How much £ do you or would you pay for a baby groups?

[NeedMoMoney]

There aren't alot of baby groups around my area, there's one nursery that does baby sensory classes once every 2 weeks for £1 per family and a baby play and self weigh that is free once every 2 weeks, when I enquired about booking I was just outside their catchment area so she said they said they could book us in this time but it is usually reserved for more local people (it's roughly a 10-15 minute drive there) so there is no guarantee that I will be able to get a place each time.
There is a more local play group that would only take me about 5 mins drive to get there, or a 20-30 minute walk, the only problam Is they do classes in 5 block bookings at £25 per child (I have twins) so that would be £50 for both! But at least I would be gaurenteed a space for at least 5 weeks.
The classes run for an hour each, but does this seem like a high price? From the nursery to only charge £1 to the other charging £5. What do others pay or will be willing to pay?.

Thankyou for any replys given!

Organised groups like Rhythm Time I think was about 50+ for ten weeks when my first was little so does sound about right. Can imagine it adds up with twins though. Do they offer a twins discount?
We go to Playgroups/stay and play groups run by NCT which is a £2 donation (plus £1 for a sibling) which is optional but obviously keeps the group going and we used to go to a free sing along group at the library.

Could you check on Facebook if you have a local NCT group? Not sure how old your twins are but ours always has a baby section if they're little, along with a craft activity set up, a cup of tea and cake for the adults and a snack for the kids and I found them so welcoming.

Ohh I din't think look at NCT groups! Thankyou! There both 4 months old now so I want to start getting them out as much as I can! And me aswell! I think I'll ring the more local group in the morning to see if they offer a 2 for 1 😄 thankyou for the advice 😊

Can you do a free or pay as you go trial session first? I found DD didn't get much out of play group / stay + play type sessions until she was crawling.

We are in London and i did two baby classes a week with DD. It was something like £12 per session for a baby sensory type class (45mins) and £17 per 30mins baby swimming class. I justified it on the basis that the cost was basically the same as what I paid on lunches when i was going into the office every day 😅

Another tip is that lots of libraries offer free "rhyme time" sessions - basically group led nursery rhymes and songs. And because its free, it doesn't matter if they are too little to participate.

Have you looked at ones run by churches?? When my dd was tiny we went to a baby group where there were toys our but it was basically for the mums to chat and have a cup of tea.
Now we go to a toddler group in a church hall for bigger toddlers. Also run by a (different) church.
Both £1 per session

There tend to be different "tiers" of baby group. There's the £1-2 groups which tend to be run by churches, nurseries and family centres who don't rely on the money for their income. Then the independent stay and play type groups that are normally around £5 a go. Then the franchise type groups (baby sensory etc) which are more like £10 a session

I actually run messy play sessions for children, we charge £4 for 1 child or £6 for 2. This is the lowest we can go and cover our costs (venue hire, insurance, equipment etc). We barely make a profit to be honest and this is true of most of the groups near us. You can't really compare the £1 groups to the independent or franchise groups, as they don't have any costs to cover as their income comes from elsewhere

We pay £8 for a signing group, then £12 for a sensory/play group that two kids go to for that price, then £15 per child for swimming each week. They keep me sane though, and I really love the signing and sensory groups. The swimming is more for safety and because I think it's important for them to learn.

I use my local children centres. All classes including baby massage are £1. I’m planning to try a class at my local library next week and I think that one is free.

Their use to be a local group to me that was £2.50 which included a drink and Al biscuit. Unfortunately it stopped shortly before I had DS

Also look for a twins/multiples group. There is one in our town. It can be helpful to talk to other parents that understand your challenges.

It sounds about right unfortunately! We go to a couple of church stay and plays which are only £1 per session - I don’t know if there are any by you? I’m not particularly religious but there’s always such a lovely welcoming atmosphere.
Our baby sensory class is £7 a session paid termly in advance (£42/£49 depending on how many weeks). It definitely adds up!

Anywhere between £6-£8 per session for everything we go to in a week

Try local church groups. They charge anything between 50p-£2 here. And have songs, snacks and craft usually. Also good is that you can go and try them, or go just when you can. There isn't a commitment.

For £5, I'd prefer to pay a little more and have the older one doing gymnastics, dancing, swimming etc.

Most classes near me are £10 which makes them unaffordable. And no church groups.

My mat leave showed I'm willing to pay £10ph to anyone who owns a bubble machine.

We only pay for one of our baby groups - a music group which is £6.95 per class. We also go to a church toddler group which is £1 donation if you wish to give but otherwise it’s free. And bookbug which is free too

Thankyou for all your replys! I took the girls to the nursery play group today, the one for £1 and it was lovely! I asked again about the catchment area and she said it usually doesn't matter with booking I should usually get a place, she also told me about a few places around the area that do similar baby groups, some churchs and librarys which I thought was really nice of her!