No spend / low spend days: school holidays

[Goldenmemories]

Trying to cut down on unnecessary spending as I've had a few big expenses lately. Anyone want to join for accountability/ motivation?

Day 1: no spend day today. Went to the gym, had packed lunch at work, then a long walk in the sunshine.
Hoping for another NSD tomorrow.

Day 2. Packed lunches made. We are walking to town rather than driving and paying for parking. Going to the park, avoiding the shops 😬 aiming for another no spend day. Going to do some baking later with ingredients we already have in the house. And some decluttering which is free

Go to the library and sign up for the summer reading challenge if you have younger kids.
Librarys often have details of free or low cost
summer activities for kids.

This is a great idea for a thread.

If you're looking for a purposeful walk I can recommend Geocaching and Pokemon Go.

You can spend hours exploring areas that you may never have even realised were on your doorstep.

Good ideas, thanks! My DCs are 13 and 10. Lovely age but a bit tricky as they love water parks, theme parks etc which are so expensive 🤔 we do have thorpe park annual passes which we'll use once a week. I'm a teacher so am very lucky to have the holidays off work with them but it does feel like a lot of time to fill so I'm trying to eke out the funds!

We have National Trust membership so try to make the most of that. It's usually zero spend once you're there (we take our own picnic etc).

Love a library trip!

Park / playground / woods / nature trails etc. We're lucky to have lots on our doorstep.

We like days at home playing board games, doing jigsaws etc. We're lucky we've got a garden too.

Most museums / galleries are free too.

Libraries and local museums often put on summer activities.
Does your council have a play scheme, ours has a few free events in parks. Also see if the council nature team are putting on any bug hunts or pond dipping.

Yesterday was a low spend: milk £1.89, passport wallet from Amazon £6.99

Today £0 so far but need to go to Lidl later 😬

Activities: gym for me while kids were with their dad, cleaning out pets, going to pick some blackberries later for a crumble 😃

Please can I join? It’s constantly raining here in the SW and we don’t have many indoor things we can even do! Trying to save for our holiday mid August and then need to save for a few DIY jobs and also Christmas.

Yesterday was a low spend day: needed a few bits like toothpaste (Day at home due to rain. So lots of Lego, films and reading)

Today: I bought a pasty for DS and it was £4.50!!! A small pasty. Cannot believe this but such is life these days 😂 (Chill day due to awful headache and more rain!)

Tomorrow: NSD as grandparents are coming over then possibly a trip to the beach if it isn’t raining.

Yeah the weather is shite isn't it. I love this age for my children but everything they like doing is £££££.

Welcome @Bookishboredom 🙂

Go to a charity shop and get a new jigsaw.
When you have done it, donate the jigsaw back to the charity shop and you can get a new one.
We use our charity shop as a sort of jigsaw library.

Other ideas:
Buy some chalk and do a chalk trail to follow. Plus chalk drawings on the patio.
Baking.
Indoor treasure hunt with clues.
Google Chrome Music Lab to create music.
Scratch.
Learn some TikTok dances on YouTube
YouTube workouts
Drawing competitions
The game where you all draw the head of a monster, fold the paper, pass it round to the next person and draw the tummy, pass it round, do the legs, then feet, then the name.
Visit a different park to usual.
Lay out parcel tape on the carpet to create a road/track system.
Put on a show.

Could you use the pasty as inspiration for a future cooking activity. Give the kids some ready made puff and a selection of ingredients to make different fillings (baked beans, cheese, left over mash, veg, ham, sauces or chutneys etc ). Could also do sweet ones. They can make enough for everyone for dinner and freeze any others. Yes you have the cost of ingredients but you offset the cost of dinner.

A board games day is good, or learning to play card games like poker etc. my son bought himself a poker set from Amazon but before that we just used.2ps or similar. He was inspired to learn by an Alex rider book. We involve a couple of random teddies to make up the numbers sometimes

Picking a random place on the map and just choosing to go and explore it can be fun.

