Money Matters

I have been monitoring money a lot this year, and cutting back where I can. Very few impulse buys happening now. I am not perfect I occasionally buy things just because. But never things costing very much.

I have been earning money where I can, I have had payouts from quidco and topcashback as well as inboxpounds. I have sold several things on ebay. I have been keeping stock of what we have. We have been eating out of the freezer since February we are getting down to the last few dregs now but will keep going until it is empty without buying anything.

I have also cancelled our gym membership. I have been paying £28.00 per month. Yet adding up the cost of visits we have only used £33.10 worth of visits since January so I shall be going pay-as-you-go from now on!

Even the children are getting used to me counting the pennies, Dylan can understand the price labels in the supermarket and work out which item is the most cost effective based around price per kilo etc. Stephanie reads the money side of the labels and will tell me which is cheapest. They will both usually choose something to ask for because 'this one costs less'. I think these are fantastic skills for them to build on which will hopefully pay off well for them when they are running their own homes. Even if Stephanie is adamant that she will be living with me forever. I am under no illusions this opinion will change a lot over the coming years.

I like to have something to look forward to and for us it is the coming May half term. We are planning on shaking out the tent from it's winter storage and heading off to somewhere like Devon. Usually we will decide as a family. The last couple of time we have been away we have surprised
Stephanie by not telling her where we are going. She has requested that this time we don't tell Dylan and surprise him.

If the site we are looking at has availability it will cost us about £13 per night. We will take most of the food from our cupboards with us meaning that this little holiday will be very inexpensive. The area we are looking at has lots of walks, beaches etc nearby so will be very much in our price range.

Looking forward to some lovely quiet time. Oh yes campsite says no signal on site for mobiles. It really will be peaceful :-)

Photo taken from internet, not my tent :-)

Another birthday!

Last Tuesday it was Stephanie's 8th birthday. It doesn't seem possible that my baby is 8 already.

She still likes to come in for a snuggle in the mornings;

And a little more of a snooze.

I did learn on her birthday that the easiest way to wake her in the morning is to bring her a bowl of her favourite cereal;

Although at over 32 a box! it is not  a treat she will get often. her dad supplied this particular treat.

She had time for a couple of presents before heading off to school

she was very pleased with her little pile of goodies. What she doesn't know is she has her main present in a couple of weeks. Both Stephanie and my niece want to go to Harry potter world in London. So my sister and I have booked a treat to take them together. As their birthdays are exactly a month apart we decided to book it smack bang in the middle of them both and keep it as a surprise.

 

After school we headed off to pizza hut for a family meal, birthday girls' request!

we all enjoyed her birthday cake;

Of course it was a Harry Potter themed cake.

 

Lots of fun was had and I now have a niece and nephew who a Harry Potter cake!!

 

Where has the time gone??!

 

 

 

More of our Devon minibreak

While we were in Devon we managed to go to the beach,

A ride on a couple of trams

Stephanie had a swim in the onsite pool,

 we went on an adventure tour where the children call out the directions for me to drive in.

 

Whilst we were on our tour we found a lovely little pub to have dinner in called the The Otter Inn. We thoroughly recommend their food. It was delicious- cleared plates from all 3 of us. And fantastically reasonable- £22.10 for the three of us to have a meal and a drink. If you are ever in the area it is well worth a visit. The staff were friendly and quick as well.

 

I even managed to get some eggs and vegetables at a roadside stand. I love using these :-)

And finaloly just for fun a clip of Stephanie playing in the onsite park;

 

Devon mini break

Last week I booked us a last minute weekend getaway in an effort to relax before we all started back to school. I decided that we would go to Devon. I likeit there the sceneray is very pretty and it is a relatively short drive. It should have taken us 3 hours 25 minutes to get to where I had booked. Unfoirtunately there was a traffic incident- along the 3 motorways we had to tracvel along; meaning we did this a lot:

yup!! we sat at a complete standstill. A LOT. the journey took us 7 and a half hours in total!

Nevermind it was sowrth it. I had booked us to stay in a little 'pod' as I thought it might be warmer/drier than the tent. The days a relatively nice at the moment but evenings are still very cold.

The pod was £103 for the three of us to stay in for three nights. The pod did cost us almost double what the tent would have cost at the site we stayed on. But look at it!!

 

Inside there are 2 single beds and one double. It was the perfect size for us. Friday was a beautiful day ( our travelling day!) So when we got there ready to stretch our legs we went straight out for a walk. The site leads straight out into the woods so we had a wander. We saw dg walkers, cyclists and horseriders all out enjoying the weather. We made up stories about fairies we invented as we walked.

 

We even found a rope swing to play on. Unfortunately my phone died before I got to take any photographs.

 

We then headed back to have dinner.

I decided to give the children their Easter egg from me early so that they could enjoy them whilst we were away ( and I didn't have to panic over the fact they might melt, like I was on the way to Devon!

We played some card games before we crawled into our sleeping bags for the night.

FAKE SLEEPING! LOL


So that was our first day of our get away break. I'll show you some more tomorrow as I should be doing some paperwork about now!

busy week!

Wow where has the last week gone? We have been very busy. Good busy though lots of fun. We have had the family from 'oop north' visiting. We have had a wedding. We have had a weekend away. All in one week!

 

The happy couple having their first dance.

 

Me holding up the castle, relieving the boredom while the proper photographs were taken. When the photographers' photos are back I am hoping to have one or two nice ones of me and my two. I don't feel I should share any others here as they are not only my children in the pictures.

 

It was a brilliant day with lots of family fun and giggles, lots of stories to talk of silly moments for years to come!

 

 

Now I must go and get some dinner on if I am to get us organised for back to school in the morning, oh and a certain little lady's 8th(!!) birthday tomorrow.

 

fun in the sun

I have some family visiting at the moment, well they are not staying here but at a local aunt and uncle. it's lovely to see them. tonight my niece is having a sleep over. As I sit here and type the girl's are in the garden making dinner;

 

I love our mud kitchen it brings endless jours of fun for the children.

 

I do have a back up dinner planned just in case, we have roast turkey (left over from a previous meal and frozen), mashed potato and vegetables. Stephanie is still vegetarian so I have some quorn 'chicken' cooking for her.

 

I'm off to watch them play.

Summer preparations

As is customary before the summer comes Stephanie makes her preparations by trying on her dresses and putting her order in for new ones. So far we have found 4 that don't fit. In Stephanie's opinion 3 that definitely don't fit and one that will be ok for this year!

Stephanie went through my fabric stash last night and has placed an order for 5 dresses and 2 skirts. This evening she is spending the night at her daddy's house so I have spent the evening fulfilling one order.

 

Here is the finished product. I will get a better picture when she wears it. Once she is home tomorrow I will be able to see how the fit is on her before I make the others.

 

For now though I need to Google for a set of new needles for my sewing machine, I may have bent one by catching it on the zip...