Recent Bargains

I've booked a one night stay in Chester at a Travelodge for £9 (about $13.50) for a family room. My friend recently went to Chester for a weekend and says it's a lovely city so when Travelodge had their recent sale I booked a room there. We are going at the end of January to tie in with David's work shifts. Can't beat a price like that can you!! The rooms are basic but clean and to be honest, what more do you need for just a one-nighter??

I also got a great deal on laundry products and shampoo at Sainsburys yesterday. Certain laundry products were on offer at half price which in itself is a good deal. But they had an offer where if you bought £10 of goods (including the items that were already half price), you got 2 x £2.50 vouchers - one for laundry detergent and one for shampoo (items that were also in the first deal). Now keep up here because it sounds more complicated than it was, lol. I spent £10 and got 3 bottles of detergent (already half price remember?!), got 2 vouchers. Went back and got more products that totalled £10, used the 2 vouchers previously given, paid about £5 cash. This generated another set of vouchers. Did this a couple more times. Finally, when I'd had enough!! I went back and used the vouchers for a laundry detergent and shampoo and only paid £1.50.

I now have 7 bottles of detergent and 5 bottles of shampoo. The value of these goods is £78.45

and I paid £24.20!! The detergent should last me at least 6 months and similar for the shampoo (they are big bottles). Deals like this are obviously only good if you actually need the items and will use them and if they don't have expiry dates on! Some people on the forums I visit have bought shelves and shelves of these deals! I only bought what was sensible for me to store.

Then yesterday afternoon I went into Ossett to get a few bits and bobs. I went into one store to get a few items for the freezer and at the checkout I was given 4 packs of yogurt frubes. Each pack has 6 inside. My kids have these in their lunch sometime so are items I normally buy. They are today's date and so they wanted to get rid of them. I brought them home and popped them in the freezer. I'll put one in each boy's lunchbox on a morning when I get them ready. They keep all the other items cold and by lunchtime they have defrosted and are ready to eat! They cost £1 a pack so I received £4 worth FREE. Can't beat that :)

New School Year!

Well we are now 2 weeks into the new school year and the days are flying by!! Nathaniel is now in Year 5 and Zac is in Year 3. Nathaniel has the same teacher he had 2 years ago so has just transitioned smoothly. Some of his friends are in the other class and so misses them, but has still got lots of friends in his own class. And of course he can play with the others during playtime. Nathaniel just get on with things. No drama, just plods along! Zac is in the class that I worked in last year so I know his teacher very well! It's a lovely class and he seems to be doing fine, if he just picks up the pace of his work. He struggles with his handwriting (being a leftie!) so it sometimes takes him a little long and looks like a spider walked across his page, bless him!

I'm finding the days busy and speedy! I'm in Year 2 from 9am until 12 noon. Then I assist a Year 3 child from 12 until 1pm. I have a 20 min lunch break then work in Year 4 from 1.20 until school ends at 3.20pm. I barely have time to breathe, but I love my job!! All the teachers, staff, kids are fab!! Couldn't ask for a better place to work!

This next weekend I'm going on a school residential from Friday until Monday so that should be an interesting experience! There will be about 45 eight year olds and 5 adults. I'm really looking forward to it, to get to know the kids better in a different environment. When we get back, we have the Tuesday off work to recuperate, lol.

Meet my Washer

It's here!! It's here!! It's here!!

My washing machine has arrived!!

My 'man with a van' delivered my new machine, plumbed it in, and took my old one away. All for £30. The store were going to charge £80 for this service. Even if I had been able to collect the machine myself in the car and plumb it in myself, the council would have charged £10 to collect and dispose of the old machine. As soon as it ready, I put in a few shorts and shirts of the boys and put it on a quick wash. 29 minutes later, freshly smelling laundry was pegged on the line. I can't believe how much I appreciate being able to do something simple as laundry my clothes again!! The things we take for granted.

Here she/he (what gender are washing machines?!?!?):

York part 2 - Site Seeing

I apologise for the poor quality of theses pictures. I used my iPhone to take them as I had forgotten to take my camera with me. There are lots more pictures on my facebook page. We had a lovely time just walking around the city. We went into the entrance of the Minster but didn't go all the way in as they charge admittance which would have been quite costly for the four of us. The boys enjoyed what they did see of it, however. We marvelled at how it amazing it was that something this awesome could be built without all the technology and machinery we have today. There is no way to get the whole outside of the Minster on one photo because of its vastness. It's truly a beautiful building!

We also walked down the cobbled streets, including the most famous of all The Shambles. I love all the quirky little shops and alleyways!

We went for a walk on the city wall. The wall is 1.9 miles around the city. The boys loved all the information that David gave them on the way around regarding the historical nature of the city. They loved looking through the slits in the stone walls that the soldiers would have shot their arrows through.

York is such a great city and we must go again sometime soon. Even at this time of year the place was heaving with people. I guess it was a beautiful day, around 70 degrees F. And it's such a tourist destination. The little tea-shops were full to the brim and the famous Betty's tea-shop had a long queue outside. I guess tea-shops are so quintessentially English that it's a must for a tourist to visit! When we were walking around the wall, we could see into the garden of a tea shop and it looked so civilised! Ladies sitting out having tea and cakes in an English country garden!

York part 1 - shopping

Because yesterday was the last day of the summer holidays that we would all be home together, we decided to have a day trip out. Plus, the weather was beautiful so it would have been a shame to have just stayed home. We debated on where to go and came up with York! It's only about an hour away but somewhere we don't get to very often. Since it was about 10am before we decided where to go, York was perfect as we'd still get there before lunch and have an afternoon out.

Now going to York with David and the boys meant that I wasn't able to go shopping. David suggested I go later in the year with either friends or sisters and go shopping, possibly Christmas shopping, so I'll be sure to do that :) There are so many beautiful shops (with prices to match!!) but what eye candy!!

Here are just a few drool worthy shops I saw. I couldn't take too many pictures as David and the boys were giving me strange looks!

David did comment on the number of jewellery and watch shops and enjoyed looking in the windows, as evidenced below. David likes watches but at these prices (notice the price of the watch at the back of the picture that David liked!!) we gave it a miss, lol.

Wash Day Blues

So I've been without a washing machine for a few weeks now. I have a combined washer/dryer and about a year or so ago the drying function ceased to function! It was fine for washing until the past few weeks. It wouldn't drain the water out. So I had to do it by hand which just isn't fun!! I've been taking my laundry to my mom's to do (she's fab!!) and last Tuesday finally got around to ordering a new one. They called me on Friday to arrange delivery for today. So I got up this morning and called the hotline to find out my 4 hour delivery slot. But of course they knew nothing of my delivery. It hadn't been entered on the system. They said they could arrange delivery for 2 weeks time. Two weeks!!! Mmmm, no way Jose!!! I told them I specifically mentioned that I needed it before Monday 6th since I was back at work then! The lady from customer services just called and said that she MIGHT be able to get delivery for the weekend but didn't promise anything. I'm waiting to hear back. If I don't hear back by lunch I'm going to call them to cancel and order from somewhere who CAN deliver me a machine!! Is it too much to ask that I can actually do some laundry?? And we are actually having some lovely drying weather this week. Just my luck!!