To think the price of days out for kids is excessive?

[Niniope]

Looking at planning days out with DH and just turned 2 year old DD and a bit shocked by the prices!
We earn decent wages but both work part time and have quite a few outgoings.

For context we live in greater Manchester and have been to pretty much every museum in the area, as well as regularly going swimming, soft play, parks, and farms - a lot of days out are free or under £15 for us all.

I was trying to plan going to an aquarium and as DD is over 90cm it would be £72 for us all! Looked at sea life and that equally would be £52 as they've changed from under 3 go free to under 2 go free!

Cbeebies land would be £105, which although not feasible for us to spend I can rationalise more as a big day out, but an aquarium we will spend a couple of hours at before she naps!?

I was also looking at visiting a WWT site but that would be over £30, which is also a bit excessive when we can walk around numerous bodies of water and nice countryside for free.

I know these places have got to run and meet overheads but the prices mean they are just inaccessible to us. We just can't justify it to then not be able to do anything else for the rest of the month.

Am I being a skinflint?

But you really really don't need to do things on those days. At least, not things that involve spending lots of money. You've been sucked into the marketing and social media hype.

Children are fine to stay at home. Play with friends. "Help" with the housework. "Help" with the baking. Play with their toys. Read their books. Watch a bit of TV. Make some dens out of the clothes horse. Mess about in the garden (if you have one).

You say you both work PT so obviously you have less income than 2 people working FT 🤷‍♀️.

You could perhaps ask family members for NT/Merlin /whatever passes as Christmas/birthday gifts. Quite often if you travel by train, you can get 2 for 1 at some attractions.
https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/days-out-guide/days-out-in-great-britain/

@MatildaTheCat oh yes, my dc loved that when they were little. They loved going to the station to watch the trains and watching new houses being built too.

Days out like the ones you mention are very expensive. We have 3dc so really feel it. Parks, picnics, beaches, museums, walking trails etc are all free so we do a lot of those.

If you want to do the expensive days out once a month then could one of you work full time instead of both working part time? The extra could be the fun money

Have you been to the viewing platform thing at Manchester Airport? I've not been myself but DH took the kids and they loved watching the planes when they were younger.

This Is it https://www.manchesterairport.co.uk/at-the-airport/attractions/

@Niniope as long as your DD is with her parents, she'll be happy tbh.

Would any of these places suit?

https://northwestforkids.co.uk/free-things-to-do-in-manchester-with-toddlers/

A lot of locals attractions are priced towards one off tourist visits so can be quite expensive. What we do now is budget for annual passes for a few attractions at the start of the year then is works out cheap for the rest of the year.

Also we don't have a national trust membership anymore but get the free tickets which they give away a few times of the year.

You don't necessarily have to pay the upfront price. People get vouchers, annual memberships and rinse them, use loyalty card points etc.

I think society has gone activity mad. They're expensive, relatively speaking they also always have been. Even a visit to kitty cafe costs a small fortune, for an hr to sit with some cats.

Yeah, I often research stuff and think it looks fun but would work out nearly £100 for the tickets and so usually end up doing something free instead. Even stuff like bowling or the trampoline park is £50 for all of us and that is only an hour!

Unfortunately not, now you have to buy a merlin pass!

She loves an IKEA day out! When we go on a weekday I can get coffee for free and a frozen yoghurt treat for her is 35p! There is an excellent little museum near the one in Manchester too we go in afterwards.

Most of those places have overinflated their ticket prices as most people go on a promo or discount voucher so they build this into their pricing model

Honestly, I don't think I have been sucked into hype. That all sounds quite wholesome but that's not going to happily fill 5 days! We do as much free stuff as we can like library, park, museum but she can't just stay in the house 5 days a week- we would all go insane.
Normally we go out in the morning and after nap time is when we will do bake time/ craft etc

Thanks- we have actually been to all but one and some are regular favourites!

We definitely aren't going to increase our hours, we muddle along fine and appreciate our time with her, just more shocked at the cost as I was thinking now she is getting into things more it would be nice to try some other days out!
We will ask for some passes for Xmas I think- maybe NT ones, and collect points and look for vouchers in the meantime!

It’s so expensive. I find even going to the soft play costs around £30 after you’ve brought food.

If you are off during the week term time the sea life centre at the Trafford Centre does an adult and toddler ticket for a reduced price, the Lego discovery also does a reduced price toddler ticket. My DD could spend ages in the Lego discovery.

There’s Eureka in Halifax and once you’ve paid you can get in free for the next year which is really good.

Also could you look at getting Merlin passes? If you live near a few of the attractions it would be worth it. Will also include Alton Towers.

I’ve found it’s worth following places we’d like to go to locally but aren’t picky about when on Facebook. A lot of them will do special offers at times when they’re otherwise dead or yearly passes - the price listed on the website is what you pay if you’re bound and determined to go on a particular day which might for example be not unreasonable if you’re on holiday.

Have a look at Peak District Kids website for some great family walks on your doorstep.

2 4 1 train ticket offers for things like Think Tank in Birmingham (even if you drive get a local train ticket for the discount entry) and London sites.

Cereal boxes. 2 4 1 to Alton Towers

Peak Wildlife Park is a good day out.

Weekends our kids got into camping. Just being outside having Mum and Dad and marshmallows on sticks. Loads of good sites in Yorkshire close by (Catgill is a particular favourite near Manchester).

Blaze Farm near Macclesfield also do Easter sheep holding and has an ice cream farm and entry trail. £10 for a family of 3.

I appreciate the weather isn’t the best at this time of year but when mine were that age we spent a summer going to every park in the area and ranking them. Not just the big ones, the tiny ones in the middle of an estate where they’re usually a couple of swings and a slide and climbing frame. It pressed the “ooo somewhere new” button in their heads and they hurtled around whilst I read a book.

When the weather is rubbish though we found a lot of soft plays did cheaper school time rates. The trick is to make it clear that you’re not staying for food as that’s what will push the price up. We had a few located near big supermarkets so if we did desperately need to eat around then a supermarket cafe lunch did the job for half the price.
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Sorry to derail but you go to Portland Basin after IKEA? ☺️

I think because your daughter is only 2 I would save some of the more expensive days out until she is older.

Some of our best days out were ones that hardly cost anything.

Looking in rock pools was always a popular one.
Bug hunting
Kite flying
Going to the library

If you’re working part time and have a preschooler then super off peak Merlin membership can be a really good deal - getting you sealife/theme parks/lego discovery centres for the whole year off peak for about as much as one peak time day ticket. It’s actually much better at that age going off peak if you can around work - less busy/hardly any queues

also if you are interested in wwt look at boundless if you’re working in the public sector- it gets you free wwt membership for the whole year plus some other discounts for less than wwt membership by itself would normally cost

We spent lots of days out in all weathers. Parks, forests and beaches mostly but also train rides to other towns for day trips.
A family railcard is free with tesco vouchers.
Or we'd just jump in the car and travel somewhere.
We didn't really do soft play as I found it a waste of money. I preferred paying for aquariums and wildlife places as my dcs enjoyed those.
I used Tesco vouchers and groupon for deals and those were usually a couple of times a year.