Twinklies mortgage journey 2.0

earthgirl2

Well done on knocking another month off the mortgage! 

twinklie

What a lovely Easter we have had. The holidays are spread over 3 weeks for us due to different school holidays - which is daft considering one school is the feeder school for the other. 

DS2 was off week one. We got his eyes tested and then went for lunch with my folks. That was all we did. Every other day was a NSD. 

Week 2 both were off and we went on holiday to Yorkshire. Stayed at an amazing place with a swimming pool you could privately book out for a hour per day - included in the cost of the stay. So we went swimming everyday. 

Day 1 - did the food shop so did have to spend money, but only on food for the week. Rest of the day was just exploring were we were. 
Day 2 - NSD on the activity - walk round a forest, but did treat ourselves to coffee and hot chocolate. Saved £15 on parking due to the site we stayed on having a members pass by we could use which also gave us a 10% discount on our drinks.

Day 3 - went to visit a castle - saved £5.71 on entry due to the kids having DLA. Did let the kids by some tat though. 
Day 4 - went to a war museum - saved £30 on entry again due to the kids having DLA. Again let the kids by some tat.

Day 5 - A visit to a stately home and gardens in an area of outstanding natural beauty with an epic play area - saved £45 due to kids having DLA. Bought some drinks.

Day 6 - just walked around the area (which was stunning) and went to the railway station to see a steamy. NSD aside from drinks at the railway.
Day 7 - home time but also back to the forest for one last blast - again saving £15 on parking. 

Yay for taking your own lunch on days out - I’ve always done this, it saves a fortune and makes the day much more flexible. Also thank goodness for the discounts afforded to us by DLA or we just wouldn’t have tried some of the stuff we did. And most of it, we just skimmed because DS2 in particular just legs it everywhere. We only lost him once during the whole week - which is pretty impressive honestly. He’s so fast now and it’s so difficult to keep up with him. 

Saturday we did very little but washing and unpacking. Sunday we met up with my parents on the park for a family tradition. 

Today - Minecraft movie at the cinema. 

Tomorrow - DS2 is back to school. 

This week I think is generally going to be a pretty quiet week. DS1 is exhausted and hasn’t had a proper ‘chilled day off’ yet. We will do something one day, but the week will be pretty low key. 

I’m exhausted too. Can’t believe it’s back to school for DS2 tomorrow - I’ll miss him so much. He’s been like my shadow for the last two weeks. 

twinklie

Also I’ve signed up for marking again, but I need a new computer mine has died. Honestly, I only need a really basic one because I really only use it for marking, browsing the internet and spreadsheets (MSE and gardening ones). 

Any suggestions for good but cheap basic laptops?

teapot2

I've not tried it myself but others on the Forum have bought refurbished phones or laptops from B@ckMarket, which come with a warranty and a number of checks.

Baileys_Babe

One of my friends when visiting places with her children used to allow them each to buy a pencil to remember the place by. The advantage of this is pencils are, relatively cheap, small and useful. Even better if the venue has a children's activity like a quiz or treasure hunt and the prize is a pencil. Wish I had done this with my children.

twinklie

Baileys_Babe said:

One of my friends when visiting places with her children used to allow them each to buy a pencil to remember the place by. The advantage of this is pencils are, relatively cheap, small and useful. Even better if the venue has a children's activity like a quiz or treasure hunt and the prize is a pencil. Wish I had done this with my children.

Funny you should mention that. 

Castle had an Easter trail - won a pencil. But also allowed them to buy a sword/axe and shield. They are obsessed with How to Train Your Dragon and Minecraft, so it fits in with their ‘themes’. 

War museum - got a notepad and pen with the name on. 

The stately home had an Easter trail and the prize was a giant chocolate button made by young people with autism which was quite apt. They ate the chocolate but kept the wrappers. 

earthgirl2

Glad you had such a lovely Easter! 

Baileys_Babe

They sound like excellent prizes. Mine and the DN's had play swords and shields, both foam and wooden, which they greatly enjoyed, also useful for fancy dress 😉

twinklie

Well today’s also been a pretty good one. Just me and DS1. We watched Dr Who, took the dog on a long walk and just mooched around the house. 

Not quite a NSD as I needed to do a top up shop, to get milk and a few other bits for tea. 

I’m in work tomorrow which I’m dreading. But then off again until Monday (which I’m loving). 

twinklie

Had such a lovely day with DS1 yesterday. We went to the little zoo place attached to where we have our health club membership. I got him an annual membership - £34. Means he can go anytime with an adult (free as his carer), whenever he wants. 

We spent ages there and fell in love with the Giant Anteater and a few other things. They have an ant colony too and ants are one of his special interests so it was perfect. 

Then we did the nature trail around the site including the bit that only members and residents are allowed to use around the lake. We tried some of the apparatus on the nature walk as well. 

Then hired a boat to pedal around the lake. It’s £4 pp but due to the health club membership we only had to pay for me. 

So the whole day out cost £38 for us both, but that’s including the annual membership for the zoo. 

It felt like we were still on holiday but with the added advantage of not having the faff of being on holiday. Due to DS2 not being there we were able to really take our time and spend time really taking things in. And with DH not being there DS1 was really relaxed (they are arguing a lot atm). It really was just perfect.