Days out- how do people afford them?

[lovelydaffodils]

Went to a local attraction.
Coffee was £2.90
Pizza was £12
Entry was £30 for the three of us.
Activity was approx a two hour max

Out of interest, what would people expect to pay for a family event at a castle with several childrens have-a-go-activities and various re-enactments and displays?

Don't know if Geocaching has been mentioned yet but good way to make a walk more interesting whether that be a tourist attraction, forgotten footpath or city centre.

Depending on the age of your children 'big days out' have a different perspective. After a trip to the zoo my youngest said his favourite bit was the ducks and the butterflies, a day trip to London to see the sights and he remembers most feeding the squirrels in the park.

Your local Facebook groups will be full of ideas and hidden gems that you may not realise. Our local garden centre has a tiny farm at the back of it, £1 entry per person and £1 tub of sheep nuts and little ones loved it.

Two of mine are now adults so days out that we all go together are vanishingly rare and increasingly expensive!

Tesco vouchers.
National trust membership
Beaches - just need to pay for parking
Take own food
Find out if there are any local free museums

Ask any family that buy Christmas/birthday presents for your children for a donation towards an annual pass or for a one off day out instead of buying more toys the children don't need.

Memberships, especially to National Trust and Historic Scotland, which give entry to many places and can be used in England when I visit relatives. Most memberships will let you pay monthly. Picnics, can eat in the car if it’s cold, or Tesco vouchers for places like Pizza Express. Railcard for cheap train fares.

Pack lunch. Pack a flask. Bottles for the kids. Walks in the country are our favourite. Take a football etc. We do this most of the time and occasionally days that require entry prices.

National Trust was a godsend when mine were little. Yes £100 a year but we used to go at least once a week and several times a week in the holidays. You also could take your own food. X

Have days out less often! Save up and then the day is an extra special treat. There’s no need to have days out that cost money very often. Plenty of sensible tips on here which cost nothing. There is too much pressure on families to keep up with everyone else’s amazing days out. Children are no more likely to remember the costly days out than the free days out!

*Have days out less often!

Days out were life saver when my kids were young.
We lived in a tiny house and as siblings not the best at getting along together.
A Sunday out as a family was breathing space - somehow outside in parks or open areas my kids became best friends, we never had much money, but had castles, a country park, beaches on our doorstep.
Having a day out cost only the price of 5 miles worth of petrol, just packing sandwiches, fruit, juce,thermos of tea and biscuits- no more than we would spend at home, and we could have a great day hunting for fossils, flying kites, investigating the seashore.
When my children were young we had a day out every weekend.

Are you public sector workers? CSSC Sport and Leisure - you can join them and get free entry to most English Heritage places and some other random things too - like cheaper wrist bands for Adventure Island at Southend.

We take food with us.

Oh and one more tip - if you don't want to get ice creams at the venue / beach / where-ever - on the way home, find a supermarket and buy a multi pack - we do this a lot and our kids love it!

Bloody hell £27 each? I thought Chatsworth was pricy at £14 a head

Local parks, Merlin 2 for 1 vouchers, take a packed lunch instead of paying for food.

I don’t always do this, but if I’m being good and actively trying not to spend:

Packed lunch in cool bag. Make sure I put treaty bits in to make it pleasant and a big special. Might buy an ice cream/coffee there.

Use national trust/RHS/local farm season tickets for ‘free’ entry and parking. I ask for those tickets for Christmas. Parents and in laws don’t always go for it as prefer plastic crap but they have a few times, and I find them good investments. Total for all of those passes is

I’ve always wondered this. We have a good household income but the big attractions are a real stretch for us.

Top tip: the Sun is offering two free tickets for Alton towers, with codes from 9 copies of the paper (70p on weekdays it says)

What surprises me is how many Christmas events people book every year.

A few friends of mine seem to do the lot - Breakfast with Santa at the posh department store, panto, a full on Polar Express train trip, the Christmas days at the local attractions etc.

Every one. Every single year.

They are about 60quid a family each. Mental.

Obviously this might be no use if it’s too far from you but where I live (Bishop’s Stortford, Herts/Essex borders) there’s a lovely farm called Daisy May’s Farm and it’s £5 to get in!

There are small money savings for tickets to be had. For example:

Many places charge less if you book online and some charge less (or even a lot less) if you book well in advance.

I took DD to London Zoo on an inset day.
They charge less on off peak days.

Look for discount vouchers online.

Sometimes you can get bundles which are good value for money - I once had an excellent one for the London Aquarium, the London Eye and Pizza Express.

Bernadette totally agree, and so many of those Christmas events seem OTT and just an excuse for money making (see the press reports every year about Winter 'Wonderland' events) .. we used to go a cathedral child friendly service - free apart from a donation - plus a community coffee morning type events which were simple and friendly.

Christmas events have exploded in the last few years.

We do a local train ride (£30 for 4) then everything else is free or donations.

Thank you for this information, I didn’t know about it but have now booked a trip for next Saturday to a Wetland Centre

@Hercisback

Christmas events have exploded in the last few years.

We do a local train ride (£30 for 4) then everything else is free or donations.

I follow Rosie Ramsay on Instagram and she mentioned that she hadn't booked any festive events for her son last year and she was absoloutley annihilated online. Mental. She was heavily pregnant and a 3yo doesn't need 60,000 Christmas trips out to feel loved

We go to a beach in wales approximately 45 minutes away by car in nice weather . We take a picnic , chairs and windbreak and the dogs . We can stay there for hours and the only thing we pay for is chips on the way home .
The other place that doesn't seem too expensive is the safari park , as long as we take a picnic . We don't use the cafes . We also go round the animals twice , once when we get there and again an hour before closing time. Good value for money .

@Wouldntitbenicetobeinyourshoes

Packed lunches and a flask. Rucksack and using storage lockers if available. The food at attractions is often mediocre at best anyway so we preferred to take our own.

Yep, packed lunch and flask are the staples when we go outs. Too expensive otherwise.

We go somewhere every Saturday. We were gifted lifetime family NT cards which are amazing as we have at least 6 NT properties within an hours drive. MIL and DM both buy an annual pass for us each year instead of mine and DHs birthday and Christmas presents. Plus we live in a city with free museums and several nice big parks, which is close to the coast and countryside. So we rotate NT properties and the other 2 annual memberships plus all the free stuff around us. We take soup or sandwiches and snacks with us so we don't have to pay for lunch and buy an ice cream here and there.