As you know I’m a bit of frugal (tight?) Mum and prefer not to spend when I don’t need to. This summer we enjoyed many days out and activities, and the majority of them were free, or at least very low cost. Amongst the favourites were the National Rail Museum, York (which for Kieran was like heaven as he is a very keen train enthusiast!), up to the top of Sutton Bank, North Yorkshire to have a picnic and watch the gliders taking off and landing, and best of all (and cheapest) were our family walks! Nothing too challenging, a backpack, paper and crayons for tree rubbings, our own drinks, little bags to collect up our leaves and other fantastic finds and little more. At four, Kieran has a keen mind (and thinks he is Diego!) and is very easily pleased!
Now unfortunately, being in the UK, not all of our days out were greeted with sunny skies and dry grass and picnic areas for picnics, in fact this was rarely the case so more often that not it was a car picnic or eating out. Eating out, I think, has become increasingly expensive, unless you opt for somewhere, shall we say, less that up to top standard (ie greasy and dirty, with a good chance of indigestion and/or the runs!). I actually like eating out, and can usually stretch a budget to it if our day trips are more frugal than not, and besides…. eating out means someone ELSE does the cooking/preparing and the dishes other than Mummy.
Unfortunately it seems I missed the boat somewhat this summer as I am now aware Pizza Hut do a “Kids Eat Free” offer, which they have now extended until January which means Kieran would get a free two-course meal or kids buffet when an adult meal is purchased. This is a bargain! Pizza Hut for us is a treat as I can have pasta or similar (I do love the pizza but their pasta and salads are to die for!) and Roy is a regular pizza fiend. His motto is the bigger and meatier the better and he really can pig out. Like I said I missed the boat on this one over the summer but with it being extended we will definitely be taking advantage as our weekends are now sacred as Kieran is now full time at school (sob!) so we don’t get the time together during the day that we did.
Full terms and condition and more about this offer can be found at: http://bit.ly/drSGbv
Enjoy – we certainly will lol! (Diet starts in January so multiple helpings are allowed for now!)!
