Is £100 too much for a day out with kids?

[Worriedandscurd]

So this is a silly question but I recently got a new job. I was a single parent and struggled for many years. This new job pays a lot more, something I could never of dreamed of and things are seemingly falling into place.

I took my two kids out today, we went to an activity had food in a nice restaurant and spent £100 including travel. At the time I just thought how nice it would be to finally treat us. But now I feel anxious, I have the money spare. It just seems so so excessive. Is this excessive? I could of saved a bit here and there but they had such a lovely day. Honestly this isn’t me bragging. I had some months before where I genuinely didn’t know whether to heat my house or feed my kids. I just need to know from people who do this regularly if it’s too much?

Please, please enjoy this nice day you had and the memories.

You can afford it, you've had a lovely time - it's a shame you now worry about the spend.

My OH paid $440 for last night's dinner just for two of us, and it'd be a waste of money to be worrying about it now.

You've earned it to be in this position to afford this on your kids.

Unfortunately this is the reality of days out, but this is why I work - to enjoy great days out and not to have to go to the playground at our local park every single day! Life is for living and all that - you want to make great memories while you can.

Sadly days out are just expensive. Our weekly budget is always much more on a bank holiday weekend as we have time for days out. Today we are going to the drive in cinema, £36 for ticket, pre ordered popcorn etc £28 then dinner booked with friends and kids tonight.

Tomorrow we are going to the zoo, it’s £97 just for entry. 180mile round trip, taking a picnic but need dinner on the way home plus ice cream, gift shop.

Enjoy it if you can afford it.

It's really hard to go from the mind set of being 'poor'. For example I grew up in a poor household, things were also very tight for a while when Dc's were little. Since then both mine and Dp's salary's have increased lots. This isn't a stealth brag, quite the opposite-Last night I spent £150 on new bedding for DS and DD. This morning I remembered I ordered it and had a little panic that it was too much money. I'll never get used to just buying things if I want them to be honest.

As for days out, yes they can cost-but if you can afford it, do it.

To me that's quite a lot but you can afford it and your children had a great time. That's the important thing.
Plus if you've had hard times before it's lovely you're now in a position to treat your children.
Don't feel bad, enjoy it.

Yanbu, we can spend £100 on a nice day out, more if it’s a theme park.
We can afford it and I love to give the kids these memorable experiences. Don’t feel guilty

When you have been skint, spending even £10 on non necessities seems frivolous. Its been years since I was skint and it still gets me from time to time.

I try to go for middle ground these days. 2 for 1 tickets, books trains in advance and buying rail cards, taking picnics etc.

It’s about that when we go to safari parks or zoos for the day so we don’t do it very often. Costs add up, especially if you buy food there. Don’t overthink it, you had a lovely time so that’s the most important thing.

Tickets for days out can be expensive, so £100+ can easily be spent before you've even got there eg theme parks, theatre shows.

Here is what we do to balance the costs;

Plan a number of different activities at different price points over a school holiday so maybe one £££ trip like a theme park, a couple of ££ trips like cinema or English heritage (we are members) and lots of £ trips like parks or museums.

Look for ticket offers eg 2 for 1, Tesco Clubcard, sun newspapers, groupon etc and plan around those.

We take packed lunches to our trips out. We once ate at theme park and it was awful. I'd much rather save the money towards a nicer meal at another time. We make nice packed lunches so don't feel like we are missing out. We tell the children they can have an ice lolly when we are out and we buy them McDonalds on the way home (a meal for 4 could cost £50, but an ice lolly and McDonald's is £20).

I used to make up little party bags for the way home, to avoid moaning about the gift shop. I'd put together a drink, packs of sweets and couple of poundshop toys.

Not excessive at all! I’d rather spend £100 on a fab day out than £100 on ‘stuff’. It’s hard when you go from being brasssic to not as brassic and the anxiety around money takes a while to shift.

We do one or two big days out a year which cost around this. Other times our days out consist of parking and petrol as we take a packed lunch a lot. We do have an annual family membership to a local zoo so lots of our days out are there.

If you can afford it then it's fine and about the cost of a 'day out' attraction and food for a family.

I remember feeling sick years ago when my children were small, as I realised just the tickets to get into one of the big theme parks were going to cost £100 for 4 of us. We'd been queueing for 2 hours so I didn't feel like I could turn back. Then once we were in we had the usual over-inflated prices for abysmal food. And none of that includes travel costs. We happened to choose one of the busiest summer days ever, so then spent about an hour in each ride queue. It was one of the worst days out ever.
I think if you had £100 and spent in on a lovely day out, that sounds like a great way to spend your money - and well deserved.

We love the zoo, and we’re lucky to get change out of £150 for just for the entrance fees. Days out get expensive

I totally get this. For a period of DS life we were living on a very small amount of money, and everything had to be hugely considered, even a lunch at a local cheap cafe.

Now me and DH are both working in good jobs with good salaries. I got an inheritance recently, not a huge amount, but enough to make some small purchases for our house which was run down. I still felt anxious when over the Buy button because two years ago we wouldn't have been able to do anything remotely like getting a new mattress, or a bit of furniture. Everything was either second hand or we made do.

Last week we took DS to the beach and treated ourselves for the first time in 12 months to a meal out - came to £50 and I felt my heart stop for a second and realised it was okay.

I don't think it ever goes, that mentality.

But I'm so glad you had such a good day, and things are looking brighter for you

I think it’s normal! On a day out to somwhere like an aquarium, that was a special treat and I didn’t mind a splurge, I would expect to pay:

-£20ish on petrol/transport
-£25ish family ticket entry
-£25ish on lunch for everyone
-£10ish on ice creams / optional extras like kids treasure hunt
-£30ish in the gift shop (always overpriced!!)

That comes to £110.

And I just realised you didn’t just buy lunch out, you went to a nice restaurant! That in itself can easily come to £50 on 3 people! So I think you’ve done well x

No that's not excessive at all.

Not at all, the cost of theme parks, Longleat, zoos etc is quite high and eating out often isn't cheap. Don't feel bad about your day out, you're making memories and that's priceless.

Just my lunch for 2 people yesterday was over £80.

Could you put a certain amount into a jar every week to spend on days out in the Summer holidays. Then when you go with that money you won't even have to think about it.
These are the days dc will remember and not whether they had designer clothes etc. Just enjoy them

I don’t think it’s excessive at all when DP and I went out for dinner and drinks last night and spent £200. It really comes down to whether you can afford it or not and it sounds like you can. You can ruin lovely memories by worrying and feeling guilty about the money too much.

I’d recommend a budget at the beginning of the month. I put in one column all of our income. Then in the second column absolutely everything we spend plus what we plan to spend. So I add every day out/dinner out planned and a rough estimate of what we will spend doing it. Then I can see how much money is leftover. It becomes easier the more you do it as I know we spend roughly £250 a month on food so it goes straight into the budget.

Excessive if regularly in my opinion, once or twice a year seems fine.

I do think as with everyone that saving some money for unexpected costs is no bad thing. No-one should ever be in the position you were in previously of having to choose food or heating.

There is something really lovely about being able to afford a thing you didn't used to be able to. So enjoy it! Definitely don't go mad and start spending all your extra cash; you know you can live on less so save a good chunk of the extra. It's very easy to slip into just spending money in a way that that doesn't bring you joy. But also enjoy treats that are new - you'll appreciate them all the more.

This is why you are working; to give your family a nice life.
Just enjoy it.