Is it possible to travel cheaply?

I've spent the whole morning on the internet which was a bit frustrating as our broadband signal strength is so low up here.  I was searching for the cheapest way to get down south to visit everyone in the one trip. 

 It is approx 560 miles to get to my daughter's in the Midlands and then I want to visit my mother in the West country and this will be probably be the only trip I can afford to do till next year.  The diesel cost of my last trip to pick up the Grandchildren in July cost £200 and to get to my mums from there by train and bus was another £70 so this time I am budgeting to do the trip for half of that - £135.

Well after a lot of searching I managed to get a train south from Inverness to a station less than an hour away from my daughter's for £33.00!  I couldn't believe it and when I went to actually book the ticket it was reduced further to £30.70!  Amazing price as its usually way over £100 making it cheaper to drive than travel by train.  The added bonus is that the station I arrive at is near a dear friend's house and I will be able to stay over at hers for the night and then she will take me to my daughters home the next day.  It is quite a long journey though, nearly 9 hrs and I haven't travelled on a train that long a time before but I will plan ahead.

Next stage - to travel cross country to my mums and I found a train fare for £20, even cheaper than by coach.  From there I planned for the return journey and booked another train to Bristol for £11 then a bus to the airport for £7 and a flight back to Inverness (with speedy boarding - a must for me as I get a bit anxious at airports but I could have saved £5) for £43.99.  The cost to post my train tickets to me was £1.00 making a grand total of £113.69! 

 Yes it was definitely worth the time to get my trip for this price!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Small and Cheap Changes to my Room

Image
The light is not greatest this week for taking photos but I am excited to show you  my new side table.   My nephew had this suitcase in his bedroom and I had my eye on it for ages. I swopped a  wicker hamper for it as he only needed it as a bit of storage space.  The case is lined with plywood inside so is quite sturdy.  The legs came from my sis-in-laws house and they had a wooden top which I removed.  Perfect for the case and making it a freebie side table too. I put up my winter curtains that I found in a charity shop.  At the time I didn't know what I was going to do with them but just loved the retro pattern and colours and they are perfect in my green room. They also happen to be the perfect size and length for the window so I sent for curtain hooks and rings for the pole from ebay, cost less than £5. I reframed this stag print which was given to me.  It was origionally mounted against a light background and a pine frame which had lost its glass but I had this fra
Read more

The fridge is nearly bare!

Image
I've been cooking this morning and now my fridge looks like this I have half a tub of stork, 1 oz of cheese left in the Tupperware, 2 tubs margarine, half a pack of streaky bacon, half a butternut squash and 5 carrots left. I started out this morning with 1 green pepper, 1 courgette, 2 sticks of celery, half an onion, carrots, butternut squash and the last of the frozen sweetcorn and peas.  I have made soup for lunch by adding a tin of tomatoes and some dried soup mix with veg stock I also found some turkey leg meat  at the bottom of the freezer and a packet of chicken and leek bake mix that I made up with some milk. I had a few frozen breadcrumbs in there too so using up the last of the parmesan cheese I had,  added this to some of  the veg from the list above and my OH now will have this for his dinner tonight    The green bits are chopped parsley I picked from a tub in the garden. I have enough of the chopped veg left to make up a rice dish for me and will us
Read more

Life

Image
Its been a long while since I have posted on my blog.  You just never know what is round the corner do you.  There I was merrily getting on with everyday life then something happens out of the blue that changes everything.  My instinct was to hibernate and I have done that and now I am popping my head out to say I am still here.  Change is in the air and as I steady myself and breathe, I try to think more positively now. Terri X
Read more

Frugal Shopping & Cooking

Image
I've been to the auction again with my BF  today and look at this lovely oil painting I brought thinking it could go in our bedroom or bathroom.  I got it for a bargain £1 and with commission I paid £1.12 and now I have hung it up and I think it is lovely.   We also bid on a box of old books as we spotted a few in there that we would read and could then car boot the rest.  We got that for another £1 but it turned out to be four boxes of books!  They were so heavy that we had to have help to put them in the boot of the car.  I was giggling over them as some are in French!  I think those ones will be used for a few crafting projects.  I am sure we will be able to make a little profit at the car boot in September with the rest. I also used my favourite cookbook again (A girl called Jack) to make gnocchi.  I used potato and parsnip 50/50.  They don't look as elegant as the picture in the recipe but they sure taste good with a spoonful of pesto.  I doubled the recipe so that I could
Read more

The Green Room

Image
I have been thinking about changing my lounge around for a while and this photo gives you just a peak of the new colour choice for my feature wall. Before I show you more, at my last craft fair I was able to get hold of another dining chair that matches two of the others.  I got it for a bargain price of £5 so I now have two of them to transform at some point.  I spent a little while crocheting some feet so they dont scratch the painted floor as the felt pads i tried kept falling off. The wooden chair with the gingham seat pad is Bonnie's favourite place to sleep.   I took a while choosing the new paint colour, eventually matching it against a skirt i had on at the time. Its probably just me but I have to like its name too and this paint was called Bohemian Bliss which was just perfect for me.  So here is my ta-dah moment ...... I love its dramatic colour against my floor. This pic was taken at 6pm but as its in a south facing room, the sunshine lightens it more in the day.
Read more