How and why I love a bargain so much - and review of cakes from the jumble sale!!

Well, today certainly deserves an almost gloating blog as I'm so proud of how little we managed to spend but how much we've actually done. Could you believe it if I said you could go to the cinema and a farm with a family of 4 (alright, one of us is under the age of 2) and spend less than £20 on the whole day? Well apart from petrol, but I can blame having to go to work for that, as I could have completed the day without getting it but that would be stressful in Monday morning traffic!

So, this morning we went to the cinema. Normally, if we would go to our local VUE cinema it would cost £38.20 for standard seats (not wasting VIP on the kids) and booking fee. Ok so the film we went to see came out initially in the summer, and its now the beginning of October. Better late than never I always say. Booked online and we were able to choose our seats. It cost £10 for standard seats and booking fee. First saving of £28.20
I then was a bit cheeky and took fruit shoots for the girls with me (4 for £1 this week in Tesco) and some sweets they got in a party bag, and a couple of bananas. I think if i'd have bought drinks and sweets at the movies, it would have cost well over £5 so for arguments sake we'll say we saved £4.10 (about 20p for a banana? and the two drinks). We watched Monsters University. It's a great film and the other benefit of going to KidsAM is that it doesn't matter how noisy your kids are because every one else's kids are a little bit noisy, although in general the film is so loud (or i'm getting so old) that you don't tend to hear it.

That took the whole morning and we popped home for lunch (home made, part of the weekly shopping doesn't count as daily spend).

With a little research and a lot of liking facebook pages, its very easy to find things to do at the weekend and special offers too. So we headed to Farmyard Funworld in Bushey.
OK, so comparably, if we'd have gone to another farm, lets take Odds Farm in Beaconsfield as an example, it would have cost us £10.95 for Molly, and £11.95 each for James and myself. Lucy is still free there for being under two (although i'm sure she is the one who benefits the most from it all. So to tot that up, its £34.85.
Farmyard funworld had a family day on, that meant that on top of the usual farm animals and playground equipment there were a few stalls, bouncy castle, face painting etc. Adults were FREE! How fantastic is that! Lucy was FREE and Molly cost £6. Total saving on entry £28.85.  We did indulge whilst at the farm and spent 50p on face painting, 20p on a kids game with a guaranteed prize (cardboard hat) and about £1.50 in donations. So an additional £2.20 on top of what we might have normally spent.
We spent a couple of hours there, the girls played mostly on the slide and Lucy fell in love with a rabbit which she was allowed to hold for ages (yes don't worry, we scrubbed her hands afterwards).

That took us til about 4pm when we got home, but then Molly still had far too much energy, so we went out on her bike, bumped into a school friend (not literally thank God) and another hour was taken up.

Today could have cost us at least £78.05 if we'd have done it without doing our homework first. It actually cost us £19.10. A saving of £58.95. I am soooo going online now to buy myself a new dress! I deserve one after that (but of course only after using Topcashback - here's the link to join http://www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/nobby070 please do if you EVER buy ANYTHING online, and i'm sure i'll find a 20% off voucher or free delivery or something else yummy and discounted).

So talking of bargains, Arnett Hills School held a Jumble Sale yesterday morning and unsurprisingly I made some cakes for it

They were (from top left) Morello Cherry with a Glacé cherry on top and buttercream icing, Early Grey and almond with a vanilla buttercream in interesting Blue and Wheat free/Dairy free Rose and Marshmallow with a fondant icing. Well i'm pleased to say feedback was good and I will certainly be making these ones again. The Jumble sale itself was a success. If, like me, you like a bargain, but unlike me you also have patience (I can't even go into TK MAXX i'm so bad at looking through the rails) then starting at 30p an item, and a lot of designer clothes, skateboards, puzzles etc. there were a LOT of bargains bought at our sale, and a LOT of happy customers.

Happy to help if anyone needs some ideas on budgeting and almost NEVER paying full price. Give me a shout!