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.

No different to other times,

Ds is 14 and we haven’t been anywhere other than for a walk as we are still in pandemic mode.

We aren’t going away this summer as we recently got a puppy. We are saving for a big trio next year all being well. DS will be going away with his dad later on this summer (camping).

Will probably pay for DS to do something with friends at some point but he hasn’t arranged anything yet (cinema/bowling).

I’d spread those same activities over the 6 weeks. I don’t have that much to spend though. £600 seems a huge amount for a week.

Mine are very similar ages and my oldest also has ASD.

Plan for the next 2 weeks:

• local castle trip, £25
• swimming, £15
• sporting activity, £26
• outdoor centre, £22 - that's the paid-for stuff done, total of £88

Other than that, free or only transport cost:

• various local walking sites/ forests/ nature reserves (free)
• library (free, 1 visit per week)
• clearing out rooms/ sorting clothes/ reorganising (free)
• picnic (lunch items would be bought anyway)
• baking (we have all basics in anyway, so free)
• re-potting plants (free)
• various bits of crafting with youngest (cheap/ free with mats we have here)

That covers most days, with 1-2 days left for things like uniform shopping/ shoe shopping and getting ready for school before the last-minute rush. And those I don't see as holiday expenses.

Given I spend more than the above on daily commutes/ childcare, I may actually end of better off these 6 weeks than I usually do.

Forgot to say, there is also no shortage of chores to keep them occupied - youngest helps with laundry sorting/ loading while the eldest mows the grass.

[quote Aroundtheworldin80moves]@Kolo if its the place in Nottinghamshire... weve been twice and had a brilliant day both times. You have to queue sometimes, and its short sessions, but its great to try things.[/quote]
Yes! Same one I'm looking at! Glad to hear that it's recommended!

Too much and I'm a struggling single mum ! I also have mum guilt that I have to work some of the holidays and can't afford to do much with my dd.

Try some free things
Walks in the woods
Parks and picnics/ feeding ducks or seeing other animals in the parks
Beach and picnic
Lidos are like £5-6 in council owned centres

Some of these replies, 200 pounds a week, WTAF?!

You don't need to have tons of money to have a good summer.
What's wrong with googling your local playgrounds?
Kids love climbing and jumping at those ages, mine did anyway lol.
Picnic in the park.
Take a football.

We’ve spent nothing this week - bike rides, walks in woods and a frisbee.

@Mockolate

Some of these replies, 200 pounds a week, WTAF?!

You don't need to have tons of money to have a good summer.
What's wrong with googling your local playgrounds?
Kids love climbing and jumping at those ages, mine did anyway lol.
Picnic in the park.
Take a football.

A lot of that stuff such as playgrounds and walks in the woods have been done to death over the last 18 months with COVID.

Hence going to paid days out for variety.

Some of us are parked out after the last year or so. The local parks make me feel like hurling myself into the river with bordem.

I feel like I’m burning cash too currently.

£120 in Playscheme’s for my son (he has asd and loves them)
Swimming twice so far £27 (will go another 1-2 times)
Soft play twice so far + food there £20
McDonald’s, dominos & Greek takeaways as treats.
Cinema twice £40
Laser tag is booked for my daughter next week which is free and she will take a pack lunch.

My daughter is away this week with a friend on holiday so that’s free for me also although I gave her £30 spending money.

We have a girlie day out planned next week too so god knows how much that will be… £80 maybe by the time we have lunch, pay for parking and a few treats.

Couple of woodland walks - free.

Soft play again next week too - £20

Possibly looking at doing a zoo or A safari park but I won’t book that til I can see a spot of good weather!

Camping booked for 3 nights in the last week of school holidays - probably spend £300 all in as will hopefully do a couple of beach days.
I got given the tent by someone and it only cost me £16 in wine as a thank you

@TheGumption

Some of us are parked out after the last year or so. The local parks make me feel like hurling myself into the river with bordem.

Same!! 😂 can’t stand parks at the moment and woodland walks. Iv done one each week and they bore me to death!

Agree. Walked so much in lockdown - as we had our holiday cancelled, we’re doing extra dats out. It’s been lovely.
We have done free things too inc parks.

