Summer is in full swing yet the stores are busy putting their summer stock on sale as Autumn decor and Halloween pumpkins are already being put on display. Now is the perfect time to grab some portable swimming pools at rock-bottom sale prices, always one of my favorite ways to save money!

Better yet, we can always shop online. We'll still get great prices, we'll have a much larger selection, and it'll save us a ton of time so we can have more time to spend with the kids and grandkids!

You can set up one of the new pools now or store them all for summer fun in the future. The big question is which one to get. Part of your answer will depend on the size of the kids, and the size of your budget. For the purposes of this Hub, we're going to go with 2-12, and under $100. Your choices include a hard-sided tot pool, an inflatable pool ranging in size from tiny to huge, and the multi-purpose units, complete with inflatable water slides.

Having years of experience with these types of pools, your two primary options are the inflatable pool or a hard-sided plastic pool. For this size pool, I prefer the hard plastic pool. For some reason, the smaller toddler's inflatable pool never seems to last very long, springing holes as fast as the kids can bounce up and down. Even if they don't have a hole, they keep losing their air and you always seem to start from scratch with them.

The hard plastic pools are easy to fill, easy to empty, easy to move around, and hold up well even with several little acrobatic tots jumping around all over the place. We've even had years where we used more than one pool to help little ones with special needs. With prices under $20, that was an easy way to handle it.

Now that my grandkids are getting older, their smart parents have gone the inflatable pool route. I was a bit leery at first, after bad experiences with the tiny inflatable pool option. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the bigger pools seem to be made with much stronger vinyl.

The kids and I have enjoyed several pool-side get-togethers this summer, with them jumping, splashing, bouncing, and having a blast, while I sit and enjoy watching them in action. Even when they've used the empty pool, stored on its side, as a "trampoline," there's been no holes, no leaks, and no problems. It has held up well, and the 6 foot by 10 foot size they have works well for all four of them. At a price of about $50, I highly recommend this pool.

These look GREAT! On the box, that is. Once you set it up, if it's one of the ones under $50, you discover a tiny pool and a not-much-bigger slide. It's probably fine for the toddler set, but way too small for the older kids I originally bought it for. You really need to check the dimensions carefully, and if you are as bad at guestimating from those as I am, ask a more mathematically inclined friend to help you decide how big something REALLY is.

I did see some VERY awesome looking ones, FOR $500!!!!! Definitely not in my budget this year, and I suspect that's true for a lot of us!

I personally have scratched these off my list of summer water fun options.

As you can probably tell, I definitely like the 6 foot by 10 foot inflatable pool that my grandkids have. You do need some yard space, but not that much. They are in a condo at the moment with a fairly small patio and there is room for this pool and a couple of chairs for us older folk to enjoy a nice iced tea and a pleasant afternoon supervising the young'ns,

It seems to hold up well, it's going to be easy to store once summer is over, and it's under $50. I give it a 10 on the list of my choices for portable swimming pools.