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

But to be fair we've had two day trips out this month on the weekend which was fairly pricey, it's not like my kids don't go out anywhere before anyone thinks that. 😅

We don't really budget for the week long half terms. Either DH or me or both are often working so we do free activities, nice walks, Meercat Movies which is cheap etc. Holiday club the the youngest for a couple of days at £15 a day.

Easter and Xmas holidays I try and get a about £500 mentally put to one side as we'll do a theme park or zoo or something and dh and I are always off for at least one full week.

Summer holidays we can go through £1k or more easy.

3 dc, 15, 12 and 5.

Dc 6 and 3. I budget £200 per week of holidays, but paying for any foreign holidays comes out of a separate pot.
Whether that £200 goes towards outings, paying for play scheme, extra craft supplies or whatever depends on what we have on. I save monthly in a Monzo pot for it.

About £30 extra in petrol and maybe £50 to spend. We have passes to some local places, or might be £5 on swimming or softplay, plus some free stuff like park or beach. We alway take a packed lunch but might get icecream or treats.

DC are 6 and 3. Spent about £28 on circus for 4, tennis club on 2 mornings £60, NT day (membership) and visiting friends.

DCs are 8 and 6yo.

Half terms I spend £50-100 on activities and food out (depends on the weather!), plus around £30 extra on the weekly shop.

Easter will be about £200 plus the additional cost to the food bill, but that includes 3 nights camping.

Xmas break was much higher - £400 extra spent out of the house? But £150 of that was the Panto tickets alone, which has skewed the figure.

Summer hols is far more, but includes a long weekend camping (although that isn't too bad at £20/night) and 2 weeks in France. Outside of being away, the summer hols are pretty cheap as 'days out' almost always involve something free outside combined with a picnic or playdates at home.

I'm self-employed and haven't included the loss in income that comes with being off with DCs. If I included this, the amounts would be scary so I stick my head in the sand and choose to ignore this part! .

We did a free cinema trip (tickets from my bank), a kids disco roughly £20 for us all, a free storytime locally at the community hall, museum with one feature exhibit £12 entrance and one small period property on buy one get one free if you take the train £14 all in (kids were free). Buses used mainly and the train for the adults, so about £60 with transport, and then two meals out... probably spent close to £100 to be honest for the week! Kids 5 and 1.

one child

The main cost here is when I need to use camps for childcare, £50 per day

This half term was as follows:

• 2 days with Granny, granny kindly picks up the tab on these days but tends to do a National Trust place (she’s a member) with packed lunches, so low cost
• 2 days when she did a local sports camp for 3 hours each day - so £20 per day
• one day trip to a local city which cost about £50 on trains, £40 lunch, £40 activities (that’s for all 3 of us, not just DD)

Not too spendy for us. Like a PP, we tend to see February half term as low key and aim to keep costs down to save up funds for when we go away for most of the other school holidays.

3 DCs aged 11, 9 and 6. We already pay monthly for a sports card with out local council, costs £14.50 for each of them per month and works out good value for the activities they do year round. In the school holidays they often put on extra activities included within the membership which have helped keep costs down a lot while providing lots of fun.

Monday we went to an inflatable play session at the local sports centre, free as included in the pay monthly memberships. Afternoon we met a friend at the park.

Tuesday we met a friend at a local cafe with a huge bouncy pillow and outdoor space to play football etc. All the kids played nicely together for 2 hours while we mums sat and watched with a coffee: I spent £3 on that. Afternoon we went to a rollerskating session at local sports centre (again free with membership).

Wednesday we went into town, had lunch at a Wetherspoons pub £21 for 4 of us I think. Went to watch a display of animatronic dinosaurs in town with a few related activities eg excavating dinosaur skeletons- free. Then dentist appointments for us all, just £23 for me as NHS dentist luckily. Paid £4.50 for car parking.

Thursday went to the swimming pool in town, £2 car parking and £5.30 for me to swim, kids were free with monthly cards. Then to library to choose books and early tea in Dunelm cafe as had free kids minimum with each £4 adult spend. We spent £12 in total including a couple of slices of cake to take home. Then to rollerskating again, you guessed it, free with their monthly cards.

Friday drove an hour and a half to see family. Bought food for us all en route, £30. Plus fuel.

