How to beat the summer ‘hellidays’ from shower trick to save £94 to free swim sessions worth £150 – slash your costs NOW

WITH a full house over the school summer holidays, household bills are set to soar – but parents can beat the “hellidays” with our top tips. Keeping the kids entertained, fed and watered could cost an extra £3,071 over the six week break according to our number crunching – but we explain how YOU could slash costs by £1,808. Give the kids a great summer holiday without breaking the bank with our tips Credit: Getty If you’re worried about your food and energy bills going up over summer, use our tips to beat the cost of summer Credit: PA Six in 10 parents say they find school holidays financially stressful, according to new research by The Children’s Society. If you can’t rely on family to help with childcare and your budget is already strained from the cost of living crisis, the summer holidays can be an expense that tips you over the edge. But there’s ways to have a fantastic summer without breaking the bank -here’s how to bring those big summer bills under control. Energy bills Costs £33 extra You could save at least £94 Your energy bill could take a hit now that the kids are at home – from longer showers to gaming all day Credit: PA Kids come with high energy. And we’re not just talking about their non-stop excitement. Some of their habits can push up the price of household bills over the school holidays. Comparison site Uswitch.com reckons a family of four is due to spend an extra £33.26 because of higher energy usage from watching TV, gaming, more washing and extra showers. Ben Gallizzi, energy expert at Uswitch.com, says now could be the right time to lock in a fixed deal. There are nearly 30 fixed energy deals on the market that are cheaper than the energy price cap, he says. The energy price cap is the maximum amount that suppliers can charge for each unit of gas and electricity. On July 1, the cap rose by 13.5 per cent from £1,477 a year to £1,663 a year for a typical use household paying by Direct Debit. The more energy you use, the more you pay. Some 19 million households are sitting on the price cap on a standard variable tariff. Locking in a fixed deal – which means you pay a set price for each unit of gas and electricity over a set period of time, usually one to two years – can give you peace of mind and cheaper bills. “The cheapest fixed tariff on the market is a 15-month deal from Outfox Energy at £1,400 for a typical home – £263 below the July price cap,” says Ben. “Running a quick energy comparison will show you exactly what’s available for your household, based on your personal usage, and is the best way to find a cheaper rate.” Start talking to kids about energy to get them interested in how much different activities use. Research by the Energy Saving Trust on behalf of Smart Energy GB found encouraging young children to turn off the TV when not in use could save more than £942 over their lifetime and teaching older teens to only run the dishwasher when it’s full could save an estimated £720 during adulthood. There are other things they can do. Experts suggest we all aim for a four-minute shower – it might not seem it, but getting the kids to shower in this time could soon add up. The cost of running a 7.5kW electric shower for 20 minutes is 65p, according to Uswitch. It is 32p for 10 minutes, and just 13p for those who keep to four minutes. So if you showered for four minutes, you’d save a huge 52p per shower. If you showered between now and the end of august, you’d save £23.40 per child – if you had two teens, that’s a huge saving of £46.80, and if the parents did it too, that’s a £93.60 saving. Make it more fun by getting them to lather up while listening to a four-minute song, like Potential by Sombr or Birds of a Feather by Billie Eilish. Whatever your age and taste in music, you can find four-minute song playlists on Spotify. Food Costs £401 extra You could save £540 in six weeks Feeding rumbling tummies over the school holidays will cost you extra – but you can slash costs Credit: Getty Ever feel like you’ve only JUST filled up the fridge and now all your food is gone? It’s a familiar story many parents feel during the school holidays. Last year, parents were paying an extra £401 for extra food and drink over the holidays, according to research from Utility Warehouse. Two thirds of parents are worried about the cost of food during the school holidays, rising to 77 per cent of those claiming income-related benefits, according to The Children’s Society. Hard-pressed families will already be taking lots of measures to bring down their food bill, and it’s possible to shave off even more. Make sure you’re doing your shopping at the right stores. Pricing can be higher in smaller express stores and they’re more likely to stock expensive branded items rather than own labels. Which? found a basket of 42 groceries averaged £16 more at Morrisons