How much did it cost?

Good morning, it's still blustery here, more like Autumn than Summer. One hour dog walk done and I have spotted some litter that needs cleaning up. I will go and do that later. I see we are entering the Best Kept Village competition so I had better do my bit, you never know, we might be in with a chance.

Anyway, now comes the crunch time, 'how much did it cost?' This is my list, I think I have noted everything down. The biggest shocker was the petrol, I did a similar mileage last year and it was a lot less than this time.

Petrol £124.49
Ferry to Mull car and one person £67.25
Tobermory Youth Hostel 3 nights £50.25
Oban independant Hostel 2 nights £49.00
Crianlarich Youth Hostel 2 nights £35.20
Britannia £9.50
Ferry Iona £4.50 foot passenger
Camping 1 night £14.00 not a cc member so more
Insect repellant £9.50 didn't need it
Gifts for cat sitters £12.00
Wifi internet £5.00 at hostels
Parking £3.00 Holyrood
Souvenir £2.50 fridge magnet
Food bought out £20.15 supermarkets
Bus fare £2.60 park and ride Edinburgh
Ice cream/choc/drink £4.35 2 icecream, 1 choc bar, 1 can coke
Food taken with me, £10 est of what I ate, a lot brought back
Toilet .20p had to go, ha ha.
Total £423.49 for 11 days.

My overall thoughts are that this is quite high for a holiday in the UK, but maybe I am out of touch with current prices. It might have been cheaper to fly abroad on a package holiday, but then you have to factor in the cost of the journey to the airport. Public transport can be costly if you are limited to certain times, and car parking near airports is very expensive.

By holidaying in this country you already know what things cost so you can plan to suit your budget. If you go abroad you have to guess how much spending money you will need, and you have got the exchange rates to contend with, it could cost you to change your money.

Because I moved around a lot (1,015 miles) my petrol bill was high. I could reduce this if I travelled to one place and stayed there, possibly using public transport. My London trip in November came in at just under £200, which was quite good value.

I might look at using public transport again. The only problem is that I get bored staying in one place too long, I like moving about, the gypsy in me, ha ha. I can't stand lounging around doing nothing, when I have seen it all I want to move on.

Now I am looking at how to trim £'s off my trips so I can have more of them. I like the UK and have no desire to battle my way through the rules and regulations which control airport check in, not to mention flight delays. No thanks, you can keep it.

There are so many places to visit in the UK. Ireland is on my list, but that might be one for May next year. I'll look at some which aren't quite so far away for the rest of this year. Happy holidays, good luck with your choice of holiday.