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Get away – getting a low cost holiday
I can’t afford a £4,000 holiday, nice as it would be, so I’ve been focusing on getting away for next to nothing this summer.
We won’t be going anywhere exotic; instead, we’re going to Paris.
I wanted to find the cheapest way of travelling there, so I searched online for cheap flights and found that Flybe comes in with flights at just over £400 for four of us from the Midlands. Wow, with entry to EuroDisney and food, I wanted to cut flight costs some more.
I used to collect Airmiles and they are now Avios, so I checked in and low and behold I have over 50,000. Using these points has got me four returns to Paris on the Eurostar. We’re visiting Eurodisney and staying in a 4* hotel, with breakfast, less than 10 …
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Cut the cost of rail travel
So I travel by train a lot especially to London. The fares have rocketed over the last few years, with a return going up £17. This increase really irks me.
I’ve found a number of ways to cut the cost of rail travel and keep journey costs down:
- Book your ticket in advance – advance can mean as late as 11.59 pm the day before travel. Advance tickets are not as flexible, and if you miss the train you could end up paying for a single fare home but if you know meeting times, this is a great option. Seats become available twelve weeks before travel for the cheapest fares….which is useful if you are doing regular journeys.
- Buy two singles – sometimes it can be cheaper than a return, since you may travel one
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Schools out – save pounds on school uniform
All UK kids have now broken up for the summer. Whether your child is heading back to the same school in September or joining a new school, uniform costs.
I remember buying my first set of uniform for my reception aged son – £140. The cost mounts up when you can’t buy the uniform from the supermarkets or high street stores and have to go to the uniform specialist stores.
With a secondary uniform coming in at over £200 for me and some of my friends at over £400, I was determined to try and cut the cost as much as possible, so here are my tips:
- Uniform sales – at our state school in May they have used uniform sales and some schools will have uniform shop on site. Find out about the sales
