What things can I do with £10 a week for adult and toddler?

RAS

Check out all your local authority facilities and find out what is free or very cheap.

Visit the local museum and art galleries- a lot have kid's events, they are indoors and warm. They have changing facilities too.
Go to the library - they may have story time but if this clashes with the nap, just select books and maybe a film?

For the better weather, check out freecycle or freegle and see if you can get a sandpit with lid? If not try and get a tray and a piece of wood for a lid.

Would DD like "cooking" - making coconut ice or peppermint creams? or if you melt the chocolate, making rice krispie cakes?

quintwins

Check local cinemas, ours does a sat deal where you pay £2 per child and then each adult is free this week mine has sammys great escape and wreck it Ralph, we bring our own pound land sweets or homemade bags of popcorn.

I second swimming it only cots £8 for the 5 of us.

I only budget £25 for the month and have 3 kids, we can do a smaller thing like the cinema and swimming every week, or we can do one big thing like bowling or the interactive museum, we can do the soft play area and swimming they get to choose.

Other free things we do is big walks with the dogs, the park and the petting farm, sometimes we get free tickets to Disney tribute shows or country fairs as my husbands a printer so that gives us a free day out and we can roll the money over.

The only time I don't stick to this budget is a week in July when my husbands off work it's rare so we do whatever we want this week within reason and it still costs way less than a holiday.


Oh and I take the youngest to the library on a Friday for songs and a story, my gym also does kids dancing on a wed but I've yet to bring them as its a pe day for the older two and I worry its too much for them.

Margaret54

Hello My children are adults now, but just wanted to pop on and say welcome, and that all of the tips here given by the Mums are excellent, so hope you are able to take some on board:) When I was a new Mum so long ago money was very tight as well, and we had nothing near us where we could go. I just used to clean the house hang the washing out (weather permitting) and off we went for a long walk to the park. We enjoyed it though and we would take a big coloured ball and some sandwiches yoghurt and drinks and have a good time. You all sound great Mums and caring about how to entertain your children. Best wishes Margaret xx

snowleopard61

Hi OP

Mine are grown up now but one of the things we used to do was making collages with brightly coloured tissue paper stuck on lining paper (you can do great big scenes like under the sea, or wild animals, or Easter/spring etc. etc.). You can buy tissue paper in rainbow colours quite cheaply – try Wilkinson’s, Card Factory or possibly Poundland - and lining paper is cheap too. You can do foot or handprints on it too.

In fact Poundland has lots of cheap art/craft materials.

Do toy libraries still exist? We had one locally and I sometimes used to borrow large items which would have been expensive to buy, e.g. ride-on cars. I also sometimes used to swap large items for a week or two with my friend, e.g. a small slide which could be used indoors. It was good to ring the changes without spending money, and they didn’t have a chance to get bored with the toys.

I’d be surprised if a farm park really wouldn’t let you bring your own picnic – if so I think that’s incredibly mean and exploitative. (Agreed the entrance fees themselves are not cheap, although perhaps not impossible as a special treat.)

If your local area has one-day bus tickets, given that your children are so young (and hopefully therefore free for bus travel) it may be quite economical to explore further afield in your local area on a sunny day.

Good luck, sounds like you’re doing brilliantly anyway.

room512

hereigoagain22 wrote: »

She is desperate to make her own "lolly pops" but I'm not sure how to do this?!?

Do you mean ice lollies? I got a plastic set from sainsburys with moulds and plastic sticks that you fill with whatever you fancy and freeze. Also bananas with lolly sticks in frozen and then dipped in melted chocolate are nice!

Also you can make painting lollies, fill the ice lolly mould with paint and then freeze. The children at my school love those (does make a mess though so we use them outside).

Pink.

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purpleheather2810

Hi, my girls are both at school now but I remember well how much effort it takes to keep coming up with interesting things to do on a tiny budget

We used to do, and still do some of the following: Surestart groups, library, swimming, garden centre, pet shop/aquarium, playgrounds, picking fruit, National Trust (I bought a single membership for me, it cost me about £40 for the whole year and kids under 5 go free), then you've always got somewhere nice to go hopefully with a decent park and events.

Your daughter will soon get used to being outside if she has lots and lots of layers on. It's good for them to have fresh air all year round. She'll sleep better too. She might whinge a bit the first few times, so remember to have a bribe in your pocket or walk to a nearby shop for a little bag of sweets maybe?!

My kids still get very excited about going anywhere on the bus or train - so sometimes we'd go somewhere else just because - and you don't get as wet on the bus...

As for activities as home, sounds like you've got that covered with crafty stuff, toys etc.

Good luck, sounds like you've doing a great job with your kiddiwinks

Racheldevon

Definately pop along to your local sure start children's centre - they run free services for 0-5 year olds - even once your eldest is over 5, you'll still have one within the age range and be able to attend. Every community has access to their services - google to find your nearest.

Also look to see if your council has a family services directory - full of all the things going on locally, many of them often free.

Also local museums and libraries often run programmes of craft etc for kids