5 Frugal things post 44 – last week of summer holiday
This post is being written on the morning of Friday 1st Sept. I have a two hour window before I disappear off to Devon for a beautiful Yoga retreat hosted by my friend, nutrition expert and yoga guru Helena Bingham. This was booked months ago knowing that it would be very much needed at the end of the summer holidays. This past week has been the hardest. Originally it was planned to be a holiday week in Cornwall but this was cancelled when we went to Corsica at the beginning of the holidays instead.
It has been hard because the boys have been arguing. Hubby has been at home. 5 people in a house for too much time is not a good mix. I have busying myself negotiating lots of work, whilst bedlam goes on around me. I need to escape and the 3 day break comes at the right time.
My 5 frugal things post 44
Paradise Park and a spot of Service Station work!
Bank Holiday Monday was hot hot hot. We had already pre-booked a day out at a local zoo Paradise Park It was a review job so tickets were paid for. So instead I splashed out on lunch in the cafe, ice creams, a round of crazy golf and treats from the shop!! So I suppose you could say we got a day that would have cost £100ish for £45!!
We had a great day out and the review post is coming soon. Despite the heat the animals all came out to play and the highlight was the mummy and baby jaguar playing with each other. Just the cutest thing ever. And I managed to video the white tiger doing some yoga;-)
After Paradise Park we stopped off at the M25/A1 services to do some price checking for a blog post. I was to compare a list of products at the service station to the nearest super market. The results were shocking. Such a difference in pricing! The boys loved helping me out and I have promised them a cut of the fee!
More baking
I did say last week that baking was a popular activity in this household. Yesterday we baked chocolate chip cookies. A favourite recipe of the boys. The recipe comes from my friend Emma who passed it onto me a couple of years ago. It makes a load of cookies so we bakes a batch of 16 (that lasted all of 5 hours) and froze another 35. You roll them into balls and freeze the ones you are not baking. I have just baked 7 this morning for breakfast! Its still the summer holidays we are allowed cookies for breakfast!
Preparing for Packed lunches
I have got the food in for next weeks packed lunches. Yes we are making the move from school dinners over to packed lunches. The boys will have sandwiches (they have all chosen different fillings…of course), crisps, fruit, carrots, cucumber, fruit and a few cocktail sausages. Aldi had a fab range of fruit in their super 6 range so I got packets of 6 apples, 6 bananas and 6 clementines for 59p each. The weeks lunch boxes should come in at around £8 for the week compared to £24 for the lunches. We will see how we get on.
I forgot the name labels for the school clothes!
I remembered everything except the labels to stick on all the school clothes! Amazon came to my rescue and I ordered a pack of 50 names on Wednesday, they arrived on Thursday! So fast. I do a cheeky thing as well. I order lables saying Dylan Josh Jack James and the same lable goes into all the clothes. This means I can get labels for just £4.25. Here is the link to the company that I used -Nametape express.
Jo Malone dupe candles
Doesnt every woman love a candle? I like to light them in my office when I am working or just have them burning on the kitchen side. I got to test out one the Aldi Jo Malone due candles earlier in the year and I loved it. This week I got hold of all three candles, No 1 lime, basil and madarin, No 2 blackberry and bay and No 3 pomegranate noir. These candles will set you back £3.99 each rather than £44 at Jo Malone. Much more more value for money!
I am linking up with Cass, Emma and Becky in this week’s Five Fabulously Frugal things I have done this week linky.
2 Responses
OOh your candles look good and aggggh name labels
Packed lunches can definitely save you some cash! You’ve worked out the costs really well too. I’ve also spotted those candles in Aldi, they look great 🙂