Flatlands 30°F

Ozark Trail is gonna be your friend for getting started on a budget but still using reliable gear. Coleman has really good sales too, and dependable stuff. Tents will do you just fine to get going. It won't have the fanciest features or be the lightest but it'll be plenty sturdy. If you'll often have 4 people in the tent, get a 6-person tent. If you can budget a little more or stalk for some sales, a Coleman 6-person Sundome or Skydome is going to be a super reliable and easy tent. If your kid ever gets into scouting, those are really common tents to see on their camping trips (we have a Skydome ourselves!)> I have the Coleman Flatlands sleeping bags, and I got them on sale last summer for $35/each. They're really big and puffy, suitable for car camping. Good starter bag. Get a sleeping pad and/or (for summer trips if you don't really need insulation) a cot. I got Ozark Trail ones at walmart, again stalked sales, and they work just fine. I actually really like the cots. (I got the [zipper cots](https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Trail-Zipper-Cot-Adult-75-5-x26-x-5-5/1494929280).) For cookware and stuff - honestly for starting out on a budget I'd probably look for local state or NPS sites where the site has a grill but to be sure you're in line with any fire restrictions you can get a little pocket stove on Amazon or (sturdier/bigger) a one-burner propane stove. For cookware - on the one-burner stove just bring stuff from your house at first if you're car camping. Definitely recommend starting out in your backyard. That was like magic to my son and so much fun for him and let me figure out what I was missing that I really wanted before our first time actually being in the woods. Have fun!

Camped when it hit 28 overnight. We put moving blankets(2 under and 2 on top)the air mattress, I used a Coleman sleeping bag that was rated for 30 degrees. Wore thick socks and a sock/slipper thing on top, thermal/base layer, hoodie, beanie, thermal leggings, left sweats in my bag if I needed them, 2 blankets on top of of me. Tossed a large hot hands into my bag and kept the other in my hoodie pocket. Slept great. Biggest learning curve is you instinctively want to zip your tent up tight, but you need the ventilation to keep condensation from forming and getting wet. We ran a small fan and zipped our window down about 4 inches