Day 1 of our hols

Day one and it's been a lot of travelling. I did the first stint of driving then we stopped at a park in Birmingham and had planned to have a picnic outside on a rug but the heavens opened just a few minutes before we pulled into the car park. Ended up having our picnic in the car. The rain stopped so we went for a stroll around the park. We then had a coffee in the cafe which was not budgeted for but we indulged. It was not even a very nice coffee. One daughter got a hot chocolate and the other a small bottle of milk shake. All this was at a cost of £7.00! I'm not used to paying for hot drinks in cafes and I do find it a rip off and just think of what I could buy with the money in the supermarket instead.

Hubby took the second part of the driving and we arrived at the chain hotel in Bristol for our stay in a family room for two nights. You should look into family rooms when you ever want a stay in a hotel with kids. They are really good value and when you pay for breakfast the kids eat for free at the chain we used. So four of us are eating breakfast in the morning for £13.24 which works out at £3.31 per person for breakfast. It could have been cheaper but hubby wanted to have a cooked breakfast so it did make it a bit more expensive. If he chose to have a continental breakfast like me we could have all had breakfast for £2.62.

We ate in the Beefeater restaurant in the hotel and came in budget with what we allowed ourselves for the meal. Hubby received a confirmation of our booking through e-mail the day before we left and attached to the e-mail was a token for a free drink for us with our meal. We had £9.80 deducted from the bill for our drinks.

We are now sat in our room having a bottle of wine which we brought with us. We bought the wine in Aldi for £3.99. So much cheaper than buying a bottle in the bar and we can sprawl out  and relax whilst enjoying it.

So a good start. Came in budget with what I estimated we would spend. Tomorrow will be even less because we still have plenty in the cooler box for lunch tomorrow and we shall only be having some food from stalls at the Bristol Balloon fiesta for tea tomorrow.