Cheap or free activities for a two year old and baby?

[Karma1387]

So after discovering the nursery DS1 attends doesn't have space for DS2 and realising how lucky I am with my nursery as it costs me £0 a month whereas others charge ontop of the funded hours. I have had to accept I may not be able to go back to work for another year or so (I was intending to do an apprenticeship so can't afford nursery fees elsewhere)

I am hoping the mind of mumsnet can give me lots and lots of free/super cheap things to do with a 2 year old and 6 month old to fill our time over the next year whilst we have very little money. Hoping to spend £50 max each month ideally.

Any help and suggestions greatly appreciated!

Are you in a location with NT places to visit?

If not then church baby groups for £2-3 a family and library

We have a fair few about. Possibly worth seeing how much a membership costs before my maternity pay stops.

Thank you!

Local play groups. Most only charge 3 or 4 pound and there's usually tea and coffee for the adults. Most are run in community centres or church halls. Also check you local library. Most groups like rhyme times are free

Will you have a car?

Check out the rules on annual passes for any local attractions, if there's somewhere under 5's go free, then it might be worth the cost of your pass if you can go often.

• Library story time / rhyme time
• Park/playground (rotate around any you can get to)
• Church Hall or community center playgroups
• free museums or art galleries (many do toddler activities or crafts)
• check if local schools run toddler groups (ours do but I didn't find out until my eldest started school)
• is the a softplay in the council leisure center? (Ours does, it's small but only £2)
• any local forest, beach, lake or Riverside

If you live near a fuzzy ed's (softplay often in harvesters or toby carvery), many do free play Tusedays.

Yes thankfully my partner works nights so I have the car in the day.

Do you live near an IKEA? Once your eldest is potty trained, you can book them in for a free hour at the onsite cresh. If you get an ikea family card, you get a free tea/coffee in the cafe, and if you time your visit just right, baby might nap in the pram while you drink it in peace.

Playgrounds.

Park/pond.

A walk through the woods.

Go for a walk, bike ride, scoot....

That's plenty.

That’s good then because you’ll be able to go that bit further afield.

If you’re looking at NT, see if you can get it cheaper through Scottish NT.

Moneysavingexpert have details of how to get a free family pass at the moment too. Well not entirely free as it does include a small purchase.

If there are any local petting zoos, actual zoos or farms that welcome DC I would see about getting a family pass to one of those.

Apart from that we did family, luckily DPs were retired and DSister works shifts.

We also met friends at least once a week.

Echo what the others have said too about the Library and local Playgroups. Our library has a folder with details of what’s on local for Mums and Mums to Be.

I found an annual pass for the local soft play was a great investment, particularly for the winter, youngest was free until they were 1, pass covered 1 adult and 1 child. It meant we could go for a couple of hours, so could go home for lunch/tea, whereas the single visit charge was for a whole day. Then when the youngest turned 1 I just had to pay for her, oldest and I were still covered by the pass till it ended. I didn't renew it as once I had to pay for the youngest it wasn't a good investment. I'm not so sure about the value of a NT pass, it depends on the attractions you can get to, some of the ones near us either have valuable antiques so children can't go rushing about or the only toilets are a long way from the good parts. There is one with a good playground, but its a fair walk from the carpark. If you are near a NT beach the pass can pay for itself in parking charges pretty fast!

We have local family hubs in our town that do baby and toddler groups for free. Is there anything like that round you? Between all of the hubs (there are probably around 10 hubs throughout the whole town) you could definitely do a different group for every day of the week.
They don’t have the best “reputation” as such because people think they are for people on benefits or with social involvement but they’re for everyone and they’re great. The one I tend to use has a sensory room and a soft play that you can book on to. It also has a subsidised cafe that is staffed by a charity for people with learning disabilities, so cheap coffee and lunch while your toddler is in soft play.

We manage this budget on activities, although we live in a city so there’s lots on within walking distance. We do a toddler stay and play in a church or community centre most mornings. - they are £2 or £3 each and the charge is suggested. In the afternoon we go to the park, playground, woods or the library. We usually do a couple of play dates a week. We have an annual pass to a nearby children’s museum which is good on rainy afternoons. A couple of other local museums have family activities that are cheap or free, but my toddler does best outside in a big open space!

Look into what's in your area and create a timetable.
Ask for annual passes as presents.
My library does a singing session for free with under 4s, I think they then put out some toys. This is held once or twice a week.
You could also just visit to look at the books.
The local museum also have a weekly toddler event in the term time so that would be another morning (and ours is free).
I know there are two playgroups that still run in town and these are low cost.
We still have even now mine are much older a zoo pass, and I know a friend with a little one goes weekly. (This would be pricey to begin but if you went weekly/fortnightly it would be worth it - our zoo has a soft play as well as outdoor play areas so you wouldn't even need to go to see animals).
Then add in all the usual kind of activities - parks, walks, feed the ducks.
Once a month maybe you could do soft play.
Also look at swimming, some pools do a cheap offer with the price for parent and children when it is a toddler session.

Ok, so you're talking about an average of around £2.50 per day. So things like library free activities, parks, the beach are going to work more then playgroups, which although quite cheap, are going to eat up most of your budget fast.

I'd save your money for the colder months and rainy days as it's easy to do free activities in decent weather.

You could consider one annual pass somewhere, and go there a lots but obviously it'll eat into your budget a lot. My local petting farm has a soft play inside and decent play areas, so you get animals, play and soft play for bad weather.

Did you manage to get the free family pass for the NT? 🙂