Daily than at Morrisons supermarkets working out at £832 more over the year. Over a six week summer holiday, switching to bigger stores could save you £96. Kids eat free deals are a money-saver if you’re eating out, but paying for adult meals can still bust a tight budget. Instead, find ways to feed children for £1 or less. At Asda café’s, kids aged 16 or under can eat for £1 without an adult having to fork out for their own meal. You can also start the day at Morrisons, which is offering children and adults a free bowl of Corn Flakes or Rice Krispies, plus a piece of fruit, throughout the summer holidays. Just ask for the ‘Kellogg’s breakfast’. The offer runs until September 6. With a bowl of cereal with milk and piece of fruit costing around 55p, you could save £90 over the six weeks of summer if a family of four breakfast at Morrisons each day. If you’re struggling, Iceland’s Food Club with not-for-profit lender Fair For You provides interest-free loans of up to £100, which has helped more than 40,000 families since it launched in 2021. Focused on the school holidays, repayments are set at £10 per week, although loans can be paid off sooner. Apply for a Food Club loan at fairforyou.co.uk. All applications are subject to affordability checks. Download some handy apps to help you get the best deal on your food shopping. Trolley.co.uk lets you search for a food item, and will list which shop sells it the cheapest, and claims to save you 30 per cent off the cost of your weekly shop. The average family of four spends about £166 a week, according to research from the credit reference agency ClearScore – so you could make a saving of around £50 a week, or £350 between now and the end of August. Kitche is another app to help you save money – it tracks food you already have in your cupboards and sends you reminders to make sure you eat it before it goes off. The savings could be big by reducing the amount of food you throw out. The average household throws away roughly £1,000 of food a year, according to charity Waste and Resources Action Programme. That means cutting down on food waste over summer could comfortably save you £100. That means those two apps combined could save you around £450 over the summer holidays. Travel Could cost you £500 for a full tank once a week You could save £176 Travel could cost you extra over the summer holidays on trips and holidays away Credit: Getty Whether you’re driving kids to different activities or going for days out on the train, summer travel costs can quickly add up. Six in ten parents are worried about transport costs in the school holidays, found The Children’s Society. It costs around £83 to fill an average 55 litre tank of petrol, or nearly £500 if you fill up once a week over six weeks of summer. Check the Government’s Fuel Finder app or RAC’s Fuel Watch for the cheapest petrol and diesel. Simon Williams, head of policy at RAC, says: “It’s usually cheaper to buy at a supermarket, but some independents do manage to undercut them. If expensive motorway services are unavoidable, just splash and dash with enough to get you somewhere cheaper where you can fill up for less.” At the time of writing, it costs an average of 152.18p per litre at supermarkets, compared with 173.57p at motorway services for petrol. It would cost you £83.70 to fill up at the supermarket and £95.46 to fill up at the motorway – a difference of £11.76. If you make that saving five times over the summer, you’ll save £67. As well as avoiding motorway services, plan your route to avoid traffic and save fuel. On Apple Maps, look for the leaf icon for the most fuel-efficient route. Travel at quieter times for smoother journeys with less stopping and starting which will work out cheaper. Use your cruise control where you can if you have it. This helps save fuel by maintaining a steady speed, reducing unnecessary acceleration and braking. Simon says: “Driving sensibly, within the speed limit, keeping your car moving without harsh acceleration or braking, and having a light right foot is going to help with fuel economy. If that’s a big change from how you usually drive you could save up to ten per cent.” Keep tyres at the right pressure, not under or over-inflated, for fuel economy and safety. Under‑inflated tyres increase fuel consumption. You can also make savings on public transport. As part of the Great British Summer Savings scheme, kids aged five to 15 can get free travel on local buses throughout August – with unlimited journeys, no registration required. Saving £2 on fares three times a week for two children will put £72 back in your pocket. If you’re travelling by train, get a Family and Friends Railcard, which costs £35 a year. The average saving per journey is £5.60, which adds up to nearly £30 over five trips. Through cashback site Quidco you can currently get up to 20 per cent cashback on railcards for new Trainline customers, saving you £7. For days out, you can take the