Time to Face The Music

RelievedSheff

It's definitely a spendy day today!

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are from stores though. Breakfast was toast, we have both taken our packed lunches to work and dinner tonight is chilli with rice and garlic bread.

Tonight's jobs are:

• walking the dog
• picking up the van
• vacuuming the house
• cleaning the bathrooms

Last night we were discussing our plans for the van and where we want to ultimately aim to travel too while we have it. We have decided that next year's main holiday will be in the summer and we will have just over a couple of weeks in the Outer Hebrides. We had a quick look at the ferry costs as we will be island hopping and they are really not as bad as we expected. Less than the train to Europe which is great considering the travel times  

Sun_Addict

Brilliant to have some lovely travel plans in place to look forward to. You are definitely getting your money's worth from the van.

EssexHebridean

Ferry costs off the west coast are far cheaper than they used to be now since the road equivalent tariff was brought in a few years back - we pay roughly now what we used to pay 10 years ago for the car plus 2 of us to get across and back on our chosen sailing, and the costs on the inter-islands sailings are still at about 50% of what we paid prior to RET - it's made a massive difference.

One thing to be aware of - there is an expectation that motorhomers will have sites booked ahead of time now due to so many issues with wild camping etc during Covid. That said, I can sign post you to a couple of lovely sites on Uist! (One of them has an awesome catering wagon with amazing cakes during the season, too!) 

RelievedSheff

Picked the van up after work. The bill was £900 so a bit cheaper than we had expected which is always nice.

Paid the insurance as well so we are all set to go for another year. 

Just need to submit the invoice to the dealer tomorrow to keep up the warranty for this last year. 

RelievedSheff

EssexHebridean said:

Ferry costs off the west coast are far cheaper than they used to be now since the road equivalent tariff was brought in a few years back - we pay roughly now what we used to pay 10 years ago for the car plus 2 of us to get across and back on our chosen sailing, and the costs on the inter-islands sailings are still at about 50% of what we paid prior to RET - it's made a massive difference.

One thing to be aware of - there is an expectation that motorhomers will have sites booked ahead of time now due to so many issues with wild camping etc during Covid. That said, I can sign post you to a couple of lovely sites on Uist! (One of them has an awesome catering wagon with amazing cakes during the season, too!) 

The ferry costs are very reasonable. The four ferries will cost a total of £235. So excellent value. The first leg from Oban to Castlebay is supposed to be very scenic. 

We will need to look into the prebooking campsite thing as we are intending to use the aires which you can not prebook. Plenty of time to sort that out though.

alt80

Haven't been around here for a few days but great to hear the van didn't cost the earth. Can't wait to see your photos of the Outer Hebrides.

RelievedSheff

alt80 said:

Haven't been around here for a few days but great to hear the van didn't cost the earth. Can't wait to see your photos of the Outer Hebrides.

It will be some trip that is for sure. Just need to be lucky with the weather.

I have said to the other half I would be happy with one day of bright sunshine so we can get some pictures on one of the white beaches with the blue sea and blue sky

RelievedSheff

Not a no spends day today. I have been to buy some beer for the weekend this morning. Blimey that has gone up with a bang from last week!!

Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be from stores. Breakfast was porridge, we have both taken our packed lunches to work and dinner tonight is pizza and a few beers on the sofa.

No jobs to do tonight. We have the weekend at home so we are planning to hit the house and the garden this weekend. The garden is getting a bit out of hand now with all the rain we have had.

Sun_Addict

I noticed Mr SA’s beer has gone up to £14 a crate, that’s the most it’s ever been. I bet there’ll be some more offers around the coronation weekend. 

milann

Pleased the mh wasn’t as expensive as you expected. 

The trip sounds amazing 👍