Cash-only kids club

[BluePony]

My DS goes to a club similar Beavers/Cubs but not that. It’s run by volunteers so I suspect IABU. However, every week it’s £3. So it’s a great value for a kids club. But they only take cash and don’t seem to give change or let you pay for a few weeks at one time. I never have change and if I want cash, I have to go to a certain cash point that’s out of my way. I don’t mind doing that but then I have to find a way of getting change from it. My bank (which I’m fortunate to have where I live as it’s a small town) doesn’t do that anymore when I’ve been in as they’ve been low on change. So it’s really inconvenient. My DD does brownies but you pay it twice a year via a bank transfer. AIBU to find this really annoying? Each week I have to go out of my way to get the cash, then find a way to get change from the cash. Even times I’ve been into shops to try and buy something I don’t even want for £1, they’ve said they don’t have enough change (fair enough).

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

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.

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.

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.

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.