There’s up to 50% off tents at Tesco for tents and outdoor equipment in preparation for the bank holiday weekend.

• Go camping with 50% off at Tesco

We’re pretty fond of camping, if for no reason other than the ability to stretch our holiday money a lot further than staying in a hotel we hardly see anyway.  We camped right up till late in my 7^th month of pregnancy, and when our daughter was 8 months old, we took to the road again for 8 weeks – although we did balance the costs out with a few hotel stays towards the end.

I’m really looking forward to this summer and unpacking the gear again, and setting off for the most deserted spots we can find – which admittedly are going to be even fewer and further apart this year, since it seems no one has much money for luxury holidays – or at least, no one we know.

So, if you’re hoping to join the masses in a cheaper family holiday, Tesco comes to the rescue with this 6 Person Vis a Vis Tent for just £75, down from £150.  Or if there’s more of you, you could try the 12 sleeper Teepee Tent which with 20% off is down to £143.20. That’s less than 12 of you will pay in a hotel for one night.  For something a little more intimate, there’s the 2-person dome tent, a 1/3^rd off at £20.

Happy camping!

It will be a nice summer this year. It will, it will! I am determined that this year we'll be out in the garden. After the winter we've had, I need all the sunshine I can get. So outdoor garden toys are definitely on the top of my need-to-get list.

• Click here to get bouncing with Focus

We've already got a trampoline, and I can't rave enough about how much fun they are for playing on. Focus have reduced this 10ft trampoline with enclosure from £149.99 to £99.99. But you can get a further 20% off the price, and pay £84.99, using the code below.

• Discount: 20%
• Promotion code: FRIENDS11
• Expires: unknown

To use the code, go to the My Basket page and enter it in the Promotion Code. The discount will be applied immediately to your order.

The 10ft trampoline is suitable for children aged six years and over. The maximum user weight for this trampoline is 100kg. It has galvanised springs and tubing, and weather resistant pads. It also comes with an enclosure, as the name suggests.

I think enclosures are essential for trampolines. My niece dug a hole in their garden, and put the trampoline in there so it was flush with ground level. But that's not possible in everyone's garden. Kids do eventually come off trampolines. Every child I knew growing up, when no-one had enclosures, who had a trampoline broke an arm or a leg at some point.

Our cat has taken to using the blue foam padding on the sides of the enclosure as a scratching post! The poor things are looking almost completely shredded. I was wondering if lagging, of the kind you use to keep pipes from freezing, is a suitable substitute? It is fairly cheap to get and we're going to go through a lot if the cat keeps this up. Has anyone tried that, and did it work?

Thanks to lyndaloo at HUKD!

Shopping for outdoor equipment may well be the furthest thing from your mind in this cold and dark weather, but with at least 20% to 50% off at Field and Trek, I couldn't resist dreaming of summer camping again.

• Hike on over to Field and Trek for awesome discounts

I love camping, and although it's taken us a few years to build up proper gear, we have a pretty comfortable camping set up now. It requires a family size vehicle to get us from place to place, but at least we're in the lap of outdoor luxury when we get there.

With reductions off on a host of outdoor equipment, you can have a luxury camping too. From the Campri Knife Fork Spoon for £1.00, reduced from £3.99, for compact packing, to Terra Nova Laser Space 5 Tent for £570.00 down from £749.99 for family accommodation, there are over 500 items to choose from.

The range is suitable for amateur to pro, backyard camper (Karrimor Rapid Pitch Tent, £20.00 down from £49.99) to festival day-tripper (Campri Picnic Rug, 67% off at £5) to mountain enthusiast (Mountain Equipment Snowline Sleeping Bag, now £259.99 instead of £324.99).

The only catch is that the sale ends on Sunday 31 October at midnight, so you don't have much time left to start your camping kit, or expand on an existing collection. Delivery is standard or 24-hour and will be charged extra at checkout.

Thanks to YCSB at HUKD

Originally retailing for £159.99, a rather terrifyingly high price in my opinion, this backpack is now down to a lovely £39.99 at Kiddicare.com. It’s a fantastic saving but they are selling out fast so you’d better hurry if you want to nab one of these!

