Love Freecycle and Gumtree!

Well after our holiday in our caravan we came to the conclusion we need an awning - its ok for 3 of us but if my partner comes as well it mucks up our sleeping arrangements so I am quite happy to sleep out in an awning (we have camped for the last 10 years so its no biggy - lurrve my air bed!) So had a look at some of the awnings on the campsite - went home and looked them up on the net and nearly fainted at the price of them!!! It has to be said on the site they were all brand new vans with full canvas awnings - must have cost thousands and thousands so presumbably they are all paying them up.....we on the other hand have a 17 year old van that was paid for cash. Yes, its a bit ropey, but its warm and dry and we love her. We also had a wonderful selection of mis-matched camping stuff we use that we have gathered over the years (no matching Lafuma chairs here!) so we do look a bit gypsy like.
So I put up a a request on Freecycle to see if anyone had an old one - bit of a long shot but worth a try - didnt hear anything so been looking on Ebay and Gumtree. Up popped the exact one I wanted (porch type, not canvas, puts up with flexible tent poles) - they are around £170 and I wanted the inner tent bed awning too (£35) and then you have to buy the skirt round the van seperate - this lovely lady was selling hers for £95 - used twice and then they got a bigger one! I was delighted and dispatched eldest dd to get it.
So the next thing it to try and put it up!!!!
THEN - got an email from a lady on Freecyle whos aunt was getting rid of a canvas awning and did we still want it! So off to get that one - much bigger than the first one - proper canvas with heavy poles (and no instructions!) but hey, it was free!
So tomorrow weather permitting, we will be trying out 2 awnings - wish us luck!

A lovely pic taken on holiday....

Isnt it nice? its now my screen saver....

Costing our holiday

Have been studying the cost of our holiday. We have a touring caravan and the site we stayed in was lovely but at the top of our budget - for myself and my 2 dds it was £18 per night - the last 2 nights my partner came costing an extra £3.50 per night. We stayed for a week. We did quite a few touristy things (went on a boat trip on the Falkik Wheel, did the open-topped bus tour in Edinburgh, my dd went climbing at Ratho) but most of the time was just going for nice walks and relaxing in the sunshine. Had 2 meals out as a treat, 1 chip shop tea and the rest of the time we cooked in the caravan and took out picnics (and yes, sad though it is I made a menu for what we were going to eat!!!)
So it cost just over £400 - my eldest dd will put a third towards it so it cost me about the £300 mark by the time I add petrol in. This comes out of my Holiday budget which I put money away every month.
We didn't skimp on nibbles, had a few ciders every night in the van and there was nothing we didn't do because it was too expensive so I am pleased with the overall budget.

Just got back from holidays.....

Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible after I have gutted out the caravan and done a mountain of washing!!!!!!

I love a picnic

It was such lovely weather today we decided to go for a picnic - first thoughts were to go to Asda but knuckled down and rooted through the cupboards and managed tuna and cucumber sandwiches, smart price crisps, few grapes, smart price chocolate digestives, flask and smart price apple juice! who says eating out has to cost a fortune!

April housekeeping - left £144

Another Asda online order...

Had £7 left over from last months Housekeeping so used it to stock up on some basics (cat food, soap powder etc.) so spent £106 on 2 weeks (got free delivery) - just arrived with no substitutions and everything in stock so that's my cupboards stocked again.

This month I am starting to cut down on the amount of meat we eat as its getting dearer and dearer. Every meal I have budgeted for will have at least 2 portions of veg or salad to bulk it out. Now my family are complete carnivores so its going to be a bit of challenge - we have 1 totally meat free meal a week and 1 meal on a Saturday for instance, pizza or hot dogs in rolls, always like a proper Sunday dinner too.

April housekeeping - left £144

Cant put my tent up cos of the weather!

Got my lovely new tent a couple of days ago and cant put it up in the garden to try it out because its rained on and off ever since or been so windy the tent will take off! Its a Vango Green Tee 500Dlx Eco Tent (2010) - we did get it out of the bag to check how big the 1 pole is and there is plenty of headroom (albeit just in the middle). There seems to be plenty of air vents (single skinned tents suffer from condensation) - cant wait to see it up in real life! Its a lovely fetching apple green colour and I bought a lovely pink whistling kettle from ebay to go with it!
Roll on camping weather!