What frugal things are you doing during half term?

[Gwdihooooo]

I know some people are on half term now. Ours is next week.

I’m a teacher so I’m off, which is great as I don’t have to think about childcare, but also at the same time I have to think about entertaining a 13yr old and 9yr old on the cheap!

My main go to will be baking, biking and walking… and probs letting them game too much! 🙈

We’ll go to the beach on one of the sunny days, walks, cooking lessons.

I’ve just looked at the weather and it’s crap in our area up until thurs!

Cooking lessons are a good idea!

Definitely too much gaming here...also baking, craft, lego, the park, swimming, a cheap local farm, soft play for the little ones and arcade for the big one, they weirdly love drawing on the back of a roll of wallpaper, maybe the forest for a bit of variety, too much Cocomelon and Encanto

It’s ours this week.
They’ve had a couple of days out with dh (not frugal) and I’m off today and tomorrow.
They didn’t want to do anything specific today, ds and I went to the gym we are members of so not free because we pay for membership but no additional cost! We then went and bought some ingredients to make a cake at home. Later on this afternoon he had a friend round and they made an assault course in the garden.
DD is older and had driving lessons (also not frugal 😭 but kept her busy!) and then a job interview.
Tomorrow ds and I are meeting a friend of mine with her dc and going to a new trail park thing, we’ve not been before. Will probably buy lunch there but there’s no entrance fee. Later on in the day the 2dc are booked into the cinema together to see Antman - I’m not going so one less ticket to buy.
They’re all a bit old for the park and feeding the ducks etc now and I want to be doing ‘something’ as I’ve booked leave and don’t want to waste it not getting out and about with them. But not much is cheap anymore! Miss the days when they were small and very easy to please 😂

Although I won't see much of nearly 13yo I expect she will be out with friends...our cinema is £5 tickets also so we might split the kids and one of us take the older ones to see a film.

I live near Manchester:

• booked (free) tickets to the Golden Mummies exhibition at the newly reopened museum. If we're lucky it will be a dry day so we can have a picnic (and breather from the crowds!) outside the Whitworth as well.
• attending a free craft activity being held at our library
• going to a family swim session at local leisure centre. DS does swim lessons so he gets free entry, I cost £4
• work on a costume for World Book Day

We can also do our normal stuff: go for walks or bike rides, look up YouTube videos of "how to draw..." and I would like to teach DS how to cook something simple on his own. I tried not to plan something for every single day, as it's just a week and he needs time to simply mess about at home.

Weve had a couple of birthday parties to go to so "free" couple of hours out apart from cost of presents.

Swimming (we have membership but don't know if we can afford to renew)

Nature reserve trails with a cake in the cafe at the end.

Film afternoon at home.

Asda are doing a pizza deal at the moment it's £6 for 2 pizzas and a bottle of drink and you get a code to redeem either for a free sky film or a free vue cinema ticket. That sounds a good deal for half term but we haven't tried it yet

Mine played Scattegories today!

We've had playdates, one cinema trip as Odeon is cheaper on Mondays for me as I have a (free) account, and visited the local free museum.

Saturday St Davids Hall, Cardiff has a day of free music.

Time enjoying their many toys/kindles/switches etc, out on bikes or scooters in between the rain. We have 2 activities planned for the whole week and that's it. I don't see it as my job to 'entertain' my children all the time, a week at home recharging from school, and creating their own fun. I also need the week off to recharge

I'm on carers allowance so we get cheap rates for lessons at our council leisure centre - DD has had swimming and gymnastics lessons all week. In the afternoons, we've done free activities nearby - craft and storytelling sessions at the British Library and National Gallery, printmaking and disco at Southbank Centre, creative knitting at the Tate Modern, and play sessions at Hyde Park. We pack up sandwiches every night and bring food out with us, so it hasn't cost much. We have barely been at home - swimming is at 9am and we've been getting home after 5pm every day!

Kids are adults now, but 10 -15 years ago we would

Free or almost free
have friends round to play for the day - probably do make your own pizza for lunch, and do some baking buns and icing them. Would hope for a return invitation later in the week or for another holiday.

Park - walk, playground equipment, feed ducks, take a picnic but buy a hot choc or chips from the cafe.

We live in a city so several free museums/art galleries.

Geocaching. Again take a picnic/snacks and treats.

Each child choose a meal, - cost, buy and cook with help where necessary. Not free but we need to eat.

Board games/Lego/jigsaws.

Local National Trust gardens and playground - we are members and take a picnic.

Cost a bit - would probably only do one of these in a half term holiday

Cinema trip - when a bit older double up with friends so you don't pay for adults to go - you can sit in the cinema cafe with the other mum or dad with a coffee while the kids enjoy a film or once secondary school can just go with a mate.

Bowling - again if you go with another family you can just pay for the kids to play - take your own snacks or set expectations for only one drink each.

Swimming - again would go with another family so you only pay for your kids and the adults stay out of the pool (probably can only do this once kids 8+ and can swim).

Once a bit older - mooch round IKEA and lunch in the cafe. My kids adored this, and frankly still do!!

Cost more: maybe one of these

Takeaway and film night.

Paid for museum.

Farm park/soft play with lunch.

Family meal out eg Pizza Express on Tesco vouchers.

Mine are younger. 5, 3, 10 not Inc eldest.

Sat Inlaws then play area / wood walk ice cream

Sunday different play area. Home coloring, gaming :/

Monday. I had a work meeting so parents took dcs to a different play park further away.

Tues playdate friends to here

Wed. Playdate at a friend's

Today visit another friend for lunch. Kids played

Tomorrow zoo ( have a pass)

Saturday middle dc has a party to go to. Followed by next one having a party to go to.

Sunday chill, tech day im not fussed as back to school Monday

Each day probably has had 2 hours of gaming /tablets, laptops whilst i cook and sort stuff out.

We've done local parks and woods,
Met up with friends.
Stayed at grandmas
Movie nights
Baking
Lots of books from the library
Applied for a blue Peter badge (hopefully that will reduce the cost for places next holiday)
Drawing, painting, screens.

For preschool/younger primary aged kids... Pets at Home run free animal workshops.

This year has been a struggle as we are living with in-laws who would rather dc didn't make mess/noise/go to bed late. So have done soft play, new school shoes/football boots shopping, park and farm. Normally we would do 2 days of baking/gaming/crafts/garden and then go to the park, a NT property and whatever cheap activity that the local museum are organising.

I miss those days when I could pay £3-4 per child at soft play and stay all day. Now it's £10 each and you are only allowed to stay for 2 hours "because of covid". There also seem to be less of them around and more of those trampoline parks where you pay £12-15 for an hour session.

Well we both caught stinking rotten colds so have spent the week stuck indoors feeling like shite and sleeping a lot.
I'm not sure I would recommend it but it's definitely saved me £££ this week 🤣

We did lunch and a playdate on Monday with a friend we don't see often. Sports club on Tuesday evening but just played at home in the day time. Wednesday was a day out with grandparents, not frugal but I stayed at home and didn't cost me anything so frugal for me?! Today we did some crafting and went to the library. And tomorrow is a day out to a local attraction so not frugal. The kids have needed some downtime tbh. Christmas was busy busy and we were away in October half term so I think they've enjoyed being at home more and not having to rush around everywhere like we do at weekends. It was summer last time they had a week to chill!