Holiday Budgeting

Hello readers less than 2 weeks till we go away and I'm just a tad excited lol. Regular readers will know me well enough to know I NEVER pay full price for anything and that is not limited to the UK. I have been doing lots of research on Cyprus over the last few weeks and have come up with lots of ways to save money whilst we are away without detracting from our fun. I thought I would share how I intend to keep costs down whilst we are away.

Transportation= We could get a taxi transfer from the airport to our apartment at a cost of 55 euros however I have been looking at bus routes and timetables. We will be buying a weekly bus pass each anyway to get around on our holiday saving on taxi fares. The weekly bus pass will cost 15 euros each and as we will be buying one for our stay in Cyprus anyway we will use this to get buses to the apartment instead of taxi transfers saving us 110 euros on both the arrival and return journeys. As we are leaving home extremely early in the morning to make our flight to Cyprus we have no choice other than a taxi transfer. I have rung around a few local taxi companies and the best price I could get was £80 which Lee and I will go halves on so £40 each. When we arrive back in the UK we will take the bus from the airport to the train station and a train home using our friends and family discount card so will save a hefty amount there also.

Entertainment= I have sourced some activities for us to do whilst we are away. Some are cheap, some are free, and some are more expensive but we will be using tips and tricks to bring the cost of the more expensive ones down. We have a pool with pool toys available to us at the apartment as well as a BBQ so we will take advantage of that whilst we are there and have a few stay at home and chill by the pool days. We also have 2 beautiful beaches close by where we can pack up a picnic and have a few beach days. Both of these activities are free and will cost no more than a picnic or BBQ food. A lot of the activities that cost money offer reduced rates for disabled people or allow an adult to go free as a carer. I will be taking both Brad and Brandons disability letters with us so that we can take advantage of these reductions. Also if you book in advance online you can save a percentage on admission so between the reductions and advance booking we should be able to save a fair bit of money. Unless the venue has rules against bringing your own food we will always take a picnic with us saving us the cost of buying food and drink whilst out for the day.

Food= Just because we are on holiday does not mean we have to eat out for lunch and dinner every day and we won't be. I have found a large supermarket close by and from the reviews I have read they are reasonably priced and have lots of offers available. I will do a big food shop when we arrive so that we don't have to eat out all the time. We will have breakfast in the apartment before we leave for the day and I will make up a picnic to take with us for lunch (providing the place we are visiting does not have any rules about bringing your own food). We will have dinner around 7pm at the apartment as we will not be out in the evenings with the children anyway. We have agreed to lunches out when we are not allowed to take our own food and 2 evening meals out a week. Lee and I will take it in turns to pay for eating out and go halves on the food shopping. This should drastically reduce our food costs whilst away but we are on holiday so eating out 2 nights a week will be a nice little treat and give mum a night off from cooking.

I plan to take my Kindle with me so I will continue posting even when we are away. Not only will I share with you what we have been up to that day but I will also be posting any money spent that day and what it has been spent on. I am hoping by doing this I will hold myself accountable and will think before I spend plus I will be able to keep track of how much money we are going through and cutback if necessary.

So what are your thoughts on my holiday budgeting ? Is there anything I have not covered ?

Much Love
Claire xx xx xx