Or going for an adventure walk /bike ride/scoot and just letting the children pick what direction to go.

I was going to say museums & galleries - try to swerve the cafe, ice cream kiosk & souvenir shop though!
Charity shop trawl - who can get the daftest/most trendy outfit for say a tenner? Adapt depending what your kids are like!
Look on your local council website. There might be free or cheap sports etc although that can obviously be weather dependent. Definitely google local summer holiday activities. Loads comes up in our area.
Breakfast out - pay £9.99 at Premier Inn & your kids will both eat for free. No lunch needed!
A project - I’m planning to clean out the summerhouse & decorate it. A bit of expense but you can get bunting, lights etc pretty cheaply. DD is 15 but I’m hoping she & her GF will get onboard.
Blackberry picking then make jam etc.
Do an indoor carboot sale. Good fun & extra pocket money if your kids sell their stuff.

Can I join the thread too please? I’m also a teacher with a 10yr old dd. She’s got some holiday clubs coming up but I’d like to do as many no/low spend days as possible the rest of the time.
However today is the first day of our holidays and it’s not going to be low spend due to a long pre planned activity and then she’s away for a long weekend with the grandparents.
I going to have a no spend weekend myself and dd and I will start properly on Monday.

As your near to Thorpe park look at the forest near the lookout discovery centre in Bracknell you can den build and ride the bike trails ...bike hire if you don't have one but obviously that's a cost...or take your own.

Is geocatching still a thing?

Oooh I love Geocaching! We’ve raided the kitchen and have done loads of science experiments!

We made a baking soda / vinegar volcano and kept adding random ingredients to it like a splash of lemonade, salt and washing liquid - the squeals of joy were worth the clean up!

We also did a few others with oil, water, polymer = all sorts! (We love science!)

I have happy children and it may have possibly stopped raining. I dare not look too long as it may start again! 😂

Some bananas in the kitchen are screaming “banana bread” at me….

We made banana bread yesterday 😋

Lidl was £126 for 4 people but did include lots of ice creams. They are so expensive out and about!

Premier inn breakfast is great, we've done it a few times.

Pancake brunch st home tomorrow with a variety of toppings.

I was going to suggest going homemade pasties too. I’m also in SW but my DDs are grown up.

Its difficult when they are that age. Depending on where you live, and the weather, visit to the beach, fishing/crabbing/swimming/surfing/fossil hunting?
Local cheap/free swimming pool.
Craft projects at home if there is anything they are interested in. Dress-making/art/card-making
Definitely cooking - get them cooking what you are going to eat for your meals, rather than extras. They can do meal planning, budgeting, finding recipies, choosing what meals they are going to cook.
Board games
Gardening/planting. Garden design, learning about what plants will grow where
At that age they may well be happy just hanging out with their mates

We had a friend round for DS to play with today, they were annoying together but at least it was free 😆

Hoping for a NSD today. I've been out for my free exercise (long walk) whilst DCs slobbed in bed. Swerved coffee shop. Cooking a big brunch then out to thorpe park with annual passes and a rucksack full of snacks and drinks.

It sounds like a brilliant time for them and definitely no need to spend lots of money. Can you make up an escape room game for them at home ready for a rainy day. Choose a theme they’ll like: pirates, space, aliens, detectives in Victorian times, 2nd WW etc, get a few padlocks for boxes (scrounge/borrow from friends/fam if don’t have suitable) and write your own. They can dress up appropriately if theyd enjoy that.

Also teach them how to make homemade fish chips and mushy peas, serve in newspaper and eat in garden.

Borrow a telescope on a clear night and do some star gazing. hHave a firepit, toasted marshmallows, toast or bbq and hot choc. Also bananas in foil with chopped up Mars bar is delish. Map sounds 8n garden at night use torches.

Tent in garden for sleepover.

Make a veg patch and give them their own section to grow what they like.

Have a themed bring and share gathering with few friends/fam.Fancy dress (or not) themed food and drink eg Harry Potter.

Morning all, what are your plans for today?