It was another lovely day until.....

We had quite an easy day today. We went to Ipswich on the bus to meet Nigel for lunch at the park near to his office. I made him take the picnic bag to work so it was one less thing to worry about!

We could have caught the bus almost outside our house but now that I have to pay for Molly I worked out that it would be more than double the fare than if we used the park and ride bus. It's a 15-20 minute walk with the children but it's much cheaper, and the journey on the bus is quicker too.

We went to Alderman Park, near to ITFC football ground. Until recently I believe it had a bad reputation for needles and broken glass in the play area but it has been cleared up and a new play area put in. It was surrounded by railings but unfortunately most who came in left the gates open, ready for Charlie to eye up the opportunity and make a run for it!

There was plenty of equipment for the children and it catered for most ages. Unlike Christchurch Park's play area it was very open and easy to keep an eye out for both children. Nigel was with us for a while until he had to go back to work. Molly and Charlie had great fun and now we know what it's like we'll go there more often, especially when meeting Nigel from work. My only criticism was the lack of toilets. We ended up going back into town, which was okay for us as we'd finished there but it's not very convenient if you're there for longer. I don't know that area very well so it may be that there were some toilets in the vicinity but there weren't any signposts.

Kelly from Heart came along to film and interview us all today as she'd not met Nigel and Molly before. The children weren't camera shy at all thankfully! Molly thinks Kelly is very friendly, which I thought was a lovely ting to say as we normally don't get much from Molly. Hopefully school has given her a little more confidence.

Kelly asked us about the recession and what we're doing to cope with the extra cost of the summer. To be honest it's only in the last couple of months we've started to be affected by it. Our grocery bill has gone up by a huge percentage and now instead of buying what we want we actually take time to look at prices and compare lesser known brands with the main ones. We are fortunate enough to be able to budget in more money for days out during the summer but instead of just spending without worrying we're now looking at ways to save money.

One of the ways we're managing to have cheaper days out is to take advantage of all the vouchers and coupons you see in newspapers, magazines and leaflets, especially at this time of year. You may only save a couple of £s but it adds up over the summer. We also use our Tesco Clubcard vouchers and convert them into Deals tokens. It makes sense to get 4 times their worth and use them for admissions to theme parks and zoos etc that would otherwise work out really expensive.

We'll often take our own picnic food instead of buying out as it can work out really costly. Every penny really does help.

Tomorrow we're going to Nikki's for the children to get together and play, or just make a mess in Nikki's house! I think it's important for the children to see their friends during the holidays as six weeks is a long time for them. It's also a really cheap day, although I do have lots of yummy M&S cakes for snack time!

Well, that's it from me for today. I am going to bed with a horrendous headache as I fell out of the shower and cracked my skull on the radiator!