5 Frugal Things post 40 – Summer holidays in full force
We are in the throes of summer school holidays, already its week three! We had a week on holiday in Corsica and then returned to the UK, windy, pouring rain and cold. A normal August in the UK!
This past week has been full of keeping the boys as active and happy as possible whilst trying to stick to a budget. Budgeting is going to be important for the rest of the summer after our holiday. Turns out the Corsica holiday pretty much cost the same as Cornwall due to some heavy discounting and being all inclusive, so Cornwall planned for the end of August is now off the cards.
What have we done this week that has been frugal?
Visit to the zoo
I have been trying to arrange days out with the boys linked to my blog. This means we sometimes go to places in exchange for an honest review. We did this on Monday and headed up to Hamerton zoo park not too far from Godmanchester where we moving to (when we finally sell our house!). We took a picnic and some sweeties and didn’t spend a penny for the whole day. Hamerton also handily gave us a £25 voucher which paid for the train ride that the boys had to do and some goodies from the zoo shop. Full review coming later this week.
Soft play
The boys love soft play and have been wanting to go for months. I always resist particularly in the summer but the past week hasn’t been that great, and I remembered the council run place in Hatfield near me. It was £16 for all four of us, around half the price of the big chain places in leisure parks. It was loud and packed out but I got a table and they were happy for a couple of hours.
Cinema visit with KidsPass
On Wednesday Dylan had a football game in Leicester so hubby took him and one of his team mates (lift sharing to save money) on the long journey. Josh, Jack and I headed to Stevenage to grab some dinner and watch Despicable Me 3. A film we have wanted to see for ages.
We got the train which cost a grand total of £4.50. We had early bird dinner at Coast to Coast. All three of us ate for less than £30, including a huge hotdog for Jack, chicken burger for Josh and BBQ chicken with sweet potato fries for me. Yum. Great value.
We used my KidsPass membership to get cinema tickets for just £16.39 instead of £27.80 if I booked direct. You can get a 30-day trial for just £1 by clicking here. Cinema tickets are discounted 7 days a week, make the most of it for the rest of the Summer Holiday!!
Baking healthy coconut treats
On Friday Josh and Jack had play dates at friend’s houses, so Dylan and I made healthy cakes at home. Aldi had sent me a bundle of coconut ingredient goodies so we searched for a recipe and made coconut and chocolate crunch bars. I did the measuring, although it was an American recipe which is ever so easy to follow cup measurements and Dylan did the mixing. We used the coconut flour, coconut oil, flakes and cooking spray! As well as honey, eggs, vanilla essence, salt, baking powder, milk. Here is my Instagram post from the day. They were gluten and sugar free and I added dark chocolate macadamia nuts for the crunch rather than chocolate chips. Really yummy and I would make again.
Forgetting my £1 for the Aldi trolley
We did an Aldi shop on Thursday and I forgot my £1 for the trolley, this meant Dylan, Josh and I using our bags to carry around our shopping and we could only buy the essentials. The heavy things like Milk, cat food and tonic water had to wait until the end of the shop! We got everything we needed to last us a week. I always raid the super 6 offer fruit and veg so we got 14 apples for £1.78, blueberries and grapes for 99p each. The act of having to carry everything made the shop loads quicker and saved us a stack of cash. The shop cost £58.
I am linking up with Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s Five Fabulously Frugal things I have done this week linky.
Have a great summer holiday week, tell me what you are doing to save money?
