Can the school holidays have come round again so quickly? Well it looks like they are upon us. Cue fretting parents desperately working out how to keep their little monsters busy.
If you’re struggling to come up with ways to keep your children busy, help is at hand. Here are five ideas for a cheap family day out.
1. Visit a National Trust venue
The National Trust has some fabulous ideas for family days out at their locations all over the UK, but what’s even better is the list of completely free ones you can find on their website here. There’s something to suit just about everyone, from dolphin watching in Ceredigion, to visiting Dragon Hill (where St George slayed the dragon) in Oxfordshire.
2. Get sporty
If the kids fancy a bit of sporting action, bag yourself a promotional pack of Kelloggs cereal and keep the free swim voucher from the packet. Then head to the special Kelloggs site, find your nearest participating pool and go swimming! You’ll need to take the voucher with you, and adults do still have pay for their entry.
Alternatively, if football’s more their thing you can sign them up for a free holiday session run by FA Tesco Skills coaches and cheer from the sidelines. Find out more about the scheme and sessions happening near you here.
3. Get 20% off top UK attractions
Before planning a day trip, Smartsave is well worth a look. Here you’ll find 20% discounts off entry to hundreds of the UK’s top attractions from Cadbury’s World to the Edinburgh Dungeon. For a day in the capital there are plenty of top London destinations included too.
4. Go for a picnic
A classic family day out, as long as the good old British weather behaves itself this is great way to keep the kids busy. You can involve them in making a few bits for the picnic the night before, and packing everything up with you. Take a bat and ball and a pack of cards, and you’ll be sorted for the rest of the day.
5. Use your supermarket rewards
Make your supermarket reward points go further by putting them towards a family day out. At the moment Nectar card holders can get double points value on Merlin days out like Legoland, Madame Tussards and Alton Towers – that’s 500 points worth £5 instead of the usual £2.50. Meanwhile Tesco Clubcard points can be used towards entry to over 200 UK attractions, with some special offers meaning you only need about £5 of points to get free entry.
[Image: Paul Stevenson}