train and claim two-for-one tickets to some well-known attractions. Remember that coaches, like National Express and Flixbus, will usually undercut the price of trains and National Express is currently offering 100,000 tickets for £7 or less. Days out Could cost you £992 You could save £390 You can get free days out including free swimming lessons worth £150 Credit: Getty Keeping the kids out of mischief over summer can cost an arm and a leg. A family of four forked out an extra £992 on average last year on activities such as theme parks, the zoo, cinemas and going to the theatre. Make sure you NEVER pay full price with handy schemes, memberships – and even free days out if you know where to look. A membership that really is worth paying for is Kids Pass. For a 30 day trial, it costs £1 and you can save up to 56% on days out on popular attractions. For example, depending on when you visit, you could save £60 on tickets to Blackpool Pleasure Beach. For three big days out over the summer, that could add up to £180. See if there’s a free pop-up cinema near you. Cinema chain Everyman is hosting outdoor screenings in King’s Cross and Watford, showing classics such as Grease, Peter Pan and Mary Poppins. Meanwhile, Screen on the Green runs a similar outdoor experience in the middle of Newcastle. Here, you can expect to watch family favourites like Wicked and Chicken Run. Tickets for a family of four to the cinema can easily cost £60, so you’re making a big saving. Many leisure centres run free swimming sessions for children during the school holidays. Schemes vary by area, but councils including Liverpool, Merton in London, County Durham and East Lothian offer free swimming for children and young people at selected leisure centres. A paid family swim can easily cost £15 to £25, so using free council-run sessions once a week over the six-week holidays could save a family around £90 to £150. Childcare Costs £1,145 per child You could save £608 Childcare could cost you hundreds of pounds – but there are schemes to help you Credit: Alamy Childcare can rack up over summer if you haven’t got family nearby to help out. Holiday childcare costs across Great Britain have risen by 5% in the last year, leaving working parents facing an average bill of £191 per child per week. That’s £1,145 for the six-week summer holiday, according to Coram Family and Childcare’s 21st annual Holiday Childcare Survey, published this week. There’s ways to help you slash costs. Children who get benefits-related free school meals can get up to 16 days of holiday clubs FREE over the summer through the Holidays Activity and Food (HAF) Programme. This varies in different areas and books up fast. Ask your local council what’s available now. If you use the full 16 days, you could save around £608 per child compared to paid-for clubs costing an average of £38 a day across Britain. If you don’t qualify for the scheme, then look to see if your local church offers holiday clubs – they can be low cost and great for if you need a few hours of childcare. 'My shopping hacks save me £1,500 a year' Amy Ward saves £35 a week, or £1,500 a year, on her food shop by following savvy savings methods. Amy, 28, is a budgeting expert who lives in Macclesfield with her husband and two-year-old son. She has plenty of tricks up her sleeve for saving money at the supermarket and shares her tips on Instagram under the handle @amysbudgeting. The mum, who shares her tips on Instagram under the handle @amysbudgeting, knows exactly when her local supermarkets discount grub and shops accordingly. When she’s not yellow sticker shopping, she shops during supermarket quiet hours. She told The Sun: “I track when my local supermarkets discount food and pick up items such as loaves of bread for 15p. “If we can’t eat it, I’ll freeze to use at a later date. “Otherwise I try to shop during supermarket quiet hours. When it’s busier, I feel rushed even if I have plenty of time. “I’ll also try to shop without my toddler because shopping with him can lead to more impulse buys and a more rushed trip.” Amy also checks cashback apps before shopping. She will look for the highest cashback rate for her shopping through JamDoughnut and everup. She also uses Sprive which funnels cashback earned towards paying off your mortgage. And the savvy mum also checks Shopmium and GreenJinn – these two cashback apps give discounts or cashback on individual products. The apps also offer freebies that you can pick up at supermarkets too. Amy says: “I always check the apps before shopping to see if there’s anything I’d be buying anyway. “I’ve managed to bag loads of freebies through the apps too – they’ll often offer 100% cashback on toddler snacks and pouches which our family quickly gets through.” Amy also regularly gets Too Good To Go surprise bags, which work with supermarkets to get rid of food about to go out of date at a big discount, and freezes anything she can’t immediately use.