A Frugal School Holiday

Dustykitten

Some bowling places do cheap games if you go between 9 and 10 in the morning.

Geocaching is fun and free and there are bound to be some near you.

Make a hole in the centre of the lawn and play clock golf (you can often pick up clubs in the charity shop really cheaply)

Camping in the garden can be fun - my 9 year old is out there now with 2 friends and there is a local firework display on at a wedding venue so they have a free display they are enjoying.

kingfisherblue

My local council has several free sessions for junios (age 7-11) and seniors (age 11-17) - more for the seniors, to my surprise! They are held in community centres all over the borough, and activities include canoeing, computers, bike maintenance, arts and crafts, DJ-ing, dance, sports, etc.

My two youngest (age 11 and 13 - 13 year old has multiple disabilities) will also take part in the circus based reading challenge that is being offered by libraries.

The 13 year old has two weeks of free playscheme, the 11 year old has one week costing £1 a session. For both, sessions are half days. The schemes are at different times, so I can spend some individual time with both of them.

Disability cycling is great for us, as youngest can also come. It's only £2 each and we can go up to three times a week. Youngest loves the go-karts and racers, whilst oldest can use a tricycle without having any problems. There is a cafe for a drink afterwards, and if it's cold, I can wander around with a take away coffee.

We have a couple of trips planned with a disability group we are members of. Some will cost, others are free except for picnic.

We will spend some time with friends, have picnics, etc, and there will be several days that we spend at home (trampolining, bike, gardening, painting bathroom, sorting old toys and clothes for charity shop, etc).

Youngest is also away for a week with his dad. When he gets back, we'll be getting new uniform for next term. Old uniform is going to friends who have children still in primary school (youngest starts secondary in September :eek: - where have the years gone?)

TBH, we're going to be really busy a lot of the time. I'll enjoy the days that we're not busy.

Kittendreich

Could you get them invovled in the planning and budgetting? Useful skills, helps them understand the compromises made, gets them looking for bargains and would also use up some time? For example - set a limit of £x per week/day - they can then either have a cheap thing everyday (ice cream & bag of chips) or 'save up' for more expensive things (meals out, theme park, bowling etc). Set it out on a chart or something so they can see how much of thier total they have used and can relate how much fun something is and how much is costs. Get them on the web looking for bargains & deals so they can make more of their budget. Have a competition (although the littler one might need a hand) to see who can get the most for their money or find the biggest saving on an activity they want to do. To make picnics more exciting spend the morning cooking (homemade pizzas & traybake type things perhaps) then then go in the afternoon - if it is wet have it in a homemade den inside (blanket over a couple of chairs!) or a tent in the garden (more time used up contructing the den/tent). Happy holidays!

red_devil

YORKSHIRELASS wrote: »

Hi all

For various reasons I need to spend as little as possible on days out and entertainment this summer. I just wondered if others were in the same boat and what your plans are. My kids are 10 and 12 so they are getting to the age where fun = theme parks, bowling, water parks etc. All expensive.

So to kick things off today we went for a walk! Hubby was at work so it was just me and the kids. I maybe didnt pick the best route for the walk - there was nothing much to see along the way and the kids both moaned a bit half way around but the ice cream and paddle in the river at the end more than made up for it. OH gave us some money for an ice cream so I didnt spend a penny - result!

We are going to an out of town shopping centre tomorrow - the kids both have some of their own money to spend. DS has just asked me if we are going to Pizza Hut or McDonalds for lunch (sigh) but maybe I can work that in the budget.

I got an English Heritage Membership with my Tesco points and there are a couple of good places near us so I am hoping this will go down well.

I am also going to do some research on the internet to find some cheap/free things to do. There are probably loads of places that we have never been to before.

Whats everyone else up to?

kids shouldnt expect to be taken out all the time and go out eating. Be a good idea to explain that you havent got the money. havent they got any friends they can have round or go to.

flippin36

I'm in the same boat OP. My plan of action is; free museums (we have two locally with free parking), library, invite friends (hopefully they will also get invites), blackberry picking, baking, cooking. I have decided to do lots of baking and cooking especially with my older one, we spent all day friday looking at recipes, baking and freezing, preparing tea (she really enjoyed it). I also plan to teach her basic sewing skills. T shirt printing is cheap (I got the sheets from £shop and use old tshirts for them to be creative). We will also get the tent out in the back garden, it takes them half the day to pitch it (lol) it seems to make them happy (we may have a bbq for tea).

Look out for things on freecycle. My daughter got some teach yourself recorder books and some craft bits and bobs.

Do they like writing stories? Buy them a cheap notebook and get them to write a novel.

Remember that the holidays are for recharging batteries as well as doing different things so don't feel bad if you have the odd dvd day, buy some popcorn and invite a friend (rent the dvd from the library). Visiting family we haven't seen for awhile definitely counts as a day trip .

Good luck - will follow this thread with interest for some good ideas.

