The Easter holidays are upon us, but with prices rising everywhere and the pressures on every household financially we examined how you can get through the Easter holidays without breaking the bank.
Activities:
For some parents the two weeks over Easter can seem a long time. How do we entertain the children without sliding into the natural progression of tv, tablets and game consoles? Here are some cheap or free activities for you to do with your children.
Get outdoors:
If you do a search on Google you will find that there are a number of walks, lakes, reservoirs and parks in your local area. It always amazes me how much fun our children get with the simple tasks of taking them to the park. You can always go one step further and make it a picnic and make a full day out of it.
If you want to go a step further then you can make your own nature trails, try and look out for the wildlife and for certain flowers and trees. Making a trail interactive is another way to keep your children interested.
If you have a bit of budget and don’t mind spending a bit of money, then through the Easter holidays the National Trust runs several Easter trails where your children can win some chocolate. Entry fees are dependent on property and might see you spending a little bit more money.
The Easter Egg hunt:
Our children go crazy for an Easter egg hunt and will give a lot of excitement and fun. For some they will hard boils some eggs or get fake eggs for children to decorate first. For us we buy a multi-pack of wrapped eggs like these from Lidl. We then hide the eggs around the garden and let the children look for them. But we then restrict the number of eggs eaten at anyone time so that the children can have an Easter egg hunt on multiple days throughout the Easter holiday.
Indoor Activities
The British weather doesn’t always allow us to spend all of our time outside so it is important to have some things planned for inside to keep everyone entertained.
Baking:
Is it really Easter if you don’t make chocolate nests at least once. You can find a recipe here – https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/eastereggnests_93841. The key thing to note is that whatever you bake it isn’t going to be perfect so embrace the mess and if your children are old enough get them to help tidying up too, (if you have any success with that please let us know how in the comments). For us we used basic chocolate and own brand cornflakes and mini eggs which really brought down the cost of this activity.
Meet up with friends:
If you put a group of children together they will normally entertain themselves, but if you are friends with any other parents that are off for Easter invite them over to your house, this is going to be a lot cheaper than going to a soft play or other paid for activity. You might even be able to have a little quiet time with your friends while your children are busy with theirs.
Go to the local library
A lot of libraries will have Easter activities and it is always fun with children to take them somewhere new especially if they like reading. If you can spare the time, you can quickly lose a couple of hours reading a variety of books.
Indoor crafts
If you do a quick Google search you will see that there are no shortage of craft ideas for you to do over Easter, there are some examples here. If you plan the activities in advance you can look for ones that use what you already have in the house, and if you need to buy anything it means that you are not overbuying for things you don’t need. If you do have to buy try to look for stores like The Range, B & M, Home Bargains and pound stores where you might be able to get your supplies cheaper than your standard Supermarket shop.
Put on a movie
You don’t want to be too heavily reliant on watching the TV but making an occasion of a family movie can be a good way to enjoy a couple of hours. If you buy some popping corn and do it yourself then you can save money on the popcorn and it will turn the movie into a real event.
If you are feeling the pinch
We understand that any holiday and any extra time with the family can put pressure it you are struggling with Debt. The good news is that if you have unsecured debts of more than £6,000 then we may be able to help. Give us a call today on 0800 254 5112 or visit our website – https://thedebtadviceservice.co.uk/
