never made these because a local group of disabled adults sells them and I like to help them but they work WONDERFULLY!

   6. Another great item to keep on hand is Fritos….good snack and a good firestarter.

10. Bring personal size bags of corn chips. Heat a pot of chili & pour a scoop in each persons bag ~ top w/ pregrated cheese. Hand them a plastic fork & you’re done!

    Banana Sundays ~ Split banana in half lengthwise with peeling intact. Fill w/ miniature marshmellows & chocolate chips. Put on the campfire until the goods are melted. YUMMO & fun to make!

    1. Can’t wait to try the banana sundays.
       Do you put them on foil to melt everything and do you cover them? Sound delicious!!

       1. We also make the Banana Sundaes at home. We make sure we have everyones favorite candy bar. Chop it. Insert pieces into the banana. Adding marshmallows if the person wants it. Topping with ice cream, syrup and sprinkles…My daughter in law taught me this trick 🙂

       2. No, we don’t use foil, we put them right on a rack above the fire. You’ll love these ~ so fun!! : )

    2. We call them banana boats and we do wrap ours in aluminum foil. They are super yummy, easy, and a great alternative to smores every night.

    3. Or traditional- first night camping dinner- is always FRITO BOATS ! Yummy, good protein, and filling. I always have a supply of paper bowls you can buy from Restaurant Supply places. Not round bowls but the rectangular boats.
       throw some Fritos (your choice of flavors) in the bottom of the boat, put your nice warm chili beans on top(we use the No-bean kind) through a little Pre-shredded cheese on top and you are ready to sit down to the campfire enjoy your evening.
       this has proven for us to be the perfect thing… after the usual two to three hour drive Plus set up Time.

    4. We also do Dorrito Tacos. Using the individual bags of dorrito’s, scoop into the bag (pre-cooked at home and then re-heated at the campsite) hamburger meat, and whatever toppings you like on your taco’s. Beans, cheese, lettuce, etc. It was a hit.

       You can also use a big bag of dorrito’s and paper plates if you don’t have the little individual bags.

       I also found for s’mores that with little kids, it worked better to use a waffle ice cream cone and mini marshmallows and chocolate wrapped in foil placed on the coals than for the kids to roast the marshmallows. You can use any variety of toppings-chocolate chips, m&m’s, etc.
       http://www.the-girl-who-ate-everything.com/2015/05/campfire-cones.html