To wonder how people afford to do anything much these days?

[Bouncingavocado]

I’m working most of the summer so have my dc with family / in childcare which is costly enough.

I’ve had a couple of days off this week and because I’m not getting much time with my dc I’ve taken them out and about and basically just burnt through cash.
I don’t even feel we’ve done that much?! I mean we could have gone cheaper but my older dc is 12 now and a bit old for the park / a picnic.
We’ve been out for lunch, been to the cinema, a trampoline park and to a local museum.
It is just as well I’m back as work next week tbh.

I don’t know how anyone affords to do anything these days. Everywhere we went was very quiet too which makes me worry that a lot of places aren’t going to survive because actually people cannot afford to go out in the way they used to.

We earn a good joint income and only have 1 child.
We're also lucky we moved last summer and when we did fixed our energy tariff and mortgage so haven't been impacted by things like that.

This is no different to Christmas budgets. I’m always astounded that people spend £500 on each child!!! That’s completely bonkers. But they budget for it and I assume think it’s reasonable.

Personally I nearly keeled over in shock at some of the prices we spent out on on holiday but thank god for Tesco club card vouchers easing the load. One kids say out was £82 for a family of four and I was sweating a bit but it ended up being the best day out they had. All of this though is balanced out by us spending pretty much zero this week.

@InChocolateWeTrust I recall the same as you.

My parents were not exactly poor but we only have takeaway as a treat on birthdays, we always went on holiday in the UK in a trailer tend and my father had old cars. We virtually never went out for meals apart from holidays and we used to play out and go for lots of walk with my parents.

I never ever felt left out or I had missed anything, my parents taught me loads about nature and well rounded. We did not have phones, pcs/laptops, expensive gadgets of consoles or days out every to minutes. We went out on our bikes, making dens and exploring and had loads of fun.

Things are much more expensive I agree. We spent 100 quid on a trip to the cinema after snacks and tango ice blasts etc.

But that's completely optional spending. You could just buy tickets and take your own drinks and snacks. Unless you're the Radfords, there's absolutely no need to spend £100 on an activity that barely lasts two hours.

If that's what some people are choosing to spend on two hours of entertainment, no wonder they're struggling 😳

Same in the north where we are. Restaurants and bars are very busy and clearly many people have a lot of disposable income and are out enjoying themselves.

You dont need to be sorry. I like my child.

I actually also dont smoke or drink and do have energy efficient appliances as it happrns but it wasnt that simple afterall.

I'm single but even I'm finding things more expensive and so are my friends.

My DB and his family all have passes to National Trust and other art galleries (they get them as Christmas gifts etc) and they use them.

As a family (when with DM etc) we generally tend to take packed lunch sandwiches, a flask with tea/coffee, refillable water bottles, snacks from home but we do buy the odd takeaway coffee/cake when out.

Lots of park trips too.

Totally agree. We are on a low income and we have maybe 2 to 3 bigger days out over the entire summer hols. The rest of the time it's park, free or cheap stuff at local leisure centre, walks by the river etc. So £50 a week budget, but some weeks it's £20 to allow for the bigger days out. There's no way we could do it every week.

We are a solo parent, less than 20k a year family...
I do it by saving, going without for myself, planning the fuck out of everything and ensuring my children have the Summer they deserve.

We don't do stuff in the week that requires money being spent. I've been taking them to our local park everyday with either a picnic or we go g8after lunch. At 5, 6 and 11 months they are easily pleased. At the weekend we visit their gran one day and the other day is at another park, softplay or cinema. I don't do all the activities in one week. We have been to legoland, did a river cruise on the Thames and visited a few museums, stayed in a Premier Inn and had evening meals with family we were visiting London. They've been to a family wedding where we stayed at my parents, they've been to a funfair, Gullivers World and to numerous softplay visits. Meals out have involved 2 for 1r7 deals, kids eat free or child friendly places

We have no childcare costs as I'm on the tail end of my maternity leave and our mortgage is on a fixed rate. We can afford too.

We were out in Canary Wharf this week. The bars were packed, people,were paying to rent the boats with barbecues on them, the restaurants were overflowing; there was generally a huge amount of money being spent everywhere you looked with much of it going on down below the new towers filled with £1m plus flats.

The media message that everyone is struggling is just not true. Some people are struggling, but a great many others are earning a lot of money and are enjoying spending it.

One important factor in the Wharf of course is that people tend to have children in their mid to late thirties, not in their early twenties, which gives them both the time to enjoy themselves and the disposable income to fund it. That’s far from a unique situation though.

Our income last year was around 300k but with a big mortgage and childcare costs, plus increasing cost of living I’m more aware of not stretching ourselves this summer. We’ve had a couple of days out maybe costing £50 all in a time but we’re taking picnics everywhere and doing lots of free things too.

