How do you budget/plan for trips and days out?

[SushiGo]

I'm working through our yearly budget. One area we often overspend on is trips and days out.

There’s some obvious ways we can save money BUT what I am really interested in is how other families decide how often you will go on a day trip or activity throughout the year, and would love to hear your long term planning tips.

Do you have a budget per month and book it all in advance? Do you spread it around so there's more to spend in the holidays?

Do you book things as and when but have an idea of how many high, medium and low cost things you can afford to do each year?

Any other approaches I haven't thought of?

We have different pots of money we save into every month. We have a holidays fund for the big trips, and a leisure fund for day trips and also things like birthdays. I have a spreadsheet and work out what I know is coming up that year: school holidays etc, have a set amount going in each month and so I can see how much we have left over in the fund to know which months are more flush for extra trips etc.

We also have a Tesco Clubcard credit card which is great for day trips vouchers.

Interesting idea, thank you.

Do you have a joint back account with a pot function? I don't think ours does this.

No we have a joint account and then each have various savings accounts with the same bank, I hold the Christmas, leisure and holiday funds and DH has the car fund and his own saving pots. Our money is entirely pooled but like you say I couldn't see a savings account we could both see but not too worried as the spreadsheet is accessible to us both. I wonder if something like Hyper Jar which I use for the kids' pocket money could work for that.

Vouchers, well Tesco club card vouchers paid for Legoland, sea life centre twice, Black Country living museum, Conkers and other stuff. We always took snacks and juice boxes. We didn’t lug loads of stuff round though.

We have also used air miles for hotel and car hire but DH used to get absolutely loads with his job. We also used to join DH at his destination sometimes so his flights were already paid for by his workplace , we also have relatives in America, Hong Kong and Spain.

We have tended to book holidays last minute as well, made some really good savings. Honeymoon was last minute teletext, remember that?

We have totally separate accounts but there was never a big financial disparity due to the way everything was split. There is a disparity in income now as I have retired early but the way we have dealt with It means we each have very similar amounts left over.

The relatives in other countries made a huge difference. They would spoil us and then we would go off on a road trip. We have obviously had them stay with us.

I love going out and do as much free stuff as possible. Day trips to the beach, hikes, bike rides, museums, art galleries are all free but often would spend money on the travel. We’d have to eat anyway and will take food and drink with us. Occasionally we’ll buy food out.
I use Tesco club card when I can. Kids have blue peter badges and that saved us money for some things.
Some things I have to pay full price for so those things are 2-3 times a year. Last year it was an aquarium, ice skating and a castle visit.

I save fivers!! Since December I have £130!! Little jar and wrap them in the inside.. Builds up fast.
Dc's spending money.
And £2 coins. Got £70 since prob late summer..

I'm a member of CSSC Sports and Leisure, which is a club for public sector works and costs under £5 a month (but the membership more than pays for itself).

Through this, I can get discounted cinema tickets, discounted tickets to Merlin theme parks, English Heritage membership, free entry to Kew Gardens, discounts on days out to selected zoos and other attractions, occasional cheap theatre tickets.

The English Heritage membership is particularly useful, as it means we can always plan a trip out, even when money is tight.

I tend to use this as my principal 'go to' for days out and plan many (but not all) of our trips out around this.

Admittedly, we're not very good with money / budgeting. But we've got no debt and we save every month.

Day trips out are usually decided on a whim or just a few days in advance. We keep things as inexpensive as possible so it's a lot of nature/beach/hiking stuff and we pack a picnic. We chose cheap activities such as little train rides, natural sites seeings, museums, and stay away from typically pricey stuff such as theme parks. We pay for any expense on the leisure monthly "budget" which is not a set amount but we've got an idea of what we can afford at a given time. It's the same money that would pay for restaurant and a sitter, shared family fun fund type of deal.

Vacation/holidays are a bigger expense so when we know a destination we want to get to, we get an idea of how much we'll need for accommodation, transport, how long we would ideally be gone, and start saving several months in advance based on expected cost.

