The first week back to a routine after a holiday is always a strange one, particularly when it includes a week of school runs after 6 weeks of summer holidays. The logistics are back to crazy level with multiple things happening every day for each child or myself making it an army style organisation every week. Along with two days in London as the UK Money Blogger Unite. But of course, there are Monday Money saving that were made!
School Lists and Purchases Continue
The school list of stuff needed for secondary school is never-ending. This week Dylan told me he needed a hockey stick. Immediate money battle sets in, I know that Sports Direct is immoral but its also cheap and the only place nearby that has a hockey stick. £9 spent.
Pocket money and snack money is needed. DJ gets the train to school with his friends and they often stop as shops for treats, so we have started giving him £5 per week, but this also means that we need to give the other boys the same money, right?
Homework is full on and I mean really full on, especially when you take into consideration that DJ has football training three nights a week. I can see that it is stressing him out, staying on top of it all.
Money Saving Tips for Students
Aldi asked me to write another post for them this week. Namely to promote their rather fabulous student living range where I got this coffee cup and lunchbox from. Also I shared my money saving tips for students just about to leave for uni, from comparison deals to shopping at Aldi. Have a read of it here, or please share with any students you know.
Mediavine workshop
I had two days in London last week and the first day was with the Media Vine team. This was a free event for Mediavine members to help us to make improvements to our websites to them make prettier, faster and better. Mediavine is an advertising network, the ads you see on my website come via Mediavine and I receive a monthly payment for the number of ads seen on my website.
I have a huge list of next steps and am excited to get them fixed and make my website a better place to visit. I found I was all comfortable with my site, thinking that it was doing well, until you see the possibilities of things that it could do. There is always room to grow.
The UK Money Bloggers Show Me the Money Event
Saturday saw our annual UK Money Blogger conference back in the same meeting location. So, Faith and I, who went to both events booked a cheap Travelodge for the Friday night. We shared a family room for £32.50 each. Bargain.
The event started at 10:30 on Saturday morning so we had time to go for a walk around the city, down to the millennium bridge to see a beautiful low tide River Thames. We had a very cheap breakfast, food that we picked up the night before from the Too Good to Go app. Food that was otherwise going to be wasted by a restaurant, £10 of food for £3.
Saturday was a day for sharing information about blogging, business, ideas, and catching up with friends. I did a talk on how to make money from blogging, packed with tips on how to persevere, charge right and to focus on what makes you happy. I was nervous, but apparently no one could tell, and everyone loved it. And my dress, in beautiful green was from H&M back in early summer, which I got after a discount for just £30! And I adore it.
Yoga retreat
Sunday saw me spend the day at a Yoga Retreat in the Chilterns. It was SUCH a wonderful day run by my friend Jane Weeks, also manager of Sweaty Betty in St. Albans. We had a session of flow yoga in the morning, with lots of salutations and downward dogs. We all got a sweat on.
After a very lovely lunch we had an afternoon of yoga with Jonny, with gong baths and long stretches. Some of which my body would not let me do for 5 minutes.
There was plenty of relaxation of talk with the other retreat people. It was amazing and was the perfect way to relax and decompress after the previous busy two days. Cost wise its £60 per person, and £50 each of you book as a twosome. Wonderful value for a great day.
Foraging for berries!
Earlier in the week I had a great morning foraging with Fran for berries. We are planning on making sloe gin and blackberry wine, and we found loads. Free fun, we got to chat whilst searching and we walked 4 miles in the process.
I am so excited to make out boozy treats!
One Response
Was so good to see you and no nerves showed, you were ace!