MY family-of-five loves a holiday so we go away somewhere in the UK every month – yet still only spend around £2,000 a year.
Working out at around £166 on average a month, in the last year we’ve been to Wales, Northumberland, Lincolnshire, London and to Norfolk multiple times, even during school holidays.
There are few golden rules I like to stick to so I don’t blow our budget on one big family trip and then end up stuck at home for the rest of the year.
Avoiding expensive international travel and focusing on shorter staycays is the best way to keep costs down, especially if you already have a mode of transport to get you around.
We mostly stayed in UK holiday parks or hostels and our accommodation cost less than £1,500 altogether.
When it comes to getting to the place, our petrol was about £500 for the entire year.
We also make the most of unusual inset days for planning our breaks as fewer families will be holidaying then, so we won’t be paying peak prices.
My sons’ school scheduled two inset days together at the end of June, so we used that to enjoy a long weekend in Wales, which cost us just £168.
This is compared to going a month later, when all the children would be off on holiday and it would have cost three times as much for the same accommodation.
We also took a cheeky overnight Christmas break to Butlin’s when the school set a Thursday in December as a teacher training day.
That only cost us £50 which included a trip to see Santa and all the usual entertainment and activities you’d expect.
Whenever I’m booking any breaks, I always like to shop around using different membership schemes or cashback sites to see how much I can get off the listed price.
This is great if you’re going to a big chain like Haven, which offers discounts through schemes like the Blue Light Card or Kids Pass.
Last year we visited four holiday parks near Great Yarmouth and saved about £60 using discount codes.
But the best saving was booking through the Sun Holidays: Club £9.50 for a term-time midweek at Parkdean Resorts Cherry Tree, which cost about £40 for a caravan for four nights.
Another way we really kept our holiday budget low last year was by offering to pet-sit for family and friends in return for staying in their house while they were away.
We enjoyed a little city break to Norwich over the August bank holiday, looking after a dog for a couple of nights.
My boys enjoyed having a pet to fuss, as we don’t have one at home, and it was lovely to be surrounded by homely touches instead of staying in a holiday let that only has the bare basics when it comes to kitchen utensils, towels and the like.
We got to explore the city and were also near enough to the coast to spend time at the beach in the sunshine.
My final tip to keep costs low would be to look at swapping hotels for hostels.
We had some cheap-as-chips stays at hostels across the UK last year, including three nights at Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland at Easter for less than £50 a night for a family room.
The beauty of choosing a hostel rather than a hotel is that you’ll probably have access to a self-catering kitchen and communal areas, so you can save money on feeding the family rather than eating out.
And there’s often people hanging out who are up for a chat, so you can make new friends and get travel trips from other guests.
If you want to mix it up, you could take a big foreign holiday one year and then lots of shorter UK breaks the next.
That way you get the best of both worlds on a budget that works for you.
Here’s another way I’ve saved money when visiting National Trust properties.
