The school holidays are quickly approaching. It’s a wonderful time to enjoy with your family. Getting outdoors, maybe going on holiday and just enjoying some time together after their tough year at school. But, it can be very expensive.
It’s thought that the average UK family spends £160 a week extra during the school summer holidays. This doesn’t count food shopping and normal expenses either. This is just extras. Over six weeks, that’s nearly £1000, and with the impending need for extortionately expensive school uniforms in September, many of us simply can’t afford these extras.
But, that doesn’t mean that you can’t have a magical summer with your children. If you’ve got a considerable expense like a trip abroad (or the copious amounts of wine needed after bedtime!) options from https://personalloan.co can help. But, the rest of the time, it’s a good idea to try to stick to a budget to save yourself money. Here are some ways to survive the holidays on a budget.
Find the Best Parks
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Wherever you live, there’s bound to be a few parks within the local area. If you are lucky, you might have a few of them, with playgrounds and woods to explore. Many of these are easily accessible from public transport routes if you don’t drive and you can easily make a day out of exploring a new park. Look online at sites like http://www.tripswithatot.com for fun parks in your local area.
Set Challenges
Very young children are happy to play in playgrounds and explore without any further motivation. You can easily make a day fun for them by encouraging them to use their imagination and helping them to create magical make-believe worlds. If your kids are a little older, this might be more of a challenge. So, find new ways to add some interest.
Set them a photo challenge with a list of things that they need to take photos of each day of the holidays. Create a scavenger hunt or ask them to make an Instagram photo diary. Pinterest is full of cool ideas for age-appropriate challenges and crafts.
Make a Scrapbook
The idea of a summer break on a budget might not sound too exciting, but if you spend time after each day out adding things that you’ve collected, photos, drawings, captions and stories to a scrapbook it suddenly starts to feel like one big adventure and they’ll have plenty to talk about and show their friends in September.
Visit Free Museums
If you live anywhere near a large city or town, there’s bound to be free museums and attractions. Many of these will offer special events and days throughout the summer holidays. Have a look online to see wants on.
Hone Your Picnic Skills
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A picnic sounds easy enough to throw together. But it’s not always. Especially if you’ve got fussy eaters. Picnics are one of the best ways to save money, even on paid for days out. But, no one wants a ham to sandwich every day for six weeks. Try some fun fruit salads and get creative with your picnic foods.