• Click here to carry yourself to Kiddicare.com

The Baby Weavers Expedition back carrier is suitable for babies of six months and all the way up until they are 18kg toddlers. Although my daughter isn’t 18kgs yet and she’s about to go to school, so you could get quite a lot of mileage out of this.

It has loads of storage space that can easily handle two bottles and some toys. It is easy to adjust while it’s on your back and has padded hip and shoulder pads that can be modified to suit different heights and sizes. The area where your little one sits is padded and can also be adjusted to suit as they grow.

You get a removable sun hood that has rain and wind flaps that can be fixed together when needed and the entire carrier can be folded flat for travel. Baby is held in place with a four-way harness, it has a folding stand for easy balance while putting the child in, and it weighs in at 2.65kgs.

Thanks to lynexxxo at HUKD

The Outwell competition has ended and two lucky families are walking away with these fabulous prizes. Outwell gave us one set of a Dino Sleeping Bag and Dino Self-Inflating Mattress and one set of Flowies Sleeping Bag and Flowies Self-Inflating Mattress. If you've not been following this competition, see our review here.

So! Who won the awesome Dino set? Well none other than lovely mum Jen. Congratulations Jen! Your set will be posted off on Saturday to reach you during the course of next week. We hope it brings you lots of happy memories.

The winner of the pretty Flowies set is Tara! She'll be receiving her set next week too!

Thanks again to Outwell for letting us have these great products and hosting a rather lovely competition for the festival season.

I Want One Of Those.com (IWOOT) sent PlayPennies a bundle of brilliantly bewildering camping accessories that you just know, because they are from IWOOT, are completely insane. We had these sent along to our old PlayPennies regular, Heidi, who promptly whisked them off on a camping holiday with her husband and two boys...

The Briefcase Barbeque

We all loved this idea. A proper bb that’s compact and portable, and in a briefcase. So what did Heidi think?

“I loved the idea of this. I thought it would be perfect for the beach or camping, but in reality it’s just too small for our needs as a family of four,” she said, “We went camping this weekend with friends and had planned to cook dinner on it, but once we got it out the box we realised there was no way we were going to fit food for four adults and two children on it.”

Heidi did go on to say that there is a bigger version available for the larger camping group of humans but that she couldn’t really recommend the smaller one for a family at all.

“It might work fine for a couple with a baby not yet on solids,” she added, “But then, if you’re camping at that stage of life you’re probably so superhuman you take gourmet meals with you, or have a butler.”

The friends Heidi went camping with also felt that it would be too small for just the two of them and she wasn’t sure it would cook the meat properly. However, they did find the perfect use of it – an impromptu campfire around which they sang songs and made s’mores and toasted marshmallows.

“Maybe they should ditch the bbq bith and market it as a portable campfire complete with the ingredients to make tasty campfire treats,” said Heidi, “Now that I could get excited about.”

She also felt that it was a mission to clean, difficult to locate smaller bags of charcoal for, and nowhere near as convenient as a disposable bbq. Except for the green angle, of course. You wouldn’t be contributing to landfill with the IWOOT one.

“As a gift it’s actually quite inspired,” said Heidi, “And it will probably be the inspiration for some impromptu family fun, as long as we can find some small bags of charcoal.”

The Pocket Towel

“The pocket towel takes a bit of getting used to in terms of the way it soaks up moisture but it's reasonably effective,” said Heidi, “It also scores high points for being portable and taking up minimal space in your luggage.”

Certainly this is an ingenious idea and is something that will definitely come in handy for the camping family. So small it can be secreted away anywhere in the car, easy to use and very useful for camping, this gadget won Heidi over.

“One of the best things about the pocket towel is how quickly it dries,” she said, “None of this having soggy towels at the bottom of your beach bag, or lurking in the corner of your tent. I know a mum who bought one of these for her daughter’s teacher as a thank you gift at the end of the school year.”

“The teacher is going backpacking around Australia during the summer and was reportedly thrilled. And I can see why! This is an inspired gift for festival goers and intrepid explorers.”

Costing £9.99, this seems like a fabulous investment for families that camp.

The Pocket Shower

I have been dying to hear about this particular review. I’ve been quite excited to see if it worked, how it worked, and what happened when you used it. Here is Heidi’s onsite report.

