Camping Trip (The Art of Being Frugal)

This post isn't related to my trip to India. It's about the camping trip I took with friends last weekend and how we were able to get all the additional camping gear we needed for 'free'. It's not that I am broke, I actually have quite a bit of money now in the bank, but with my big trip coming up I need to cut expenses whenever possible.

One of the things I have gained from my time as a university student is a better understanding of 'the art of being frugal'. After all, money saved on camping gear is money that can be spent on more bacon (and/or future travel)!

We had most of what we needed for our weekend trip but where lacking a couple of items; mainly an extra tent, camera, lantern, and decent portable ipod speakers.

For those of you who don't already know, Wal-Mart has a great return policy. Regardness of whether or not you like the store, they are a great source for 'free rentals' of almost every type. WalMart's return policy for most goods is 90 days (30 days on electronics). This period is generally enough to cover almost an entire summer! Below are some of the items recently returned to WalMart after consuming their utility during our trip. Thanks for the freebies WalMart! 

Money Saved: Tent-$80, Lantern-$40, Ipod Speakers-$45, Digital Camera-$110

So how did camping go?
Well it was an interesting trip. We weren't able to book our camping site ahead of time but that ultimately turned out to work in our favor. We arrived in North Battleford late Friday night in the middle of a thunder storm. We opted for the most run down (read cheapest) motel we could find. I wanted to stay at the Beaver Inn for comical purposes but we settled for the Happy Inn, which seems to be an ironic name given its current condition and clientele.

We set off to the casino with some time to kill. After inhaling an unhealthy amount of second-hand smoke, and everyone except me losing their money, we headed back to our motel. The six of us spent the rest of the night people watching, playing drinking games, and other random forms of entertainment late into the morning..

Unpacking at the Happy Inn for the night.

The next morning we woke early (funny how no one thanked me for that part) and ventured to our campground. Some of the park was still flooded but our campsite was completely dry which was surprising given the previous nights storm. The rest of the weekend went by without any hiccups. Lots of bacon, hotdogs, rum and sunshine was consumed with good times had by all.

P.S. If anyone knows why I woke up Monday morning with a minor black eye please let me know.


Other tips on WalMart returns:

Walmart's only restriction on the number of returns is when you don't have their original reciepts. There is a limit of 3 returns per 6 month period. (This is the total times you returned items and not the actually number of items returned. So you can return 10 items all at once and it will still only count as one return.)

If you don't want to have a file on their computer for returns pay with cash and keep your receipts. You can then give a fake name and number as it won't have to get processed on your debit/credit card (they will only ask for ID on some returns without receipts).

Repackage it as best as you can as it will make the process smoother for everyone. They will take it even if you destroyed the packaging while opening it. (They return items that look like they were never opened to the shelves and ship any worn looking product back to their warehouse.)