We are going camping tomorrow!! I’m SO excited!! I love camping. This time, we are camping at the beach. Hopefully it won’t rain all over us!!

I had to buy the basics this morning. You know. BACON.

I miss free bacon! Remember when I got free bacon? Bacon is NOT CHEAP, people! Oh, and I had to buy syrup. Does this stuff EVER go on sale? WHY is it so expensive? Good grief. If syrup ever goes on sale, I’m stocking up, because $3.39 for the store brand is ridiculous.

I’m posting about this shopping trip just to show you some highlights. I’m not terribly impressed with the bottom line, though. UGH.

So, I bought the bacon (2 for $4.99 - it’s on BOGO sale), and the syrup. That ALONE cost me $8.38. Grr.

The highlights:

Lays Kettle chips are on sale with an in-ad coupon for $1.79 each. There are tearpads right next to the chips for $1/2 (double-able). Plus, I had a Buy 2 Lays, get Rold Gold pretzels free coupon. That means the 2 bags of chips and bag of pretzels cost me $2.08. Snacks for camping are a must.

The Coffeemate creamer is on sale with an in-ad coupon for $1.99 each. I printed off (2) 75¢/1 coupons (linked up at KCL) which were doubled to make the creamer only 74¢ each. We desperately needed creamer for our camping trip. Camping coffee is always questionable.

The Best Foods Mayonnaise is on sale with an in-ad coupon for $1.99 each. I had 2 ecoupons loaded onto my card, plus 2 MCs from the MDA coupon book (which was out in stores last month). Add the doubler in there and my mayo cost me 49¢ each. Oh, thank goodness. I’m not freaking out about stocking up on mayo so much anymore!

The French’s mustard was free a couple of months ago, but I missed the sale. I actually thought my boys preferred the brown mustard, so I didn’t worry about stocking up. However, now I know that they love the yellow mustard, too, and prefer to eat it on their hot dogs. I actually PAID for mustard a couple of months ago. Live and learn, I suppose!! This time, I took advantage of the sale! French’s Mustard is on sale for $1.50. I printed off a coupon 50¢/1 MC from frenchs.com, which doubled, plus I had a 50¢ off coupon from the Get Out and Grill coupon book. FREE mustard!

Kraft cheese is on sale for $1.69 with an in-ad coupon. I bought 2 bags of cheese at a time (I did this in 2 transactions) and used a $1/2 printable, which could be doubled. I ended up paying 94¢ a bag. (If you live near an Albertson’s there are MUCH better deals going on over there on Kraft stuff, but I don’t have the energy to drive for 30 minutes to shop with two little boys. When school starts, though, I might just have to try Albertson’s again! I’m a sucker for free cheese!)

Hot dog buns are 50¢ each with in-ad coupon.

Watermelon is $2.99 with in-ad coupon.

Remember how I earned a $3/$10 produce Catalina last week? I took advantage of that, and all of my produce (overpriced apples, bananas, onions, potatoes and watermelon) cost me $6.94.

I bought canning supplies and clearance ground beef this week, so I was worried that we wouldn’t have enough to cover groceries for camping. Thankfully my grand total for this trip was $24.52. Not shockingly good, but decent!

What do the Ratzlaff’s eat on a camping trip? Here’s my menu:

Thursday -Dinner:

• Hot Dogs in buns
• Watermelon
• Chips
• Smore’s

Friday -
Breakfast:

• Scrambled Eggs
• Bacon
• Canned Peaches
• Coffee/Cider

Lunch:

• Tuna Sandwiches (with curry and apple) in homemade whole wheat pita bread (Requested by my son. I really need to post about the homemade pita bread, huh?)
• Clam Chowder
• Fruit

Dinner:

• Marinated chicken thighs cooked over the fire (we tried this last time and it was delish!)
• Zucchini grilled over the fire
• probably chips and fruit
• Smore’s and hot chocolate

Saturday -
Breakfast:

• Pancakes
• Scrambled Eggs
• Coffee/Cider

Lunch:

• Peanut Butter and Peach Jam Sandwiches
• Bananas
• Chips

We try to keep it pretty simple, but I do LOVE cooking on camping trips!! For me, camping is about moving from meal to meal with a little bit of hiking/fishing/beach combing/reading/board games/bike rides/etc. thrown in for good measure. Oh, and it MUST include bacon. Just sayin’.

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