The baking that I did before the school holiday went down well this past week. We had a couple of trips out over half term but it was fairly quiet. These are some of our Thrifty Finds:
- On Monday we travelled into Bath as the girls had a dentist’s appointment. Every so often I have to stand back and really appreciate the healthcare system in our country. My three girls have dental check-ups (and minor treatment) for free. Two of my daughters have regular eye tests and one of them wears glasses and all of this is for free. I don’t have to put money aside to cover these things or worry about insurance plans. My eldest has always suffered from asthma and I don’t have to think twice about seeing the nurse, taking her to hospital or getting her medication. Even when she had an asthma attack in Italy a couple of years ago her treatment was free because of the EHIC (how much longer will we have that reciprocal arrangement for?). I know it has unprecedented problems at the moment but I love our NHS!
- Our village bus service lets children travel for free during the holidays (technically it’s two free kids’ tickets per paying adult so I had to pay for the eldest). As I travel into Bath for work I have an eleven ticket saver pass which makes it slightly cheaper as well.
- Although the trip to the dentist was free we had to go shoe shopping, which wasn’t in the plan. I save a little money each month to cover clothing etc but hadn’t budgeted for two of the girls to have grown out of their shoes! Uhoh! I’m still caught by that ‘having properly fitting shoes’ trap and so ended up spending £64 in Clarks (and they were two pairs of the cheaper shoes!). One of my girls now needs new PE trainers but I have found a few pairs that should fit her, handed down by my eldest. After a quick run in the washing machine they look as good as new:
4. This isn’t strictly my Thrifty Find but my husband shattered his iphone screen and found the charger wasn’t working properly. Although he has insurance he would have had to pay £50 excess and his phone company said it would take 10 days to get his phone repaired (without giving him a substitute). In the end he got a better deal going to an independent phone repair shop and his iphone was back within six days. He’s now cancelled his insurance.
5. We are still sorting through stuff in the house to donate to the school jumble sale next month. The girls went through their toy box and gave away quite a lot of things.
Did you have school holidays last week (or this week)? I think February half term can be the most difficult time to entertain the kids if the weather isn’t great, and not much is open. Did you have any Thrifty Finds last week?
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