How much do you spend in school holidays?

[Mummyongin]

How much do you spend in school holidays (assuming you are not staying away from home)? Including day trips, lunches, treats, arts/craft bits etc. Please include number of children and ages. Thanks

We have a leisure savings account we put into every month. I budget £200 for half terms, about £300 for Easter and summer holidays each sometimes more if we are doing a break away for a couple days, they spend a fair chunk with family in the summer. 2 kids.

(12 and 9)

I budget £200 for half terms, about £300 for Easter and summer holidays each

Is that £300 for the full 6 week summer holidays? How do you stay in budget?

This half term I’ve spent £30 on childcare for one day, £32 for forest school, £40 on cakes and treats when out. We did a big day out but it was to a local theme park that we have annual passes for.

@Mummyongin yes, they are with family for 3 weeks in the summer (2 weeks away with family, 1 week with a local grandparent who takes them out) so it's only for 3 weeks really, and they're pretty busy in those weeks so don't need to do too much when home. But I just make sure I plan really and see what fits in the budget, a few days out, the rest will be cheaper things like the beach.

Oh and Tesco Clubcard vouchers, great for days out or a hotel stay somewhere.

About £50 max, 2 children (5 and baby). In a week half term we only do 1 extra activity, rest of time is same as weekends, home with toys or playdates. So maybe bowling or cinema etc

I have never really calculated it before. Sometimes it’s expensive and sometimes very cheap but my children are 6 and 3.

This half term we are spending £40 on a craft day for 6 yr old, £25 on a cookery class for both but that will come out of Christmas gift money. Other than that we are using museum memberships we already have, inviting a friend on a playdate, free activity at the library, science kit we already have (need to spend £1.25 on additional materials), cooking, we will probably do local swimming and soft play which is £9, plus drinks at soft play some where near £10.

So £85 in total.

We don't really budget as such but holidays will come out of savings budget. We always have some form of childcare every break even if its just 1 day. That cost, activities & food just comes out of day to day spending. So this break has cost £500 on 4 nights away, £100 on childcare & maybe £400 on other stuff.

Not much tbh we don’t get anywhere that you pay for during the week long half term as everywhere is far too busy so we usually only do free stuff, park etc

As little as absolutely possible this time.

Sorry to mention the c word but it's really having an impact. I couldn't budget £200 😩

It's poop 💩

My eldest is 16 though and pretty much entertains herself and youngest is 10 but they'll need some occupying.

Mine are older now, but I've never had a budget for the holidays.

Feb 1/2 term wouldn't generally cost anything much, and we'd generally do one "big trip" a year (Safari park, zoo, or other place where it cost a lot to get in).

We used to go to all the free events that happen around the place.
We'd take picnics (obviously you'd still have to eat at home so no cost difference there). I suppose there would be petrol costs, but tend to balance that out.
Some days get taken up by things you have appts for in the school holidays (hair cuts, dentist, optician, replacing school shoes etc). Have friends round to play / they go and play with friends. Standard things like parks and walks. Would often do something like getting bus or train in to City Centre, then free things once there - would fill another day.

We don't budget really, but don't tend to do anything extravagant. Older DD does 2-3 holiday clubs. They cost between £25 and £50 depending. The rest of the time might be a short train ride into town to walk around somewhere a bit different, playdate, meetup in the local park. Try to buy snacks etc in advance rather than spend ££££ in park cafes.

DC are 6 and 4. We have spent:
£45 on days out (entry tickets for 2 separate days).
£35 on a day of camp for DD
£45 on eating out a few times. More than we would usually spend.
£20 at a garden centre on an activity and buying some treats
DD also went to a free class one day and some weekly activities e.g. swimming lessons continued. Had a play date, saw grandparents.
We did baking 1 day with ingredients from the cupboard.
Filled the car up with petrol (£50ish) but this will last us about 6-8 weeks. Probably used £10ish of fuel this week.

So about £150 total this time but often would have spent less on eating out. We have spent £80 on a big day out in a few weeks time. This is a birthday treat.

This half term we did:
1 big day out £120 (tickets & lunch)
1 pottery painting session £40
1 country park trip £0
2x holiday camp days £110
So £270. 2 DC aged 7 & 9.

I don’t think it’s as good a deal now and was a while ago but I used to swap clubcard vouchers for deals and went to Legoland, Black Country living museum, sea life centre x3 and West Midlands safari park x4.

@Frockfinding still pretty good, it's still 3x the value of the voucher.

This half term I’ve spent:

approx £5 on Costa babychinos after going to the library and local themed trail around town

£12 at the cinema including kids snacks, they do a movies for juniors showing which tickets are £2 each

£6 at Poundland on baking and craft stuff

£10 at pizza express, the rest was paid for by Clubcard vouchers

£4 for ice cream at the park

£18 for swimming

3 kids 7,4 & 18 months so approx £65, we’d normally do a ‘big’ day out but we couldn’t afford it this time round and we were all actually really happy with the slower paced days

This week I am hoping to spend the bare minimum as im skint!

Tomorrow-national trust day out (we have membership) with create your own pizzas for tea when we get back.

Monday-local free adventure playground (will budget a fiver for snacks/drinks).

Tuesday-trip to town with free museums-one has a locomotive exhibit which DS1 will love, the other has a dinosaur exhibit which DS2 will love. Will go to greggs outlet Monday and get sandwiches/sausage rolls for a pack up to take along.

Wednesday-pj day with movies/sweet/unlimited screen time (means I can clean too!)

Thursday-cinema kids club (approx £15 for the 3 of us).

Friday-English heritage day out-think will do a castle!

Sat-breakfast out (kids eat free) then national trust day out.

Will probs spend around £50.

Never really added it up or budgeted specifically for it. Just adding it up now I’d say we’ve spent about £500 this week, the 2 at home are 11 and 17.

2 DC, 5 and almost 4. This half term has been low key, we've needed to recharge a bit and I want to spend more at Easter and summer so I enjoy a quiet half term as a break from the crazy rush of school terms! We've spent £60 ish this week. £20 on lunch out one day with friends (we also had a playdate) and £40 on a day out at a local attraction+cafe lunch. The DC have also had 1 day out with grandparents and a library visit. Other than that we have played at home.

£22 - three primary aged children. That covered us all going to the movies (£2.25 each) going swimming (only had to pay £3 for me as free for kids in half term) going to a county park for the day (£5 parking) going for a walk over the country fields to get fish and chips from the neighbouring village (£4.70). the other activities we did such as going to the playground, baking, play dates, arts and crafts and a home movie afternoon were all free.

This half term I've spent £300, we've done something every day even if it's the cafe for cake. That's without paying for childcare. If I paid for childcare I'd be looking at £40 a day ish plus food.

2 Dcs 12 and 10. About £300 this week. (trip to London, trip bowling and 1 cinema trip and 3 lunches out). Way more than I expected or wanted to spend.

We did a farm and lunch, soft play and lunch, trampolining, mini golf and one day holiday care (£36) total came to = £160

This is a lot more than normal but school camp wasn't running and I couldn't walk far. Usually budget £50 for activities per week plus any child care required

Trying not to spend much at all this half term, the weather is always rubbish in February.

Easter half term I've budgeted £300 as we're going away for a week.