Pretty pleased with that, but we are going abroad at Easter and will spend £2000 minimum for a week then.

I think I could easily be spending 50-100 each day we go out and do something in the holidays. Even just going out to a coffee shop for lunch can cost about 30-40 pounds.

Feb half term was expensive this year. We dont usually count it all up, but this one was particularly spendy. 3 kids, aged between 10 and 13.

We had lots of fun though:
Theatre trip for 5 of us was the main cost £250??
Food out at least £125
Cinema trip around £50 but we used a voucher the kids got for Christmas
Couple of trips into London (train fares)
Plus the usual free play date/ park trips, time at home
Also with 3 kids at home the food shop was far higher than usual

I’ve never really thought about it so couldn’t tell you how much we spend but we go out every day in the holidays, at least for a few hours.
Feb half term was;
Mon - farm park with sister, nieces & nephews. Home from around 2ish.

Tuesday - bowling with lunch out. Afternoon at home
Wednesday - bike ride and lunch at a cafe out. Afternoon at home
Thursday - Theme park with brother, SIL & nieces and nephews
Friday - day at the seaside with friends

Had quite a relaxed weekend visiting family, baking etc

I have 4DC; 9, 5, 3 & newborn.

Recent half term we spent £60 on gymnastics and swimming, £20 on packed lunches/snacks, £150 on 4 theatre shows, £35 in taxis. So £265 total, DDs are 4 and 9m (didn't pay for theatre for her). Did some free activities in London museums but happy to pay for days out when we feel like it. Christmas holidays are more expensive as we like to go to a lot of the theatre shows and concerts. Summer can be cheaper as it's warm enough for cheap days out in parks.

We rarely do cafes out as DD isn't particularly interested (would rather play!) and public transport is free for me as I have a Freedom Pass, and DCs travel free in London. I get Carers Allowance so often get free tickets to theatre, venues etc.

Last week I spent roughly £65 one older teen and one pre teen. My costs were mostly food related...
Swimming (three of us) £16
Fish chips and drinks on a day out £22
Gelato in Italian cafe £14
Milkshakes at board game cafe £12

A week needing holiday camp tends to be much more expensive and once I’ve got two in school I’m seriously considering taking some unpaid leave.

This February half term ended up being cheap as my child had a bad vomiting bug… we got refunds for a gymnastics thing she was going to do and fortunately hadn’t booked much else in but I’m getting increasingly wary of doing too much in October and February half terms as weather is often rubbish and my kids seem to always be sick during them. I deliver booked much less this December and was super lucky that the only weekend someone wasn’t ill was the one we’d booked Lapland uk for.

This half term we visited a local attraction we have a pass for, I took snacks and drinks with us, took them to McDonald’s another day. Petrol, bought them craft activities, lunch out another day.
£180 in total saved for since Christmas (I put away money a week at a time)

Children 6 and 8

Does that include childcare / clubs?

And holidays?

Or just days out??

We don't spend a lot on the latter at all - spend a lot of time playing at home / locally / with friends round. Skatepark / walks / local parks / bike rides etc.

Or visiting grandparents and relatives and doing the same with them.

Definitely well under £150 for the half terms.

Summer is much higher but we go away several times camping and to festivals.

For a typical half term, we'd usually do 2 days holiday club (£60-100 total for 2 DC), a big day out (eg we had a day trip to London in Feb half term - £150) and then maybe visit family or something low cost like swimming or NT to fill the remainder of the week.

Over Easter we have 4 days holiday club (£200), will do an Easter egg hunt at NT place (cheap/free), possible trip to theme park or theatre (£200+), going to watch a football match (£30), then swimming/library/bike rides/park to fill the rest up.

I was off all February half term, probably spent about £70.
Swimming, cycling track, pub lunch and wildlife park.
Couldn't afford much else.

So it's not just me then, I came on here to see if I'm the only one spending an absolute fortune, days out for my youngest who's 8 an her friend, swimming, food, safari park, fair, bounce houses, aqualand it all adds up an being a single mum this six weeks has rit me off, sat now thinking do I do too much, my kids aren't interested in free museums an making cakes last half an hour. An as soon as it's over its saving for Xmas, thank god my son 15 doesn't Wana come anywhere with us 🤣🤣🤣