How do you afford days out?

[1AngelicFruitCake]

There was a great thread on here a few years ago called 'packed lunch is sad' or similar and it revealed people's attitudes to days out and how people afford them.

I'm just nosy but do you plan lots of cheap days out like I do or do you prefer to wait and then spend what you want on a bigger day out? I love this time of year for looking ahead to what we'll do.

My DS is an older teen now so we don't do "days out" like we used to but we did a mix. I only have one child which makes life cheaper! We would do something like bowling, the zoo or the cinema one weekend, then on other weekends something cheaper or free like the park, country walk or visiting family and friends. I could afford to do something more expensive once or twice a month.

I don't have a car so sometimes we would do coach day trips, there was a company that did them leaving from my town. It cost about £30 for the 2 of us and they did beach or city days out. We did them a few times a year.

Grandson is HE.
My daughter and myself use trains and busses and go to Museums/ places of interest/ wildlife parks etc. We have a rail card and bus passes.. we usually take a packed lunch.
We also have a carers card.
It can be as expensive or as cheap as you want.

We have annual membership for a couple of places, and more recently have asked for money for the kids for birthdays and Christmas so that pays for their part. They've done indoor skiing and indoor sky diving, as well as cinema. But we take snacks and sometimes lunch too. Sometimes eat out. But it does add up.

Mine are a bit older now but we had EH and NT memberships. I refused on principle to pay for overpriced, generally not great food so we always took a picnic, still do if we go out tbh. We would do a few big days out a year eg theme parks, drusillas etc. it was in our budget so we did it.

Interesting reading replies.
The drinks and snacks really add up. I think being organised is important (and not always easy to do!)

Memberships - HH / local zoo / EH / NT mix them up each year

It was so nice and cheap when they were little. They'd eat and drink what I packed.

Now they just complain and nag me for overpriced cafe food.

Its always just been me and DD so eating out never really added up like it does for a larger family.

We go to the theatre alot so every other year I buy a Theatre Friends membership to our local theatre and buy our tickets a year or so in advance.

I used to make a calendar in the summer as I worked term time only
Listed all the free activities locally, like museum / garden / theatre open days. When the bandstand had music on at the beach so we could take a picnic and listen.
Then summer fetes and county fairs
Then kids club at the cinema and fun sessions at the pool or other leisure activities like the local nature reserves

We didn't necessarily do all of them but meant all I had to do was look at the calendar to get a plan together

DDs a teen now, she's also autistic and needs a massive amount of downtime compared to when she was little and we barely do anything now apart from theatre trips, beach walks and her rugby matches, although she does make plans with her friends instead which is as it should be at her age.

A mixture. We do cheap or free days out mainly, with the odd costing day in between

On a Normal month with no holidays we will probably average one spendier day out a month. We also have a summer pass which for €150 for whole family we get unlimited access to zoos, farms, outdoor pools, castles, National trust type places for 7 months of the year. So we use that at least weekly.

With allergies we mainly take out our food out with us unless it’s somewhere I know can cater. Definitely take my own tea and Ds hot chocolate or milk on walks or bike rides as there’s rarely any cafes open in winter anyway on those routes. Saves and is more convenient.

I'm a wall-crawler, and a single parent to a 5yo so we do LOTS of days out. I work and budget 'Days Out' as a budget line similar to holidays.

We have a few memberships - so about 50% of our days out are spontaneous to the Zoo, Soft Play, or NT properties which work out at about £4 a trip. I'd imagine in a couple of years we'll drop the Zoo/Soft Play memberships and get Merlin Passes instead.

Another 25% is completely 'free' things - we're lucky to be close to London so will do each of the museums at least once a year, often do any outdoor trails that pop up, or go to the beach. I actually find these trips work out more expensive than other trips due to train fares/parking/petrol.

Last 25% is bigger planned days out. Things like Legoland/Cinemas/Big Cities/Theatre ~ all of these I'll actively plan miles in advance and shop wisely. Sky offers free cinema tickets with our package, so does my bank, so we'll only go with those and a little Tesco trip first to choose a few 25p sweets/chocolates. Also with Sky I had the opportunity last to book Legoland tickets for £17.50 which is the cheapest I've seen them - so I booked months in advance. I've signed up to almost every email newsletter going and keep an eye on the headlines to see if anything matches what we want to do. London Theatre Week/Todays Tix for musicals. We get free mini golf/bowling vouchers for my birthday and DSs birthday (seperate email accounts).

I firmly believe the slippery slope begins when you don't plan. We've had a few of DSs friends tag along to days out and I'm always shocked by the on-the-day prices and what you shell out if you forget drinks/snacks. I'm a fan of treats but I focus on them being treats, not essentials. So if we want a muffin - sure! If we want a muffin because we're hungry, then we need one each, and then probably drinks, and before you know it, that's £20 gone.

Yeah, we're another family with dietary restrictions that means packed lunches are a mainstay feature of trips out. I suppose it does save a fortune.

We have NT membership and also EH on and off.

We had Merlin passes one year.

We normally take a picnic unless we go during a time it's not really possible to sit outside.

I prefer buying an icecream/coffee etc as a treat before leaving.

