The £4.7 billion children's entertainment bill

Demanding children will cost parents over £4.7 billion this summer, according to new research from Abbey Current Accounts.

Parents plan to spend an average of £741 on entertainment for their kids this summer. But the actual costs are likely to be even higher as 41 per cent of parents admitted they had underestimated how much they’d spent last year.

By far the biggest summer expense is holidays abroad, costing on average £737 per family (£2.3 billion in total). Following the Government’s recent decision to shelve its scheme to push travel companies to offer cheaper package tours during school holidays, it seems clear that parents will continue to be stung when they take their children abroad outside term-time.

But outings in the UK don’t come cheap either as parents reckon that day trips (including transport) will cost them around £1.2 billion (£254 per family or five full tanks of petrol). Eating out is set to cost a total of £350 million (£85 per family) and children’s hobbies will cost an estimated £242 million (£70 each).

Steve Shore, Head of Banking at Abbey, comments: “Kids can be pretty demanding and summer holiday boredom is difficult to budget for. There are plenty of ways to keep children entertained, but these can be costly and parents can get caught out by unexpected expenses. It’s important that families try to set aside some extra cash in advance of the summer holidays, just in case.”

The school holidays can be expensive, but they needn’t be. Abbey has some top tips for people looking to entertain the kids cheaply this summer – even if it is a bit cold:

Visit a museum – museums are free

Fly a kite – make your own (there’s certainly enough wind about)

Create some driveway art – all you need is chalk (and then some warm water and fairy liquid to clean it up afterwards)

Make bubbles – that good old fairy liquid again

A cooking lesson – spaghetti has never been so much fun

For people who want a bit of extra cash to help with the summer holidays, Abbey is offering new customers switching to its current account 8% on balances up to £2,500 for one year. Customers can earn up to £200 which will go some way to paying for those summer holiday expenses!