Budgeting to keeping School Holidays as my Holidays – how it works 

I decided at the start of the year to take the school holidays as holidays.   So far, it’s worked really well.

Last year I felt torn a lot between being mum and delivering projects/ keeping clients happy.

My energy wasn’t as balanced as I would have liked and I was PROPER exhausted by the end of the year.  So this year it’s different!

As a financial decision, it’s a big one especially as the main income into our home.  There are 14 or so weeks of school holidays – that’s over 3 months over the year.

What it actually means is I work harder, faster and longer through the working week to make sure everything is done and then completely switch off at weekends and in the school holidays.

Having a Brilliant Time on a Budget – 11 ‘things to do’ for a total of £11

Another consideration is how much to spend/ how much to do (?) during the school holidays.

You often hear parents talking about how much the holidays costs especially with more that one child.  We just have one and he’s four years old so maybe a little easier to keep entertained than multiple children?

Looking for Badgers on Holy Island

As we’ve just wrapped up the Easter Hols with just over two weeks of fun, friendship and sunshine I thought I’d share some insight into our spends and how I’m planning not to go bankrupt during the summer hols.

Here’s how it panned out on the purse strings for activities;

What’s not included here is fuel, refreshments and presents/ easter eggs.  That came up to another £122.65 for refreshments and presents (including a £5 football from Lidl) and around £50 spend on fuel for the car.

Total Easter Holiday spends on entertaining our little boy – £183.65 

As you can see clearly, there’s not a huge amount of spend on activity – we do pay for Alnwick Garden Membership each year (we have the family best friend membership) but it’s usually pays for itself in the first couple of months.

We didn’t spend much as the activities we chose to do were at castles, in play-parks and at the beach and because I consciously made a decision not to spend loads.

I took picnics (not costed in) lots of the time too which keeps refreshments costs down although I must try harder with my out and about coffees.  (I do take my own cup though which often saves pennies!)

The food spend included a £1.65 snack at Ikea, a Happy Hour Pizza dinner in Alnmouth and some take-away coffees where Barter Books is by far the best value at 0.30p per coffee!  #parenthack

L took this pic – super heroes have entered the building!

So, I guess spending under £200 on entertainment during the school hols isn’t bad but if I do the same in summer I need an entertainment budget of £600.

What do you think?  Does that sound a lot of money to spend during the holidays?

Petting the baby cows which will be raised to be milk cows at Morwick Dairy – where we buy our milk.

What are your holiday hacks to spend less but still have a tonne of fun?  I really loved being able to spend quality time with L during the holidays and can’t wait for summer.  If you’re looking for a list of brilliant things to do in Northumberland during the hols check out Bethanie’s Northumberland Diaires blog and sign up to her news while you’re there too.

Thanks for reading, you can follow me on instagram for more of the same.

Claire x

PS – If you’d like to subscribe to my newsletter where I share a monthly Note from the Sea you can do that here. I share updates on creativity, clarity and life from our Northumberland home with a view of the sea.