Savvy Shopper: How to stop wasting money during school holidays

The costs of school holiday activities can quickly mount up. Here’s how to keep your budget under control.

School holidays are a doubled-edged sword for me and mine. I love the fact I don’t have to get up quite so early during the holidays, and I love that the boys have finally found that sleeping past 5am is really very quite nice. But on the other side, keeping tween boys entertained for two weeks can get obscenely expensive.

And the older my boys become, the more expensive the school holidays seem to be getting.

School holidays no longer seem to be about slowing down and just relaxing any more. It seems to be about squeezing in even more events and activities. And squeezing more money out of mum and dad it seems.

I think activities during school holidays are important but certainly not every day – and not to the financial detriment of the family.

Here is where I find my money goes during the school holidays – and where I could pull it in – maybe you could find some tips in there to save you a bit of cash too.

WATER, DRINKS, SNACKS

This is an area that really saps the cash because it happens to me nearly every time I leave the house unprepared. I have water bottles for the house, for the car, for the bikes and bottles that just float around. Just the water bottles the boys take to school really – fill them up and take them with you everywhere. And feed the kids before you take them out – or you will suffer the cost of the next expense …

School holidays can turn out to be expensive.

TAKEAWAY FOODS

Fast foods used to be cheap – not any more. Just feeding a family of four on burgers with chips and a drink will set you back about $60. And that will buy you a LOT of groceries at the supermarket. There is nothing wrong with a planned dinner or lunch out but if you are having takeaway three, four or more times per week because it is school holidays and it’s just easy – it starts to add up financially.

Make your kids’ favourite takeaways at home instead. My kids love pizza and we make it at home all the time – for a fraction of the price.

CONSTANT ENTERTAINMENT

Entertainment is the real cost during the holidays. But here’s my secret – I give my boys a budget for the break. They get a set amount and they have to fit all that they want to do during the two weeks within that budget.

That budget usually only allows them one or maybe two “big entertainment” days. Maybe an hour at Timezone or a day at Aussie World – they have to choose that or whether to take a mate to the movies or instead to go shopping and spend the money on themselves.

Kids are a lot more careful with their spending when they have a limited budget.

CAR COSTS

During the school holidays, when I’m running the kids around everywhere, fuel prices go straight up. It does pay to check the petrol prices, which I have noticed can vary up to 40c a litre. Check apps such as Fuel Map Australia or Petrol Spy Australia, which list all of the current fuel prices around Australia. To cut down on both fuel costs and wear and tear on vehicles – I try to have all the boys’ activities (and mine) on the same day.

DISCRETIONARY PURCHASES

This is something all parents are guilty of. You go shopping with the kids, and they find something they really like, and they flutter their little eyelashes at you, and promise they will do the kitchen work until they are 40, and that they will be on their best behaviour forever. And you fall for it – and they are back to being little devils the next day. At the end of the day, we are parents and we are human. Let’s save where we can – and hopefully, if we don’t strangle them first, our children will make it to adulthood.

Jody Allen is the founder of mothers’ network Stay At Home Mum. Find her at @StayHomeMum on Facebook, @jodyallen.stayathomemum on Instagram, @JodyAllen_SAHM on Twitter

Originally published as Savvy Shopper: How to stop wasting money during school holidays