I spent £20 on a day out in Manchester with my son including cinema, food and a museum
If you go away, you're spending money; if you stay at home, you're spending money. And with the weather we've had so far this summer, families are forking out more than usual as they head to indoor attractions to escape the rain.
But days out don't always have to leave you skint - it's all about knowing where to go and when to go. To prove just how much you can cram into a day out on the cheap, I took my son to Manchester and managed to pack in a visit to the cinema, a trip to the museum and go for a bite to eat for under £20 - for BOTH of us.Our first stop was the Vue cinema inside the Printworks. During weekends and in the school holidays it has Mini Mornings screenings, which cost £2.49 a ticket if you book online, or £3.49 on the day. The film we watched was Super Mario, but it changes each week and is always a family-friendly movie. All of the seats are now recliners at the venue too, so you're watching in comfort. After all that relaxing we were ready for a bite to eat, so headed to Yard and Coop, in Edge Street, which is only a five minute walk away in the Northern Quarter and opens daily at 12pm.My son only just qualified - as it goes up to the age of 12 - but the Chicken Nugz and fries was plenty big enough, despite him being as 'starvin' as ever. The other choices were vegan fried chicken or chicken mayo burger and all come with fries. It does say on the menu they can swap fries for mac n cheese, but that's no longer the case, however they do get ice cream for dessert too. You get the £5 kids meal for free with any adult main, or with a starter and side - as was the case with my own fries and Sticky Nugz, which came in at £13, with no charge for a jug of water. The days of crayons and colouring sheets are long gone for us sadly, but it's handy to have if you have a younger one with you.There are some brilliant paid-for activities this summer, including the Power Up gaming experience and an 'exhibition experience' based around the hit CBBC show Operation Ouch!. Titled Operation Ouch! Food, Poo and You, it investigates some of the body’s funniest functions with a voyage through the digestive system, guided via video messages and illustrations from the show's presenters Dr Chris, Dr Xand and Dr Ronx.There's a special interactive science show, running on the hour between 11am and 2pm, to tie in with the Operation Ouch exhibition and, if you've got a little one they can take their favourite soft toy along to the Teddy Hospital and learn more about our 'brains, bones and bottoms with fun and fascinating activities across the museum'. There's a free Experiment interactive gallery to explore, or you can head to the Textiles Gallery to meet the machines and hear about the people and stories that made Manchester the first industrial city. There's nothing quite like listening to the noisy machines and hearing about the children that used to work in the cotton mills to make your kid realise how lucky they are not to have been one of the five-year-old scavengers on the hunt for bits of thread - or at least you'd hope. Finally we took a look at the objects from Professor Stephen Hawking's office which are featured in a display there. Acquired for the nation by the Science Museum Group in May 2021, highlights of the display include a rare copy of Hawking's PhD thesis, his spectacles, which were specially adapted to aid communication, and even an invitation to the time travellers' party Hawking hosted. The museum, in Liverpool Road, is open 10am to 5pm daily. Entry is free, but you can book tickets online to guarantee entry. We squeezed every drop out of our day out, but thankfully it didn't do the same with my bank balance. Altogether with the food, cinema and museum, I spent just under £18. Leaving us with a couple of quid for some sweets. You can't complain about that. Even with the bus fare there and back it was under £24. And I'm giving myself some parenting points for including at least something educational in the holidays. It happens rarely these days and you can't put a price on that! Cinema tickets can be booked online. Upcoming Mini Mornings films at Printworks include Katak: The Brave Beluga, running from now until August 17; The Secret Kingdom from August 18 and Just Super from August 25.
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