Contact on a small budget: ten ideas for under ten euros

After the journey, a second household and buying everything twice, many contact parents have little left at the weekend. That does not have to make contact any smaller. Children remember what you did together, not the admission price.

Published on 7 September 2026

Why the expensive day out is not the yardstick

The pressure to make something special out of a few days hits contact parents harder than others. If you see your child every two weeks, you do not want to spend that time on laundry and shopping. That quickly turns into a weekend that ends at the theme park, and a bank account that does not survive the month.

But children do not rate contact time by how much went into it. What they talk about once they are back is rarely the most expensive thing. It is what you did together, and what happens the same way every time.

Ten ideas that cost nothing or next to nothing

• Library. In many places the library card for children is free. Besides books there are often board games, audio dramas and console games to borrow, plus story time on Saturdays.
• Museum on the right day. Children and teenagers pay nothing at many museums, and quite a few have one day a month with free or heavily reduced admission. A look at the calendar before the contact time is worth it.
• Wildlife enclosure and forest nature trail. Municipal wildlife enclosures (Wildgehege) are usually free, often with feeding times. The difference from the zoo is the price, not the experience.
• Geocaching. A treasure hunt with your phone, and there are free apps for it. Works in any city and turns a walk into a mission.
• Cooking together instead of eating out. Pizza dough, tomatoes, cheese: for a few euros you get an afternoon instead of a meal. Many children like the topping part more than the eating.
• Film night at home. Blanket, popcorn from the pan, lights off. Do it on the same evening every time and after three contact times you have a ritual.
• Open-air pool at the evening rate. From late afternoon, admission at many pools is half price. A bathing lake costs nothing at all.
• Watching vehicles. Harbour, airport fence, fire station on its open day, building site with a crane. For younger children this beats any theme park.
• Children's flea market. First sort things out together, then sell them. Your child gets to keep what they take in, and learns more about money that way than from any explanation.
• Night walk with a torch. Costs nothing, takes an hour and reliably ends up in the memory book.

What is worth it almost everywhere

Which of these offers exist where you live differs from place to place. Two things are there for the taking almost everywhere and are rarely used by contact parents:

• The city's Ferienpass (holiday pass). During the school holidays many municipalities bundle activities for a few euros: workshops, sport, swimming, guided tours. It usually costs a small one-off amount and is valid for the whole of the holidays.
• The Familienpass or Sozialpass (family or social discount pass). If you receive Bürgergeld (citizen's income), Wohngeld (housing benefit) or other social benefits, many cities give you reduced admission to pools, museums and zoos and cheaper local transport tickets. You apply for it once at the local authority, after that it is valid for the whole year.

If in doubt, just ask, even where nothing is signposted. Discounts for children, for families and for the late afternoon are rarely shown at the till.

Rituals beat attractions

The most effective thing costs nothing anyway: the same routine at every contact time. The same pizza on Fridays. The same spot on the sofa on Saturday evening. The same way to the station on Sundays, with the same stop along the way.

For a child who commutes between two homes, familiarity is worth more than variety. It turns your home into a place they come back to, not one they visit.

Still write it down

Cheap contact times need documenting too, precisely because hardly any receipts come out of them. A contact time without expenses is still a contact time that took place, and that is exactly what matters later. How to manage that without a shoebox full of paper is explained in the guide Documenting contact costs.

And what was said on those afternoons does not belong in the same file. That is what the memory book is for.

Further reading