One for the road

The news this week has included an article on how families are faced with summer holidays at home as financial times are tough and the average family day trip costing £80. Dispite the fact that another article in previous months discussing the new outdoors that families are discovering in free trips to local parks etc and seeing the value in this as much as a paid visit. It made me think about the cost of a day trip out. We venture out somewhere every day and it never costs us £80. We are a two adult, three smalls family. It is fair to say that Plum always goes free and Pumpkin is often free in to paid attractions but none the less, we are a one income family, living in the SE England, paying the mortgage and the bills and watching where the pennies go. A £80 day trip is out of the question.

 Here's where our money goes:

 £36 National Trust / English Heritage annual home ed membership This is weekday term time only but an absolute bargain and we have used every penny of it and more in just the two months that we have had it. It includes the whole family and is valid for 50 people! Don't forget that the National Trust also owns lots of sites that are free. Box hill, Leith hill and Devil's Dyke spring to mind as local ones. They do an app listing all their properties, location and openings.

 £10 annual Warnham nature reserve Warnham is brilliant for a quick pit stop or walk around. They only charge £1 per adult over 16 per entry but we pop in most weeks even in the wet weather. The membership card allows two adults in so we can meet another single parent family and all enter on the one ticket.

£35 amberley museum annual ticket Amberley have different membership types. Ours is me (named) plus one (unnamed) this allows it to include Bean but if we go with daddy too then the plus one would be daddy and we would pay a child entry fee for Bean. Having said that daddy took the card the other week and they allowed him in on it even though he did explain that he was not me! This membership only took two visits for it to cover the cost. We have been on three already and we've only had this membership a month.

£8/month rspb family membership also admits us to wetlands centres RSPB membership is a benefit of regularly giving to the charity. With that in mind the monthly contribution made varies because you are not paying for a membership as such. We get family membership for this and similar to the National Trust we love the fact that their are various sites throughout the UK that we can use it at. This means when we are holidaying we get two good days out without the extra cost. Win win. Pulborough Brooks is the nearest rspb site to us and Arundel wetland Centre too.

£50 Leeds castle annual ticket This is an hour drive from us and is the maximum distance time wise I will spend on a day trip except for high days and holidays. We tend to meet my sister/s here as it is close to them too. The tickets we hold are for two adults and one fee paying child plus two tickets for non paying children. The tickets are valid for a year and unnamed. It includes entrance into both the castle and grounds. And we have used it twice already even though it is only this months membership purchase.

 And when we're in the mood we can go to the park, woodlands, public footpaths, river walks, south downs national park, museums, beach, library and many more places for free admission.

 Other home ed bloggers have posted similar helpful posts:
 macgregorspatch
Thegallivanters

We always take a picnic and reuse any guide books or maps that we pick up at each place. The only cost we incur per trip is the expense of petrol. A day trip out never costs us £80, home ed really would be that if it did!

Don't be stuck at home unnecessarily, go out and play :)