I have a lot of time off work in the summer and my husband doesn't, so it's just me and the kids and we'll generally go camping for about 10days and extend the vacation by visiting friends and family.

Then once a year in autumn we take the family annual vacation, when we frequently chose an abroad destination based on the cheapest flights we can get. This year we didn't go as I was 9 months pregnant, but last year we went to Portugal on a 400€ budget !

Lastly we've got family in the US where my husband is from, but that's a big saving enterprise unfortunately spanning over quite a few years in between every visit.

Do lots of no fee trips. Sea side with a picnic , or mountain hikes

We have monthly pots. I don't use a bank account for it, I use YNAB (sneaky referral link)

It does have a yearly charge but to be honest it pays for itself in savings. I never thought it would but it does.

So generally days out are budgeted for as and when we have spare money for things like that. Or I have a spreadsheet where I note down anything that looks good, under various headings like rainy day, free, cheap, to try, to do again, etc. So there's usually something to do even if we don't have much spare money.

We buy in advance usually. We save for the summer holidays for trips out too.
Also look online for deals, have annual tickets for some places which saves a bomb!

I use monzo and have a pot of fun money.
Budget a set amount each month. Birthdays, holidays have a separate pot.
Fun money is days out, eating out, random Aldi middle aisle splurges.

Good thread OP.
It's made me realise that I need to plan these trips, rather than just going on a whim. Some good ideas here.

My employers run a social club membership, where I can get discount tickets on theatre trips etc. I use Tesco clubcard vouchers for trips to Legoland, sea life etc but we also have a holiday pot we use if vouchers don't cover the total cost.

I've got annual passes for a couple of different things ~ aquarium, a museum and the National trust. Next year I might get one for somewhere different. These are already budgeted / paid for and then we can do one or two other trips plus lots of free activities. Some places when you pay once you can get in all year.

I’ve literally just seen a post on Facebook about this. The woman had envelopes with the trip names on the front I.e zoo, the cost of entry, petrol and other spends on the envelope and as and when she can she puts money into the envelope until she has the right amount then when they want to go they just grab the envelope and it’s all sorted. She even had the beach on one envelope but had budgeted for petrol and arcades.

I try to be really frugal for daily items and follow my friend's mantra that the less you do it the more of a treat it is.

@ILoveMyMonkey

I’ve literally just seen a post on Facebook about this. The woman had envelopes with the trip names on the front I.e zoo, the cost of entry, petrol and other spends on the envelope and as and when she can she puts money into the envelope until she has the right amount then when they want to go they just grab the envelope and it’s all sorted. She even had the beach on one envelope but had budgeted for petrol and arcades.

I like this idea.

@BertieBotts

We have monthly pots. I don't use a bank account for it, I use YNAB (sneaky referral link)

It does have a yearly charge but to be honest it pays for itself in savings. I never thought it would but it does.

So generally days out are budgeted for as and when we have spare money for things like that. Or I have a spreadsheet where I note down anything that looks good, under various headings like rainy day, free, cheap, to try, to do again, etc. So there's usually something to do even if we don't have much spare money.

Definitely tempted to try something like YNAB. I need to be able to see, in some way, how much is left.

We are fantastic at cheap days out and know most of the tricks there (although going to look at some of these!)

I think our main issue is that we say yes to friend/family suggestions too often and end up doing too much and going over budget because of that. Especially where meeting to do something medium priced then turns into going to dinner etc

I use a budgeting app, used to use YNAB but the price went up a lot so switched to Actual Budget which is about £3 a month.
I budget what we can afford after essentials are covered, some months it's nothing and some months it's £50-100. DCs are teens now so we don't really do days out unless we're on holiday. Holiday days out are budgeted for separately and I plan the activities around the budget.

That envelope tip has given me another idea....I might start buying & putting away Costa/Starbucks gift cards when I'm out shopping. Then when we go out, if I've got a £10 coffee shop gift card, it takes the sting out of paying for meals & drinks on the day.

