To ask how much money you spend in the summer holidays?

[Cornfieldrainbows]

When you’re at home with the dc?
I’ve two dc and we seem to be burning cash. They are 12 and 5 so tricky to please both. My 12 year old has ASD and struggles socially so is never off doing stuff with his friends. He’s always with me.
Over the last week or so we’re been bowling, to the cinema, to Pizza Hut, to a local theme park, to the beach, to a special evening show, to a local museum, to the zoo...
This week I am back at work three days, so dc2 is with the childminder which is expensive in itself and dc1 is at sports camp. Next week we’ve got two big outings planned on my days off, but dc1 has sports all week this week and dc2 is easier to entertain with the cheaper stuff. Tomorrow we will go to a nearby forest and do the trail and Friday we will go to a pretend beach and paddling pool that has opened up.
How much do you spend during a ‘typical’ week in the summer holidays? I think I spend about £600 last week, maybe more, but I suppose for three of us, doing the stuff we did that’s to be expected.

DC are 12, 11 & 9.

We go to parks & beaches a lot & throughout the 6 weeks will probably visit:

Cinema £40
Owl sanctuary £45
Seal sanctuary £50
Donkey sanctuary £20 (free entry but buy lunch there)
Skate park £15
Swimming (3 times) £60

Probably £250-300 if you include parking at the beaches, ice creams etc.

We mostly take picnics on days out which keeps the cost down & it's easier with fussy DC!

£600??? Madness

Why such big activities? What about free museums/the park/seeing friends? We are in a secure financial position but I wouldn’t dream of spending that much!!

When it was just me and DH we would budget about £100 per day for the two of us during holidays (food, entertainment, souvenirs etc.) or day trips. DS is two years old so we usually don’t have to pay a lot of extra for him so that’s still our budget.

With young children we mostly did free or nearly free things.
With slightly older children we put in 2 or 3 more expensive paid days e.g. trip to zoo/cinema.
Once they got to about 9/10 they were mostly out with their friends so not organising outings anyway.

If you've got the money and happy to spend it then great, but that sounds like a lot of paid outings. We'd be looking at 1 a week at very most.

I think that's a mad amount of money and activities for a week.

I generally go two or three expensive activities (theme park, go ape, theatre tickets) over the whole summer.

Then maybe cheaper (but still quite pricey) stuff e.g. bowling, cinema, swimming, crazy golf etc. once a week.

The rest of the time it's free or very low cost (e.g. just transport costs).

As little as possible!

We paid £500 for a seaside trip in a few weeks' time and we're probably just going to go to the beach most days because it's free.

We have EH/NT membership so will do a couple of days out to those places and take a picnic so all we'll have to pay is the fuel cost.

The rest of the time my dc will play in or out of the house either together or with their friends.

My dc are 8 and 10 btw

There are ways to do things on the cheap. E.g. annual passes, kids club films, discount vouchers, but with that, there is usually some level of compromise.

I would happily spend £600 in a week off if we had a good week but I find money doesn't necessarily buy us a good time so sometimes it's not worth it for us.

Sounds like you are juggling this amazingly. Your schedule sounds brilliant. You have very different ages to cater for and needing to consider ASD. Blimmin parenting high five to you lady. Your kids are very lucky, I hope they feel it!

We probably do one big outing a week (and that is relative, we rarely spend more than £50 for me and 3DC) and the rest of the time we're at home, or at the park, or doing free things.

I try to find free or inexpensive things to do to keep costs down. Lots of museums, art galleries, local parks, the library, nature reserves, NT or EH sites etc. Also have a cheap cinema locally (£2.50 per ticket!) so go there if there’s a film DC want to watch. Swimming is quite cheap too and we usually go to the seaside. Tend to take our water bottles and a picnic if we’re out for the day to cut costs that way too.

In terms of expensive trips out, the most expensive is DD’s birthday in mid August. Other than that, I do usually take them to the local maize maze which is about £35. The most substantial cost is probably how much more food they eat at home…

We are on holiday at the moment in Devon - been here almost 2 weeks. Will probably have spent around £700 for me, DH and 7 year old DS by the time we go home. We have done a lot though - e.g. zoo, 2xsteam trains, Victorian museum place, castle etc. And a lot of eating out - most days we have had our main meal out.

When we are home though, we won't be spending anything like that amount.

We eat at home or take lunch out with us.

We are planning things like swimming (about £7), parks, local walks, library, local free museums, inviting a school friend round and seeing relatives and friends at our house or theirs.

If you are not going away, then you could use the last two weeks as a sort of holiday and do cheaper things from now on?

