School summer holidays stock up list/ideas!

[heedlesschicken]

I've changed jobs and because of my new working hours, I have the majority (though not all) of the school summer holidays off work. I am really excited about this and hugely grateful but also a bit nervous as I am going to be flying solo a lot with my 8, 5 and 2 year olds... eek! I'm also trying to budget as much as possible because I have reduced my hours so trying to keep an eye on costs.

I've got a day off next week so I was planning on doing a big stock up of everything we'll need, obviously I will get the usual weekly supermarket food delivery throughout the summer but next week I'm going to go to Lidl as well as the works and maybe a few other places so I can stock up on things that are going to help keep the costs down over the 6 weeks. Things I've thought of so far:

Those 6 packs of juice cartons to take on days out/park trips so I don't get fleeced in the cafes
Ice pops for the freezer
Suncream
First aid supplies mainly to take on holiday and also to top up what we have in the bathroom cupboard
Craft supplies from the works

Any other ideas or tips would be much appreciated!

Free splash parks. City zoos.

Yes paddling pool. You can get some pretty big ones. A few other fun garden toys too - will reduce the need for days out.

Check to see what is happening at your local leisure centre. I usually used to take my DCs to extra swimming lessons. I would find in a week’s course that they would progress by nearly a term (they had weekly lessons in term time). A week of swimming lessons is obviously fairly expensive but I also often booked them in for one-off sporty activities which didn’t cost much at all. You might also want to look on your council website or check at your library for cheap or free activities in your local
area - for example here there is a country park that has all kinds of free activities, from craft to wildlife watching.

Just came back to so many good ideas thank you! I will have a look through all of these!

Grateful for any tips about picnics/easy but cheap snack foods as we’ve done two picnics this week for after school activities etc and I already feel like we’re all getting bored of the usuals! One thing I really hate is when you chop up veggies or take fruit and it doesn’t all get eaten and then it’s going warm and musty in a lunchbox all day and the ice packs lose their cool so the leftovers end up inedible and so much goes to waste. Short of just feeding them crisps and cheesestrings all summer, I can’t stand chucking food away but I want them to have some vaguely nutritious things to eat sometimes!

I make mine up in the divided lunchboxes with sandwich/wrap, cucumber for DD, carrot sticks for DS and some grapes/blueberries/strawberries. They tend to eat that as it’s in front of them with ‘you can have crisps/an Oreo once you’ve eaten the sandwich and vegetable’. I find the gel ice packs (we get them with our muscle
food orders) are really good for keeping their cool for longer. Strawberries can go in the blender for a milkshake later if we do take them out and they don’t get eaten.

For longer days, I take a snack box with raisin, popcorn, a few cookies/oreos in to keep them going.

Don't forget that bus travel is cheaper this summer through that gvmt scheme to help families. I saw Kew was £1.75 entry for kids so have a look at attractions near you in case there's really good offers on. Even kids eating free and only you pay will be an inexpensive treat for them.

Compile a list of parks so you can try out new places, take picnics (and a flask if you want a hit drink) saves a fortune.

I also used to get one of those large cardboard playhouses that you assemble and then colour in, in case the weather turned, or just as a filler project for the dc.
i just googled as I didn’t know if they were still around and there’s lots of them, even a market stall to do from TKMaxx at 9.99.

I’ve done both of mine a little (cheap!) summer holidays hamper. There’s a couple of craft kits, a book, puzzle book, a water pistol, scrap book & some baking stuff. Hopefully enough to keep them occupied if we get some really wet days.

Otherwise I’m planning on trying to be out as much as possible on the days I’m not working - parks, library, local walks. We are lucky enough to live very close to the beach and I have a beach bag prepared - buckets & spades, fishing nets, picnic blanket, sun cream, wipes & talc. Just need to chuck in a couple of towels and water bottles/snacks and we can be ready to go in minutes.

I save throughout the year for school holidays so we can have a few more expensive days out, but I’m trying to spend less than usual, so being prepared with drinks and food to avoid dropping £50 on lunch out each time. I’ve made a list of some free activities near us too

Both DDs are booked into a few holiday club/youth club activities when I’m working which I’m hoping will stop boredom setting in and mean they are happy with some more chilled days at home with me.

I’m stocking up on ice lollies & cones, and I’m planning on preparing some healthy snacks each morning which I can direct them to rather than them wanting something prepared every 10 minutes.

Finally, I’ve made sure I’m off the first two days back to school to recover and reclaim the house from the chaos!

The annual leave after is genius! I might actually do the same and book a day off even if it’s just to deep clean the house which I’m sure will be completely minging by the time the holidays are over as the three of them manage to make dirt and mess more quickly than I can clean it 😂

I highly recommend it! I’ll probably just sit and stare at the wall basking in the silence for at least the first hour 😁