What do you spend on your child at the weekend or holidays for a typical day?!

[OrigibalPie]

Just wondering after seeing a bit of a pile on with another thread and poster spending 150 on weekdays!

We work full time so dd in nursery Monday to Friday. We tend to spend a lot at weekends on activities and also holidays…mainly through guilt tbh! DD is 3.

Just wondered what others do and whether we have succumbed to consumerism!!

We probably do £100-150 a week on things. We home educate. 4 kids cost adds up.

if we go bowling it’s usually £35 a game with 25% off.

cinema not so much. It’s around £25 for tickets. But if we don’t take food/drink with us then it’s another £25 easily.

a recent trip to a science observatory was £28 for entrance alone.

we do use things like memberships to English heritage, etc.

a recent trip to a aquarium was £100 alone.. train fare, aquarium.

adding on cost of food just racks it right up if we don’t picnic.

We never spent anything much. We live near the sea and have a large garden. Summer holidays were just for playing out.

We don't do a lot of "days out". Both kids have commitments on the weekend - sports teams & swimming lessons & the like. Around that we have visits to see family, walks in the woods, local library, parks, we play board games at home, play in the garden, go on bike rides. Obviously some weekends there are jobs to do like haircuts or buying new school shoes. My children are school aged as well so there are also the inevitable parties.

Edit tho - we do good holidays so there are four weeks a year of that - a weeks skiing, a week of europe sun somewhere spring bank week, & a 2 week summer hol in august.

DD is only 3 so enjoys the free things luckily, so perhaps £5 on a trip to feed the ducks and an ice cream on the Saturday and Sunday she might end up with something from the supermarket so £10 perhaps an happy meal £4.
If we go out out it's probably about £60 including fuel for 2 adults at attractions like zoos but this is a exception rather than a rule.
She gets a lot out of visiting family and seeing dogs horses etc still.

I have mine at home with me this week and we are doing swimming lessons (prepaid as part of yearly class) - did softplay yesterday (£20), free museum trip another day (just cost of bus ride there) and then will be playpark or beach another day and another free activity so won't spend much - I also just drag them along on errands and they manage to have fun playing together. Spent £30 last weekend on a fun day and ice creams but don't go to stuff like that often and usually manage to find free activities. Will rarely eat out (eldest has ARFID so that limits us anyway). We will go on outdoor adventures quite a bit so walking and biking and camping.

When she was little, we spent very little. We had various memberships of places that worked out to be really good value, so rotated where we visited. We took picnics and snacks and life was fab!

Now she’s a teen and I long for those cheap and easy days!!

At Age 3 we did a lot of NT, playgrounds (we'd take flasks and be back for lunch or dinner). We used to do something bigger once a month like the theatre or a weekend away. We used to do those as a Christmas present and spread out throughout the year

As soon as they got to school weekends were birthday parties.

Now they are 10 or so, it's all extra curricular each morning and we are a glorified taxi service. The afternoons are for chilling, family films, games and bike rides. We work FT and the kids are in ASC a lot so downtime at home for everyone is important.

OK this has made me feel a bit better! Mine are 4, 2 and 3 months and I was feeling a bit guilty after reading some of the replies! But I think they’re probably just too young to be expensive.

During the summer holidays we have mainly been to parks, in the garden, scooting around the block, a few free stay and plays for. We go to a cafe most days for a (free!) babyccino and some reading/colouring in, though that’s mainly for me to have a change of scenery and some caffeine. I’ve booked to take the big one to a kids theatre thing next week.

I probably could spend more but I kind of hate indoor parenting and I swear any kind of organised fun brings out the worst in my children. So I’m avoiding it whilst I still can.

Biggest expenditure is definitely on family meals out which are at least fun for everyone! 😂

Depends what we do. Yesterday we went to a swimming pool with slides/inflatable obstacle course which was £40. Today nothing… we went for a bike ride to the park this morning then played in the garden this afternoon. Tomorrow we’re meeting friends for a day den building/forest walking and it’ll probably cost me an ice cream each (I’ll take a packed lunch). Next week we’re going to a theme park which will be more like £150 but that’s not a regular occurrence.

Oh and we have NT membership so get a lot of use from that at weekends and in the holidays.

