To find it expensive keeping preschoolers fed & entertained?

Going up and down escalator in shopping centre. Bus ride round town... double decker a bonus. Library time.
Anyone else's house with new toys. Mum and me cinema afternoons. Looking at pet shop windows. Building dens aka beating nettles with sticks.
Watching planes land. Making pastry and jam tarts. Emptying dishwasher. Roller skates or stilts or hoopla.

It sounds like you're going all this stuff for yourself as much as the kids, to relieve boredom/guilt. They really don't need to be out doing multiple activities per day, especially in the summer when they can entertain themselves for hours with a paddling pool.

I had a total lunatic spririted boy toddler too. No driver's licence at that time. Needs must I am afraid waterproofs and wellies for everyone including me. We walked or took the bus everywhere, I have to say I wouldn't have fancied doing it in the middle of the Country. The science museum garden was a complete life saver, morning at home then an early lunch and walk across the park ro get the bus to South Ken, arriving around 2pm just as the school groups left- happy days and just a single bus fare....

Buy some puddle jumpers/playsuits. Skin is waterproof!!!

Buy a small outdoor garden play pack with mini cones, bean bags, rings etc turn your garden into an obstacle course

Let dig and make mud pies in the garden, devote a corner for messy play

Finger painting, fruit/veg/leaves/flower stamping

Pasta and glue pictures

Make toys out of recycling Pinterest is great for this

Make salt dough and dry then paint

Make sun catchers and dream catchers

Nature trail treasure hunt

Geo caching there's free apps available

Bike rides, walks, parks

Splash in the sprinkler

Torchlight silhouettes pictures

Orchard boardgames- get these on ebay or charity shops

Make a picnic then choose a silly spot to have it

Play hairdressers or dress up

Make Shoe box dioramas

Paint stones and then hide them. See if you can find any

Pond dipping

Look for fossils or interesting stones

Popcorn garlands aren't just for Christmas

Paper chains

Paper lanterns and decorating

No bake baking ie. Rice crispy treats

Make instruments out of recycling and put on a show.

Make slime if you're brave enough....

The list goes on and on. Had the added benefit of going through lockdowns with a 4 then 5 year old. The above cost very little or a bit but if used more than once will be worth it. Charity shops and ebay are great for finding bits and pieces. Pintest is great as are websites like free things to do with the family in Surrey. Pack a lunch whenever possible and get the kids involved with that as well.

@pirateblue
no need to apologise, you have young children and they’re hard work.

I promise it will get easier and they will grow so quickly, you’ll look back with rose tinted glasses on.

It can be hard, and it sounds like where you live is particularly difficult. It was definitely cheaper when I lived in a city: lots of things in walking distance and we were lucky to have Sure Start Centres still.

I usually do something in the morning: gymnastics, library, shop trip, toddler group. Then in the afternoon something at home or nearby. I've always found two trips in a day a bit much though.

The waste is the worst part of the food to me: throwing away crusts or scraps or leftovers because it's so hard to judge how much or what they'll eat on any given day.

Have you tried your local museums. The ones near me do a morning toddler session which is a pound term time, then special activities in holiday.
Do you have any good places which you can join for a year and make good use of - like a farm/visitor attraction.
Depending where you live EH or NT for a year.

Id get a copy of your local primary times (I assume it’s National?) if you can see anything in there.

I agree with you. Even if I do 2 paid activities in a day (morning and afternoon) there's still a lot of time to fill playing with the same old toys, and all the activities suggested here might take 30 minutes to an hour but won't entertain a toddler all day. I am always grateful when my son takes a long time to eat a snack - an apple is a good time/money investment imo as he can sit for about 20 minutes with one 😂

Pre schoolers are the easiest, cheapest stage.

No wonder you're finding it so expensive 😳 I've only got one 3 year old but he's quite happy as long as he's with me. He loves helping me with the housework and will join in with my exercises. There's lots of fun kid workouts on YouTube. He loves cooking and baking, playing in the garden, reading books, watching a film together. He doesn't use a tablet and I'm not constantly creating lots of entertainment for him which I feel has helped his attention levels.

Totally agree about the balance between cost and sanity. If I stayed in the house all day with DS we would both go insane and he'd start running into things and jumping off things, and we'd probably end up in A&E. Yes the park etc etc but it gets samey and is tedious if it's raining which is seems to do permanently. I wonder if people who suggest days at home have huge houses?
Also for me the food bill gets expensive because I generally have to have so many options because he's so picky.
My second son isn't sleeping well so I do also have to factor in the three take away coffees and cakes that keep me going in said park 😵‍💫 that gets expensive too

@pirateblue
I apologise if you thought my post was judgemental, that was not my intention. I was just trying to explain that we had no option years ago but to find our own entertainment. And don’t get me started on when I was a child….

However, I get that your son doesn’t want to sit down and colour in so what about building a den in your living room out of sheets and blankets, or go in your garden hunting for bugs, under logs or counting birds going over, imagining what the clouds could be. Set up a ‘road’ on your living room carpet for his toy cars.

I was just trying to suggest things that were free and at home, therefore fitting your criteria.

Entertainment not so much - but mine costs me a fortune in fruit

Walks in the woods are physical and free. An Ordnance Survey map will show you all the footpaths and woodland in your area. Exploring in nature is a fab part of childhood.

I went to the church groups etc to meet people for myself, not so much to entertain DS. I swapped numbers with other parents I met there and we went to each others' houses loads. Parenting is SO much more bearable with friends, and meeting at home/park is free.

Watching the local building site is free.

Also this. Small children love just absorbing the world around them.

Ah, I understand now!

I was lucky when mine where little there were all sorts of places I could get to on foot.

My kids are the opposite. Now they are teenagers it's way cheaper as they just want to sit on their phones. Yes the food is more though. When they were younger they needed excitement. Sieving flour, jumping in puddles bored them. They liked theme parks

Have you got a garden?
if so, get a mud kitchen and you can play with that no matter what the weather put on a rain coat and wellies, get a bucket of water and some big brushes and paint the slabs and walls, fences!
Buy a trampoline for a birthday present, keeps children busy for ages.
You can go to the park in the rain, my children loved it even more 🤣
Beach, same applies, no matter what the weather, wellies and coats!
Puddle jumping, also a paddling pool, same again wellies and rain coats, you can do anything regardless of the weather

@pirateblue it sounds tough.
On a positive - he'll be at school soon so some of his energy will be used up there.

We do Swimming on Monday morning £6.50 for me and the two children. Free playgroup and then gymnastics -£5.50 - on Tuesday. Library on Thursday -free. Playgroup Friday -£3.50.

The rest of the time we mostly walk, we live near a forest and the toddler will walk for 2 hours+ most days. We look for mushrooms, worms, spiders, tadpoles etc.

Also, drawing a card and walking to the post box to send it to different family members is a favourite activity. As is baking cake.

I agree. To feed them a healthy diet with lots of fruit and home cooked meals is expensive.
sure there are cheap activities but these do become dull for adults and it’s been so rainy for so long.
Most places around here at least cost parking which is £4 before you do anything else. I also like to do a variety of things to help his development.

Yup that was kind of my style - my mantra was 'do I look like a clown - I'm not a children's entertainer' and my mums voice in my head 'no one ever died of boredom;

I did things with them every day - walk to the shops, visit pet shops, bake cupcakes, painting and weekly - farm, park, zoo. We also went to the library every week to pick books.

They grew into well rounded young adults - cut yourself a bit of slack OP and let them run a bit wild and learn to do stuff independently, including play.

and yes - wait until they are 13!