How much do you budget for the school Summer holidays?

[InATizzyWhizz]

Excluding holidays abroad or in the U.K. How much do you budget for days out to fill the long holidays?

Do you go out every day and where to? How many paid activities or days out do you do?

I really want to budget this Summer but I also want it to be fun. Both DC have SEN and do not like busy places. Playgrounds, museums and such like are not an option for us.

£100 per week for one ds - picnics, swimming, one paid activity, lots of cycling snacks. Maybe a trip to Waterstones - he reads a lot.

We have garden games. Quoits, hoopla etc and he brings his friends round too. I give them all frozen pizzas and salad.

We have bought a cinema pass, and a local attraction pass for the year. On top of that I don't expect there will be paid days out.

One paid activity per week is a good idea.

Not planning anything here, besides two weeks away. They can play out with friends, have friends over, do plenty of free stuff/picnics, cheaper things like swimming/museums etc. I think it's good for them to be bored and play with the things they already have.

We're a high income household BTW, but I am not paying £100 a week to entertain them!!

We tend to do cheap stuff with one paid activity a week. Even a 'free' day costs something for maybe parking, ice cream, tray of chips etc. But we don't do big days out like theme parks and don't often do things like trampoline parks or cafes either.

We're both teachers so don't earn loads but equally not needing a food bank. But we are able to come up with ideas & can spend decent amount of time off as a family. Some people find it harder to entertain the kids & so end up throwing money at days out to make things easier.

Planning one "trip" out a week eg strawberry picking / soft play / cinema and lots of free activities on other days - picnics, treasure bug/leaf hunts, Welly Wednesdays etc.

I'm not sure what to do this year TBH. We did a lot of days out last year and everywhere was just so ridiculously busy no one enjoyed themselves. I spent £160 just to get into Alton Towers and it was miserable. We're focusing on things like cinema, bowling etc this year.

I've been looking for free things locally. So there is a splash park, good local parks and then the other day I came across some workshops at pets at home that are free, get to see the animals etc so I have booked a couple of them. We live by the beach so will try and use that as much as we can.

Usually I don't budget I just spend which is silly and I can't really afford to do this year.
Look at your local libraries website they often do free or very low cost activities.
Some council run leisure centres have one free family swim session a week.
Leisure centres also have fairly cheap activities.
Depending on how young you're children are Surestart centres (if you can find one they haven't closed down) do holiday sessions for under 5's.

During primary school DD went to a holiday club 4 days a week as we both work. We may did something big during the weekend or on my day off but we could also just stayed at home and relaxed.

She is now in secondary and the biggest expense during our working weeks are keeping the fridge and snack cupboard stocked.

We always go away for 2 weeks and do plenty there.

One big trip per week plus a weekend away in a caravan and a weeks holiday in a lodge. Those two alone were nearly 3 grand. Why are British holidays so expensive!!!

But at home I reckon about £100 a week - with one big trip costing the majority. Something like a theme park or cinema consists of the big outing as we are very rural so cinema is a whole day out!!

The rest of the time it will be bike rides, messing about with the horses, walks and picnics, beaches.
I will set up stuff like treasure hunts around the farm, quad rides up to loch for swimming. I intend to do lots with them as last year we did very little and I felt so guilty going back to work!!!