Saving money on summer days out

Summer is fast approaching; the nights are lighter and the days are longer. With this comes the lengthy summer holiday, something the kids will be looking forward to.

But how do you keep little minds occupied for the entire time? One great way is the occasional day out somewhere, but this can get expensive. Auto Advance share their ways to keep the kids busy without breaking the bank.

Plan ahead

The best way to save money is forward planning, prior to the summer break maybe sit down with the kids and work out some of the things they would like to do over the holiday. There might be specific things they want to see or do, a film coming out, an attraction they want to see or an event they’ve heard about at school.

Decide on a few of those events and mark them down on a calendar, it gives the kids something to look forward to and can help you align your budgeting with each day trip. Researching each area can let you work out how much you will need for entry and other costs to ensure you can make the most of each day without worrying about the cost.

Look locally

Some days out don’t need to be a far-flung trip and some might even be free. Look locally at what you can visit, country houses, national parks or play areas. These could be right on your doorstep and are usually either free or relatively inexpensive to enter, the only real cost in some of these trips is transport.

Other saving tips

Aside from planning ahead and focusing on more local trips there are other ways you can save money:

Food – A packed lunch or a picnic can be a great way to save money on a day trip, if the weather holds up you can have a nice lunch outdoors and making the picnic the night before can be a fun additional activity with the kids.

Transport – Pre-booking train tickets or planning a route in advance can help you to shave pounds of the cost of travel. This can form a really fun aspect of planning the trip, getting the kids to help and working out how long it will take, or planning their route on a map for example.

Offers – Keep a keen eye on the papers and social media in the run up to summer. There are countless offers for free entry into popular attractions and discounts on travel available, either as coupons or online codes that you can use when booking. These can help you save a fortune, but keep in mind they are often, limited time offers so you might have to think about moving the date of a trip and being prepared for somewhere to be much busier than you anticipated.

With a little bit of planning it is possible to have memorable days out this, giving you and your family the opportunity to make fun memories without worrying about the cost.

This is a guest post