Have Fun This Summer Holiday Without Breaking The Bank 2016
The Summer holidays for kids means no school for 6 weeks and lotsss of fun. However it can be quite stressful for us parents, as it can mean expensive trips out and always trying to think of lots of things to do. The top attractions can be ridiculously expensive and aside from your local freebies/cheap days out such as parks, museums and farms it really can be difficult to come up with other ideas.
I have put together another list this year of fun things that should be available to most people depending on where they live and how far you can travel. Some great ways to go to some of the best attractions for a lot less.
Top tips:
Search for any local events such as family fun days, charity events, festivals and so on.
Always search for discount codes/vouchers/coupons before going somewhere.
Check out the social media pages for the places you are going to see the latest special offers and to find out about events.
Keep an eye out for flyers, magazines, news papers which are posted through your letter box or handed to you on the street and always have a check to see if there are any vouchers/discounts in there. Also packaging on food will sometimes have discounts for attractions such as cereals and also inside magazines and newspapers.
If you have been saving up your Tesco Clubcard points then now is the time to use them!!
You can grab vouchers for meals out, days out, cinema tickets, rail cards all for very little in clubcard vouchers! A railcard is normally £30 for the year however if you have £15 in clubcard points then you can grab yourself a years Railcard, which will then save you up to 1/3 off train tickets!
Grab a 12 month family savings pass on Wowcher for only £29.99 saving families up to 57% on over 300 attractions which also includes Haven holidays!
Always check the big deals sites such as Groupon, Wowcher,Living Social
Download O2 priority moments app if you are with o2 and make sure to check for deals and freebies on there. Lots of discounts on meals out!
Check restaurant websites for membership discount cards. For example Jamie’s Italian has a Gold members card which gets you various different freebies from £10 off your meal to a free dessert and so on. So make sure to sign up to the all the different free memberships available.
Eating out/takeaway
- 2 months FREE hi-life diners card for savings on eating out (just make sure to cancel the subscription within that time so you don’t get charged)
- 30 day FREE tastecard trial for more great savings on eating out
- Jamie’s Italian Gold members card gets you freebies and money off your meal
- Gusto dining club member gives you discount off your meal. Contact your local restaurant to become a member
- Bella Italia deals/discounts
- La Tasca – become a member by downloading the app and get 20% off main menu and other offers
- Crown Carveries – One free kids carvery when a full-price adult carvery is purchased on Sundays
- Slug and Lettuce – a child eats for £1 on Sundays when an adult dines from the main menu
- The Real Greek – 1 kid eats for ‘free’ on Sundays when an adult spends £10
- Flaming Grill – Kids eat for for £1 with adult main meal every Thursday from 3pm-7pm
- Frankie & Benny’s – kids’ meal including main, drink, dessert and activity pack free with a main meal on Fridays. Plus download the app and get £10 off next visit
Things To Do
- Free events at various Smyths Toy Stores on selected dates (including face painting and crafts)
- Free bike workshop for 7-11 year olds at Halfords stores
- Odeon cinema is running Odeon Kids screenings all summer, with tickets priced at around £2.50. Check the website for showings.
- Kids AM for £1.99 at your local Vue Cinema
- Heritage England and Historic Scotland have hundreds of remarkable sites to visit free of charge
- Free holiday football coaching in England
- Free tennis coaching on offer throughout the UK
- Camping at National Parks – from £3 to £20 per night and camping barns from £7 per night
- Lots of Paint balling deals on Groupon – various locations
- Segway rally experience (multiple locations) up to 46% off!!
- Zorb bubble football for up to 15 people (multiple locations) from £159 – could be a great cheap day if each parent/person chipped in making it from only £15.90 each!
- Sign up to freecinema.co.uk to be emailed each time there are free cinema tickets up for grabs! They go quick so make sure to grab them as soon as they are available!
- Family Treasure Hunt (various locations) only £9 RRP £17.99
- 2 or 4 beginners music lessons from £16 (multiple locations)
- Aerial Extreme High ropes adventure (5 different locations) £12 instead of £24
- Free kids swim safe lessons (various locations)
- Free arts and crafts sessions at various Hobbycraft stores
- Dobby’s garden centres have various children’s events on including free activites for 4-10 year olds during the holidays
- Free £5 Lego and building session on first Thursday of every month in Lego stores
- Children can earn Blue Peter badges which entitles them to free entry to lots of attractions
- Register with Applause store for free television audience tickets (some have age restrictions)
Know of any fantastic days out that are great value for money or any deals that you think should be mentioned?? Comment below and let us all know!
Please Note: Some links to deals may be affiliate links. This does not affect how much you pay however I may earn a very small percentage of the sale from a company which they will pay. This means that I can keep this site running and get bigger prizes for competitions :)
10 Comments
tracey
we are doing pamper days as there are mainly girls in our cul de sac,6 to 11yrs make up nails hair, movie days if raining, move and home made popcorn, going on walks as thats free, fair ground on half price nights in porthcawl and anything else we can think of so there is no boredom 6 weeks of fun not shouting and screaming grey hairs growing where old hair is falling out lol, thanks for all the tips and ideas.
Fran
Such brill ideas :)
Anita hargreaves
It was a nightmare keeping my tot occupied, some years back and only child. Best I did was going on a bear hunt with her, it kept her amused but wore me out x
Fran
That sounds like fun and a great way to tire out little ones! x
Rebekah Jones
Love some of your ideas on here .. We have been using a website called Days out with kids.. that gives you the price you will pay etc and has lots of free days out ideas .
Fran
Great advice :)
Katy (What Katy Said)
We just used our Tesco points for a trip to Longleat- it was fab! So many great ideas here, going to bookmark it! x
Fran
Naughty jetpack didn’t let me know you had commented so just seen this now! Sorry for not responding! Tesco points are so fab, you get some amazing deals. Xx
Sam | North East Family Fun
Fab ideas – we used a groupon deal for dino crazy golf this week and it saved us loads of £ :D
Fran
For some reason I never received a notification for this comment. Sorry I didn’t reply! I saw that deal and was tempted but it was a bit of a mission for us. X