One of the challenges of creating special family moments is the cost, adverts would lead you to think that you’ve got to go on a “big holiday” or visit an expensive attraction. But do you really?
The most special moments I’ve had with my two children have been our “Little Adventures” and when I’m planning those, I have these aims:
- To have an amazing time doing something that’s fun and active
- To explore new places off the beaten track
- To keep our carbon footprint low (often closely linked to the following)
- To keep costs low
So how does that work in practice? Let’s take this weekend as an example, you can watch the vlog of our Rushmere parkrun adventure on our YouTube channel, but how did it stack up against my four criteria?
A Fun, Active Adventure
It will come as no surprise that I’m a big fan of parkrun, I’ve done over 350 and Iona and Ewan are both approaching the 100 tally. But it’s far more than just running, it’s a community – meeting different people and having great chats while running and over breakfast. If you watch our vlogs you can’t escape the fun Iona has (this week it was getting muddy and splashing in puddles) and of course being active. Some weeks we run hard other weeks we walk sections but we’re moving and we’re outdoors. Best of all parkrun is completely free, you just register on their website and turn up about 10mins before it starts, check out the parkrun website to find out more.
Exploring New Places
Iona’s a big parkrun tourist, every parkrun she’s done has been at a different venue taking us from urban London to the wilds of the Cairngorms. We’ve visited places that we would never have otherwise and discovered amazing gems around the UK as we’ve done so. This week, Leighton Buzzard was a new destination, Rushmere park was beautiful and we got to explore a section of the Grand Union canal while cycling back to the train station.
Low Carbon Adventure Travel
(See the table below for the numbers)
While the last few weeks have been a bit challenging from the train travel perspective, this Saturday it was great to be able to use them again for our journey. We cycled to the station in Canley (2 miles), caught the London Northwestern Railways train to Leighton Buzzard then a 3 mile cycle to the parkrun start. Then the same again in reverse.
Yes, train travel takes a bit of planning (and maybe a slightly early start!) but it actually becomes part of the adventure and certainly I enjoy being able to enjoy the scenery (or a good book) rather than focussed on my driving.
Bikes and trains do make a perfect combo, there can be some challenges booking bikes on for longer journeys, but with LNWR and other “local” train services you can normally just rock up jump on the train with your bike.
Low Cost Adventures
(See the table below for the numbers)
This was a great day out and the cost was low. We have a family railcard which has paid for itself many times over with the discount it provides and of course bike travel is free and makes for big savings on parking fees.
Breakfast top tip, a sausage batch is a much cheaper option normally than a full fry up and just as filling, also many cafes near parkrun finishes offer a discount for parkrunnners, Tree Tops cafe at Rushmere did just that saving us 10%. Take snacks with you rather than buying them out and about and I always carry drink bottles and reusable coffee cups, saving both on plastic waste, the need to buy cold drinks and allowing discounts on coffee in many places.
Costs and Carbon Impact
|
Activity |
Cost |
Carbon |
|
Cycling 12 miles |
0 |
0.4kg |
|
Train off peak open return with Family Railcard discount for 1 adult & 1 child |
£23.75 |
13.2Kg |
|
Car parking |
0 |
0 |
|
Food (breakfast for us both) |
£10.76 |
NA |
|
Totals |
£34.51 |
13.6Kg |
Travel by car
|
Activity |
Cost |
Carbon |
|
Car journey 120 mile round trip fuel cost |
£18.80 |
40Kg |
|
Car parking for 3hrs+ |
£6 |
0 |
|
Food (breakfast for us both) |
£10.76 |
NA |
|
Totals |
£35.56 |
40Kg |
So we had a great day out for under £35 including travel and food for the two of us and used a third of the carbon than if we had chosen to use our car.
How I’m doing my cost and carbon calculations
- Cycling Carbon is based on 33g per mile) from this article.
- Rail and Car Carbon using the trainline calculator for journeys
- Car Cost based on 45mpg at £1.569 per litre (cost of my last fill at CostCo) in actual fact the direct cost would be higher as this isn’t accounting for wear and tear. I ignore fixed costs such as insurance and depreciation as I already own the car so have to pay those anyway.
- If you were to pay for the carbon offset, the car travel would cost you an additional £1.10 from climate stewards https://www.climatestewards.org/offset/
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