“The idea is that you fill it with ten litres of water, hang it from a tree, and let the sunshine heat up the water within, giving you a seven minute shower,” explains Heidi, “I might be missing a trick but I just don’t get this. You’ve got to go to the lengths of finding ten litres of water, pouring it in to this, hanging it from a tree and waiting for it to warm up – all for the shortest shower of your life.”

Unfortunately the pocket shower just didn’t strike a chord with Heidi at all.

“The only place you’re likely to find that much water whilst camping is in a tap, and a tap strikes me as all you’ll need for a wash anyway. Besides, what kind of campsite doesn’t have shower facilities?” she wondered, “Perhaps if you’re camping in the Australian outback but where would  you find ten litres of water in the Bush?”

Ultimately Heidi felt that this was more of a gimmicky gift that may come in handy for an intrepid explorer but that overall it was more for entertaining her kids on a hot day and not really worth the £14.99 price tag.

And Finally

The Pocket Towel was the clear winner in this review, useful and helpful it did what it should and made a big difference to her camping experience. The bbq was a bit too small for her family but should perhaps be judged only on that level as she never got a chance to cook on it. If this appeals to you, get the bigger version just in case.

In honour of the festival and camping season, these delectably warm and toasty summer days, PlayPennies was sent some adorable sleeping bags and self-inflatable mattresses to review. Parents can choose from a funky flower design called Flowies Rose, or a DINO Explorer range with lots of lovely dinosaurs.

While I appreciate that perhaps girls won’t like dinosaurs or boys won’t like flowers, I’m not a fan of forcing a gender stereotype on anyone so I won’t be allocating a gender to this review.

Outwell Self Inflatable Mattress

How cool is this? I loathe having to blow up/pump up anything. I think old age has rendered me incapable of blowing up even balloons, so getting in a mat that will do all the hard work for me is pure genius.

The two different self-inflatable mats we were sent had either a funky green and red dinosaur pattern or a pretty lilac and green flower pattern. They have plenty of other colours and designs on their site too, so if neither of these appeal to you there will be others there that you might like.

The mattress didn’t take long to sort out. I only had to slip it out of the included cover and follow the simple instructions. You have to do a teeny bit of inflating at first. I suppose this is to activate it or something, but it didn’t demand a lot of effort to do.

After about five minutes, as opposed to the advertised two, the mattress was fully inflated and ready to go. I had to top it up a bit after a while but this is quite normal for most inflatable mattresses as the fabric settles.

My daughter adored it. She lay down on it and refused to get off. It’s really a lovely size for her (she’s four) and its dimensions are 160x51x3cm. Because we didn’t have any camping trips planned in time for this review I did a field test in the lounge. My daughter was set up with the sleeping bag (see below) and snugly ensconced on the mattress for the night.

I must admit that I expected lots of cries of, “Mooommeee” to continue throughout the night, but instead she did her usual three (a wee, a drink and a cuddle) and fell straight to sleep. In fact, because of the novelty value, we got an extra hour of sleep that morning. Oh, how I wish I could keep this mattress!

The only down sides, for me, are the fact that the site is determined to make them gender specific, and that the dinosaurs were a bit disappointing. I would have hoped for something a bit more detailed than the plain black images.

These retail for around £17.99 which feels like a good price for a product that does all the hard work and looks good for kids.

Outwell Sleeping Bags

The same designs seen on the self-inflating mattresses are repeated on the sleeping bags but with some neat little extras. Flowies has a fairy motif while the dinosaurs have, well, a dinosaur motif. The bags come with a cap compression sack and measure 165x70x40cm. They are really cute and my daughter just adored hers.

What makes these quite impressive is the long list of specifications. They come with a ridge hood and thermocollar insulation around the shoulder area for extra protection. There is a full length zip baffle complete with an anti-snag guard (thank goodness!) and an inside mesh pocket for storing all those little toys and secret things.

The fabric, for those of you who are camping buffs, is 230T microfibre polyester.

I have to admit that, in spite of a life of camping up and down two continents, I am possibly the worst roller-upper-of-sleeping-bags in the universe. I have been incapable of reducing a sleeping bag to the size it needs for insertion into tiny bag from Day One.

