Family Holiday

Tomorrow we are off to Devon for our family summer holiday. We have been looking forward to it for ages, both the holiday and the time off work. We have been to East Devon a few times before so know whats there but its the first time our holiday has been planned in great detail. Previously holidays would comprise of me, my husband , our daughter and our flexible friend. We would just float through the holiday not really thinking about what we were spending, buying things needlessly and putting things on our credit card willy nilly. It is silly now when I look back and also very irresponsible. A typical day would comprise of home made breakfast in our accommodation, or a full English in a cafe if we were feeling a little lazy. Lunch out somewhere then go out for a meal in the evenings; drinks, meals, side orders and deserts, not good for the wallet or the waistline. Its very different this time around. We are staying in self catering accommodation but we plan to eat our meals in the cottage and not eat out. We are taking lots of stuff with us that we have bought over the weeks in with our regular shopping. We have some unwatched DVDs that we want to catch up on in the evenings and my daughter is taking some of her books to read. We are taking my daughter to a park called Crealy, at the moment they are doing a weeks free admission with a day ticket so we intend to go there , firstly for a full day and any spare afternoons we may have. I saw on another web page recently about a park called Haldon Forest, so we want to go there and spend time walking and having a a picnic. If the weathers good we will also spend time at the beach and hunt for fossils. There's lots to do without spending a fortune. I am also going to keep a spending diary, I find this very useful when I am away from home as it keeps my spending on track. One huge plus point for this holiday is that we saved up for the accommodation and paid with cash, lovely jubbly as Del Boy would say.