I’ve also started to spend less on clothes and food shopping ahead of the bigger energy bills this winter.

Obviously most people can afford less than before due to inflation/ cost of living crisis.

Ive realised that one reason people seem to live the life of Riley is they don’t pay enormous mortgages as they had the sense to live in a cheaper area/ have a smaller house.

There are free activities though. I can still get my 13 yo for walks or to the beach etc but they prefer to see their friends alot of the time at that age.

For younger ones, swimming pool membership can work out quite cost effective.

We live in a cheap part of the country and have low standards.

Things are much more expensive I agree. We spent 100 quid on a trip to the cinema after snacks and tango ice blasts etc
Well that's just silly. If you want to buy all those things, fine, but don't then complain about the cost! If you don't want to spend the money, take your own snacks and tell the kids they can't have ice blasts etc.

You've done four things in two days though. I do take the DC out and do activities but I try to spread them out so we have three weeks to fill, and last week we did:

Monday: Shopping and meal deal lunch in town
Tuesday: Library and lunch out
Wednesday: Played at home (too hot) walked to shop early morning and bought loads of ice cream
Thursday: Played at home (too hot) considered swimming/would have happily paid except the journey home would have been murderous (no car).
Friday: Lunch out at place with play area

This week

Monday: Played at home with new toy
Tuesday: Park with some friends, coffee shop
Wednesday: Craft activity, blackberry picking
Thursday: Ikea kids' club/lunch/cake for me
Friday: Local free toddler group (they also run holiday play schemes for older kids) and craft activity

Next week I don't have the whole week planned but we'll do a day out on the train to another local town with a picnic, it will be DS3's birthday so we'll play some party games at home, and I'll take them for lunch at the play place again since we meet friends there. For the other two days we might go swimming or to a museum but I'll probably play it by ear. TBH, DS2 is desperate to go to Ikea again!

We probably do 3-5 paid things (including lunch here) during the week plus a couple of cheaper things (e.g. coffee/meal deal/bought activity for home) - so your 4 things over 2 days would have lasted us the whole week.

I know my kids are younger but I do also have DS1 13 so I have been through that bit where they need more robust entertainment. Now he just sits in the dark in his room with his xbox

I am not a high earner and we haven’t been anywhere. It’s boring, but there’s nothing else for it.

I could do treasure hunts and free days out, but either things take a lot of my time and effort, which I’m not prepared to put in unless it’s at least a little appreciated, or costs a little money (like camping trips or chips at a country park) and I don’t have it. It’s not normal for us, and to be fair DD is being pretty good about it (the lack of appreciation is a separate, ongoing issue). It won’t be for ever.

We only do a paid outing every other week!

Rest of the days it's free stuff/very cheap stuff like the play park that costs a pound to get in.

This summer, with the increase in energy bills ahead, I’ve been trying to get best value for money from the things we do.
• saving for months in advance for the summer holidays, try and make Jan and Feb cheap months so put money away then
• lots of free council run events
• booking cheap sessions at swimming baths
• buying snacks and drinks to take with us, planning food in advance rather than spending when we don’t need to so when I do buy them an ice cream they appreciate it
• having friends round a lot so it doesn’t cost me anything and sometimes they get invited back
• worked overtime so saved in advance
• giving them a budget as funnily enough when they have to use ‘their money’ to cover everything they aren’t so keen on spending!

I am also very careful with money with myself. If you know me you’d probably assume we have lots of spare money as we have a nice lifestyle but every penny is accounted for, I shop around for deals a lot and don’t spend much on myself!

I never ever go to the cinema
If my kids go it will be on a deal offer!
We've never gone as a family. Too expensive.

My teens just mostly hang around with friends now tbh riding bikes in the village

I manage OK. Income after tax and pension contribution is £2400pm. One adult and one teen. Rent and essential bills comes to about £950pm. Leaves £1450 for food and all other stuff, even if my energy bill increases by another £200 by January I'll still have £1250.

Teen doesn't want to do much with me nowadays to be fair! They get a tenner a week pocket money and phone bill paid. I don't go out in the evening loads myself as I wouldn't leave teen alone yet in the evening but I meet friends for lunch/coffee at weekends.

Pizza Express last time was £200+

I honestly thought that no one paid full price in pizza express and always used vouchers

Annual passes are the way to go, we pool card money at birthdays and Christmas and usually have a few passes at any time, which we rotate through. Most of them are around £30, and we usually go about 10 times through the year, so equivalent to £3 pp each time.

We always take a picnic, or snacks & drink if we go after lunch, but mine have never known anything different, so don't ask for lunch out.

We have a big mortgage and a middling income, but no kids so all our (small) disposable income goes on yourselves or our house (or the cats). Would be a totally different story of we had kids.