Heads Up! Summer Family Outing Booty!

MSE_Martin · 19 June 2007 at 5:46PM

What's the deal?

Summer's creeping up on us and costs can rocket. Luckily right now there are a raft of deals, discounts and freebies which will enable you to entertain yourself and/or the kids for less. These deals will save you serious cash. Some are nationwide and some local, so scan down for the appropriate ones.

Free adult/kids sports/dance/martial arts lessons (can be worth £10). Available nationwide

Buy a Nestle cereal box (like Shreddies or Cheerios) or three packets of Nestle sweets (like KitKat and Smarties)and you'll be able to enjoy free swimming, golf lessons, football, dancing, tennis, squash, martial arts or badminton at locations throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland. The vouchers are valid until July 2008. Of course, technically it's only free if you would've bought the goods anyway; but even if not, it's cheap.

I'm aware some people choose not to buy Nestle, there's been a long running historial boycott, but I'm also aware they're some of the most popular products in the UK so many who buy should take advantage.

How to get your free session: Go to the Nestle-go free website, and see if there's a location near you. If there is try and make a booking. You need one voucher's worth of Nestle's products, ie one cereal box, or three sweet packets (see the list of eligible products). Do ensure you take the voucher with to the session.

BOGOF tickets for Alton Towers, Thorpe park and more (worth £32) with a £10 Superdrug spend

Superdrug is giving customers two BOGOF vouchers to Tussaud Group attractions - Alton Towers (Staffordshire; excluding 9-13 & 16-20 July), Thorpe Park (Surrey; excluding 16-20 July & 26-28 Oct), Warwick Castle (Warwickshire), Chessington World of Adventures (Surrey; excluding 11-13, 18-20 & 25-17 Sept, 1-4, 8-11 & 15-17 Oct) and Madame Tussauds (London) when you spend £10 in-store up until 7 August. This promotion's available nationwide so if you do your usual shop there, it's worth getting hold of a voucher as it's valid for most weeks until 31 October. Unfortunately, it can't be used in conjunction with any other offer as tickets must be purchased at entry gate prices.

How to get your free ticket: Spend a tenner in Superdrug, collect your voucher and visit the attraction of your choice to to receive your discount.

Online tickets may be cheaper: Sporadically, some attractions give a discount on tickets if they're purchased online, so first check its site for this, and work out what offer will give you the bigger saving, before visting Superdrug.

BOGOF at Thorpe Park (Surrey) when accompanied by a full paying adult

Virgin Radio is offering its listeners BOGOF vouchers to Thorpe Park that can be used until 31 July, although they're not valid alongside any other promotions or discounts.

Nab your free voucher: Visit Virgin Radio's Website, print off the BOGOF voucher and present it to the cashier at Thorpe Park when you buy an adult ticket (£32).

Free kids' ticket at LEGOLAND (Windsor) when accompanied by a full paying adult

Walls is offering a free child ticket to LEGOLAND when accompanied by a full paying adult. This isn't valid in conjunction with any other discount or offer.

Grab your free entry: Simply click and print the voucher from Walls' Website, and take along with you before 3 November (excluding the whole of August). Present it when you purchase an adult ticket (£31).

Collect Tesco ClubCard points? Get 75% off theme park tickets. E.g Blackpool pleasure beach for £7

If you shop at Tesco, you probably have a stash of Clubcard points. If so, don't spend these in-store, they're worth four times their value if redeemed on Tesco Clubcard Deals (for more on this see the Boost Your Loyalty Points article).

Many theme park and attraction deals are included in this, meaning they're seriously cheap. For example Alton Towers tickets can be got for £8 each (usually £32), Blackpool Pleasure Beach for £7 (usually £28) and Northern Racing tickets for £5 (usually £20). See a full list of all available attactions

What to do? Visit the ClubCard Deals section of Tesco's site and redeem your points there.

London Zoo and other attractions 2for1 days out loophole

There's a sneaky loophole to get 2for1 tickets for a whole bunch of London attractions (e.g. the Zoo & Madame Tussauds) through National Rail's Go By Train scheme. The catch is you need a valid train ticket for that day, yet as the saving can be up to £25, even if you're not using the train you can get a cheap single for £2ish and still qualify to save up to £25.

For example a one way ticket from a Central London station (e.g. Marylebone for Tussauds/London Zoo) is £1.90, but entry to Madame Tussauds is £23 – a £21 saving. You can print as many vouchers as you like and currently offers are valid ‘til 30 Sept 2007.

Days out, cinema, dining and other issues

There's a full article on more general MoneySaving when going out including lots more tips; read Pay Less For Going Out.

I hope you have a great time!

Martin

IF YOU'VE ANY TOP SPOT CHEAP DAYS OUT - PLEASE REPORT THEM BELOW BY CLICKING REPLY.

rentawitch · 20 June 2007 at 8:10AM

Even if you are not an Orange 'phone user, you can do what I do.
Buy an Orange sim card - couple of quid on ebay - register and stick it in an old 'phone, we all have them laying about these days.

Use that 'phone to make a text message 'Film' to 241 and you get a text back giving 2 for 1 cinema tickets any Wednesday, any cinema, any film.

My local cinema is now £6.85. I go with 3 friends most Wednesdays and with two orange messages, we save £13.20 each week - after the cost of the texts.

new_mum_again · 20 June 2007 at 11:32AM

I do the same as Rentawitch but I signed up for a free orange sims and Always take our own Popcorn and drinks!:money:

Bargain_Mad_2 · 20 June 2007 at 1:31PM

Another one to consider, though again Nestle, is free days out with Nescafe Pick-Me-Ups.

Collect 12 Beans from Nescafe Coffee jars for each voucher. List of participating venues here.

Edited to add that I sent off for vouchers a couple of days ago, planning to use them at either Camelot theme park or one of the Sea Life Centres. Haven't had them before so not sure how long they take to arrive.

manch235ter · 20 June 2007 at 3:07PM

http://shop.orange.co.uk/shop/simevent/metrofreesim?WT.mc_id=ConFreThMet_1018 fot a free orange sim card , with £1 credit! Great for the Orange wednesdays

MSE_Martin · 20 June 2007 at 4:58PM

Just to say there is a of course a full article on ORange 2 for 1 and how to use it http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/orange-wednesday

zaks_3 · 21 June 2007 at 10:08AM

Do the Orange PAYG sims work with Orange Wendesdays if you don't top up as much as £5 a month (the T&Cs state that you have to)?
Cheers.

Crabman · 21 June 2007 at 10:41AM

zaks wrote: »

Do the Orange PAYG sims work with Orange Wendesdays if you don't top up as much as £5 a month (the T&Cs state that you have to)?
Cheers.

The article says there are no known probs with people who don't top up by £5 a month and if you look now there's a stop press offer at the top too :T

I have an Orange PAYG phone, not topped it up since January, I've always been able to use Orange Wednesdays without problems though. Have fun

zaks_3 · 21 June 2007 at 12:46PM

Thanks Crabman! Am off to register the free sim that arrived today then

Heads Up! Summer Family Outing Booty!

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