As a fairly-new parent it's fair to say that managing our family budget is something of an ongoing balancing act between ensuring that all the bills are paid and leaving enough at the end of the month for some leisure money and treats too.
Any "spare" money we have these days is usually spent on the children in one way or another - they so often outgrow clothes and shoes and need replacements, otherwise its little treats to brighten up a dull day or a family day out to enjoy.
These things of course all add up pretty quickly and it's surprising how much some days out can cost - this weekend for example we are heading to a Days Out With Thomas event, Tyne is absolutely besotted with Thomas With The Tank Engine and we went to this event last year and had a lovely day...so now its come around he is super excited to go again. But for three of us to go along it will cost almost £60 for the tickets alone - not including the cost of any food or refreshments on the day or the inevitable "Exit through the gift shop" nightmare (Don't you just love that wonderful marketing approach, by the way?! I feel I might as well surrender the contents of my purse at the door and forgo the formality of looking around).
Due to how expensive these things are it can be hard to save for more expensive family treats, such as holidays.
TSB recently asked me how I would spend a spare £100 - this is because the maximum interest you can earn in a year from a TSB Plus Account is £100 AER (5% AER on up to £2000- I knew right away that it would go straight toward a family break away!
Personally I'm always browsing websites looking for low cost deals, and the one I have my eye on at the moment is a little trip to Thomasland at Drayton Manor.
Tyne asks every single day if we can "Go to Thomas Land one day" and I would just love to be able to take him - we were even invited along for a press day last month but as bad luck would have it, the press day fell on the day that my c-section was scheduled so of course we couldn't take him along which I was gutted about.
He really must be the biggest Thomas enthusiast out there - he talks to every single person that he meets about "Thomas & His Friends"...he plays all day long with his engines, he crawls around the floor pretending to be Diesel 10, and he just loves to watch YouTube videos of the engines....he spends ages just pointing out and naming all the different charatcrs. He has a pretty impressive knowledge of them for a child who has just turned 2 - I think he could probably name almost every engine and there must be over a hundred of them!
I filmed the video below when he was still just 1, to show just what a fan he is!
We live quite a distance away from Drayton Manor so when we visit there we'd need to stay over and the hotel do a Thomas themed bedroom which Tyne would be so excited about so I would love to put a spare £100 toward booking us into one of those rooms and having a fun filled little family trip to my little boys dream destination!
Fingers crossed we get there soon!
What would YOU choose to do with a spare £100? As always, I'd love to hear from you!
*Post in collaboration with TSB
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