How to make the school holidays cheap and cheerful

By Anna Burnside
Published on 02/07/2012 00:00

TODAY is the first day of the summer school holidays. Here, Anna Burnside offers some things to do with the kids that won’t break the bank

School holidays. The season during which parents are turned upside down and shaken thoroughly, until neither crumpled fiver nor sticky penny remains in their pockets. Entertaining children is mindbendingly expensive and, despite the best efforts of the Dangerous Book for Boys, today’s young persons turn their noses up at spending six weeks playing Pooh Sticks or hanging out in a DIY tent.

With a few cunning strategies, and a sense of adventure, it is certainly possible to enjoy the long break without spending a small fortune. This requires some planning, considerable forethought, willpower and a flask. (Sadly this will contain coffee, not gin and tonic with ice.)

It all starts with a jam jar. Before the holidays even start, prepare the offspring to the idea that not every waking hour can be spent with Peppa, Spongebob or iCarly. At the same time, plant the seed that it is possible to cross the threshold without taking a carrier bag of cash. Produce the jam jar and some scraps of paper. On these scraps, encourage your children to write all the things they would like to do during the holidays. Anything: sleepovers, outings, films they want to see, sparkly eyeshadows they wish to buy, meals they want to eat. You, as the responsible adult and keeper of the jam jar, can also make suggestions. Do so freely – it is your holiday as well.

Delightful as it might be to revisit your own recreation-based Bucket List and chuck them into the mix – morning at Louvre, trolley dash round Harvey Nichols, dinner at Noma – these are for another jar. Your watchwords are free (if at all possible), certainly economical and good value for money. Stimulating. Educational. Fun.

Remember previous trips which your children have enjoyed. Suggest them again. Pick the brains of parents who are more organised than yourself. Summerlee, the sprawling industrial museum in Coatbridge, makes an excellent day out. The only outlay is a ticket for the lovely restored tram which tootles up and down the side of the site. Gourock open air pool costs no more than a regular council dip and is free if you are an Inverclyde school child or pensioner. Get there early – elderly regulars are there to greet the manager as he opens up – stay all day and pretend you are on holiday.

Sign up to, and scour, Groupon, itison, 5pm.co.uk and every other internet provider of cut-price entertainment. Bowling, indoor golf, go-karting, paintballing and other activities which you may have ruled out as over-priced (or naff, or mind-bendingly boring, or plain terrifying) pop up at surprisingly friendly prices. It is unrealistic to expect your children to enjoy the architecture of Charles Rennie Mackintosh or climb the Cobbler every day. Adding a bit of commercial cheese to the mix will make those tricky negotiations much easier. And when it has rained for three days in a row, indoor golf suddenly sounds as appealing as a chocolate martini.

As the jam jar fills up, consider each entry. How can you, cunningly and without your children spotting the joins, extend one brief and often expensive activity into a cheap and cheerful day out? Your first and greatest friend here is the packed lunch. Taking the DIY approach to eating and drinking slashes the cost of leaving the house. Picnics need not be elaborate. Reduce your children’s expectations: oatcake, cheese and apple is an excellent lunch, as are chunks of carrot or celery swiped in a jar of peanut butter. If the al fresco meal is the main attraction, rather than a refuelling exercise, put the offspring to work marinading chicken legs, stirring up organic flapjacks, cutting a melon into chunks. Refill plastic water bottles. Keep a roll of kitchen towel and packet of baby wipes about your person. Don’t forget the rubbish bag.

With comestibles on board, consider how else to stretch smaller jam jar activities – a Primark trip or museum visit – into a major excursion. Is it possible to walk there? Or take public transport part of the way, and then walk? Small children are especially enchanted by trains, ferries and buses, especially if they usually travel by car. The centre of Edinburgh – Princes Street Gardens, Arthur’s Seat, the closes and alleyways of the old town – is particularly easy and delightful on foot. Glasgow can feel like more of an urban adventure but that brings its own pleasures. Is there a park nearby? You have hit the jackpot. Don’t forget the football.

One guaranteed way to get children enjoying an enforced march is to give them a list of things to spot. This obviously works well as part of a nature walk but is just as jolly on the city streets. Tailor the list to your family’s interests and obsessions: breeds of dog, colours of Mini, members of the emergency services, colours of Converse Allstars, tattoos. A hearty hike to a groovy restaurant (and there are many fantastic lunch deals on Groupon et al, as well as stunning buffet arrangements on the go), at which you all eat your own body weight in south Indian food before wandering home to collapse in a heap, makes for a very pleasant Tuesday. With any luck, you can get away with a plate of cornflakes for dinner.

On the first rainy day, instigate a major bedroom clear-out. Sell the rejected items at a car boot sale, or hold your own yard sale, with the proceeds going towards holiday treats. Take holey socks, washed-out school polo shirts and other unsaleable items to one of the 50p-a-bag textile recyclers. Help and encourage teenagers to flog unwanted phones, iPods, games consoles, trainers and other valuable consumer goods that they have turned their noses up at on eBay or Gumtree. Gather up all the coppers lurking around the place and hit the Coinstar machine in the supermarket. This might also be the time to crack open any well-filled piggy banks. Why should you pay for every last Cornetto when they have capital in their cupboards? Every little, as the well known supermarket chain observes, helps.

Within the newly tidy bedrooms, scout around for unopened or ignored Christmas bounty: games, craft projects or chemistry sets; jigsaws previously dismissed as too difficult; books that were too advanced six months ago. Direct your children towards these items, stressing that they might still be “too grown up” for them. Enjoy the ensuing peace.

Remember at all times that the holidays do not last for ever. Make mental notes of parks and libraries where other potless parents are to be found. Take extra cups (Ikea’s plastic beakers work brilliantly) and share around your flask of coffee and digestive biscuits. Arrange to do something en masse later in the week.

While at the library, let everyone choose a DVD that is suitable for the whole family. (Avoiding, if at all possible, Barney the dinosaur.) Watch them together, with home-made popcorn and a group discussion afterwards. During the first week of the Edinburgh festivals there are magnificent bargains as thespians search for an audience. Help them out by booking some tickets and giving yourself something to look forward to. Something else, that is, other than the start of the new term.