2014 Frugal Living Challenge

Shortie

I've never booked one of them before but am seriously interested. If I have this right, you pay £9.50pp for the holiday and some sites you have to buy entertainment and activity passes for around £10pp (are these two different passes? One to cover daytime kids activities and one to cover the evening clubhouses?)

And one more question - I somehow assumed they were 4 day mid week holidays. Can we book 7 day holidays for £9.50pp, in the school holidays?

Thank you xx

Shortie

So, even though we've been bonkers busy the last few weeks, we haven't had any 'just us 4' time (we had family staying at ours over the Christmas period, so no wind down time even then )

So, for Saturday I've just booked for us all to go to the £1 cinema. It's a pretty frugal day for us really as we eeeeek every inch out of the trip possible.... We have breakfast at home, then go to the cinema. We take in our own drinks (diluted squash) and snacks (usually grapes and sweets, but this time leftover bits from Christmas - 2 tubs of Pringles and some sweets). After the cinema we hit the local 360 softplay as the boys have membership so it's free at the moment (I won't renew though, there is a much cheaper place just opened closer to home) - we have lunch in there of home made sandwiches and buy a few bowls of chips to go with them. One of us then nips to the local F&V market while the other is in the softplay as we don't have a market near us so it's a great chance for us to to stock up on cheap fresh stuff. We also nip to the local Sainsbury's to stock up on their el cheapo teabags which I find perfectly serviable (especially for the price!) So we pack a lot of things into the day for about £10 plus petrol

dizzy_lizzie

Shortie wrote: »

So we pack a lot of things into the day for about £10 plus petrol

Wow that is a great day for £10 Shortie

Not sure what we'll be up to this evening. We usually book tickets and go out but left it too late. So might just go out for a meal and be home before midnight to catch the countdown on tv. Feeling really lazy today though and can't muster up any energy.
Hope everyone has a lovely evening and onwards and upwards for 2014 :beer:
x

the_cat

I need this thread too!
This year has seen a LOT of expense and although I have managed to pay cash (plus an interest free loan) I have depleted my savings radically.
So 2014 is going to be a frugal and savings orientated one.
I've set a budget for every category and am aiming to save the rest of our income. In a reverse psychology sort of way, I find I'm better at setting a bigger budget and coming in under it, so my figures are a bit above what I think I should need. Hopefully that way I will be under budget and will save any excess
Happy New Year to you all

alja

his_missus wrote: »

You may actually find bargains throughout the year you can put aside so rather than having to give a smaller box, you could give a cheaper box and your £10 per stocking may go farther than usual. I once gave Hubby a stocking full of freebies, some were free samples I'd collected over the year, some were the freebies from offers such as bogof:rotfl:

Very true! I'll definitely keep on the ball and keep my eyes peeled for anything I see!

Flutterby83

Shortie wrote: »

I've never booked one of them before but am seriously interested. If I have this right, you pay £9.50pp for the holiday and some sites you have to buy entertainment and activity passes for around £10pp (are these two different passes? One to cover daytime kids activities and one to cover the evening clubhouses?)

And one more question - I somehow assumed they were 4 day mid week holidays. Can we book 7 day holidays for £9.50pp, in the school holidays?

Thank you xx

Hi Shortie, yes you are right in assuming they are midweek breaks, but you arrive Monday and leave on Friday so 5 days, 4 nights. It is £9.50pp which you pay to the Sun on booking, then your chosen park may send you an additional invoice for other charges, such as entertainment. You can contact the park once booked to extend the break to 7 days, but this depends on availability and you will probably pay what the park normally charge, NOT £9.50pp!! The tokens can only be used once per household (I think, it may have changed as we didn't go last year) so you cannot use them to book a second holiday for the weekend, does that make sense? The Monday-Friday holidays are the best value as you can go Friday-Monday for the same price but you only get 4 days and 3 nights. Normally you enter accommodation at around 4pm on the arrival day and have to leave by 10am on the departure day, but you have use of all facilities on the site from when you arrive until you chose to leave. I hope this helps x

Shortie

Lovely, thanks Flutterby83, that explains it nicely ta x

Flutterby83

Well after the horrible letter the postman delivered yesterday, I had a lovely surprise from one of my neighbours as he delivered me a bottle of wine after I fixed a pair of trousers for him Also, my neighbour on the other side handed over a whole hamper of goodies that she'd 'overbought' over the holidays and wouldn't use (she lives alone) so my kids promptly attacked the sweets and cakes while I figured out what to make with the rest! Which got me to thinking about favours for favours - does anyone do this? Provide a service in return for payment in kind rather than in cash? I remember my parents doing it years ago when they used to run a pub (they would offer out free use of the function room in return for fixing something in the flat, for example) but I wondered if it was something that people still did and how it works out? I also thought it would be a good idea for presents instead of material things - an IOU for babysitting or an offer of doing a days ironing. I've also vowed to make birthday cakes as presents this year for the adults as it's something everyone says they want but never get and after doing a free sugarcraft course this year, I feel confident enough to do it!
Hope everyone enjoys the New Year celebrations and are all looking forward to a very frugal 2014 x

Goldiegirl

Good afternoon.


I've been moving things around in the kitchen and cupboard under the stairs, freeing up some space, ready to keep all my ingredients / flour etc for batch cooking / baking, and all the bargain price stuff that I will buy on special deals!


I also de-cluttered a few things too, so I feel ready to start the new year.


The new part for the cistern arrived today which was great, and Mr GG fitted it, but now he wants to get it to flush right, so there's endless tweaking going on - I'm just staying out of the way!!


Anyway, hope everyone has a great New Year's Eve, and all ready to start the new frugal year!

Gretchen2012

Well I've managed to sort out my budget and for 2014 it will be £5000 for myself and DD. I am hoping I will come a lot under but as its the first time I don't want to set an unrealistic budget.

Last day of smoking too. As soon as I get in tonight any left will be given to the bin. Electric cig charged and ready to go.

Happy New Year everyone. Have a great night.