2016 Planning

Yep, I'm talking about 2016 already. And I'm a little bit crazy doing this but we got some exciting things happening in 2016 that I can't wait for. It does mean that I have to be a tight arse from now on though, lol. 

So the news is that we have booked a two week holiday, one week in Canada and one week in the USA. Don't want to give too many details why because one of them is a surprise for Little Miss P and I don't really wanna give away when I will not be in my house just for security reasons.

The first thing will be to see our family. We have a nephew out there and he has a child with his other half. We haven't seen them in ages I think it'll be about three years that we haven't seen them for and as he is trying to get a Visa out there at the moment he can't leave there for another two years. So altogether it will be four years that we wouldn't be able to see anyone as he can't leave Canada, so we thought that we would pop over and see him.

We've always thought about going to that part of the world and the USA to see and experience it so we thought this was the great opportunity to do them both. It will be a lot of work and we will be absolutely knackered afterwards but sometimes I think you've just got do something like this in life.

We have booked most things through different companies as that's the way it worked out the cheapest (more detail to come on that). I think that was the best deal we could find at the time and I am pretty happy with it.

We still have a few things that we need to sort out and I would really like to get that sorted just so I know where we're sleeping and making sure it all fits together. Once that is done I will be a lot happier and be able to start planning the fun bits, hehe.

Love
Mrs P

Keeping track of money

Hello, I fancy doing a few blog posts on here about saving money and keeping track of money. I can start to become a pro at this considering my husband likes to keep track of money... I never used to be like that but now I am. We don't keep track of every single little penny but pretty close to it.

I understand why my husband likes doing it and I understand the advantages of it but sometimes it can do my head in. We are not multimillionaires, we're not even close but we are not on the breadline either. We comfortably just bubbling along each month.

We can afford to pay our mortgage each month and pay all at other bills with a little bit leftover at the end of each month after paying things that we need to.

I would tell you how much our household income is but I'm not going to, not yet anyway.

Mr P and I do like to save money. It's not a load of money at once but it's little bits of money because all the pennies to add up. So here are my top five things to save a little bit of money towards that nice holiday of yours or even just a nice designer bag.

1) First of all we buy value groceries like Value beans, corn flakes, pasta, rice all the essentials that you buy each month.

2) Keep a little notepad in your bag to write down things that you buy with cash... when I buy them I usually forget what I have spent it on otherwise.

3) Set up an Excel spreadsheet, this is mainly the other half (for me anyway) as this is his domain. We can see each month how much we spend on phone bills, food and going out.

4) Anything we have leftover at the end of the month in the bank account goes towards our holiday fund even if it's 10p or even if it's £100 it will go into the holiday fund, then start the new month afresh (this one will give you motivation because you will start seeing your holiday fund going up and up)

5)  Keep bottles of water in your fridge. Every time I have a bottle of water and take it home and we fill it with tap water so when I next go out again I have got a full set with me instead of buying one for 60p.

Love
Mrs P

What I got for My Birthday

Hello, it's been my Birthday. I am now 29 years old, one more year until I am 30 so I better make it a good one. I got a few lovely things from my family and of course Mr P and Little Miss P.

On my birthday we ended up going to Cambridge for a bit of shopping and having a lovely Jamie's Italian lunch. I love that restaurant. I had something that I never had before, it was a three cheese risotto thing and it was a lovely. For starters as always we got a bread basket, oh my it was just melt in the mouth yumminess.

Okay now for what I got for my birthday... I got a new little duck ornament that goes on top of my stairs, I already have one there from last year so now she has a friend. I also got an indoor skydive... I think you go into a kind of wind tunnel and get taken up in the air and back down, I can't wait to try it. I also got a few other bits like money and little trinkets.

Now I want just to make the most of my 20s, let's see what this year will bring for me and I'll obviously keep you all updated on it.

Love
Mrs P

Best ever peanut butter cookies video

Our Holiday

So I've been on a little holiday, only somewhere in the UK but it was still a holiday. We went to Kessingland and stayed in Mr P's Uncle's holiday chalet. I've been doing this for the last few years and I love it. There's not much to do there, it's is just a holiday chalet that is close to the beach. 

We like to try something different each time but sometimes we like to do things we always do. I especially like going to the little local pub just to get a few drinks and support the locals. Also I love going to the local zoo there called Africa Alive. It's nice because we know the layout now so we can do most of it in a few hours so there's time we can enjoy the extra things they have in there and go and see the animals that you want to see again.

