To be upset that we can't afford to take the kids on holiday?

[exactchange]

We have no mobile contracts just payg, don't smoke don't drink much (have never been to the pub since we moved nearly a year ago), but we never seem to be able to afford to take our dcx2 to nice places for a treat - no beach, no playhouse, no weekend away, not even camping. I see pictures of my ds1 friends (and parents obviously!) on Facebook and see their happy little faces and wish I could give those kind of memories to my own children. I feel we are sheltering them too much, they need more life experiences and I worry it will hold them back as it has me (only been abroad one day in my life with school) and they deserve so much more. Am I being silly in feeling this way?

Are you close enough to the beach to go for the day? I took my dc to the beach today, hours of fun, took a picnic, buckets and spades, didn't even get an ice cream. All it cost was petrol.

I've stopped looking at fb, it just makes me increasingly depressed. It seems like everyone is posting photos of holidays abroad or fantastic looking days out - theme parks/ days out to London etc. We have managed a trip to London Zoo thanks to Tesco clubcard points. My kids ( now mostly teenagers) have had one all inclusive holiday abroad when we inherited a little money a few years back and that is all they want again. I do feel bad that we can't do it every year like a lot of families we know do. I am definately going to save the Sun tokens this year for a cheap break.

Sounds like my DB Sparkling. At family meet ups me or one of my sisters will say "do you remember our holiday to Tenby/Woolacombe/Croyde" etc. DB always says "no".

We can't afford a holiday either this year. The past 5 years we've gone to Pontins, Haven or Parkdean. The Sun holidays are cheap, if you don't mind mucking in. ;-)

This year we've done only local things but to be honest, it's probably cost us as much as a holiday would've done!

Windsor castle: £50 for 4 people;
Fishing: £20 on a rod, bait and licence;
Lunch out: at least £25 a time;
Cinema: £28 for 4 of us, plus snacks...

I'd like to know why caravan holidays have gone so dear. Years ago a week in a caravan was a cheap option, when you couldn't afford hotels, now a caravan holiday seems to have become a luxury break. Some sites charge nearly a grand for a week.

Charis camping is often a cheap option but it's still not free!

Actually, I disagree, I've just come back from three weeks camping and it can be so cheap, that in fact we have saved money on what we would have spent staying home, eating very cheaply, tent place £5 a night, travelling off peak...

We haven't paid any gas or electricity, transport or expensive food for three weeks.

Anyone can afford camping if they want to.

YY Santas. DB couldn't tell us where we had been or anything. He said he thought he remembered Brixham. We never went there. Mum was

We live in a big city and there is loads of free stuff on over the holidays, not sure if you live anywhere similar? Libraries and local museums often have free stuff too. Don't fret about holidays, they are not the be all and end all. Enjoy your time together

I feel for you OP but if you take a long term view to saving money then you might just be able to do something in terms of going abroad. Try to save something every month, even if it's a small and seemingly insignificant amount (or just putting change in a money jar) it soon builds up. Keep an eye out for deals like The Sun as others have mentioned, teletext holidays and look at sights like Groupon.

It might take a while and you might be saving a little bit of money for a year, even longer, but you might just surprise yourself with what you can put away to then spend on a break away or even just a weekend somewhere.

In the meantime day trips are always a good idea. If one looks around there are some great deals to be had on coach trips to both domestic and foreign destinations (am currently thinking of booking one to Germany or Belgium for Xmas markets, it's technically a day trip but travelling overnight). If you can put petrol in the car then a trip to the coast can be relatively cheap, and if you're within a reasonable distance from London (we are about an hr away from Euston by the train) then at this time of year you can get deals on train tickets and go to places like the science museum and/or the natural history museum which are all free to enter.....me and my lot did this last weekend and although we ate out and bought about £40 in a gift shop that trip was a full day out and could have cost as little as £50-£60 for two adults, one 10yr old and our 7 month old daughter with a packed lunch, train tickets & travel card (plus with good weather Hyde Park is lovely to walk around for free).

I'm sure others on here can come up with many other suggestions for a cheap and good time away. But no matter what other folks are doing don't let it get you down (easier said than done sometimes I know) because when you eventually can make a trip doable believe me it'll be a more valued experience

And if you don't already own a tent, and sleeping bags, as a bare minimum, is it free then? No.

