I learned this the hard way but have since been saving money for school holidays and also looking at free options and keeping a list.

You just have to be savvy and use coupons, codes and good old fashioned fun. You don’t have to go out all the time!

Ughhh i hate holidays. With 3 kids I find we well and truly blow our budget to keep them entertained

Particularly difficult in the Zchristmas holidays.

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  • • mom486197 replied
    • 31 Aug 2024 , 10:04 am

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  Omg I am not looking forward to this, it will be my first Christmas school holidays this year.

I don;t spend a lot in the holidays there are lots of free or small cost activities to do
They both get to pick something to play with from Big W that’s fun and will last the holiday period

We try to do free activities or just get out and explore

i think i’ll buy the entertainment book..heard good things about the savings.

My children are only young so we don’t spend nearly as much as this during the school holidays – if it’s cold we tend to do a lot of craft activities indoors and if the weather is nice we will ride bikes to the park for a play. Shopping centres are also great because they will usually have varied entertainment and for a small cost.

I’m going to have to invest in this i think

We love the Entertainment Book – we make savings!

I don’t think this is really news to most parents.

I’ve always fond cheap of free activities the best. Bush walking, parks, beaches, camping , skipping ropes with family joining in etc.

Be well prepared I will try when my child is older though at the moment I’m keen on activities like sport and learning to swim

Unfortunately the weather isn’t always suitable to send the kids outside to play. In parts of SA we had bitterly cold winds and rain some days. A couple of days we had dust storms instead. A lot of metro back yards are now so small that there isn’t even enough space for kids to ride bikes safely if at all. Some even have to park their cars out in the street and houses are one room wide. Some parks you’re not allowed to play ball games, a lot there is no toilets at all so you can’t go far from home in case one is needed, especially if you walk or cycle to the park / playground. I know of one that has a BBQ but no toilets nearby. We used to go and visit relatives and friends we didn’t catch up with during school terms because of playing sports. Sometimes the people came to our place.
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  • • Ellen replied
    • 20 Oct 2019 , 5:28 am

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  Catching up with relatives and friends during school breaks is a lovely activity indeed !

I think with younger kids it’s far easier to do free or cheap activities in the holidays. A playground, walk through the bush, picnic, playdate, visiting markets or a cattle farm, exploring animals at the beach…it was easy to please them. My teenagers are a bit harder to please now and during holidays and weekend we tend to spend a bit more money. It helps to budget this though.

It’s amazing how kids have so much fun doing the basic things that don’t cost money. Parents are the ones that tend not to use their imagination…

I cant see and understand how much is spent on kids

Not really something that seems unusual to me? More going out and spending time doing things with the kids = more money spent! There are heaps of cheap and free things to do if you research and take advantage of them!

No surprise there. You can’t expect the kids to sit around home the entire time. At the very least you’ll need petrol money or bus fares. I tried to do as many free things as possible, but it’s not always easy. I don’t mind spending, within reason, if it means we can all spend time together having fun

There are some free activities but many do cost dollars to keep the kids entertained. I think it’s about making memories with my kids tough so I’m happy to pay for some things.