Cash-only kids club

My kids go to a chess club that’s £1.50 each, so also £3 every week. I went down to our local arcade and took £100 and used the changed machine to get 100 pound coins. Just keep them in a tub at the door to grab when we go to the club.

I do sometimes use cash, so always have some change but it was easier to have a tub ready so we weren’t caught short.

It's funny I'm the opposite. Some of my kids activities were cash only and l found it very easy to manage. One by one they upgraded to apps or payment platforms, all different of course and I get stressed with passwords and two step verification and are you a human messages etc. Everything is so complicated, what was wrong with handing a few coins over.

I think it's inconvenient, but it's up the volunteers how they want to run things.

Get cash out on-mass at the start of the term (so 3x per year), and get it all changed into £1 coins. Get about £60. Put it in a jar. Jar lives on mantle piece and is only for this club and school non-uniform days where you need £1 coins. Can even then train child to get out £3 before getting in the car to be dropped off at the club!
Or just get £20 cash changed every couple of weeks and fill the jar, or put all your change into the jar every time you get any. (eg all £1 coins go into the jar every thing you empty your purse or partner empties wallet).

A friend's family when I was younger had a change jar - it lived in their hall, and they could help themselves to it for bus fair, tuck shop money etc. Parents kept it roughly topped up by emptying their change into it, and changing £20 if it got too empty.

I volunteer with a uniformed organisation and we are on our knees trying to find volunteer leaders. Last session we struggled; this session we are 25% down on leaders and we have had a 50% increase in the number of children attending.
Until the end of last session we charged £2 a child per week, but only if they attended, so we were out of pocket for materials if the children didn't attend on a particular night (I have regularly prepared a craft only to find that half the children didn't attend because of a school disco). We just about coped with the admin of a mum turning up with her 2 children paying £10 for their subs and 50p each for the two weeks for tuck shop.
Our parent organisation has had to massively increase the per head charge this year so we have asked parents to set up a monthly standing order so that we aren't out of pocket for non-attendance and can cover our outgoings. In theory it's great but in practice our main leader doesn't do online banking and we have a few families who are unreliable so I'm not convinced that they have set up the requested standing order (one is yet to return this year's consent form).

OP, those of us giving up our time to provide activities on a voluntary basis aren't setting out to make your life difficult; we are trying to make those activities possible. We have the same work, household admin and chores which everyone deals with, so our volunteering has to fit round those commitments (I don't have time between work and my volunteering commitment to have my evening meal so it is regularly 9pm before I eat and I am up at 6.30 the next morning for work). If the current set-up doesn't work for you, perhaps offer your services as a volunteer.

Go to the post office, and make a cash withdrawal, they will give you whatever change you ask for

Brilliant idea.

This is genuis !

When I used to run a kids club I paid for insurance and my DBS check out of my own account. I started off having a business account but the fees weren’t worth it for the small amount of money it was used for.
I kept accounts and did a tax return every year but just used my own account.

Our club originally started with that, but then the original treasurer had a whole load of trouble when she needed to show her bank statements for something.

When I took over we managed to find a free bank account where we could literally have money come in from funders and send cheques out. Anything else cost (or wasn't allowed) so we did that and were strictly cash for everything except the one amount of funding we got a year to pay for insurance, CRB (as was), training and big equipment. A business bank account would have been unaffordable for them.

How did the club pay insurance ? Surely that wasn't paid cash?

It was paid by cheque, the funding applied for it went straight into the bank and came out by cheque - same with training and big equipment

That didn't require people to go to the bank so no money spend on parking etc

When I used to run a kids club I paid for insurance and my DBS check out of my own account. I started off having a business account but the fees weren’t worth it for the small amount of money it was used for.
I kept accounts and did a tax return every year but just used my own account.

My local Post Office acts like a Cashpoint and they're happy to give you coins if they have them. I regularly get £40 of pound coins to pay for the ferry crossing.

Arcade sounds like a good idea but alternatively can you order them from your bank? If you just go in and ask for 20 and they say they don’t have enough could you ask them to get, say, £150 in for a specific day and just get a year’s worth all at once?

Instead of going to the cash point and then the bank to exchange money, just go to the bank and ask to withdraw money in small bills.

If they don’t have the money that day they can order it so if the visit is out of your way, call in advance if you have concerns about their supply and let them know you are coming in. Mine has no problems with local currency but I have to call in advance for foreign currency because they don’t stock any.

I periodically go get 100 in 1s for the oddball things I will need them for. I keep the stash at home for anyone in the household who needs it. I only return to the bank when it runs low.

How did the club pay insurance ? Surely that wasn't paid cash?

What a ridiculous post.

We were cash only as it meant no money was being taken out of the funds for fuel and parking for someone to go to the nearest bank (a fair distance now). It also meant we could buy supplies of snacks and drinks by sending someone to the shop with cash, rather than having to pay extra for a bank account that allowed transfers, or expecting people to wait for reimbursement by cheque.

Volunteers are sorting equipment and activities, their legal requirements, the set up and everything needed every session. It's not too much to ask parents to have cash for said sessions.

Yes or op could just pay £5 each time, with the extra £2 being a donation.

What's the convenience worth to you, op? I'm not being sarcastic, I'd probably occasionally just do that.

I just go to the bank and get £40 in £1 coins periodically. They live in the glove box and all the random bring £1 / £2 subs get paid.

I go to the bank twice a year to withdraw a couple of rolls of coins for DDs pocket money. Suggest you do the same.

Could 10 of you parents get together and one of you pay every 10 weeks so it's £30?

There is another solution to the change issue if it is a real problem - they could put the price up to £5

I'm sorry but I cannot understand why you're whinging about this

It's £3 for a kids club and you're not satisfied?

This is why clubs like that close down

Could try asking at the end of the session if you can swap a £20 note for the coins they’ve collected.

Okay so you can’t drive and you only have a coop near you. Do you have a partner or husband? Can they drive to a bigger supermarket and get a £20 out and spend it for some small change. I feel like you are just being a bit difficult implying it’s impossible, surly you can’t live so rurally?

We had a cash only kids’ activity, but there was the option to buy a concession card which covered 10 weeks of the activity (would still need to pay cash for the card). That’s pretty simple to administer. Yes there would be the initial printing of the cards. But then it’s no harder to tick/sign the card each week instead of taking cash.

When my DD used to attend it was $5 per time so easy enough to find a $5 note. Then the cost went up to $8 and I remember thinking, what a random number, who could easily find that in cash!

I didnt do anything, just took a photo and submitted it - got it fixed this morning fine so it cant have been that important

I have one of those £1 key rings for a shoping trolley - all shopping done using contactless on my phone

That said, I do have £10 in my car as I needed cash to get my nails done