This year the few different things that we did was stuff like the wildlife survey and we went to a manor house called Somerleyton Hall. It was lovely and it's quite nice because people actually still live in it and it looks like it's still privately owned. They had a lovely garden and a lovely house, I think Summer did enjoy it but did get a little bored some of the way through it.

One thing that we started last year and we did again this year was go to the Norfolk Broads and hire a boat for 4 hours. Mr P's family came along too, his parents and one of his sisters and their kids. I think everyone enjoyed it and I even think secretly the kids enjoy it too.

I really enjoyed my little holiday and hope to go back again next year. We might not but we will just have to see.

Love
Mrs P

Here is a little video of our time at the Zoo

Africa Alive

Hello again. So this year on our little holiday we went to Africa Alive again. We do it every year but we do that because we love it. We know the park so well now that it only took us a few hours to get round it and see all the animals, but we did get there for when the gates opened.

 I love seeing all the animals but most of all I love seeing the monkeys, they are just so cute. And it was made better by seeing a baby monkey, oh my he / she was just so cute and so tiny I just wanted to take him home and have him. But sadly I can't.

Little Miss P was a bit braver this year as she got really close to two types of goats, one even had small horns. I was so proud of her.

We normally buy lunch in the little cafe there but this year we went back to the car and had lunch that we had made up. We still got our cups of tea and drinks so that we still gave the Zoo money to support them.

We will be going again next year to see how it has grown and to see if any more babies have been born.

Love

Mrs P

Here is Little Miss P's video of the Zoo

Our Little Holiday

We went on our little holiday that we do every year, we go to Kessingland where Mr P's uncle owns a chalet. It has a little kitchen, three bedrooms and a nice front room. I love it there, it's so quiet and peaceful... you can just sit around and read or go down to the beach and play in the sand and sea.

We go out a lot in the local area like Africa Alive that we do every year and we love it. We also go out on the Norfolk's Broads which I love and I love looking at all the big houses, thinking that one day I will be leaving in one of them :-)

We like to try a few new things each year and this year we went to Somerleyton House. It was lovely and was something that we don't normally do, even when we're at home. I don't think I have done anything like that since being at school and when we went to something like that at school I found it so boring.

I will do different blog posts on all the things we got up to, as if I put it on this one it would become a very long blog post. But I will leave you with a little video that I have put up on YouTube.

Love
Mrs P

Here is part one of our little trip to the Zoo

Last Day in Year 2

It is Little Miss P's last day in year two, she will no longer be an infant and will be going into the juniors. Oh my goodness that is just crazy, it's crazy how time has flown and she's grown up so much... I can't wait to see how much she can grow over the summer holidays. We have sorted out a learning plan for over the summer just to get prepared for year three as it will be a lot harder than year two was.

I loved reading Little Miss P's school report and some of the things that the teacher said about her were lovely. I kind of knew what they would say about her but I'm just glad that my thoughts were right.

In the teacher's comments the bit that I really liked reading was she often helps others to do the right thing and sets an example to children who need encouragement. It does sound like a little bit of goody two shoes going on. But I've brought her up to be a good  girl and help others, not a little brat that wants all the attention for herself like some of the kids in the class. And her target is - to not be afraid to take risks and see mistakes as an opportunity to learn.

There are bits in the book that make me laugh, it's about the children's behaviour. It goes from A to D with A meaning you have been outstanding and D requires improvement so that means the kids are being little you know whats.  She got A for reading, writing, mathematics and foundation and she got a B for art and PE. I think looking at that she's not really interested in them and I have to say I don't really like the PE teacher, she never smiles. And you can tell that she has her favourite children.

There will be an other part to this so keep an eye out.

Love
Mrs P

August Goals

July Goals 

1) Get 75 on YouTube 

2) Do the 30 day #Journeytosplits with Little Miss P- Failed

3) Start to get things ready for the party 

4) Have the garden sorted (part done still have a few little bits to do)

5) Do something for myself

August Goals

1) Have a great birthday party for Little Miss P
2) Take Little Miss P swimming as she really wants to go

3) To enjoy the summer holidays and make the most of them

4) Do lots of cooking with Little Miss P

That's it for August as I just really want to have fun and take it as it comes. I might do weekly goals, I will just see how we go.

Love

Mrs P

Here is what I got the teacher.