Holidays And Clever Boys

Hello readers what an expensive few weeks it's been for me here at Tilly Tower's. Not only have I had Xmas to pay out for I've also had a holiday to pay off. We are going to Cyprus in February for 2 weeks that's not very frugal I hear you say but let me state my case. We are not a family who goes on holiday every year in fact it's been a good 3 or 4 years since we went on holiday and that was a 4 night uk caravan holiday that cost us £50 thanks to the sun newspaper. We have had sooooo much to deal with this year what with my health problems, Brandons school problems, Lee's work problems, Lee's mum's health (she has dementia), and Lee being dupped out of a rather large amount of money thanks to one of those PPI scams that I figured to hell with it as a family we deserve a bloody good holiday somewhere warm this year. Of course being the frugalista I am I wanted to do this in the cheapest way possible and when I saw an ad on one of the fb pages for a holiday apartment in Cyprus being let by a local lady I decided to do some research. I had a look at the ad and worked out the cheapest time to go was February and the 2 weeks we wanted would come to a total of £405. I then sent the person who originally posted the ad on fb a message asking if we booked through her privately whether she could give us a reduction as she would not have any website fees to pay by booking with her directly and was pleasantly surprised when I got a message back saying that we could have the 2 weeks we wanted for £325 and that included the cost of changing the towels and bedding before our arrival. I was delighted with this but decided to try my luck a little further and asked if I could wash the towels and bedding myself on our arrival (there is a washing machine in the apartment) instead of paying the £55 it costs to have this done for you. I was doing a little happy dance when she got back to me saying that was fine with her and if I wanted those 2 weeks it would cost me £270 with no towels and bedding being changed. Myself and Lee went halves on this so it cost me personally £135 for our accommodation.

Before securing the accommodation I had a look at flights as I know during school holidays the cost is often double or even more and I was right. For the 5 of us it would cost £1600 for flights (not a chance). I dabbled with the dates a little and found that if we left the uk 3 days before the start of the school holidays and returned 3 days after the school holidays it would cost us £750 a saving of over 50%. I had a word with brad and ben's schools to see if they would ok the extra 6 days off school and was told as they have a good attendance rate and are both doing exceptionally well in school and neither one of them has any exams due anytime soon that it would be perfectly ok. This is why we decided on 2 weeks instead of one as it worked out substantially cheaper to have the extra week (go figure). I should mention I have not yet booked the flights as we are hoping to get them even cheaper by booking them just a few weeks in advance as I have heard airlines often sell off the last few seats cheaply just to fill the plane. I will be booking the flights in a few weeks and will let you know how we get on with this and what we end up paying but for now I will work with the figure I have of £750. With Lee paying for his own flight fare I personally will be paying £550 for myself and the 3 boys flights.

As yet I have not taken out any travel insurance I will be looking into this over the next few weeks to try and secure the best deal. I have to be honest readers this is the part I am dreading the most. With all my health issues I am concerned the cost will go through the roof that's if I can even find someone willing to insure me arghhhh. Will let you know how I get on with this.

So far total cost for 2 adults and 2 children (brad is now classed as an adult) to spend 2 weeks in the sun £685 minus travel insurance not to bad if you ask me :)

Earlier I mentioned that both Brad and Ben are doing incredibly well at school well look what they bought home from school with them on Friday....

Brads achievement award for all his hard work

Ben's school report (if you click on the image you will be able to see it better)

I am soooooo incredibly proud of all 3 of my boys. They have so much to deal with in their lives and yet they can still achieve results like this.


Much Love
Claire xx xx xx