With the summer holidays in full swing the Daily Echo has teamed up with netmums.com to get maximum fun for minimum cost.

The Summer Solace Guide has been produced to help survive the school holidays without breaking the bank. The UK’s most extensive holiday activity round-up is packed with 13,000 local ways to keep the kids entertained while school’s out.

The Summer Solace Guide also contains tips by mums for mums to help keep everyone happy. From cheap picnic recipes and budget holiday recommendations to tips for gardening with the children and special offers, the guide is a must-have resource for a stress-free summer.

Along with mum-to-mum advice, the online guide that is available by logging onto dailyecho.co.uk and following the ‘families’ prompt, is also packed with inspirational ideas for family outings on a shoestring.

Low-cost activities include planting a mini-vegetable patch, fruit picking and DIY treasure hunts for kids of all ages. Rather than splashing out on theme parks and attractions, netmums.com advocates creativity, so how about whiling away an afternoon rummaging through a fancy dress box, or getting the little darlings camping in the garden?

Netmums.com founder Siobhan Freegard said: "With so many families facing financial challenges, mums are already filling our forums with requests for ideas to help them cope financially during the summer holidays.

“We hope the netmums.com Summer Solace Guide will be a really practical tool to help take the pain out of what should be a lovely time for the whole family.”

With 150 local networks, including a newly established meet-up group in Southampton, the netmums.com Summer Solace Guide provides a user-friendly catalogue of the activities happening on your doorstep.

Go to www.dailyecho.co.uk/families