Lunar_Eclipse

I have 2 children of similar ages and thankfully they are very happy to hang out at home, with or without friends and go on cheap outings. We enjoy local parks, pond dipping in the river, den building in the woods, riding bikes etc. This week they are on a free summer playscheme with a local church in the mornings (with about 150 other children!) and I've kept the afternoons mainly free for playing.

Also, we usually have a (board) games afternoon every few weeks. Perhaps you could borrow some games from friends that your kids aren't used to. Same for DVDs. We lent out some lego sets to a friend recently for the weekend at her request. Her boys are lego mad and I thought it was a very simple but ingenious idea.

Another thought is to do a family car boot sale. You could all sort through your excess items to sell, which firstly takes time, reduces clutter in the house and also raises money that could be spent on an outing of their choice. We did a garage sale a couple of weeks ago. My youngest designed posters which we placed locally in shops etc, as well as printing and distributing flyers which we handed out.

They are also at a great age to cook a family meal. Perhaps you could organise a family 'come dine with me' competition if you think they would enjoy that. Menu planning, shopping, organising entertainment etc are great skills to acquire and would eat up a chunk of the holiday.

Have fun! I always find these holidays fly by.

plzhelpmesave!

Hi
My 3 kids are aged 8, 7 and 4 They're all in playscheme for 4 days a week from 11-4 at a cost of about £15 per week for 4 weeks while Im at work.
Fridays and weekends will be for us to chill & have fun, and Ive also got the flexibility to take them out of playschemes if something fun & cheap comes up!

Just been to stay with my sister over the weekend as we broke - so first summer holiday outing done an cost about £50 with diesel & outing to adventure park on sunday.
Im going to spend some time taking them swimming (Free for under 16s) in our local council pool - walking & cycling in the big free parks and places like Lickey Hills etc.
Will use any tesco clubcard vouchers towards days out... think they come at the end of august though!

Things planned & paid for:
£10 travelodge room near Alton Towers as an end of holidays tream (last weekend of summer holidays) Will use some vouchers for £25 entry adults and £18 for kids - for 2 days!
Trip to London during Kids theatre week - have paid £40 for me & all 3 kids to watch a show - need to buy train tickets & take food

Willprobably squeeze ina couple of cheapy cinema tripe - £3 before 12pm in town or the cheak kids showings.

Good luck with your holidays!!


I am going to set a budget though for summer holiday 'activity' spends- coz it soon adds up!

narabanekeater

if you dp decide on pizza hut im sure on the grabbit board there's a £5 for an adult to eat and kids eat free voucher

jasmin10

Just thought I would copy this from whay I posted on another thread as it may help. (DD is nearly 6)

I have printed off a calender for DD one for each week, with various things to do. Each day for half an hour we have reading and then writing the next and keep rotating them. In the mix of the week we do the park, visit friends, visit some local horses, craft day, jigsaw and games afternoon blah blah. Each morning she will get a smiley sticker if she was good the day before and went straight to sleep with out any messing around. Then if she gets at least 3 she will get a day trip out on the Friday (farm park, adventure theme park, swimming day at the seaside etc). so far since Friday we have all smiley stickers and she loves writing things to so on her calender and very proud when putting her stickers on it. so far so good. I havent got to keep thinking of things to do all the while as she has already got various things spread through the weeks.

We too are ver limited on cash, only had £30 for the last two weeks, Roll On hubby's payday on Thursday. Things are difficult money wise and it is so expensive to trips out all the time, however this way DD appreciates it more I think. Not only that but at the mo I cant do much running around after her as I'm pg, another reason for things being tight as we have things to get for the baby such as the cot and pram (not cheap) and we also need to get a second car for when hubbys shifts change in Sep/Oct as I wont be able to walk to school as I will be quite heavily pg by then We do have a car for me to use at the mo (hubbys cycles to work) but try to do most things in the week either in the house, garden or locally except for the Friday treat.

If anyone was interest the calender is on the netmums website and is free to download to anyone without registering.

hth

Sam

booma_mitch

Not sure whereabouts in Yorkshire you are but I am in West Yorkshire and have spent today looking up free or cheap (usually parking cost) places to go over the holidays. I have that many that I aren't sure how I am going to fit them all in! Here is my list:

National Coal Mining Museum (Free)
Yorkshire Sculpture Park (Free but small parking cost)
Oakwell Hall (Free as far as I can tell) Various fun days during the summer hols
Nostell Priory (Free with NT membership) Bordem buster days on Thursdays
National Media Museum (Free)
Royal Armouries (Free)
East Riddlesten Hall (Free with NT membership)
Abbey House/Kirkstall Abbey (Small charge for Abbey House)
Lotherton Hall Bird Garden (Free)
Museum of Science and Industry - Manchester (Free)
Libraries
Surestart fun days
Magna (costs but ticket converts to annual pass)
Eureka (same as Magna with annual pass)
Thackray Museum (not sure of age of children, think mine are a bit young as a bit gruesome by the look of it! - ticket converts to annual pass)
Then just parks slotted in for quieter days.

Hope that helps, I am quite looking forward to the holidays now!

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