We manage this by spending money on/asking for gifts of memberships - some things are regular but others we swap about year on year.

We also take a picnic from home by default.

We have similarly frugal friends which makes it easier

Definitely tempted to try something like YNAB. I need to be able to see, in some way, how much is left

Another way, that's free and less faffy once set up, would be to set up standing orders to different accounts. Or pots within the same account.

One for mortgage/rent and other regular bills

One for food/petrol/transport and other day to day essentials

One for annual and irregular expenses like Christmas/holidays/insurance/car repairs, white goods replacement, vets bills, school uniforms etc etc etc

One for car replacement, home improvements, other big expenses

One for genuine emergencies like loss of income due to illness/job loss etc. Maybe combine this and the other two in one account, but three pots if you want to.

What's left can be split for family days out and then separate accounts for personal spending for adults. So you have a 'family days out' pot so you know how much is affordable for all of these.

Once set up, you just need to check once a month that all is well and maybe adjust the standing orders if you've built up too much of a surplus (eg not had holidays due to covid, saved enough to replace all your appliances but everything still works, that sort of thing) or had to overspend due to a larger than expected car repair bill.

For getting more for your money for days out, always look for a deal or discount code, they're nearly always available and, like a PP says, take a picnic from home as a default. Food at attractions is almost always overpriced, poor quality and at the end of a long queue. Why would you want to eat it anyway?

If we go somewhere we will take a packed lunch with us as it saves time queuing and money. Even if we pick up a meal deal for £3 each that’s more substantial than eating at the location for the same price.

Pre covid we would pick a place where you pay once and go back for free all year, we would go 4 times in the year so it ended up being really affordable.

I know the national lottery did a promotion where you buy a lottery ticket and you can redeem a free day out ticket somewhere, don’t know if that has stopped now or the finer details of it but they’ve also done it for free cinema tickets in the past.

Bigger trips like Disneyland I used to have a jar that I would throw any and all change into and would save a few hundred pounds each time. We don’t really deal with physical money any more so I have bagged all the remaining change and that’ll be going to the bank and I’ll have to repurpose my jar!

Also free museums, most cities will have them, Manchester has a few, Leeds has a couple too. And whilst they might not be full days out they are usually pretty good and worth a look round!

Planning ahead, even if just a bit is key. It can reduce the cost significantly.

The National Rail 2for1 days out means you can have the cost if entrance to lots of attractions. You just need to plan a few days in advance and for some things book.

I also tend to take packed lunches in summer and just buy a coffee at the venue and probably ice creams. In the winter though, we might factor in lunch - but again, planning ahead means you can choose a cafe or restaurant with a deal…..I have the MeerKat restaurant discount app via my insurance and that can bring savings, although not so likely at weekends.

Having just 1 membership rather than several can be good. It’s hard to get good value from lots. Tesco Clubcard gives access to membership for English Heritage or the RHS. Instantly you have a year of days out for free if you use points.

Take water bottles out for kids and refill them. Kids drinks can cost you a fortune in a day out. Likewise, always have a packet of biscuits/fruit for when they’re hungry.

I’m the summer I mix up the days out. I certainly do several costly days out - used to be the children’s farm, or zoo or whatever. Now might be a theatre trip or theme park. However, mixed in are lots of days to the park, or walks or being in people’s gardens. It keeps the cost down.

On holiday, where we tend to self cater, we do similar. We will usually spend a couple of days at attractions where you pay and I increasingly like to eat out once a day most days so it feels like a real break, but we also do seaside days and other activities where the cost might just be an ice cream. Ice cream for 4 though is £10 each time. We spend it, but could save that by having some days where we eat ice cream from the cottage freezer etc.

Buying treat food to take on picnics or buying a meal deal from M and S can make the day out feel more special, but costs far less than eating in what is often an over priced and frankly quite grubby snd unimpressive attraction cafe.