Sadly, this is no exception. I sweated, heaved and rolled until I gave up and had a sulk. This isn’t really a good basis for a review though, because my husband ambled in and did it in seconds. I think, perhaps, sleeping bags have it in for me. Possibly they’ve teamed up with spiders to keep me on my toes.

These Outwell sleeping bags sit in the region of £22.99, a reasonable price for a quality sleeping bag methinks. I love the patterns and styles available and felt that this was a good quality product that appealed to its target market.

And Finally

As a special surprise for PlayPennies readers we are giving away two complete sets of the Outwell kids range to two lucky winners. Check out the competition here and follow the simple instructions to win. I really do recommend these products to future parental campers and festival goers so good luck to you all!

We’re celebrating the magic of festivals and camping and summer delights this July, and giving away a bunch of goodies from Outwell. Outwell have a collection of camping accessories for kids and are giving away two delectable sets – a self-inflating mattress and sleeping bag in two different designs. 

The Dino Explorer sleeping bag and self-inflating mat are toasty and comfy and ideal for anyone who loves dinosaurs. The scrummy Outwell Flowies sleeping bag and self-inflating mat are flowering pink and lilac delights for those who prefer something more colourful. Check out our review tomorrow!

Instead of uncomfortable kids and moaning minnies, you’ll have toasty tots that snooze their way happily through the festivities, leaving you some free time to relax and soak up the atmosphere. Each prize is valued at £41 – an awesome prize indeed! 

So, how do you get to win your set?

• Subscribe to the PlayPennies daily email update (1 entry)
• Leave a comment in the thread below saying Dino or Flowies for your choice of prize (1 entry)
• Tweet a link to this contest and leave your twitter link below (1 bonus entry) 

Rules: 

1. The contest ends on Friday 06 August 2010
2. Open to UK residents only
3. 1 person per household may enter
4. Must complete email verification when subscribing
5. Must include a valid email address if commenting
6. Admin’s decision is final in call cases 

The winner will be announced on Monday 09 August and your prizes sent out that same week. Please expect delivery within two weeks of the announcement.

I am torn. When I see a sale like this one it tears me right down the middle. On one hand I am delighted because it means I can sort out my camping kit and get some bits and pieces I couldn’t afford before. On the other hand it means that they’re getting rid of summer stock because winter is on the way. Booo hooo.

• Click here to see what’s happening in the sale at B&Q

Firmly ignoring the sobbing summer bunny in my head, I shall bravely move on and talk about the deals we have going here at B&Q.  There’s quite a bit of stuff in the sale and I’ll highlight a couple of goodies.

In the picnic and tableware section the Gelert Summer cool bag is down to £2.49, melamine plates and bowls are as little as 99p, a complete picnic set (pictured) is only £4.98 and a rug is only £4.48. You could probably get an entire picnic’s worth of new items for less than £20.

Depending on your budget and the size of your family the tents are quite varied in price. The Gelert Horizon 8 man tent is £224.54, down from £449.98, and the Scafell Rock Eclipse 2 man tent is down to £19.95 from £39.95 (bargain!).  You can even nab a starter set for £49.98.

Thanks to tony_termite at HUKD!

Are you planning on attending a festival this year? If so, please tell us all about it and what you have in your knapsack , and how you prepared for every eventuality. I am desperate to try it out with my tots but also a little nervous. Anyway, here is a portable gas camping stove from Asda that’s less than a tenner and may well be perfect for those scrummy camping meals.

• Click here to sizzle on over to ASDA

To be honest, with a delivery charge of £4.95 (ASDA, what are you like?), I would recommend collecting in-store. That’s a ridiculously high price and would kind of kill the deal a bit.

The portable gas stove comes with a strong carry case to protect it against bumps and crashes and has only one plate. You have an adjustable heat gauge and will need to get your gas separately. I know that this is revealing my age a tad, but I remember when camping was all about hiking to the nearest bbq spot and spending ages creating a fire to make coffee...

Anyway, with this beauty you’ll be whipping up hot coffee and tasty meals in no time at all, turning your festival into a luxury campout that will make your camping neighbours into friends. After all, who can resist being mates with the organised people?

Thanks to Finnboy at HUKD!