AIBU to ask how much your summer holidays are costing you (including childcare)

[Mayflower2017]

Hello mummies.
We have are family of four with two little ones, 7 and 5 years old. Money is a bit tight this year so we cannot afford to go abroad but going on holiday to Cornwall for a week, staying in a self-catering cottage for £650. Expected to spend around £500 on food, going out and sight seeing.
We both work, I am self employed so more flexible with time than DH. We do not have any childcare (or family help) throughout the holiday so the kids are at home and starting to drive me crazy (they are very different characters and don't get on very well). To break the routine and stop the fighting I try to take kids out every day to do something like bowling, pottery painting, cinema, go ape, local museums. We are members of National Trust/English Herritage so visited many of the properties/castles in the local county and most of the playgrounds & parks in the local town and surrounding villages. The cost for getting them entertained and paying for the treats and things above can be from £10 to £50 a day which soon add up.
I am interested to know how other mumsneters are managing their summer holiday budgets. Do you have one big holiday with bells and whistles and the rest of the time try to do free/cheap things or do you spread the cost on daily outings etc and squeeze in a cheap week away if you can?

If you're already a member of NT, EH etc then the main cost is food so pack up your own stuff. Treats can be done at home (and are often nicer than an overpriced ice cream).

Woods, museums, historic houses, stick with the low cost things.

Bowling, goape, cinema - those are treats and maybe you do it once a week if affordable. Highest cost thing we have done so far is swimming.

Need to think of something to do today, getting out and about does seem to help the children run off some energy. Maybe the sun will make an appearance, it helps if it not pouring with rain.

My eldest is only 5 and we are also NT and EH members. We have a week away booked at the end of August (accomodation £400ish, spending money probably £300).

We haven't spent much cash as we have had friends round to play, a couple of trips to NT with picnic (£8-10 for ice cream) and a couple of days just playing at home.

Big expenses have been Paw Patrol Live (whole day cost £90ish including travel and lunch) and a trip to Clip n Climb (£20ish). Agree with PP that those things are rare and the bulk of time it's the local park and other low key stuff.

Not everyone's cup of tea but if we have a cheap one in the UK we go for staitic/villa at a holiday park, one with a pool. There's loads on all day and eve for the kids plus they make friends- which is great if there's an age difference etc

We went away to yurt for a few days which was really good fun. We have spent a bit more than i planned i think so far. I always take picnic but often end up getting ice cream, cake ect also dont drive so public transport. We havnt really done many expensive days out. We have travelled to bigger parks, did a day out at EH a knights tournement, been to outdoor inflatables , free museum, a few trips over water to big park, our council is doing lots of events at parks yesterday we travelled to one doing a water play day they had water on and lots of water pistols ect to play with, we are also going to a get active day today. For the rest of the hols we have a few days out getting the trai and having full day out, kite festival, Country park, free museum, water park and a play date. Im going to try and make sure i bring a treat from home rather than buying as it all adds up. I think lots of the things you are doing are bigger days out and maybe you could try and do some free days out inbetween.

I am on a budget this summer. Planning ahead helps. I got a summer pass for a local place for £50 for family. Single visit would be not much less. Cinema I only do the kids showing as I refuse full stop to pay full prices! Also take our own popcorn and drinks. So that should be under £10 for all.

Can they have friends round? I find if they both have them then it makes my life easier as they are both occupied.

im off for the summer with my 3! up to now we have been away for a week but that money was already covered from saving all year! but we have tried doing things that are free! going parks or beach with friends so kids have others to play with! and iv even baught there icecreams from a supermarket so im buying 4 for £1 instead of £2.50 each!
we went the pictures last week and took our own popcorn sweets and chocolate and going again tuesday evening with friends and ill do the same.

We're not doing a big trip away this year. I'm SAHM to a 4 and 1 year old so no childcare costs. Doing quite a lot of "free" stuff - park, national trust, library. Once or twice a week I'll take the kids to a cafe for lunch or tea - about £10-15 a time. 4 year old has a few days in an activity camp over the course of the summer - £45 total. We're having a couple of night in an airbnb by the seaside - £195 plus probably £100 spending money. Later this month DH has a week off and we will probably do a few day trips to attractions, nothing too expensive though as I find the expensive places are always so busy and not much fun with a toddler.

So far I have spent
High ropes course £30 2 adults and 2 kids
Surfing lesson £45 1 adult and 2 kids
Animal Park £10 family ticket
Zip wire £8 2 kids
Stand up paddle boarding lesson £60 1 adult and 2 kids
Football camp £45 for 3 days 2 kids
Watersports camp £180 for 5 days 2 kids
Theme Park tickets £25 worth of Tesco vouchers
My kids have declared it the best Summer ever.

In between these activities we have only done free stuff like playing out with friends etc.
We haven't eaten out or spent more on lunches than school dinners would have cost anyway.

At that age I spent very little, and went to all the local parks/playgrounds I knew.

Also would invite their friends over

Or go to local pool

Now they are teens, it's ££ if they want to go to Thorpe Park or into town for pizza with friends

But when they were little, friends and parks/playgrounds did the job (whilst I read the paper on a bench)

A fortune. Week in Cornwall prob cost £2000 / £2500

Camps DS1:
2 week £180
1 week £100
2 weeks £160

Sitters for DS2
3 weeks x £250 a week

Roll on September!

Thank you for your replies. Sounds like you and your little ones did some lovely things. We've done a few play dates with friends but not many people around. Do many of you find this? We live on the outskirts of town and no kids in the neighbourhood, have to drive everywhere. The only kids we keep in touch are from school. Most of their classmates have SAHM and high flying dads with banking/law/medical jobs, some of them go on two holidays in 6 weeks, have extended families they visit and do other expensive trips like Legoland which we cannot afford. I have to try to fit in work between entertaining them or breaking up th fights 🤼‍♂️ Roll on September!

Make friends with some farmers - I'm one and meet up regularly with other farming mums who are facing 6 weeks of entertaining kids without being too far away from the farm!

I'm housebound at the moment which is working out very cheap. Literally haven't been to a cashpoint in weeks.

We're having friends round a lot. Everyone is going away but all at different times so there's always someone about.

We have a tiny tiny garden and are using it whenever the rain stops. Otherwise drawing, painting, toys, jigsaws.

Nothing on childcare as I'm a SAHP. Our holiday cost ££££s. I am trying to do a lot of fun, cheap things for the rest of the summer. We are in Northern Ireland so have already had nearly 7 weeks out of 9 and so far I'm managing to keep daily costs down. If we hadn't spent so much on the holiday I would be going for 'bigger' day trips. Children love most outings. There is nothing better than the summer holidays no matter how you choose to enjoy them.