Well this thread has made me feel like shite! I just don’t have the time nor the money to do lots of things like this with DD and now I feel like I’m depriving her 😩

Used to care for five children under 12 - hardly spent anything : visited country parks within a 15 mile radius (probably about 8-10 different parks so plenty of variety), local woodland areas, paddling in streams. Always took a picnic and when the youngest was learning to ride her bike (aged 5) we would take her bike with us, too. We’d take a football, cricket set, badminton racquets, skipping ropes, etc. They usually had an ice cream each. I bet I spent no more than £60 per week 😊

@Costumeidea 💐 don’t feel bad, my DC have equally been as happy outside today pottering !

Money seems to disappear... However you need to watch the expenditure a bit more if you're getting a shock. It's often the eating out, we find.

I've booked two full days of outdoor activities for me and my daughter (kayaking, canoeing, zip wire, gorge walking and SUP) and that is only £110 per day for both of us. But we will take a packed lunch. Some days I've been horrified that we have spent £50+ on a day at the beech including parking £6, lunch and coffees and icecream etc £45+... Shocking but the children were hungry and we had not brought enough supplies.

I think parents are putting too much pressure on themselves to provide entertainment and trips out for their kids? Maybe because we see people posting pictures on social media showing all tue lovely things they are doing?

When I was a kid in the 80's/90's my parents worked most of the summer holidays so we just entertained ourselves, we lived in a village so there was no cinema or eating out (just a chip shop). I have great memories of summer holidays and none of them involved money. We rode our bikes to the river, built dens in the woods and played in each others gardens. Sometimes we would camp in our garden or in the local park. A trip out would be visiting family (near the sea) or a walk around a castle. Our grandparents would take us to the zoo once a year if we were lucky 😊.

I often feel I do way too much with my kids and they expect too much because of it, they don't always appreciate the effort I make to take them places or the money spent doing so. My eldest would happily stay in her room all day or have a friend over to game with.

when I was a kid my parents had to drag me kicking and screaming as all i wanted to do was ride my friend's horse (and then my horse) and go to pony club camp.

However, looking back I am so happy about all the things we did. My dad was obsessed with Chinese culture and so we spent about 2 weeks every second year in Singapore, Hong King and China itself. Other than that we did alot of cafe trips, restaurant trips, classical music etc.

So hopefully my currently ungrateful DCs will have good memories to look back on also!

It’s not just social media pressure, I know my dc are in better moods, happier and generally nicer to everyone if they get out regularly.
Even as teenagers.
It’s worth the effort.

ooops.... hang on, that was meant to be posted in the family days out are mis-sold thread.

anyway, I am probably doing free stuff for the rest of the holidays other than one brief trip away which will be about £500. So, in total circa £750.00 which is quite enough for me.

@Costumeidea when my dc were children I used to get them out every day, as it was just so much better - their behaviour and therefore all of our lives were so much easier once they'd been "exercised" but , as I said upthread, it never cost us much money.
Even before social media, it was fairly easy to find all sorts of free things to do.
Remember this year there have been £££ going in to schemes to entertain and feed children for free, all around the country.
That's before you get on to all the stuff that is normally free.
I also used to fill up some of the day by getting the dc involved in making the picnic / packing the bags etc., never "present" the day as if if magically appears.

We have a teen & it's cost us quite a bit of money this summer so far. We have far longer holidays here.

She's has several day trips with pals in June mostly requiring travel (train / bus) & food. On average €30 / €40 per day

We've been away in a hotel in a city of her choice for 2 nights & she brought a pal. She had €90 spending money (some from grandparents) that was €800 accommodation! Food & food on top of that. Prob spent another €400 over the 3 days on the 4 of us.

Now she's in Italy for a week with a friend's family. The main costs there were flights & covid tests & spending money. That trip was about €500

She had a night in another friends holiday home in a seaside town with her gang of pals- again some spending money - €30

We will have a night away in a hotel in a main city later in August for dh's birthday & we'll have a nice dinner out etc

She's v v lucky & at times like this she benefits hugely from being an only child