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?

Thanks - but as I said in the OP I don't need advice about packing a picnic or using 2 for 1 vouchers. We already do all those things.

Also I don't imagine many people have picnics for dinner in the dark in December, so we do need to budget for meals out occasionally!

I asked for advice about how people decide on how many days out to have and how to spread them through the year. Further thoughts on that welcome.

We really don't do any long-term planning for days out. We tend to do mostly free or low cost days out. Beach day, walks, picnics, free attractions. If we wanted to do something that cost a bit more, it's just a matter of looking at the budget for the month, how much we currently have and what expenses we anticipate, and deciding if it's worth it.

For holidays, we usually book self-catering (Airbnb) and spread the cost by paying some upfront and some just before our stay. We anticipate those months will be more expensive, so just the month before and after is a bit leaner. We generally self-cater with a few meals/treats out and do lots of similar sorts of free days out, with maybe a few paid days out.

To answer your question though, we don't plan how many days out we have in a month or how to spread them out throughout the year. We look at the weather for any given weekend, decide what we'd like to do, think about if that seems reasonable given any cost involved and how much we'd like to spend that month without going into overdraft, and we do it if it seems worth it.

We almost never plan beyond any given week, so no thought to spreading anything across the year. Really you can't plan for unexpected expenses, like car repairs or a new washing machine, etc. So I wouldn't be spending money on days out if I had just paid £500 to fix my car, so we'd just look at the budget for that month and decide if it's worth it. If not, we go for a walk on the beach, which is free. The only thing we might plan ahead is things that need to be booked in advance on holiday. Again, it's just about saving a bit of money before and after so that we have enough to spend on holiday, so I'd take that cost into consideration when doing that. We might only do 2-3 days out that cost money though on a 7 day holiday.

Also agree we don’t plan far ahead or think of how many days per year etc or when.

There is planning related to holidays away and a rough budget for days out/eating out then, but not so much for days out from home.

The only planning for this is a yearly membership which gives some ‘free’ days - alternate NT, EH, RHS.

With other days out we don’t plan ahead so much. They are often days out with friends or family so just come up. Luckily for us, we can afford the £100 or so that a family day out might cost. Whilst not planning as such, if I felt we’d had too many lately, we’d simply scale back and go for something cheap or free next time.

I guess a question is how many of these costly kinds of days out do you actually want to do ideally over a year? Can you start by working that out. I honestly don’t know how many we do, but less now kids are older and often do own thing. A lot also depends on how much you enjoy the free stuff such as walks, parks or museums if in London. Depends what your kids are used to and enjoy too. I could easily go 2 months without a costly day out (or more) although we might eat out anyway.

This time of year we live extremely frugally and just have beach /walks /maybe the odd cinema trip when its two for £5 or swimming. We keep that up until around April

Means we have money for the rest of the year, we're a pretty low income household but having money for holidays and days out has never been an issue....... We just know we can't have our cake and eat it.

As some earlier people said, they have ‘pots’ within bank accounts and have one for leisure. Putting a set amount in per month could fund days out and mean you can have more on summer if that’s what you prefer.

Another idea is to ask for this kind of thing as gifts.

We have had theatre tickets before as a family, or my Mum has given us a ‘promise’ voucher which means she will pay for a day out or a theatre or similar. That’s been very nice and has meant sometimes we will do something we usually wouldn’t fork out for. For us, these gifts are better than stuff no-one really wants.

Another idea is to make a list up front of all the places you fancy in year ahead. Do some research into prices and deals. Make a calendar so they are spread through Year or when you want to go most. Total up cost and split into 12 and save appropriately. Is this the kind of idea you want? People are trying hard to help.

We tend to just have a day out when we fancy it which makes us lucky, I know.

However for weekends away and holidays we have a separate savings 'pot' to stick money into. We have a spreadsheet split into columns - mortgage/general savings/university/holidays - so we can keep an eye on how much we have saved for each expense.

Personally I don’t feel the need to plan how many days or when they will be. I’d imagine you might want to do that if;

• you love to plan everything and know exactly what’s coming up
• money is very tight
• time is very tight

I feel I’ve got enough flexibility to go with the flow a bit more.

