Every school holidays I vow that I will make these holidays one my kids will remember. I vow to make these holidays full of action-packed fun that they’ll always think back on.
One with events they can look forward to and plan for. Those big-ticket days they can dream about and tell their friends about when they go back to school.
A concert, a play, something they’ve been hoping to see.
I vow to take them places they’ve never been, to experience things they’ve never done.
“Oh, the places we’ll go,” I think to myself with plans of outings to museums and holiday camps. I dream of glorious days of summer sports and zoo trips or days at the movies, popcorn in hand, eyes glued to the big screen.
I look up who and what’s on where and go through my calendar, hoping we can fit it all in.
And then I get out the calculator.
Have you seen the cost of those places?
I’ve got three kids and there isn’t much on that wish list that comes out under a $100 a day. Some of them wrack up to over $200 and when you add in food and transport and the ‘can-I-haves’, it’s a budgeting nightmare.
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We're on a budget too. We go to outdoor cinemas - there is one called Starry Nights that does a lot of free or gold coin entry events over summer on the Sunshine Coast. At one they even had free vegan icecream and popcorn! We revisit places we used to go to when my daughter was little - the beach, the park, the playground. We make photobooks with her toys or in our local area. We go to free shows and activities at shopping centres. This holidays we went to a jungle-themed one at Noosa Civic, an amazing science show at Noosa Fair and a Toy Story one at Sunshine Plaza, which also had people from Wildlife HQ zoo doing snake holds for $1. The Ginger Factory Flower and Food festival had lots of stuff for free or cheap (face painting was $6, cuddles with native animals like gliders, snakes, and bettongs was $2, kids' icecream was $4.) We go bushwalking and discover wildlife and wildflowers.
You don't need to spend a lot of money to have holidays that are fun and memorable. Some of our most fun days are spent just cooking together, reading together, splashing in the paddling pool together - being together.