Anyone can afford camping if they want to - bollocks.

What a patronising fecker.

Charis - did you travel to a campsite?

Did you travel by car? Bus? Train?

Just so you know - my DD and her partner are on a really tight budget and they can't afford the money for even cheap tents and sleeping bags.
Or petrol to get to a campsite.
Or train fare.

It really is that tight for them.

They will manage a holiday because we will help them.

We also can't afford to go away at the moment. We have been trying to do as much locally for free or as cheap as possible. Afternoon at library so they can choose some books. Walks in woods. Local park with a picnic. Setting up paddling pool in the garden and doing them a picnic lunch out there. Tomorrow we are going swimming. Less than £10 for 2 adults and 3 children. Place has inflatables up in one pool. Seperate pool for swimming and then kids pool with slide etc. As an extra treat we are taking them for MacDonald after. Also plan in next few weeks for a walk around lake to feed the ducks and also a walk around local docks with a picnic. We have done lots of craft things and made lots of cakes. Not everything has to cost money and kids have had just as much fun making their own games up

Being upset isnt going to help, do something about it

I grew up with self employed parents so sometimes we had holidays, sometimes we didn't!

As lots have mentioned, it's the memories that count! Me and my friends spent lots of summers having water fights, in the park playing games, having movie days, and although being from london means being lucky enough to have lots of free activities, I'm sure that's the case for many places.

Museums, parks, woods, art galleries etc. I always buy food from Tesco and we recently had a basically free dinner at pizza express (you pay for drinks but could just get tap water) and I know there are lots of days out on there too.

Whereabouts are you from? I'm sure some will come up with great suggestions for you. You're not being unreasonable though, it's hard not to get down about money issues.

So many people are so consumerist nowadays. Feeding the ducks, going to the library, that was all anyone did when my kids were small. My friends and our families camped together for years, cheapo farmers field type campsites. Everyone had a ball.

Nowadays it is all theme park days out and foreign all inclusives. And all so expensive and disproportional to what average people earn.

Look at what you DO give them, not at what you don't. I think we parents will always worry but millions of people don't go abroad and grow up into happy adults.

One thing we have done is a holiday at home. A dedicated few days with us both off work. You could do it centerparcs style with swimming, woodland walks, cycling if you have bikes, or you could do film afternoons at home, kids AM cinema, any free museums you can find, board games afternoon, playground and picnic. Pretend you are camping and have a bbq then sit out with the kids until it's dark, or go on a torchlit walk then home for hot chocolate. Do "sleepovers" in each other's rooms. I'm just making stuff up now but my point is pick some things to do together, group them together and make it a "thing". DH loves our holiday at home so much it's hard to get him to go away! Nothing better than your own bed, he says.

This will sound so daft but can you afford a couple of £20 pop up tents and find a cheap, local campsite or certified location? You could literally be a mile from home and it would be a holiday to the kids. Pack of cards, torches etc. They would love it.

Urethra that is possibly the cuntiest reply I have seen in a long time. Nae need to behave like a dick.

Also if you have to 'prioritise' a holiday over other things then you shouldn't be taking the holiday. OP has the right idea.

I feel the same, OP. This was one of the reasons I deleted Facebook, fed up of all the boasting posts when I'm counting my loose change for bread and milk some weeks.
We have managed a few activities/days out a week over the summer hols-swimming, softplay, park, walk to the feed the ducks, baking and playing games/arts and crafts at home. My DCs are only 5 and 3 so dont complain about not going on holidays, but I do worry as they get older they will. Hopefully next year we can save and go on a caravan hol/camping trip. I remember these being the best type of holidays when I was small

As well as the lovely ideas that pp have suggested perhaps you can ad some language/culture stuff? i.e. 'french day', 'Spanish day' etc, have spanish meal, talk in Spanish, pretend you are the waiter and taking orders and all that. Go on utube and find music and dance videos from other countries and dance in the living room.
Play games with currency, capital cities, flights, flags, basic phrases etc.
internet and utube is your friend.