When kids were young and the 6 week summer started, perhaps I had a bit of an overview then - aware of weeks we’d be away, and having a v loose idea of one mid-priced day out in the hols per week, one really costly day and lots of other park and cheap outings. As I said before, our days out involving cost usually involve friends or family and not just us, so come about when we are invited/plan with others to get together. These things might be planned a few weeks in advance or much more last minute. Sometimes someone has an idea of an expensive day out that o don’t want to spend on. I either say ‘no’ or suggest alternative. Usually we manage to get together. Sometimes the day out costs a bit more than I’d like but because we always decide if it’s picnic or cafe in advance, knowing overall price at least roughly is easier.

Over time I’ve learned that cafes and lots of kids drinks rack up the bills. That’s why it’s usually picnic and taking drinks with us, at least in summer. Eating out in cold winder can be kept cheaper by timing the arrival time (eating at home before or after) or eating out somewhere cheaper on way or on way home.

In terms of spending, a London theatre trip for us 4 to include cheap tickets and travel and a cheap lunch on a deal, would be in the region of £175-200. We might do that twice a year.

A day out with entry to something could be similar although easier to have picnic. I wouldn’t like to spend above £40 per person for a ticket and often much much less.

For things that cost up to £20 per head (ice skating or cinema) then I’d be willing to do that a bit more regularly - but prob once a month most. Kids though at age where they go out to stuff and id pay for them to go to WGamama or cinema- fortunately social lives still not huge.

Would arrange to go for coffee and cake in cafe with friends without giving it any thought. Likewise a lunch with friends just for me. Family meal is going to cost close to £100 unless got vouchers. Keep a lid on those by just having 1 drink each, often just 1 course or max 2. Set menus keep prices down too, as do choosing restaurants carefully. Lunchtime often has good set menus when eve doesn’t.

I think lots of people replied with money saving ideas because that’s how you can afford to have a day trip as many times as you want.
I don’t plan at all but I might read about a place or see it on tv or social media and just be inspired to go there. Then I’ll make plans to go to that place. Otherwise it’s the inexpensive pack a picnic and bundle everyone into the car or hop on the tube trip to somewhere not too far.
I aim to go somewhere once a month and visit family once a month. The other two weekends are more low key and that works for our family.

Other then the 6 weeks holiday we don't plan days out. Normally during term time we would just do country parks/beach/NT properties etc, would normally take own food and just buy drinks. In winter we wouldn't do a whole day outside, either am and back home for lunch, or pm after lunch. So they don't really need planning, just decide the night before! During school holidays it would normally be 1 expensive trip per week eg theme park, zoo, day out in London. Holidays are just when we can afford them. Go to Dorset yearly as we stay in a relatives holiday home so only need to budget days out and lunches, and I normally save about £250 for this.

@ILiveInSalemsLot

I think lots of people replied with money saving ideas because that’s how you can afford to have a day trip as many times as you want. I don’t plan at all but I might read about a place or see it on tv or social media and just be inspired to go there. Then I’ll make plans to go to that place. Otherwise it’s the inexpensive pack a picnic and bundle everyone into the car or hop on the tube trip to somewhere not too far. I aim to go somewhere once a month and visit family once a month. The other two weekends are more low key and that works for our family.

The thing is... (and not picking on you in particular) some posters say they don't plan how often they will go out and then say they do something that does naturally limit how often they go out eg aim for q pattern of how many weekends they spending at home. That is a plan, and one that might well work for us.

Being told that using cheap trips options like taking a picnic by itself means we'll be able to afford any trip we want and never go over budget is just untrue. Half price is still spending money, and no one's money is limitless.

It's a bit like saying meal planning by itself will reduce your food bills, yes if you're wasting money normally on food that gets wasted and thrown out before being eaten it will make a huge difference. But if you really want to save money you have to look a bit more critically about the combinations of meals you have, what you're going to do with the other half of the bag of peppers, and how often you can have steak and how often you should stick to beans on toast.

I do appreciate all the replies and have picked up a few really interesting ideas to think about.