I think the opposite with London! So much is free or cheap. We can have a whole amazing day out for the price of my tube fare. We take a packed lunch. They don't get an ice cream every time.

We don't really spend a lot on things like soft play or trampoline, I hate those places and DC1 (11) is really outdoorsy. We do lots of hikes, swimming (outdoors in lido in the summer), galleries and museums and local festivals and events, and things like the Scoop at More London. Occasional theatre tickets but I buy well in advance for cheaper tickets and again dc1 likes Shakespeare and the globe is really good value. Places like ENO and the Batbican do really cheap family shows.

We have English heritage and Kew access through work and most years I get an annual pass to the Wonderlab at the science museum. We do do quite a lot of weekends away but often do a house swap or house sit for friends outside of london and offer ours in return. Just got back from a few days and I think all we spent was a couple of rounds of tea and cake.

We do loads of stuff. Anyone in London i recommend the museum mum instagram account and newsletter. You don't have to be at 'attractions' every weekend, children often don't really like them much anyway and they're dull for parents. Mine get music lessons and sports clubs in term time as well.

It's not that we never do the occasional expensive stuff but we keep it as a treat.

I was off with DS yesterday (he is 9). We went to the local main museum and had a great time. Costs:
Museum - free
Planetarium - £6
Coffee shop visit - £10
Gift shop - £24

He wouldn’t usually have £24 in gift shop but he an amazing school report and even got an award in school for being hardworking. He deserved it but often we go to the local and all he gets is an ice cream

Edited as I apparently can’t spell ‘gift’ 🤦🏼♀️

A couple of gifted annual passes help. I ask for those instead of gifts for Christmas etc.

I'd say I end up spending 20-40 pounds a week with 2 DC. This is on the occasional ice cream, food item and petrol and activity. There is an awful lot to do locally for free.

When my children were small we'd do a farm/theme park on a Saturday and a park/picnic on a sunday, probably an ice cream both days.
Now they're older we do football Saturday and Sunday, and usually friends here or there so no real expenses at all.
Now it's the holidays we have 4 nights of activities, so 1 or 2 days out per week, and the other days might ve an hours activities like trampolining or swimming, but we do go out every day if we can.

I find the opposite true.
In London, it’s so easy to have a cheap day out. We used to do the museums and galleries, watch street entertainers, walk in amazing parks and by rivers, trains and buses are free for kids.
I barely paid anything in school holidays but would spend on a holiday away and the occasional day out but I use Tesco clubcard and groupon to save there.

It depends really. A lot more than I’d like to admit. As they’re getting older, I’m teaching them to be aware of what things cost and I’m sick of shelling out for mediocre overpriced fast food so we do our jobs in the mornings, have lunch and then go out to meet friends at the park, for a bike ride or a hike. This holiday they’re getting a big day out once a week but again trying not to pay too much for eating out. We take a picnic and lots of snacks. We invite friends for sleepovers, movie nights, and occasionally have paid for entrance to the leisure centre. We are lucky to have beach within half hour so we can go there for half a day.

this year I’ve given them a £100 for the whole summer to fritter away on slushies, arcades, souvenir tat etc. they’ve hardly spent a penny and no pestering. I just say you can have whatever you like, out of your money and all of a sudden they're the tightest people we know.

it’s tough.

It varies. We used to do national trust a lot but exhausted that. We do still have a zoo pass but don't use it as much as we used to.
Some months are quiet in terms of us going out and spending lots on days out, but instead we might end up buying bits for the garden and the children helping plant seeds or something so that's a different kind of cost.
Also some months have constant parties so apart from buying a gift that keeps costs down. I think we are in an in-between age where my kids can amuse themselves at home (they want to be on screens) and aren't quite as feral if not taken out, but when they are taken out the activities they want to do often are ones that cost in comparison to when they were little and you could just feed the ducks.
I also find they still say they want to go to the park, but once there they get bored quite quickly, so they don't find the enjoyment in the free things as much.

This weekend though as example we plan to go to the cinema which will be £26 for a family ticket (we will take our own snacks and drink) and then there is a country fayre on - free entry but this is where we will end up spending a fortune on rides and stalls.

But this is not what the OP is asking.

She is asking about one 3 year old who is at Nursery all week.
She just wants to know about people with one toddler, who only need to entertain them at the weekends.