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.

Where I live the kids have 10 weeks of summer this year. Send money and wine.

We haven’t spent much so far and have mostly done free or cheap stuff Like library, swimming, country parks, woods, meeting friends in parks, bike rides and visiting family.
We will do some bigger days out like beach, aquarium and museums but they’re not very expensive either.
We’ve booked a cottage for 5 nights for £600 so that’s our biggest expensive, along with keeping the car topped up with fuel.

@LadyCatStark I’m intrigued! How much was your outlay with paddle boards and bikes? Do you leave near a beach or lake?

Oh my lord this thread.

My kids are young so easily entertained with playgrounds, walks, playing at home etc. But nieces and nephews are 8/9/10/11 and Dsiblings who have plenty of money do very little of this paid stuff - the kids spend time with friends? Much as it was when I was a child in summer holidays it's a mix of playdates, occasional free or cheap outings and maybe 1 more expensive thing per week at most.

I think it's all relative, I spend £500 Just on myself on a normal week, not on holidays (£500 doesn't include mortgage/car), but I'm terrible with money and have no budget, so yours sounds organised to me.
If it's not putting you under financial strain then why not enjoy yourselves? Sounds like a fun-filled holiday with yours kids.

We spend very little as we are quite a low income family. We have Ds aged 9 and dd aged 17 (who is off to university soon, she works part time but still tags along with us if we do something so £££). Day to day we just go on walks / to the woods / parks etc Ds comes food shopping with me and to the library etc. I literally try to spend as little as I can most days but once a week we will do some sort of outing - today we are going to a farm / museum type place. Last week we went to an owl sanctuary. We have a weeks holiday at Haven in 2 weeks time where we will spend a lot of time on the beach - the actual cost of Haven is being covered by a disability charity.

Ds seems happy enough. He has autism and doesn’t like to be around a lot of people doing stuff anyway and enjoys being at home watching tv, playing with screens and toys etc.

I don’t think you have to spend loads to have a nice summer break.

A lot! I do try to balance it out with free things like beach, swimming, park etc but we'll do a couple of theme parks, cinema, bowling, meals out etc. I have a summer holiday fund though and put £100 away on the first of each month from September - June so I know I have £1000 to cover the holiday madness

@Kapalika I know you didn't tag me but I'll answer you

How long is a piece of string really.
You can get paddle boards for anything from 150- 500! Ours were 250
Our two person kayaks were 300 each
Wetsuits are anywhere from 70ish to over 100 depending on size and spec
Then you'll need life jackets too. They're about 15-30quid. Depending on size

The decathlon is great for everything.

We live near the coast (literally 10's of beaches within 10 mins) and there's lakes nearby too.

I try to get a mixture of activities, but sometimes it's cheaper to book them onto a summer camp than it is to keep them at home.

Today dd is going to clip & climb. £13 for an hour, plus a drink in the cafe for me while I wait for her, plus maybe a snack for her when she's finished - I won't get much change from £20, and that's only an hour's entertainment. Ds is going to a football camp all day, for £25!

Well you spent so much because that is a huge amount of stuff to do with your kids! They are very lucky to be taken on so many outings and it's lovely that you have the money and time. As a kid I wouldn't have done as much stuff throughout the whole 6 week holiday as you did last week!

If the money is an issue, they really don't need to be taken our here there and everywhere all the time. They can just enjoy doing what they like at home, have their friends round, go to local free parks/ walks, do something creative, play games at home etc. It doesn't have to be expensive big outings all the time

I work on the basis of 1 paid for activity a week, free activities or stay home the other days.

By paid for, I mean somewhere with entrance cost, I would only go somewhere it was over £10 each maybe twice in the whole holidays though

Here's a wee idea. At Xmas or birthday get people to buy gift cards for cinemas, trampoline parks etc... and you have them for the summer that's what I do and I save a lot of money.

That’s a mad amount of stuff to do in one week! Kids need time to chill and be bored too!

Last week my DS did: one day with grandparents (they took him to the garden centre and had lunch at the cafe there). One day play date with a friend from school who came to our house. BMX track one day (free). One day with cousins at their house. No spending at all really. Next week we’re on holiday and will spend quite a lot on days out but hopefully (weather permitting) a few low cost days at the beach too. The rest of the holidays, we plan to do once a week or so of swimming/trampoline park/soft park etc, and we’ve got one day out in London planned. You need to slow down!

My dh is only off 1 day in the week so on that day we do a big outing as a family.
We bought an annual pass when we went to the first place we visited £76 for the four of us, but they have 7 places to visit and a huge adventure playground, so it will be used over the year. We have been there the first week and this week, we went bowling.
The rest of the week, I have done cheap days out for the 3 of us.
So far they have been fruit picking, cost £10 in produce, the farm which was free as I know the owner, the park with a picnic and icecream, walks in the forest. I took them to NT site and they had fun in the grounds.
Some days , we have bought snacks and just stayed in watching disney plus.