Definitely a divide between pots approach and having a set X number of big things a year/month/week approach - going to mull that one over a bit longer.

I write down all of the school holidays
Feb half term
Easter
May half term
Summer
October half term
Then allocate an amount of money to each. So in Feb half term I know we’ll be doing a bit more indoors so I’ll factor that in, Easter is longer off but there tends to be lots to do outside. I start looking for events e.g. Easter egg hunt you have to book from now. I also factor in buying Easter crafts, new picnic bag, new picnic mat etc (only when these need replacing).

January tends to be a month I’m happy to spend little and save so I might replace our picnic blanket now so it’s ready for the first warm day and also it’s not another expense when I’m already spending more money at that point. I think having a kit of things to make it nicer when you go for a picnic (ice packs, cool box etc) makes it easier to resist spending on food when out and ultimately saves money - if you use it!

I also think ahead to Christmas and know about September time we’ll book a Christmas activity so October half term I won’t spend as much to balance it out.

Since I’ve started planning for the whole year I find it so much less stressful. I also save change for the summer when I know there’s lots of funfairs and this helps me avoid going over budget at an expensive time.

OP I agree with your recent post. I mentioned taking a picnic but that’s with going to the beach, parking somewhere free (have to walk a bit!) so that means there’s money for ice cream. Everyone is on different budgets. One of my friends will go to somewhere free so go to gift shop, for a meal etc because she wants to spend money on something.

Another tip is look at council websites as they often have free activities. We did one of the statue trails last year in a new area and my children really enjoyed it.

When my children were little money was very tight but we usually managed one holiday and a few days out. The holidays were early/late season, self catering and booked early in the year for the best discounts. We did eat out a few times and bought ourselves “treat” foods while away. We took full advantage of all the activities included in the price such as swimming and the sporting activities. We booked things like the pantomime well in advance and did a group booking with friends to get a discount.
We bought a family rail card and would often just set off for a place we had never been after checking for any local free attractions. We would eat at home before we went then just take a few snacks or set a budget for a drink and cake or an ice cream but not both .
I spent ages on the internet looking for fairly local cheap/free events and also things like the release of a new film they wanted to see and plan so we could try and do at least one thing each month . In the days of video rental we would have a movie night at home in the dark with hotdogs and popcorn and they loved it!

I don't have a budget as such but we do look how to save money.

In 8 out of 10 cases we take food with us, picnic is always nicer than overpriced junk. We may get an icecream or cake as a treat.

One year we gave ourselves Merlin passes as a family Christmas present and used that a lot, it definitely was worth the expense.

We bought English Heritage membership one year as it was nearly the same price as entry to Dover Castle and again used it a lot to go to unusual places. we would normally not as the tickets can be expensive on its own.

Same with NT, on the long run it saves a lot of money.

Tesco Clubcard vouchers can give you good deals as well so I take that into account if we plan a bigger trip.

We try to do at least one show a year but again, often the tickets are Christmas presents. My in-laws will buy them as presents or we get them as a family. one.

Op because I never knew what money we had available for things like this, I made up my own envelope system and then I found out its actually a thing and money saving expert man recommends it.

I often find saving money is done a bit cart before horse eg.. Don't spend x on coffee out.
I'd rather know.. Actually what spare money do I have so I can allocate it to coffee out first.

So we first added up all bills and outgoing including food and essentials like petrol, say we had 500 left.

We then devide that up to all the fun stuff eg x amount to Xmas. X amount to bday. Holidays and weekend money.
We have a weekly allowance for weekend which would cover days out.
We don't spend weekends money every weekend so it rolls over.
But what I absolutely love is knowing that money is for fun. It's not taking away from savings, it's not going to leave us short for petrol etc it's for.. Take away, or snacks out or cinema etc.

And the other huge help to going to places has been tesco club card. Esp a few years ago there is no way we could have afforded longleat or London zoo, Warwick Castle..

I love that freedom of not feeling guilty about spending x on whatever at the weekend.

• we have Xmas money saved every month so again we booked theatre, trips out from our yearly accumulated xmas pot.