We’re quite lucky in that we are minions for a toddler, so he’s still quite happy with a packed lunch. He’s also a bit picky, so if we do order food out, he only ever wants chips and beans, which is never the most expensive thing on the menu.

I have a Blue Light card for discounts and DH is incredibly good at budgeting and saving. So we pick a month we’re not planning on doing anything else expensive and plan any expensive trips out for then. The remainder of the time is easily filled up because of where we live. We’re close to the countryside, we’re close to the coast. Splashing about in mud and throwing pebbles in the sea are still in his top 5 things he likes to do.

One more thing we do is try and eat out strategically - it's Greggs for service stations instead of Burger King (I'll stop strategically too 😂)

Pizza Express, if you can stand the prices building a gold membership, is an excellent deal for single parents. I get a free drink, free dough-balls, free mini desert and hot drink, and free 3 course kids meal, Mon-Thurs so all I pay is my main (£15) ~ we're in there throughout the holidays/weary school nights as it works out cheaper even than McDonalds.

Always always take pack up. Kids then grandkids. Love a family picnic!

I’ve noticed something…. Our friendship group, who we got out with a lot for days out, are all well off (kids met at private school, numerous abroad holidays etc) but no way will they pay for food or drinks. We went to a soft play before Christmas- I sat ordering the kids drinks - I probably got them 2 or 3 each by the end of the session . The other families bought none but had their water bottles. Same with food. I think they know what to spend on and what not to . So maybe that’s how people afford it regularly.

We have 4 DC on one salary so very used to cheap days out!

We have national trust membership which is around £13 a month and there's a place 20 mins drive which we often go to on a weekend.

We have gym membership so go swimming regularly at weekends aswell. Works out good value over a year and we use their showers etc and I also go in the week on my own.

My DC are also happy with just a simple trip to the park.

I think it's definitely easier with younger children who'll go along with things!
Mine are late primary and wanting things more often. We tend to say if you want this (ridiculously overpriced) sugar dummy then that's instead of an ice cream.
Sometimes we have a meal on the way back from a day out at a brewers fayre/beefeater that has a deal on as a treat.
I do think having decent water bottles, rucksack, picnic mat and beach tent etc make a difference to the enjoyment of the day.
I try and buy snacks with our weekly shop in term time so when half terms come around we have snacks ready to take out with us.
One thing I used to do when I used cash more often was if I'd budgeted a set amount for a day out or meal and I didn't spend it all I'd put the money I'd not spent in a jar for the next day out.

We do big things once every couple of months so eat out but we choose wisely. We love a food stall/market type place. We always take water bottles so only end up getting a couple of drinks for the meal. This year we’ve cut down quite a lot because the costs are insane. Joint income of around £65k and we find it a struggle.
Editing to add that we do park trips and similar regularly.

We always take pack up to save money, the kids always want to eat out instead, but luckily we have allergies so I can use that as a convenient excuse for making a pack up and they’re so far young enough to accept it.

We do have some memberships rather than paying for individual days, and we’ll also do free things whenever they’re available.

Kids can eat out when they can afford it themselves.
Food is overpriced eating out.

There's 5 of us, so days out can br very pricy.

We have memberships to the zoo and local theme park.
Costs a lot initially, but gives us loads of really fun days out once we have it.
We get some of our extra special days out as Christmas/birthday experience vouchers.
We do something nice every weekend, but not always something that costs.
Pretty much always take a packed lunch With us.
If it's a full day out would stop for mc Donalds/Wendy's/kfc type of meal on the way home.

Following. We are doing “No Spend Days Out” only from now on to put aside money for other things. And I’ve lost my job to redundancy.

We have bikes, a paddle board, wetsuits, kayak, membership to NT, a local forest, beaches so we’re using what have. The NT provides free parking to most beaches, forest and even a bike skills park locally so it’s very good value.

The cinema is too expensive for us so we got Disney + for all the Marvel films.

We buy snacks and wraps in our weekly shop. We also keep tortilla wraps in the freezer just in case. Then we pack wraps, fruit, soreen / flapjacks and a small Fanta (the extra small cans!)

I also buy frozen sausage rolls (and veggie versions), bake them and take them with us to mix it up a bit!

Then, we put aside £15 a month in a “summer holiday” pot. So in August we’ll have a small budget for go karting, laser quest etc.

Im watching every penny in 2025! We request tickets to bigger events as gifts from grandparents which is lovely. So we still get to do “cool things”.

E.g We will have to budget in advance for the Minecraft movie at the Cinema in April. Other than that we simply can’t afford to go to the cinema or to theme parks.

This is really something I’ve noticed since DD turned one - even soft play for them both the other day was £13, plus lunch it’s £20.

We are national trust members and get out and make the most of free stuff but even just going to our local very nice park the other day cost me £10 I hadn’t budgeted for in duck food and ice cream (I know, it’s January but my kids aren’t bothered!)

Another thing I'm doing is slowly buying Easter eggs from around late Feb time as we have a ridiculous number of people to buy for. One year I didn't budget properly
For it and it really impacted what we did at Easter.
I'm also making a list of free or very cheap
Days out to make the most of it when we have nicer weather.