To wonder if family days out used to be a lot cheaper

[mrsbeeton999]

I’m sure days out like zoos and theme parks must’ve been comparatively cheaper when I was a child (I’m in my 40s). I remember my aunt who didn’t have much money taking us to Chessington and the Tower of London and they’re about £100 for a family now. Any show or day out is always £100. Luckily we love outdoor stuff and beaches and do lots of really low cost days at weekends mixed with the odd treat day but I was just thinking where my aunt used to take us and feeling guilty!

We used to go to Chessington every year, 2 for 1 tickets voucher from Walls sausages and always took a packed lunch!

I think they were always more expensive and we went far less than we do now.

You're right. Days out are expensive. Even taking your kids to a panto at Christmas will cost the better part of £200 for a family of four

My recollection is family days out were an occasional treat eg zoo a couple of times in childhood with coupons used and packed lunch. And we were family with reasonable income - surbuban semi house/mum was a teacher. Coupons on cereal boxes or in local paper.
Much less paid for entertainment no indoor trampolining, playcentres etc.
Don’t feel guilty I’m sure your aunt loved those days.

Yeah. We went to chessington once in my childhood. I don’t recall ever going to the zoo, bowling, out for dinner etc. we went to the beach a couple of times and the cinema once. We really didn’t have days out like we do now.

We didn't go to theme parks at all when we were kids, no wildlife parks or paid for 'fun' at all - folks couldn't afford it. We had plenty of great times, but it was free stuff and a picnic, occasionally an ice cream.

Panto would be local amateur one not in a city with a ‘name’ from tv.
We would go in attractions on uk holiday like a castle or be paid for a go on a bouncy castle.
But week in week out no expensive days out and we were comfortably off. It just wasn’t a thing.
We went to the park. We went to a better park with a rocket ship as a treat. We went to school and church fayre. We occasionally went to local theatre for a kids show - saw the smurfs but that was for my birthday and sooty & sweep. We went to swimming pool. If a local travelling fair came at Easter we went there. Never went to a theme park.

We hardly ever got to go to paid-for venues if we went on a trip somewhere because it was so expensive - I've still never been to the Tower of London (Dh & ds went when we were last in London as a family a few years ago because you could get in on Tesco vouchers then).

Yabu. As a child of the 80s from a working class family, family days out to attractions with entry fees were out of our budget.

Maybe you are a 90s born child?

But we always used to take a packed lunch. No restaurant food, no trips to the souvenir shop unless it was to buy post cards. Parking was generally free too I think.

We went to the sea (free), occasionally to a swimming pool or cinema (both major treats), places like walking the Thames path at Henley (free) or Virginia Water/Saville Gardens (free). Museums and galleries, we went with the school and my df resented every penny wasted as he saw it.

I remember trips to the seaside by train, with packed lunch, maybe stopping for a cup of tea or coffee (juice for kids). That was a cup of nescafe or a teabag in a cup, not a soy caramel latte whatnot.

Trips to the swimming pool... just a pool (actually open all day, not just a few open sessions a week...) and it was cheap. We are looking at £25 for a trip this weekend for 2 adults, 2 children!

I'm in my 40s we ad few growing up as they were very expensive - and always took own food.

I think our kids have probably had a few more than we did growing up but possible fewer schools ones and fewer brownie and scout ones than we had.

In my childhood there were more long drives to fields /parks and visits to GP at weekends - think DH was similar with added trips into IL work places to help or play nearby.

I do wonder if there were more ways to be frugal on these things. We were skint but my dad was an amazing budgeter. We could go in the gods of the theatre for less than £1 in the 80s. Brilliant memories.

We also went swimming in a community pool nearly every day because it was cheap. And it was cheap to camp then.

