The summer holidays as lovely as they are can be quite a long time to fill

[Lardlizard]

Without spendings loads
Going on our main holiday in Oct, have had a few days at seaside but finding it tricky without spending loads
If I spend loads and ceveryother day is mini golf cinema bowling swimming food or drinks out etc
That seems easier but can’t do that everyday so mixing it up bit the rain isn’t helping

How old are your DC?

Yes, it's very expensive.

Harder as they get older too.

Taking mine to a trampoline park this week which will cost £30. That will only fill a couple of hours though.

Also cinema, swimming, bowling etc.

We live in suburban London so can go to the free museums which is good but the travel ends up costing about £10-15.

My ds is 10.
Free stuff - We take a picnic and one of his friends and cycle on the common or along the canal. Or he chooses a food and we make it at home. Our town has street theatre and farmers markets that are free.
The local tennis club had free have a go sessions for children.
We visit friends & relatives. We’ve planted salad & veggies in gro-bags to grow through the autumn. We’ve climbed the local beacon. Water fights in the garden. I set up a treasure hunt for him & his mate, which took me an hour.
Lots of borrowed books & dvds..

Our local trampoline park does a summer season ticket, £30 and you can go as often as you like through the summer.

Yabu - my kids are off school for 12 weeks! 🤣

How old are your DC? It's harder when they get older, and obviously more expensive the more DC you have.

For primary age I used to scour all local info to find out what our local library, leisure centre, parks were putting on for free, or at least cheaply. That was 10 or more years ago though and I suspect a lot of these things have disappeared under cuts.

Sometimes we would go to a park slightly further than our local one and take a picnic.

Oh and play dates . My DC is an only so I used to set up loads of these and if we were lucky he was invited back!

Dh gets paid twice in July which is a total godsend, as the holidays cost a bloody fortune.

@timeforakinderworld where do you live?

Italy. School holidays started mid-June and end mid-September.