I got the children to make a list of things they would like to do and surprisingly quite a few are cheap or free.

The more expensive ones are for the days that dh is off so he can have a fun day with us and not feel as though he is missing out. The children know that they probably won't do everything on the list, but we will do as many as possible.

We spend what we can afford. I've alternated expensive days out with cheap/free days out and lazy days at home.

It's all still cheaper than the £1k a month I was spending in summer holiday childcare before covid and WFH.

Not much this year so far.

1 x Takeaway
1 x Pub Tea

Plus drinks out/food whilst they have been at grandparents

They have done cinema with a relative

We have had friends over more often

We have a day out planned with a friend this week

Normal activities are on through summer (cricket, swimming)

I really like the idea of a summer holiday fund and the gift voucher idea

Apart from childcare 300 quid for 3 days for four (so I can work) we spend surprisingly little apart from petrol and the odd ice cream. We have a lot of “stuff” though so a “free” day paddle boarding at the loch has maybe a 1k of investment into equipment/ safety equipment. I like my spreadsheets so the fun family budget which used to be spent on passes to the local adventure park, merlin passes and holidays is spent on bigger bits of kit.

I’m putting in a ninja line down by the trampoline next 😀

I work 3 days a week, and DS goes to holiday camp for those. Otherwise we mostly do free stuff (so far Museum of London, Royal Academy children's show, new fountains at the town hall, Harlow town park and petting zoo). Today we're doing some of the council summer activities (tennis is free, roller skating "with new music" is £2). We meet with friends to do all these activities, otherwise DS(6) would object to half of them. Also we've already had 2 birthday parties, and more to go.

I think it gets much more difficult as they get older, unless they have either a sport that keeps them occupy or a good bunch of friends that they want to hang around with.

We do a mixture of more expensive and cheaper days out. I’ve tried to spread it out too so we’ve not had one busy week and then weeks of not much. I have one DD aged 6. Gymnastics day at local leisure center £20/day she’s done this last week and booked her in again 2 weeks time.
Swimming at local outdoor pool £10 for the 3 of us, done twice so far but will do again at least once.
Bounce Fest ( local bouncy castle hire place fill a school hall with all their offerings, kids go wild for 2 hours) £12.50 this was fine for me but met a friend there with 3 kids and don’t think it was worth 37 quid!
Several picnics at local castle ruin with grounds/garden/huge play area. We have a year pass for this so it’s a free day out but cost us £90 back at Easter. Worth it for us but still.
Couple of wet mornings at soft play, £5 each time plus a couple of coffees for me.
Weekly trips to the library (summer reading challenge) usually combined with jobs in town and possibly coffee&cake or lunch, but only if that’s our only plan that day IYSWIM.
Local walk round river/canal path. Free and doesn’t require being in town so no opportunity to spend, so free.
No holiday as such for us this year but we’re having a day out at Beamish with 2 night premier inn stay in the north east, will pop to metro Center and have a day out in Newcastle, that our main expense this summer as we’ll eat out every meal for 3 days.

We have a great season pass valid April to October for locals and it’s £60. For that we then get unlimited to lots of local attractions.
For another £60 we get unlimited access to lake beach clubs.
So £120 covers virtually 6 months of the year with loads of stuff.

Ds is only toddler so he goes free with adult season pass. The last few weeks we have been on boat ride, bonsai museum, miniature town outdoors, lido pool, up on gondola to hike, indoor swimming pool, little land train trip, pampus grass maze…
All covered by passes. We take him lake swimming most days when warm.

It’s such a good initiative. I think if you are on certain benefits you can also apply for discount or free pass.

Both of mine have ASD, eldest would happily do nothing for 6 weeks and hide in her room, youngest wants to be doing something all the time, they are 17 and 15.

We have spent £800 on a week away and a few nights camping (camping now, a week away at the end of tue holidays). Our food bill is probably up by £30 a week plus the occasional meal out or fish and chips near the sea.

We have booked to go to a local event this weekend but it's only cost £21 + picnic food so probably £35 ish.

So altogether it's probably cost over £1000+ 😬, I would rather spend money on summer than Christmas.

DS1 is doing 3 weeks of holiday club so that's about £90 a week.

Other than that we just tend to do our usual outings (local parks, grandmas, beach) and maybe 2 or 3 big days out spread across the whole summer.

DC are 18m and 5 so easily entertained.

We are members of our local farms/ zoo which costs us about £200 a year for a family of 4 but then we go there about 2-3 times a week.

On top of that in the holiday so far we’ve spent money on ice cream (most days 😬) breakout out once, and 2 bus rides.

We go to the local playgrounds lots, bike rides, scootering, friends houses, family houses, garden centre, nature reserve, and a 20 min drive to a seaside- £2 for parking

Probably about £100 a week more than usual on activities. Food is a whole other story. They never stop eating. Food shop last week was £124

I have two DS with ASD who need a lot of entertaining. If you get DLA (parents of children with ASD) then you can often get free carers tickets for lots of places which saves us a lot of money.