Welcome to Broke in Bristol – the blog that helps you save money, make money and live life to the full on a budget. January can be a tough time of year to entertain the kids especially if you’re on a budget. But it’s time to banish those winter blues and check out these 10 free and cheap activities that all the family can enjoy.
Get arty this Saturday 14 January at the Easton Community Centre. Ideal for families of all ages, Scribble and Sketch offers a morning of drawing and, although it’s free, a donation of £1.50 towards materials is encouraged.
If it’s cold outside and you really don’t feel like leaving the house have a duvet day and sign up to a month’s free subscription to Netflix or Amazon Prime (students get six months’ free!). Or even better, Now TV is having a winter sale and is offering new customers three months’ Sky Cinema for the price of one month, that’s £9.99. Asda Bedminster also has Now TV boxes on sale that come with various sports, kids and cinema packages from £15.
When you’re fed up of hibernating, take the family paintballing for a fiver! There is an Allied Paintball site in Thornbury, which caters for adults and children 10 and over and it’s just £5 for five of you. You need to book through Groupon to get this deal.
Another excuse to get your creative juices flowing, or at least try and keep the kids quiet for a bit, are Super Saturday Sessions, which are free art and crafts activities for the whole family at Children’s Scrapstore. This Saturday 14 Jan, they’ll be making animals out of egg boxes and old CDs from 10.30am ‘til 2pm.
Cheap cinema deals. Take the kids to Vue’s Mini Mornings for £2.49 per ticket to see Trolls or Finding Dory. Or Odeon Kids is showing Trolls and Phantom Boy for just £1.50 throughout January.
If you’ve got little divas who love their fashion, Lou Lou’s Vintage Fair returns to The Passenger Shed with a January Sale Special on Jan 21 where you’ll find stalls of vintage clothing, homeware and collectables alongside live entertainment, a vintage tea party and a pop-up beauty salon. It’s £3 entry and under 12s get in free.
There’s always loads going on at Bristol’s museums and art galleries including a free Bristol Street Art walk with Rob Wheeler from the M Shed on 17 January. Adela Breton: Ancient Mexico in Colour is still running at the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery and check out Arnolfini for its We Are Family event on Saturday 28 January.
Spend the day at one of Bristol’s farms. Check out Windmill Hill City Farm, St Werburghs City Farm, Lawrence Weston Community Farm, Hartcliffe Farm and Old Down Country Farm to see what they’ve got going on this January.
Need a break? Check out Bristol’s adventure playgrounds where you can take the kids to play and leave them in the capable hands of playworkers if they’re eight or over. There’s four to choose from: Felix Rd in Easton, Lockleaze, St Paul’s and Southmead.
Get your skates on and head on down to one of Bristol’s skate parks. Two of our favourite hangouts are Dean Lane skatepark in Bedminster and St Georges Park, but you can also check out skateparks.co.uk which lists all the skateparks in Bristol – there’s bound to be one near you!
That’s it for this week folks. Don’t forget to like the Broke in Bristol Facebook page to make sure you never miss an update and please feel free to share the free love!
