To ask what's your summer holidays cost?

[autienotnaughty]

I can't sleep. We are in England and three weeks in to summer hols so far it's cost -

Child care (2 days) Total £80

Days out (4 days) -
Seaside £20
Muesum/park £5 (season ticket)
Farm £50
Fair £75 (took a friend)
Total £150

General entertainment (9 days) -
Swimming (free due to taking lessons)
Park £20 (rides/bouncy castles/ice cream)
Small fair £15 (wristband entry)
Visiting grandparents x 5 days
Park
Free sports camp at school
Total £35

Not including petrol so far I've spent £265. For 1 child who's 8. I'm lucky family help out with child care to reduce cost.

Next three weeks estimate-

Childcare (3.5 days) £135

Days out (4 days)
Theme park £ 60
Farm - free (charity activity)
Museum £15
Small theme park £20
Total £95

General entertainment (7 days )
Swiming - free
Bowling £15
Park £5
Fair £15
Grandparents x3 days
Total £35

So the 6 weeks hols is costing £530 not including petrol and weekend activities. So an average per week of £88.50

A school week would typically cost -
Child care (1 day) £8
School dinners x 5 £13
Total £21

I try to save money where I can by taking lunches /going to free activities.

How much is your 6 weeks costing you?

So far spent a lot of money to visit family(accommodation wasn't cheap) but my dad paid for trip to the Zoo there thankfully.

£10 extra pocket money for teen to go to the beach with his friends.

To come:
£80ish (plus drinks) - local Theatre for me, dh and dd(teenager ds not interested)

£100 budget for a Day out(not decided what yet)

There will be some extra stuff but not sure what yet. I'd rather not count it all up but will be having a very cheap September that's for sure. Like others, we didn't do much growing up in the holidays. Certainly not all the expensive stuff that seems to be the norm nowadays.

We had a two week UK holiday which cost a lot but other than that no planned days out, just pottering about.
Library / park / going up the town , visiting relatives etc.

Mine are teens now so don't cost anything much when we're not actually on holiday since they are doing their own thing. I've given ds15 the odd tenner to buy food whilst he's out, and ds18 has been working and pays for his own social life.
We just came back from 4 days visiting family at the coast and that cost a fortune though, as we tend to eat out and go to the pub more, whereas when they were little we would take a picnic.

You do seem to have a lot of expensive days out planned OP. When mine were little we certainly wouldn't have managed all the activities you have planned - most days would have been park/library/swimming/bike ride/hang out at home with maybe a couple of pricier things. Certainly no more than one a week.

We took the approach to be out of the country as much as possible rather than spend money on childcare/activities so little so far in the country as the days we have here, she is happy to play in the house or local park etc.

We've been away in total for 4.5 weeks of the 7 weeks. One 3 week long haul, one week in Europe, one weekend in UK.

Thanks for all the replies. Apologies for the stressy post in the early hours!! I was worrying I'm doing too much. Last year we had just moved house so things were pretty busy. The year before we had a traumatic event which took over and the previous 2 years were lockdown. So I feel like I went a bit mad!!

Ds no longer wants to do soft play and gets bored at basic parks and is not keen on walking. He's also disabled so there's other factors we have to consider.

I think I should have done a couple less days out. We do tend to get out every day as he goes a bit stir crazy in house. I limit screens, he hates crafts and lego. He's not in to toys. He loves reading and board games but he does need a bit of an energy burn still.

I'm lucky child care is so low which does allow us more money. We can technically afford it but I do feel I've been a bit frivolous.

But you have spent a lot more on your 4.5 weeks of holiday than the OP has on a few farm and theme park trips. Lovely for you but you're probably not in quite the same financial boat.

We are on holiday for 2 weeks so have 4 to fill. Mostly me and DD(5) but DH or my mum have joined us for some stuff.

child care £180
sports classes x 2 £50
climbing £15
big day out with friend £120
park £10 (went to the bigger further away one so had to pay for parking and bouncy castle!)
Lunches out £50ish

Then a few lazy days at home, library trips, hiking, play dates, bike rides, local park visits, trips to town for uniform etc.