This is not what you’re asking at all but it seems like this thread has also become a place to share money-saving tips for days out in general, so I’ll share my favourite one:

Unless we are inside a particular attraction (eg theme park), whenever we are out at the beach, park, anywhere with shops available, then I’ll never ever pay for ice creams from an ice cream van. We go to the beach a lot in the summer due to where my in laws live, and if I bought everyone an ice cream every time I would be bankrupt 😂 instead I prefer to walk 5 mins to the local Tesco express or wherever and buy a multipack or two of mini milks and lollies, often these are only a quid or two, and we dish those out instead. We often have spares - seeing as they melt you can’t exactly take them all home with you! - and one of my favourite things to do is to surprise a random grumpy looking teenager with the offer of a free ice cream 😂 they are almost always very grateful and accept with glee!

We have a separate savings account for our holidays and I transfer a set amount on payday.
We have annual merlin, zoo and national trust memberships which take care of a lot of our weekend day trips.
To cover the annual renewal fees I save £25 per week, the NT passes are paid monthly.
For other day trips I don’t tend to plan and these come out of the monthly household budget.

When our DC were younger we tended to get memberships and then days out were limited to those or free places.

In particular with a couple of places we did occasional membership that ran ~August-July so they effectively covered 2 summer holidays for the price of 1 year.

Joint monzo account with DH that has pots for everything including a days out pot that we put a set amount into each month. We also pick a membership each year e.g. London Zoo, Kew, Palaces, National Trust and use it a LOT. Otherwise lots of free days out - seaside, parks, city farms, museums.

I think the number of trips depends on the price of each of them and what a "day out" means for you.

If I have a season ticket for an attraction I obviously go there more during the year. while without it I may only go once or even not at all as the ticket price would have to compete with other trips and how to pay for them.

For me a day out is also a day walk in the countryside with a picnic, costs are maybe the parking charge for the car. Very different to a trip to the zoo or a castle which can set you back £70-100 easily.

If you only count the big ones, zoos, theme parks, GoApe or anything else of these scales, you will find that the number of trips often depend how people pay for it, I think the majority of visitors is using some kind of voucher, 2for1, annual pass. It may also depends if a trip is part of a birthday/Christmas present like DD having a day Whitewater rafting as a present. I doubt we would have paid for it just because.

So, how to budget for trips really depends on too many personal circumstances and is individual for every family.

We are lucky to live in great countryside and near the coast, so tend to do a lot of ‘free’ stuff - skate park, beach, cycling.

Most ‘family fun’ is my idea of hell tbh - expensive and no fun! What we do spend on is self catering holidays, 4 or 5 weeks a year, couple in UK and a couple abroad. Then we stock up with local food, chill out, and do the same ‘free’ activities but see somewhere new.

Our plans are based around school holidays and having zero spare money. We can’t afford an actual holiday because I’m freelance (ie unstable income that can’t be relied on) and my husband earns very little. A decade ago when I had a salaried job, we picked a town to buy a house in which is a popular south coast holiday resort so we’d have free access to nice beaches and woods all year round. We knew we’d have the house and very little else but that’s a long term cost saving compared to rent.

I plan a walk somewhere one day per week of the holiday - we have great parks with nature trails and giant wooden playground equipment nearby. And the beach is beautiful. We also go there weekly or more depending on the weather.

IMO kids are allowed to be bored so we also have many days at home if I have work and they make their own entertainment - baking, ps4 and having friends over to play and so on. We also try to have a day trip to a relative per half term and once to each set in the summer. The petrol costs add up but family is important.

This year I’m thinking of digging out the tent to camp in our garden or in a relative’s garden. My sibling lives close to nature so their garden could feel like an adventure for the kids.

I don’t remember day trips or many holidays as a child and I don’t think it was an issue. Looking back my parents were poor too. It was weekly trips to the library, lots of art at home, making dens and playing with local friends. Kids are happy enough if they know how to entertain themselves.

We have memberships to National Trust and another place so try and max those. I'm bad about picnics though and that's where the added costs creep in!

We went to Blenheim and I think it must have cost £150 not including petrol.

Holidays we don't budget for, we just book when we've decided what we want to do, but I'm going to work on that after this summer.