Time to Face The Music

RelievedSheff

amber03 said:

I enjoy watching a you tube channel of a couple similar to yourselves who have a motor home and do a lot of pub stopovers in it. They have a couple of dogs and usually do a walk first then go to the pub for a meal. Channel,is called The Slaws. I do think if we had a motor home instead of a caravan we would be away a lot more than we do. Xx

As much as we do love a pub stop we are finding them to be far more expensive than just staying on a site. We are inclined to drink more and spend far more in the pub. If we stay on a site we tend to walk to the pub have a couple of drinks and then head back to the van.

We will still use them as they are a cracking idea. But we might not use as many this year.

RelievedSheff

It will be a no spends day today. Number 3 for February. Going to try and get a few more in this month even though it is a shirter month.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be from stores. Breakfast was toast, we have both taken our packed lunches to work and dinner tonight is jerk pork chops with firecracker rice and vegetables.

Tonight's jobs are:

• walking the dog
• dusting the house

I really noticed last night just how much some of the items in the weekly shop have gone up in price. It was perhaps a bigger shop than normal as I have stocked up a bit on seafood for the freezer but the prices on some singular items have really increased. £3 for washing up liquid!!

joedenise

RelievedSheff said:

amber03 said:

I enjoy watching a you tube channel of a couple similar to yourselves who have a motor home and do a lot of pub stopovers in it. They have a couple of dogs and usually do a walk first then go to the pub for a meal. Channel,is called The Slaws. I do think if we had a motor home instead of a caravan we would be away a lot more than we do. Xx

As much as we do love a pub stop we are finding them to be far more expensive than just staying on a site. We are inclined to drink more and spend far more in the pub. If we stay on a site we tend to walk to the pub have a couple of drinks and then head back to the van.

We will still use them as they are a cracking idea. But we might not use as many this year.

Absolutely agree!  pub stops are great but usually end up eating as well as having a few drinks and as you say ends up more expensive.  In the summer we use a lot of CCC rallies and Temporary Holiday Sites as they tend to be that bit cheaper than proper sites.  With the motorhome you just don't need the facilities you have your own!  It's the reason for buying a motorhome in the first place.

For our main holidays we always go across to France as it's much more motorhome friendly with their aires, some of which are free although there are far less of those now than there were 15 years or so ago when we started across the water.

Are you planning on going across to the Continent this year?  You'll really notice the difference with not having to bother booking anything and just turning up wherever you want to stay!

RelievedSheff

joedenise said:

RelievedSheff said:

amber03 said:

I enjoy watching a you tube channel of a couple similar to yourselves who have a motor home and do a lot of pub stopovers in it. They have a couple of dogs and usually do a walk first then go to the pub for a meal. Channel,is called The Slaws. I do think if we had a motor home instead of a caravan we would be away a lot more than we do. Xx

As much as we do love a pub stop we are finding them to be far more expensive than just staying on a site. We are inclined to drink more and spend far more in the pub. If we stay on a site we tend to walk to the pub have a couple of drinks and then head back to the van.

We will still use them as they are a cracking idea. But we might not use as many this year.

Absolutely agree!  pub stops are great but usually end up eating as well as having a few drinks and as you say ends up more expensive.  In the summer we use a lot of CCC rallies and Temporary Holiday Sites as they tend to be that bit cheaper than proper sites.  With the motorhome you just don't need the facilities you have your own!  It's the reason for buying a motorhome in the first place.

For our main holidays we always go across to France as it's much more motorhome friendly with their aires, some of which are free although there are far less of those now than there were 15 years or so ago when we started across the water.

Are you planning on going across to the Continent this year?  You'll really notice the difference with not having to bother booking anything and just turning up wherever you want to stay!

Yes we are heading across to France later this year.

We are going to a friends house next weekend to hopefully plan to go across with them. They have been motorhoming for many years and are old hands at travelling abroad so it would be nice to go along with them for this first trip to the EU.

We have been finding a lot of free park ups or cheap overnight car parks in the UK which we love and we do much prefer the smaller sites to the larger commercial campsites. As you say we have our own facilities, we dont need a fully serviced site.

It is nice to see that more aires are opening in the UK as vans have gained popularity. 

RelievedSheff

It will be a no spends day today. Number 4 for February.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be from stores. Breakfast was cereals, we have both taken our packed lunches to work and dinner tonight is spag bol and garlic bread.

Tonight's jobs are:

• walking the dog
• cleaning the kitchen
• load of washing

It looks set to be another beautiful day here.

RelievedSheff

Another no spends day. Number 5 for February.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are from stores. Breakfast was crumpets, we have both taken our packed lunches to work and dinner tonight if fish pie with a root veg mash topping and vegetables.

Tonight's jobs are:

• walking the dog
• cleaning the bathrooms
• vacuuming the house

We realised last night that it is now over a year since we last spent anything on the credit cards or had anything on credit. Long may it continue.

alt80

We realised last night that it is now over a year since we last spent anything on the credit cards or had anything on credit. Long may it continue.

This is great to hear @RelievedSheff

All I will say is it is worth putting all your day to day spends on a credit card with the direct debit set up to clear the balance each month as it affords greater protection than using a debit card.

LittleMissDetermined

RelievedSheff said:

We realised last night that it is now over a year since we last spent anything on the credit cards or had anything on credit. Long may it continue.

This is a great feeling isn't it?    Although I agree with @alt80 that it can be handy for purchase protection.  I will certainly be keeping a couple of my cards open once I am debt free for when I make any large purchases and want the protection.  I have an inkling which ones I will keep but I don't want to close any until I am debt free. 
LMD x

RelievedSheff

alt80 said:

We realised last night that it is now over a year since we last spent anything on the credit cards or had anything on credit. Long may it continue.

This is great to hear @RelievedSheff

All I will say is it is worth putting all your day to day spends on a credit card with the direct debit set up to clear the balance each month as it affords greater protection than using a debit card.

We will be keeping a card or two open for bigger purchases. But there really isn't much, if anything, that we buy day to day that requires protection really.

RelievedSheff

Not a no spends day today. I have had to go and buy some baby shampoo for bathing the dog tonight.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are from stores. Breakfast was toast, we have both taken our packed lunches to work and dinner tonight is pizza and a few beers on the sofa watching a couple of films.

After the dogs walk tonight he is having a bath to freshen him up ready for going to the neighbours house for dinner tomorrow evening. But that is the only thing we are doing tonight. 

This week seems to have flown by.