The cost of outings is related to running the venue. It’s always been comparison with earnings. You were paid years ago 80£ a week you still had to run a household on it & outings still took a chunk. Today’s earnings are for example 300£ per week.you will spend over 100 just on shopping, no difference

For my family they were very few and far between - never a theme park, am dram panto and maybe a local show like the gang show once a year. My great aunt took us to the Tower of London once and that was a Really Big Thing. Eating out was a pub meal on birthdays, never a bought drink out even apart from that, maybe half of cider for my dad at an agricultural show (and we'd have entered something at the show to get free passes for the family which ended up massively cheaper)

Bowling didn’t exist near me, I was 18 when I went. Very rare meals out once a year if that at Berni inn. Pictures literally a handful of times - saw ET, ghostbusters and a Herbie one.
There was a council run park with a boat I remember going on that and another with a paddling pool. So drive to park take picnic day out.
I’m in north and carnivals were a thing so you’d go and watch carnival in local towns - sit on kerb watch floats and maybe have an icecream as a day out.
The type of meet up with friends at soft play all buy lunch didn’t exist.
Shopping trips were functional and didn’t involve meals out.
Museums. We occasionally got train and went to a museum.
Blackpool illuminations - drive there, walk through lights and bag of chips.
The expectation to be regularly taken out to paying places just wasn’t a thing. I lived in nice suburban northern town. We weren’t poor. Days out just didn’t exist in same way.
Saturday I went to dancing class in the morning (church hall), sometimes went shopping in afternoon with mum and then grandparents for tea. Sunday saw other grandparents, Sunday lunch, Sunday school in afternoon and toast for tea. We weren’t religious. All my friends had similar weekends there was no where did you go at weekend.

They were extremely expensive then. I went to a wildlife park about three times and a zoo once. My grandparents took us to the theatre every Christmas. Never went to a theme park. Our days out were to the park,beach or to a castle or museum and that would have been in the summer holidays. We lived in a very affluent area and this was the 80s. Two girls from my class went to Disney World and everyone envied them .

I think it depends where you go we did a couple of trips out last year one was over £100 for the five is us the other a kind of little zoo was about £35 and had a play park and cafe nothing fancy or huge but was actually much nicer than the rammed expensive place.

They were cheaper in the 90s because I would save up the vouchers from the crisp packets or cereal boxes etc.
Theme parks have become stupidly expensive

There are far more options of family/child friendly entertainment now. I think the few things that were available were relatively expensive. I can remember going on the boot of the car so my parents didn't have to pay for me to go into a theme park!
The only thing that was cheap was the cinema because the out of town multiplex that opened up prompted the old cinema to do £1 tickets! This was in the mid 90s.

It is expensive to do a lot of things, some are worth it but others are such a brief experience you feel a bit robbed after.
We lower the cost by taking a picnic most of the time.

Definitely a lot less eating out- I can’t ever remember even a coffee out- meals out were birthday/wedding anniversary kind of affairs. — and my parents were comfortably off too

I don't think they're cheaper in comparative terms.

However, I do remember that Drayton Manor was affordable as a treat purely because they did two tier entry. You could pay for full access to the park & rides and get a wristband or pay just to enter the park. That meant my parents only had to pay a nominal amount to enter and be dragged from one end of the park to the other by my siblings and I.

When they changed the pricing it meant that even adults who were literally only there to hold the bags and be waiting at the exit to a ride were still paying full price to access the park. That's when we had to stop going.

A day out has always been expensive, you just find now in comparison to the 80s that families who can't really afford it are spending on credit cards to have the same experiences.

People went less often and were happier to accept cheaper ways of doing things, that a lot of people write off as miserly or grim these days, such as packed lunches, walking part of the way to avoid paying more on the bus.

We went to the city museums and parks a lot because they were free. We had one annual holiday and went on the 'club trip' once or twice a year, which was the coast or a zoo, this was subsidised/fund raised for, or local businesses donated towards the cost. I remember once, we went on a coach trip to a biggish attraction, Alton Towers or similar, and M&S donated the packed lunches from what was unsold on Saturday, when they didn't open on Sunday. This was a huge novelty to us, we talked about it for months as we'd never had M&S sandwiches before, which sounds ridiculous now, but that was the times then (early 1980s).

Plus people spent less on other things like eating out (we never went to restaurants and only ever went to cafes during self catering holidays, McDonalds and the like didn't exist and takeaways like Chinese or fish and chips were very occasional treats, as were fizzy drinks, crisps etc, again only on holidays or at Christmas/birthday parties.

So might have had more spare money for bigger, less frequent days out because they were spending less on day to day non essentials that many people see as normal these days.