Budget mini-breaks with the family

Look out for deals on accommodation

In these recession busting times, there are plenty of deals on accommodation and it’s worth planning ahead if you are considering a break away.  We took advantage of the Innkeeper’s Lodge deal that was running back in December 2010.  This deal gave us a family room, (2 adults and 2 children), for £20 including breakfast!  Our Innkeeper’s Lodge in Harrogate was superb, complete with helpful staff & a feast of a breakfast to boot!

Vouchers for Eating Out

With an abundance of vouchers for eating out, it’s a matter of finding the voucher that works for you!  We made use of a 2 for 1 voucher on all main courses at Pizza Express.

These vouchers tend to offer discounts on selected items within your meal, (such as our voucher for the main course), with restaurants  hoping to make up the savings in drinks, deserts & starters!

Budget Food Options

If you keep this in mind when you place your order, it’ll help you keep the total bill down.  Remember you can always order tap water and keep a chocolate bar in your purse to alley the children’s horror on hearing desert is off the menu!

Food can take up a substantial portion of your mini-break spend, so here’s a few other ways to reduce your food bill;

A good start at the breakfast buffet will help you on your way!

Pack snacks and drinks from home in a comfortable bag so you carry them round with you.  This way not only do you have snacks on hand but avoid overcharging.

Consider a packed lunch when you are away – many supermarkets now offer an array of lunch options at a fraction of the price of a meal out!  We put together a lunch at the local M&S to enjoy at the local Valley Gardens in Harrogate.

Visitor Attractions Discounts

Again, if you plan ahead you can search out for deals on visitor attractions; topdogdays being the obvious choice of course!  Here’s a few other ways to reduce your spend on visitor attractions;

• check out group rates, (can sometimes start from groups of 7 or more!)
• off peak times can be cheaper, (late afternoon or first thing?)
• look for work discounts, (Armed Forces, NHS rates)

We managed a weekend in Harrogate for under £100 and had a fantastic time!  Do let us know if you have anymore tips we can pass on.

To keep up to date with all the latest deals and discounts, why not subscribe to topdogdays and sign up to our email newsletter on the right hand side of the screen.

Liz

Meon Valley Marriott Country Club

Instead of opting to spend your tesco clubcard points on food, where you will only double your money, why not redeem them for reward vouchers worth up to four times their value!

For every £10 in clubcard vouchers, you can receive £40 worth of hotel reward tokens.  Hotel chains participating in the scheme include Hilton, Thistle, MacDonalds Hotels & Resorts, Best Western & Marriott.

Meon Valley Golf Course

We recently opted for a Marriott hotel & country club venue at Meon Valley complete with 18 hole golf course, tennis courts, swimming pool & spa area.  A two night weekend stay for 2 adults and 2 children will put you back £290 but that equates to just £72.50 in clubcard vouchers.  Within this price is family room accommodation, an extensive buffet breakfast for four and free use of the swimming pool, gym & spa facilities for the weekend.

To keep your costs down it’s best to avoid additional spend on site either by bringing your own food or using vouchers for popular restaurant chains.  We made use of an ‘Eat for a £1′ voucher from Ask based in Southampton just 8 miles away and combined this with two children’s meals.

There is plenty to keep all the family amused on site and the trick is to reduce your spend with low cost days out; we managed to slip in a day at the seaside at Bournemouth with a picnic lunch.

Total weekend spend was under £100 and we certainly feel the better for it!

Liz

Plenty of interactive exhibits at the Science Museum

Check out cheap fares on travel plus railcard discounts; we bought tickets through London Midland trains that are currently running a half price sale on off peak tickets.  We discounted this further by using our family & friends railcard for a further third off adult tickets and 60% off child tickets.  A return trip from Derby to London for three cost us less than £30!

Keep your eyes out for hotel sales and discounted rooms; we took advantage of the Travelodge sale that ran way back in April and booked a family room for just £12 for a Bank holiday Sunday.  The London City Road Travelodge was a relatively upmarket travelodge, (and we’ve seen a few!) just off the Northern Line and it certainly did us proud!

Consider your breakfast options; we could have made use of the Tesco Express two doors down but opted for the all you can eat buffet breakfast at the Travelodge.  Kids eat free on this deal and as we had booked in advance, this secured a further discount.  Breakfast for three came to £13 and we didn’t need much for lunch!

There’s always free visitor attractions, it’s just finding them; cities are full of free attractions if you are willing to search them out before you go.  Here’s a few of the free attractions we managed to  fit in:

• The Science Museum, (full of interactive exhibits for children of all ages),
• The Diana Memorial Playground within Kensington Gardens.  Based on Peter Pan’s Neverland, this was an idyllic spot for adults and children alike.
• Covent Garden -there is always plenty to entertain at this tourist spot with a constant supply of entertainers on hand.
• Hyde Park – always interesting to see what’s going on at Speaker’s Corner before a picnic in the park.

Diana Memorial playground

Check out the current deals & vouchers for eating out; there is an array of vouchers for eating out nowadays, just find ones that work for you.  We chose to eat at Pizza Express Saturday night and managed to combine two seperate vouchers. Voucher 1 offered 2 courses for £10 whilst Voucher 2 offered a free kids meal with any adult meal.  Thus a two course meal for three plus bottle of wine & a coke came to £37.

That’s a Topdog weekend!

• Pizza Express: 2 courses from a set menu and a glass of wine for £12 with this downloadable voucher.  Valid until 31 March.
• Pizza Hut: it can be worth subscribing for deals via email – Pizza Hut are currently offering 2 for 1 on main meals, valid until 1 April.

More deals coming soon!

Liz

• Pizza Express are offering 2 for 1 on main meal pizza’s.  For more information, go to Pizza Express. Offer valid Sunday-Thursday  up until 28 February.
• Pizza Hut are offering 2 for 1 on main meals, everyday up until 3 march.  Sign up for the voucher here.
• Ask have a deal – eat for £1 when you buy any other main meal.  Sign up for the deal here.

Some great saving to be had!

Liz