I agree whole heartedly with Purplepoodle
As a child my father wanted people to know how 'well' he was doing by taking us on round the world trips. I went to some extraordinary places by age 10 I'd probably been to more countries than most visit in a lifetime. But I barely enjoyed any of it because we (brother, mum and I) were constantly on edge for potential emotional or physical abuse from him.
As an example: one time we were in Hong Kong and F buys a umbrella as a souvenier and for some reason makes 8 year old me have the responsibility of looking after it during a flight and airport layover. I loose the umbrella somehow, F goes ballistic about how I ruined the holiday, DM sticks up for me, she gets hit and F kicks her out of the hotel room. For the rest of the 2 week trip we did not see F and my brother and I took turns sleeping on the floor as DM had to share our room.
I'd a million times rather had a a happy loving family who could only afford to take us to the local park, than a globe trotting mad man.

And FYI if Facebook had been a 'thing' back then, we would no doubt have had endless pics of us in front of the pyramids/golden gate bridge/disney world looking all happy families like your mates. All that glitters is not gold...

Picnic, picnic, picnic :) today I did do a quite high price activity it was £45 for 3 of us, but what made today really expensive was KFC £14 something, then getting back late so a chinese at £17.70, I am my own worst enemy, but most days I do, a local park, or beach.

so what I have done this holiday, the good the bad the ugly, we have done some local wildlife trust donation lead days, really good, loads of fresh air, fun,learning and I pay a £1 for each of us, but the idea is pay what you can, so if I was very short of cash I would pay what I couold affrd even if it was a few coppers.

what I would recommend is looking at money saving expert and even though you appear not to be in debt, look at debt free want to be, I would even post, they are lovely many years ago I did just this,
Pay as you Go, sounds frugal, but if you actually had to put a figure on it, could someone find you a better deal?

also look at deals, look locally at child friendly activities, round me I am lucky, loads of wildlife parks, zoos, theme parks, museums, parks, within 70 miles and I have a car, those in 3 miles...still loads, you need to find out about your local area, google, google maps, trip adviser, local face book groups, ask on facebook where is good to go locally, leaflets at your local library.

buy an ordinance survey map for your local area, you will find loads of walkable days out

and lastly remember it is not an issue to mention money if you have it, so I am always asking costs, asking for good free days out as everybody thinks we are loaded, we are compared to most, sooo nobody thinks anything about us asking these questions... my children came home one day and they do this thing they shout "eat like the rich" when they get something yummy which means they eat it painfully slowly but savour ever mouthful, and it made me realise this is true, you are rich you have time to savour it, no money you would just gobble it up, so the rich person law as it is called in this house, means you make everything last longer and do it cheaper, it is fun and enables days like today where it all went to shit, lol

Camping is not cheap, by the time you fork out for a family sized tent, decent sleeping bags, portable cutlery, table and chairs etc, you could probably have rented a cottage in Devon.

Op, you are not crap parent by any means, my mum always told me that it was up to me to explore the World. I rarely went abroad after the age of 8 as my dad's business went bust but I was lucky as I grew up in a tourist country. We lived near the beach, so in the summer we went for a swim most days, mucked about on the sand. I also spent a hell of a lot time on the trampoline outside.

Also get out the sprinkler, hose, water guns or paddling pool out on a hot day and have a splash about outside in the garden (if you have one) with rubber ducks. Swimming pool is reasonably cheap as well, ditto art galleries and museums.

Don't be ashamed to turn the TV on, summer holidays are supposed to be relaxing. Set up little 'huts' in the living room (basically get chairs and couches in a circle like tent poles and put a sheet or duvet over them and gets out the pop corn) Me and my friend were obsessed with making those!

If you have a garden you can games like Kerplonk, croquet, skittles, mini games of tennis like swing pool or badminton. Also if you have concrete draw up hopscotch or foursquare.

I'm going to show your post to my 9 year old daughter. We are currently on holiday in a 5 star hotel in a long haul destination and the ungrateful little fecker has done nothing but moan since we got here. Apparently it's too hot/boring/she misses home. We also do £9.50 Sun newspaper breaks and it seems she enjoys those much more. Kids often take pleasure in such simple things - trips to the park, free museums etc, just being with friends & family. Check what holiday activities & events your local council have on offer. She loved the holiday club she attended before we came away. I will certainly think more carefully before booking next year's holiday as it seems our efforts to show her the world are not appreciated.......