QUICK - we need your top tips for keeping costs down on family days out

[AbbyMumsnet]

Sunday Times just called and need a couple of top tips for cutting costs on family days out. Both actually getting into attractions - where do you lot get your online vouchers/deals from - and while you're there. (Pack a picnic and other more inspired thoughts.) Also, favourite free attractions. Can you post asap? Cheers m'dears.

Oh and also if it's raining, go and see the film that's on as a kids club, even if you have the DVD it home. You get the cinema experience for £1.50 per child and adults go free.

I remember traipsing round towns on holiday with my family, looking for a Iceland to buy a pack of 4 cornettos. I would do it now, but would most likely have to eat them all myself!

If you are likely to visit a particular attraction more than a couple of times in a year, it is worth checking whether they do season tickets. Having effectively free entrance to an attraction means that you don't feel you need to get your money's-worth in onevisit, so the LOs don't get exhausted or overloaded.

It's lovely being able just to drop into Kew Gardens for half-an-hour in passing!

Picnics obviously. We fill a flask with espresso/hot milk mix for our own cappuccino saves us spending a fortune in Starbucks. And tastes better than tea from a flask which always seems to taste a bit funny.

Have a BBQ the day before and make extra sausages/chicken wings to take with you. We had a delicious picnic last year in a zoo with lots of dips and salads leftover from the evening before. Other visitors were going past with their greasy bratwurst from the zoo fast food stand staring at us in envy.

Beaches are good, particulary ones with nearby playpark. The one in Broughty Ferry, Dundee is fab because there is a great playarea on the Castle Green.

Take a moist facecloth in a plastic bag for cleaning grubby faces and hands instead of wipes.

gaffer tape - around the wrists and over the mouth of each child. This should prevent you being bullied into unwise purchases.

Kindersuprise - just take hot water in the flask, then you can make tea or coffe as required. even I (who used leaves at home, as I am a tea snob) can use tea bags

Cheapest whole day out, without a doubt, is the beach. Take a picnic, lots of drinks and children will play happily for hours in the sand, rockpools and water. Take buckets, spades, balls, waterguns etc.

The only expense (in most cases) is parking unless you drive around a bit and find parking that is free.

Ice-creams tend to be the only other thing that costs money but if you choose a stretch of beach that isn't near an ice-cream kiosk then you can avoid that too.

(personally I find a place near somewhere that does really good icecreams )

Buy a good nature book and a couple of magnifying glasses - makes cheap days out on beaches and in forests much more interesting.

Tescos clubcard deals, we have annual Merlin passes that get us into tons of stuff for free.

Well I say 'free' we had to part with £27.50 worth of Tescos vouchers each to get these passes. But I would have had to have shopped for food anyway.

I take bootles of frozen water, put in the freezer the night before and on hot days these are a godsend.

The only expense is food, but if you give them a good full breakfast in the morning they can generally hang out til teatime.

Make sure you've put a chicken/lamb/beef/chilli/bolognese in the slow cooker before you leave, voila , nice, good nutricious food on arrival home.

This is what we did last thursday

Cheers all.

We've got annual Merlin passes, too - they're great value if you do a couple of trips.

Ooh and English Heritage, National Trust ones. Keep meaning to get a new Kew one!

Go to a park in an adjacent town - one you don't go to regularly.

The kids will love the novelty of trying a new playground and there may be "extras" you don't get in your local park - near me there is one park which has a small railway you can go for rides on (80p a go) and there is also a canal next to it - they love watching the boats going through the locks and "helping" to open and shut the lock gates.

Another one has a small farm.

Obviously take a picnic and save ice creams for a treat at the end of the day!

BexieID, TheBlonde - thanks for the reminder about the 2for1 offers/www.daysoutguide.co.uk. We are going to London at the weekend and I have just downloaded a voucher for the Tower of London

For parents of children with special needs it is worth contacting them and asking if they do discounts.

I e mailed The Sandringham Estate and they do offer discounts for children with SN and their carers.

Also worth contacting wildlife parks,sea life centres etc as they also offer discounts.

Ooh, ooh, ooh - we did Tower of London using that voucher and the best way to get there is via the boat that goes from by the London Eye... and you can get 2 for 1 on that too with that booklet. Buy a river rover ticket or whatever it is called and you can just hop on and off the boat all day - go up to Greenwich and on to the O2 if you want. Lovely way to see the city.

Picnic
Woods
Country Parks - many National Trust stretches of countryside are free, with small parking charge
Beach
Moor/rivers/streams (thinking Yorkshire & devon here) - make small dams/waterfalls, pond dipping
Museums (some charge, some don't)
Make your own scavenger hunt in park
Bike rides combined with above (if older)

When mine were younger we found church flower festivals and village open gardens (I'm into flowers as you can tell from my posting name) welcoming and fun - but doesn't work beyond a certain age. Sigh.

we buy season tickets for local places which pay for themselves in a few visits during summer time and normally by time we've finished going for the year we'd have spent a fortune

does anyone else get SPREE books? they're great too but am not sure if local to here?

agree re natural free days out. if you can't get to a beach a river or lake is next best. somewhere where they can paddle, keeps them happy for hours. and really agree re spending money cutting down on the pester factor (and the cost).

Rice krispies have got a good promotion on with free tickets to zoos

Buy bikes for the whole family. You can then go for long bike rides for family days out instead of forking out for expensive 'attractions' and amusement parks etc.

The national cycle network criscrosses the entire country.

Take a packed lunch along and it becomes a cheap, fun active day for the whole family.

Geo Cacheing - it can be expensive to start with (buying the equipment), but once that is paid for there are sites all over the country. Make a day of it and take a picnic.

What's a spree book, dizzy? Speaking as a local

if you can find a beach/river etc where it's ok to light a small, safe fire, a bag of marshbmallows and a couple of skewers can round off a day at beach/river beautifully. Sing songs (if there is no-one around to sneer at you