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

Well, like others, we would automatically take a picnic and a flask to begin with, but 'paid attractions' were saved for the occasional treat. There's so much you can do for free (will depend on location as to what). If you have your own car, then your horizons expand considerably though.
When mine were small, I asked dgps not to buy presents, but to buy a family pass for a year to an attraction near here that would keep us entertained many times over.
My dc all sent off for Blue Peter Badges, which then helped with some other trips.

I looked up bowling yesterday, thinking of a family activity. Just shy if £60 for an hour!!

(eldest just turned into a teen and apparently HATES my usual repertoire of days out/family activities so any suggestions welcome).

We don't. We do free days, Virginia water lake, golden Mile walk to Windsor castle, deer at bushy park. All free.

@Hercisback

Deals, NT and EH memberships, take your own food and drink.

Look out for things like lottery days out, sun vouchers, schemes through unions if you're in one.

Find joy in activities that don't require lots of money. Woods, walks, parks, wildlife spots, paddling in rivers. Stay closer to home too, petrol is expensive!

This.

Walking for exercise and healthy outdoor activity looking at natural surroundings is a preferred pastime for a lot of people.

It's not seen as dull 'traipsing round a wood' or inferior to an expensive crowded paid activity. It's all about mindset.

I must’ve met I thought you were going to say at all for lot more than I took My son to a theme park it cost me 350 quid for the two of us.

Lots of planning ahead - but mine are still small enough to be happy with free common areas and a packed lunch.
I plan my week around storytime at the library, swimming (usually free in the holidays with kids at leisure centres), lots of walking with bivvy building and big hunting etc. This year we’ll do the same in the summer holidays but bulk it out with one big trip - hoping to see the dinosaurs at NHM or London aquarium. Look at cereal boxes too, sometimes you can get the 2for1 vouchers on the backs of them.

While £27 per head for a farm seems a lot, I’ve also never seen one for £5 either. It won’t be a farm I expect, it’ll be a farm park with soft play, play parks, jumping pillows a train and so on I expect.

I’m in Berkshire and all the farm parks round here are £15+ per head (usually full price once the child is 2!) and lots now split the day in 2 so you only get 3-4 hours, whereas that used to be the cost for the whole day. Or they stagger entry so hardly anyone gets in at 10am as those slots sell out weeks in advance so you can’t turn up til 12.

I’ve never done annual passes as I like to do lots of days out to different places, not be tied to one place for a year.

Annual memberships (some are great, you can pay entry once and come back all year for free), free events/museums, picnic at the wetlands/on the common.

@astoundedgoat

That doesn’t sound too awful… but I wanted to go to visit Warwick Castle and with Zipcar from just an hour away it was going to cost about £130 for the four of us, not including food. 😮

Reader, we did not go.

My friend went there recently and used Tesco clubcard points to get a sizeable discount.

I've got to say, I'm not a walking in the Countryside/woods type of person, but walking in cities I love.
Check your local city sites for street art tours, or historic building tours, or the main sites of the city tours.
I don't mean pay for a guided tour either, do it yourself with Google maps!

The answer to the OP is two-fold -

1. People have different salaries, and different outgoings and thus different degrees of disposable money.

1. There are different kinds of days out, ranging from free in the local woods to a day trip to Paris.

Problem is, depending on the attraction, it can be a PITA lugging a picnic around all day.

I also think after the last two years, I am only just able to think about going for a walk with any sort of enthusiasm!

Tesco triple the value of points for days out and there are loads to choose from.
We don't do our food shopping there, but we will make sure we get petrol there

We are also pretty unusual in that there isn’t a tesco near us, so don’t have any clubcard points.

@MrsWinters

National Trust membership and take a flask of hot chocolate. Tesco clubcard vouchers for others

Same here

Local farm is free, take a packed lunch and don’t buy coffee!!

Lots of good ideas here.

We were fairly skint when the kids were young, but didn't stop us having lots of days out.
We would take a picnic lunch, thermos of soup, some sandwiches.
On rainy days head for the city - so many free art galleries and museums. The main museum had a pleasant gallery for people with packed lunches- with free admission we could spend several hours in there.
On dry days it would be trips to the beach or forest walks, lots of BBQ spots in both, or a picnic at the botanic gardens or city farm- again all free.
Days out and fun can cost very little.

Why would you need pizza and coffee during a 2 hour activity? If for some reason you really can’t go 2 hours without refreshments, just bring your own surely? 🤷🏻‍♀️

@Nothappyatwork

I must’ve met I thought you were going to say at all for lot more than I took My son to a theme park it cost me 350 quid for the two of us.

Not for a day trip, surely? Unless you're including train tickets and taxi fare.

G to cheaper places and takes packed lunches.

We'll go to the beach, so basically free and maybe buy a portion of chips

Yanbu. I took 2 of my dc to soft play yesterday and it was £25 for 90 minutes. That was just for 1 adult and 2 dc entry and a jug of squash. Youngest is autistic and can't manage the cinema and needs 1-1 supervision at the park so we are limited as to where we can go.

I think the thing that gets me is that with covid restrictions a lot of places have introduced session times but have kept the price the same. So before covid you were paying £100 for a family day out and now you are paying £100 for a 2 hour session.

@Fishpondinthegarden

Problem is, depending on the attraction, it can be a PITA lugging a picnic around all day.

I also think after the last two years, I am only just able to think about going for a walk with any sort of enthusiasm!

So you leave it in the car, or everyone carries their own food in a rucksack.

Attraction food is usually terrible quality, stupidly priced and at the end of a long queue. I'm not sure how anyone would choose it as the preferred option even if they were happy with the cost of a full 'day out' experience, which is probably the modern day equivalent of 'more money than sense' as there's almost always ways to cut the cost significantly, often with little or no detriment to the treat factor of the day out.

@Soffit

Annual memberships (some are great, you can pay entry once and come back all year for free), free events/museums, picnic at the wetlands/on the common.

I was at a Zoo recently, (Five Sisters in Central Scotland), it was around £15, but because all the extras, (kiddie rides, outside food vans, plus some slippy muddy paths), were shut I got an extra ticket to come back free at any time until August, I mentioned there were a few bits I'd struggled with as I have a disability so got another ticket. I've passed those on to Dd and her BF so all three of us for £15!

@astoundedgoat

That doesn’t sound too awful… but I wanted to go to visit Warwick Castle and with Zipcar from just an hour away it was going to cost about £130 for the four of us, not including food. 😮

Reader, we did not go.

Tickets to the castle are £18 So that zip car must have been the lion share of the day cost!

We went out using Historic Scotland, I pay £8 a month and meant fee entry and parking and took our own food and drink. Get National Trust, Historic Scotland/English heritage then just hammer the hell out of them.