If you’ve been following my blog you’ll know that while writing on here a week or so ago, I had the random idea to dash off camping.

Having not been in a tent since I was approximately five years old, it meant we had a lot of equipment to buy.  Everything from the tent right down to the kettle.

Since that first idea, I’ve been camping twice (yep, every weekend since). I’ve learnt a lot of lessons along the way and here are some of the main ones:

- If you need to buy yourself a lot of kit in one go, plan it first and shop around.  Don’t do what I did and just dash out to a big mega store, they are not always the cheapest place.

-Look at your local Tesco, or shop there online.  They have some crazy bargains all of which knock socks off the prices we paid.

- When buying your tent, think about the future.  Get the biggest one you can afford, trust me, you won’t regret it.  I bought a small two man tent and now immediately want a bigger one. The cheapest deals on bigger tents I found was Millets sale, check it out here.

- Don’t always go for style over substance.  We bought a particular windbreak because it matched our tent colour.  It cost twice as much as all the others and lasted approximately one hour before the poles bent and the fabric sagged.  We are now taking it back and changing it for the cheaper but far more functional one.

- Pack from home.  Chances are you’ll have heaps of the stuff you need in yoru house already.  Don’t be seduced into buying proper frying pans, duvets etc, we use the ones from our house and they work just as well.

Enjoy…