UK summer holidays 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇬🇧

If anyone else has any free ideas please let me know!

I’ve got lots of local parks, the streams, picnics, library, treasure hunts etc planned that will be free!

I think it largely depends on where you live, here one ice cream is £5 from the ice cream man!

Depends on how many kids too.

Our local soft play is £22 each time and limited to just 90 mins now. To go see Moana at the kids cinema is £20 for just me and her. It adds up over 6 weeks.

It depends, it can be cheap if youre strict and dont eat out and do free things etc. But if you've got 3 kids and you get icecream then thats £15 gone easily. There's parking fees, days out, activities, petrol.
Life also happens, Maybe you get stuck in traffic in the heat and have to pull over and buy food and drinks- another £40 gone.
Also it depends on your view towards the summer holidays, do you want to stick to a budget or do you want days where you dont want to worry about money and just say yes to what the kids want? I think it varies massively

There’s loads of free groups and things (area dependant) that we’re taking advantage of. But my LG is only 3, so she doesn’t expect crazy days out like some older kids might. Plus our local zoo does annual re-entry, so once we paid once we can go back as many times as we like in a year, same for the space centre.
We’re doing free stay and plays at the local children’s centre, we’re doing a free 5 week toddler cooking class out on by the council, lots of walks and picnics, libraries/parks and lots of play dates with friends. We have done a theatre trip which was more expensive.

It’s as cheap or as expensive as you make it, if you’re not lucky enough to have free/cheap groups nearby I can see how it would quickly add up.

We are trying to keep things cheap and we will do lots of free things like park trips, walks, bike rides. But as soon as you go anywhere things add up. My daughter today said can we get the bus to the library, I thought what a great cheap idea, not realising that the bus came to £10 in total, it would of been a lot cheaper to drive and pay for parking! I’ve never done a budget though and try to keep big days out to only a handful the whole summer holiday.

I usually “map” out a rough idea or bucket list activities for the summer break. I usually plan one field trip per week. It’s not a rigid schedule. Its flexible. It’s just an idea of different activities we like. It kind of helps me stay on track with keeping the kids busy and not overspending. We always pack a snack cooler wherever we go. We may do an outing in the late morning and wait until we are home for lunch. On the field trip days, I usually take the kids for lunch. I could definitely see how you could spend a lot on activities. I think if you don’t somewhat plan your time…it would be easy to do that.

My LB is only 3 but at preschool so on 6 week break to.
He’s spending time away with various family so we haven’t got to spend a fortune but I honestly believe you can do it cheaply. National trust days out can be cheap, pack a picnic and head to a park. I think some people feel to need to be out of the house all the time which does cost a fortune

Our situation is slightly different as my son and daughter get short break money from the LA as have Sen. It varies depending on the activity and I have a bucket list. Swimming is free as she does lessons. We live near the beach and have local parks. We’ve done a sleepover although that still costs! We’ve done crabbing and have a free owl and horse sanctuary near us that’s free as well as an aircraft museum. We’ve done cooking. Our zoo does kids go for £1. Our cinema is £5 per person and if my son goes I go free. Today my daughter and a friend went tubing which was expensive and we plan to do pleasure beach and the camel park at some point.
On the positive we live near Great Yarmouth so seems pointless to do a caravan holiday in the uk. I also know where all the free parking is so that’s their ice cream money! I have a 9 year old and 17 year old so need to find things they can both do.

This is our first summer hols - I’ve spent £300 on holiday clubs alone, and that’s only 8 days worth.

We did Legoland last week, but had discounted tickets so only paid £14 and took a packed lunch. But an ice-lolly was £5 and it wasn’t even a good one 😂

I will do free / cheap park days and play dates. But I can see how it all adds up.

Our cinema does £2 (£2 for adults and £1.75 for kids) kids movies and I usually bring snacks from home. You can go to garden centers to walk around, forests, there are lots of farms where the entry is free and you can see anjmals, have picnics. If you have garden you can do lots of activities there too with water and balls etc. in a container I freeze small toys with water and then he can help them escape outside
Bake or cook something together, make fruit salad, smoothies… these are mostly free or a few £

I budgeted £1,050 for these summer holidays. That works out to be £25 per day, which is fuck all to be honest with you, and you’d be surprised how quickly it goes.

Just because things are cheap for you wherever you are, they certainly aren’t for the rest of us! I wish ice cream was £3 🤣 it’s £5.50 for one Mr Whippy single cone with one flake down here! Local gymnastics for 2 hours is £22. Soft play for 90 mins is £17.50. Trampoline place is £20 for 1 hour. Holiday club is £45 per day. People also fail to take into consideration parking costs and petrol too.

The library is always good for free activities. If you live near a beach, that too is a good cheap day if you take a picnic.

Yeh summer holidays are expensive. I could easily spend £500 in about 2 weeks. That’s not even going to expensive places like zoo etc.

Eh - £500 across the whole summer holidays is only £83 a week. If you divide that by 7 days (presuming the £500 is covering weekends too, rather than that being a separate budget) it’s just shy of £12 a day.

When you put it like that, it’s not a lot really 🤣

It’s definitely doable to spend less, by taking picnics out and looking for free activities. But it’s also not that hard to spend £500+ on actually not that much…

Spend to your budget, you can do as much or as little as you want. We go places but I take a picnic lunch, ice cream maybe but we also have them at home in the freezer so it's a treat.
Soft play, we actually got some free tickets from a local one at school, I look out for discounted tickets etc

We have just been getting excited about not having to pay for nursery from September! Now this convo makes me realise there is still a lot of outgoings needed for the eldest 😅😂 if only eating out was cheaper! Even mcdonalds is not affordable for a 4 yo. An 8 yo i know can polish off a regular meal plus 4 chicken nuggets, 2 chicken strips, more fries and another juice…

My daughter is three but goes term time only
I think we can do it cheap so many free activity
So we go to the zoo as we have membership ( £70 a year )
We went to postal museum it was open day so for free
We took sandwiches and fruit from home so we didn’t buy lunch or anything
We go to water Fontaine in various places
We go to various summer events in the area for example we have tone this weekend it will be free food served
We going also to fire brigade open days
We also go to watch free movies in an open cinema ( King’s Cross )
My husband take her swimming ( for free ) with local community… so literally we can be out every day for free as long as we take our food and drinks or buy cheap from supper market

I think it’s depends where you are, age of kids and number of children

For us one trip to soft play would be £28 that’s without any drinks or anything else

£40 for an hour at the trampoline park again without refreshments

Plus travel

I think it just depends on individual situations. How many kids you have what kid of days out you're doing ect.. I have 5 children so unless we're going somewhere completely free like the park with a picnic it's gunna cost a bit I try to spend as little as I can by taking packed lunches.. as ita usually only 1 kid eats free per adult so I'm still having to buy 4 kids meals and my own I took them to the fair and ended up spending around £300 on rides food drinks so yeah just depends where you go and how many kids you have I'd say. If you've just got the one you should be fine just be frugal

My child is only in his first summer so I don’t have this problem yet but it seems Londoners (or those commutable to London) have the best deal. As a kid growing up my mum used to take us to every single free museum going (of which there are a lot). I know living in and around London isn’t cheap, I’m just trying to add some lightheartedness to the conversation. But if you have the ability to get up for a few days, there are a plethora of choices to entertain school age kids.