How much is half term going to cost you?

[hidinginthenightgarden]

I have taken the week off for half term. DD is in nursery wed and Thurs. DS is off all week but I have paid for him to go to a sports club for half a day on Thursday so I can have some time to myself.
We have a pass for a local attraction so I plan to spend tuesday morning there for the cost of icecreams.
Wednesday I have booked tenpin bowling - half term deal is less than £20 for 2 and we get a burger each. We have free tickets from a party for the trampoline park next door too so will do that aswel.
Thursday afternoon - cinema using free tickets from the bank.
Friday - whatever free activities I can think of. Treasure hunts, paper mache models, science experiments, make den in garden etc.
Total cost - Icecream - £6
Bowling £20 + £10 for drinks
Cinema - £5 for drinks and sweets
£20 budget for bumping up free(ish) activities
£15 for sports club
Total £76
Hoping to reduce it!
What are you doing?
Any free activity ideas or national deals you can share for others?

I don’t tend to spend much really. If the weathers dry we do park,Forest, national trust. DS is an only child so we meet up with different friends. He loves cinema,bowling etc but we don’t go very often. He’s 10. I know we’re on countdown to the park not cutting it. Probably another year and I’ll be haemorrhaging money.

DS is 5.
Tuesday and Wednesday he'll mainly be with MIL. She'll take him to a railway/nature place costing £8 and he'll play at hers.
Thursday-DH is taking him skiing on a dry ski slope. Probably £50 for the whole trip.
Friday-I'm taking him to a country house with a water park. We have a season ticket, so £5 for the bus.

80euros for 2 kids at dance camp 8am-4pm Monday to Friday. They are very excited. Special treat not childcare for us.

No childcare due to DH being a SAHD but we're going away for 5 days on a cheaper caravan holiday so £250 for the caravan and £300 spends = £550 still a really cheap holiday tho!

So far £56.

This is for daily swimming lesson for 4yo and 6yo.

I will take them cinema too which will be at least another £20.

Other plans are parks / picnics / walks along canal / playdates.

I'll factor £20 for lunches

So less than £100.

Meant to say I've taken annual leave for the week (well 2 days of it, I work PT and had the Monday off anyway!)

DH 'forgot' to book if off. So a nice extra £150 on the childminder bill for us for 4 bloody days.

(And before anyone says I should have booked it off I was off Christmas, last half term and Easter which was only a month ago with them)

I'm so pleased to see people aren't spending £££ entertaining their kids. I always feel like I am being cheap!
DS has only been Bowling once before as it is so expensive and DD is too young for it to be worthwhile so that is a treat.
I was just thinking about all the games we have that never get played with so we might have a game marathon!

Fatted that is not on! I hope you made him source the childcare!

I work termtime only, so could be off with them anyway.

We’ve chosen to come away to Cornwall, cortage for the week was £800 ish, petrol to get here £50.

We’ll eat out once every day for around £60, but won’t spend much else while we’re here. Not a cheap week, but we love it. And if we were at home there would be cinema/bowling/lunches out etc.

OP, we brought loads of games away with us. Good job too, the weather’s not looking great today!

Monday we are going to the lighthouse with family will rockpool probably a £5 to get in and climb the lighthouse. I work Tuesday and Wednesday so Tuesday my husband is off and they are going on a bike ride, Wednesday my mum is looking after my little boy at our house. Thursday we are getting ready to go away for 2 nights that cost 120 am taking about 100 for food, national trust entry and treats but not expecting to spend it all. We get back Saturday so wont do much then Sunday it's swimming lessons then maybe park . usually I try to do at least a few free days in the holidays have a look at what your council has on at the parks and swimming pools. Most of the free museums do activities aswell

I’m working Weds-Fri, holiday club is £40 a day for each of my two DC so £240.

Thankfully I’ll have only needed 10 days formal childcare in a year

We tend to do days out at National Trust places or local attractions for which we already have tickets so the only extra cost once the ticket/pass is bought is ice creams generally as we take a picnic. One of them you can also hire bikes at which we do occasionally but I think that's only about £5 for 2 hours.

We also do swimming, (£4 for both kids as I have gym membership) cinema (normally £7.50 unless we get pick and mix from Wilko - we just go to the mini morning shows), trip to park or library etc which is free/cheap.

All in I reckon I'll spend less than £25.

We are going camping for a few nights this half term so that's an extra expense but it isn't until the weekend so I don't think it's fair to count that in the cost of entertaining the kids for half term as we would have gone anyway it just falls on next weekend.

Should add kids are 6 and 8

You can spend whatever you are willing. Usually I spent nothing apart from petrol and picnic ingredients (same as term time packed lunches), parks and countryside are free. If I was working once the kids got past 10 they would go to the museum or library (both free)

I hope those of you having holidays have fun!
We are visiting my mum Monday and are spending time at the gym today so I haven't counted those!

Our local council is having a fun day on Monday. There will be a playbus with arts and crafts so we will go to that.
Lots of picnics if the weather is good.

We may go in a bear hunt across the marshes, take the book and honey sandwiches.

Local museums are free and usually have half term activities.

I don’t want to spend more than £75 for the week

Logoplanter - I don't count the weekend costs as we would have those whether it was halfterm or not!

Apart from an overnight hotel stay and lots of petrol to visit family, not a lot. No childcare issues and I'm at work anyway.

Money on the garden? Lots and lots.

It’s standard nursery for us tuesday-wednesday. On Thursday we’re going to Disney Paris for a few days, which is painfully expensive.

We go to various green areas near us and go the park. We often take bikes, toys and a picnic with us so not much spending there. We’ll still go if it’s raining a bit but won’t have a picnic.
We re going to the beach one day so that’s petrol money
Otherwise it’s just relaxing at home.

Too much!! single working mum - so 2 days holiday club - £60. Trip to Norfolk to a dinosaur park, stay overnight and bewilderwood the next day.. food out and petrol...

We've already spent £200 in a ferry to iow. In-laws live there and that's how much it costs in the holidays with a car! Plus diesel to drive over an hour to ferry port. And another 40 mins on island.

I just write out a list of everything but it felt like a stealth boast and also made me realise that I am really crap with money!!

The upshot is it's really expensive and I'm appalled!

When I get home the budgeting will begin!!

I have £15 disposable money to last until Friday. So lots of parks for us (luckily DS is 3 so is happy with that). Will do a nice day trip at the weekend when pay has come in :)