I know all kids are different but my son does quite enjoy time at home too, so we may walk to the village park/library in the morning and then just potter at home in the afternoon.

Wow. That's a lot of money. I have 3 dcs and probably spend less than that for the whole 7 weeks. I guess it's not a lot if you have the money! I do understand that.

We just do free or really cheap stuff. We went to the cinema today and it was £2.49 each for 10am morning show.

Parks, picnics, beaches, woods, friends houses. Odd cheap cinema trip, odd cheap cafe trip and swimming.

About £200 a week

Jesus, nowhere near £600 a week! That would be £3600 over the 6 week holiday 😵

Things DS (12) likes to do are:
Paddleboarding= free
Skateboarding= free for outdoor parks or £10 for indoor if raining.
Body boarding/ skimboarding at the beach= free.
Wakeboarding= £18 per session.
Snowboarding at Chill Factor= £30 plus McDonalds or Wetherspoons tea= £20ish.
Bike rides= free.
Dog walks on the beach or woods= free.
BMX track= free.

Obviously there was the initial outlay for all the boards/ bikes but at least we can use them over and over again.

2 night city break 600.00
Cinema 30.00
Extra food/treats about 80.00
Cafe/lunch/dinner out 150.0
Trip to the beach 50.00
Shopping trip 100.00

It's more than usual but we haven't booked a holiday due to covid etc

Also, what you describe in your OP is a whole 7 weeks worth of entertainment!

That's a lot, but I do understand that you only get a few weeks to have a lot of fun. It does sound an awful lot of money but of you got it and it won't affect anything else crack on.

If it does there have been plenty of great suggestions by pp (which I may pinch!)

No where near that amount. My dcs are 15 & 10. We have enjoyed a couple of parks visits with cousins I just packed a picnic and cost me around £12 for coffee & ice creams.
Enjoyed a trip to the beach for crazy golf, pirate maze & fish & chips was around £35.
Teen has had a couple of Costa visits with friends so that’s around £10 a time.
Already have a Beamish annual ticket so a trip there cost around £15 in treats, again I just packed a picnic to keep costs down.

You might benefit from family National Trust membership, to help keep costs down.

About £200 a week if it's days out, entrance, picnics, ice creams etc. If we go away a lot more.

@ACPC

2 night city break 600.00 Cinema 30.00 Extra food/treats about 80.00 Cafe/lunch/dinner out 150.0 Trip to the beach 50.00 Shopping trip 100.00

It's more than usual but we haven't booked a holiday due to covid etc

How does a trip to the beach cost £50? As in £50 in petrol or do they charge 1p per grain of sand to stand on?

alot more than I thought considering we are at home.

2 dcs.

We have done bowling which needed a stonking parking charge and lunch- about £130 total.

At the weekend we went to a local huge park that has rides and all sorts. Children under 3 are free, other it is one price per person, no less for children so ££72 entry, then £7.60 icecreams and £27.00 lunch. Plus £3.00 for the activity that was not included in the entrance fee. Sure I could have taken our lunch, but really did not want to faff around with picnics when we are going nowhere really.

Hoping to go to Harry Potter world, which again will be ££££.

I am thinking dreamily of our trip to Greece a few years back. Gorgeous place, all inclusive 7 days and under £2 k.

Around 1k this summer, but that’s for lots of trips & meals out. We can afford it so it’s fine.

Gosh, nowhere near that much.

So far Ds has had a week's swimming course (at school) - £50, plus £20 in petrol to get him there every day.
This week he's doing a mixed shooting morning tomorrow clays/air rifles/archery £55 and then we'll go for tapas in the evening. Maybe another £40.
Other than that, we've been cycling, picnicking, kite flying, canoeing on the local stream, made pizza, visited friends - All free. I've cooked him Greek, Spanish & Italian food, but not much extra cost.

There's only ds and me.

My ds is also autistic so I get what you mean about them not just hanging out with mates.

We don't do big kid activities everyday though.

He swims for a club and is still training 5 times a week during summer. That's over 4 days.

We tend to do some walks and have a coffee/ice cream/ cake or whatever.

We will do a paid day out to places once a week. I tend to use Tesco rewards for this and I get a carets ticket (if you get dla check places for carers discounts)

He doesn't like things like sitting on beaches etc but I do so we compromise and go to a beach somewhere you can do water sports and it's a drive away to make a full day. We take the gas ring and make bacon rolls etc and take a picnic.

Well do the weekly shop in a very large supermarket a 20-30 minute drive away just for a change of scenery and mooch around.

For pizzas etc we will walk to a supermarket and buy bases and toppings. Make our own and watch a film.