Monday Money #18
The last week of summer holidays is over and I feel a bit sad. We’ve had such a great summer holidays packed full of fun and some brilliant experiences. But its now over back to school on Tuesday. Aldi sent me a lovely gift to mark the end of the holidays, a hamper arrived on Friday packed full of goodies, sparkling wine, cookies, chocolate, candles and skincare. Such a lovely surprise.
September is a time for big goals and targets. Its also a time to cut back and save as much money as possible. NO matter how hard we tried in the summer holiday it was still an expensive time, as every Monday here are a few ways that we tried to save last week or exciting things that we got up to.
Football Fun Week
The boys went on a football camp Tuesday to Friday, this was 6 hours a day for the three of them. It came to £135 with a sibling discount. Very good value for money for 72 hours of childcare. The boys got to do all sorts, football of course, dodgeball, badminton (Dylan’s new fav activity), cricket and basketball.
Tuesday in London with Fearne Cotton
Childcare allowed me to get back to work last week and get into London for a few meetings. I met a client to film an interview on their YouTube channel and then hotfooted it, literally by foot, over to Piccadilly circus to go see Boots Mini Club and Fearne Cotton for the launch of her new children’s clothing range.
Its such a lovely range packed full of beautifully designed pieces. I particularly loved the tracksuits and soft jersey material. Here are a few of my favourites and you can buy everything online at Boots now.
Do The Unthinkable Food Plan
I have been trialling a new food box offering from Muscle Foods. This is a protein rich eating plan to help you to achieve your fitness goals. For me this is to lose the weight I have put on over the summer holidays. A huge box arrived packed with breakfast, lunch and dinner for every day plus 2 snacks a day. It felt like a lot of food for one week!
The food tastes great and is very easy to prepare. If you are after a simple solution to give you healthy food, then this could be a good option for you. Click here for more details and you can get £5 off your first order by using the code mummypenny5.
Last Minute Back to School Orders from Amazon
School shoes are always an issue for us, the boys are terrible with their shoes and scuff them, bash them up so quickly. I’m lucky if a pair of shoes lasts a whole term. Hence this means I will not buy expensive shoes. Sports Direct is normally where we go for shoes, but a visit last week put me off. It was too busy, and I thought maybe Amazon will be able to help me out.
It did, I got two pairs of black trainers for Dylan and Jack for £37. I also got two plain lunchboxes for £10, two navy school jumpers for £10 and black plimsoles for Jack for £5. Back to school shopping done on a budget and with much less stress.
A day at Shepreth Wildlife Park
Saturday was a day for Jack and me, with the others off to play football. Shepreth animal park is one of our favourite places to visit and a total bargain when you get the train. I have a friends and family railcard so the train tickets for the 40-minute direct train ride were just £4.20. We showed our tickets upon entry and saved £4 on our tickets price. Yeah it was free to get there, and no petrol used.
It was £18 for one adult and one child, Jack took the map and decided which animal to go visit. The highlight for me was the baby otter! So cute. I had seen it had been born on Instagram and had been keen to visit for ages. We saw the crocodile, snakes, tigers, monkeys, porcupines, kangaroos. The red panda and coatis were out to play. It was great fun and a beautiful day. With the added adventure of a train ride to start and end the visit.
