Ticketysplit - getting out for less on the train

It's 8am and I'm on the way to Birmingham for the day for a meeting. Buying a ticket should be a straightforward process, but it's not quite as simple as it seems, and with a bit of effort you can get a good deal and save a substantial amount of money.

When I first looked up the price for my journey today it was £148. Sharp intake of breath. I couldn't get a cheaper fare by going later as I needed to be in Birmingham by 10am, but then I remembered Ticketysplit.

Ticketysplit is a tool on the MoneySavingExpert.com website that allows you to look for the cheapest fare by splitting your journey into two and calculating whether buying two tickets, (one for each part of the journey) is actually cheaper than just buying one for the whole of the journey. So for example, if you are traveling from  Bournemouth to Birmingham and the train stops at Reading on the way it may be cheaper to buy a ticket from Bournemouth to Reading, then Reading to Birmingham than to buy a Bournemouth to Birmingham ticket for the same train.

It sounds crazy I know, but as in a supermarket, it's not always cheaper to go for the bigger pack, sometimes two smaller packs are a better deal.

So I put my journey into Ticketysplit to see what it would come up with. Ticketysplit only works with single fares at the moment, but it came up with the information that I could save money even by buying singles to and from Banbury which is a stop on my route, which would save me £30. I then took this one stage further, and looked at return fares to Banbury, then from Banbury to Birmingham. By buying a return from home  to Banbury, then a second return from Banbury to Birmingham, I can travel on the same trains at the same time for just under £62. That's a saving of £80 - over half of the original fare!!!  Crazy, but perfectly legitimate. So long as the train you are on stops at the station where you split your fare, you are not breaking any rules, just getting the best deal.

So, next time you have a lengthy or expensive train journey and want to get out for less, try Ticketysplit to see if you can get a better deal.

Not buying things in London - Lunch at the Savoy Grill and three free things to do in London

Even before I started my year of not buying 'things' I had already started asking for experiences rather than having more things for my birthday. So earlier this year when my birthday came my husband promised me a day out to do something special. It sometimes takes us a while to get round to organising things, but seven months later we finally headed up to London for lunch at the Savoy Grill. 

Expensive! I hear you cry - well, yes it is, but not as expensive as you might think - set lunch of two courses is normally around £28 per head although at this time of year the set menu is three courses for £35. A quick look at the menu of Pizza Express round the corner shows that 3 courses could easily come to £25 or more. 

So what did we get for the extra? 

Lunch in a beautiful Art Deco room. The amber tortoiseshell walls almost appear to glow they are so highly polished, there are beautiful Art Deco style chandeliers and wall lights and mirrored surfaces reflecting the light. The service was exemplary, the food delicious, and for a couple of hours, we were following in the footsteps of some of the hotel's famous guests, Charlie Chaplin and Marilyn Monroe to name just a couple. A friend of mine went a couple of years ago to the Savoy Grill for lunch for her birthday and sat next to Robert Redford and his entourage as he was in London promoting his latest film. No celebrities appeared beside us, but a lovely lunch nevertheless.

The rest of the Savoy Hotel is also refurbished in a beautiful Art Deco style, so even if you haven't the time or money for lunch, come into the black and white marble foyer and venture down to the little shop in the centre of the hotel to admire the beautiful handmade chocolates and just take in the atmosphere.

So what else did we do in London that didn't involve spending money on 'things', or indeed spending money at all?

View of Tower Bridge from the Sky Garden

Firstly, we visited the Sky Garden on top of the 'walkie talkie' building or 20 Fenchurch Street as it is properly known. This amazing public space sits under a huge glass dome rising three stories from the 35th floor, and has an indoor garden and the most amazing 360° views of London. It was a grey day when we were there, but we could still see the Olympic park to the east, and Wembley stadium in the West. There is also a snack bar selling drinks and refreshments and plenty of seating, so you can sit and relax once you've taken in the view.

Entrance to the Sky Garden is free, but there are limited places and you have to reserve your ticket beforehand, so see the Sky Garden's website for more details.

Liberty's Christmas Window

Secondly, we went to Oxford Street to look at the lights and Christmas windows. Liberty and Selfridges are famous for their Christmas windows, so we went to check them out. 

I wasn't sure about Liberty's Windows. Richly decorated and alive with pattern, it was definitely a case of more is more! It rather reminded me of an upmarket version of how Charity shop windows used to look ... but worth a look anyway.

Scorpio - Selfridges' Christmas Window

 

My favourites were Selfridges' windows. Based on a zodiac theme of reaching for the stars, they were definitely out of this world.

Thirdly and lastly, to enjoy London at it's best, we did what I always love to do in London. Ditch the tube and get out and walk. Some of the best finds are down tiny side streets, and the more you walk, the more you see. A couple of years ago whilst walking from the British Museum towards Oxford street I came across one such gem. A tiny artist's shop called L.Cornelissen and Son reminded me of the description of Olivander's wand shop  in Harry Potter. A narrow creaking shop full of all types of artists materials crammed into wooden shelves and drawers, the shop was established in 1855 and obviously hasn't been changed since. The very friendly and helpful staff stand behind a lovely old fashioned wooden counter in front wooden numbered drawers topped with glass jars full of rainbow pigments. The next time I was passing, I took my daughter in to show her the shop. The shopkeeper came over and asked if we were looking for anything in particular. 

'No', I replied, 'I just wanted to show my daughter your beautiful shop.'

The shopkeeper lit up with a huge smile. There are some lovely warm and friendly people in London, you just have to know where to look.
 

 

The next step - 'Get out and Do' at Comic Con

For two months now I've been not buying unecessary 'things' and have also been working on decluttering the house and trying to make my life more streamlined. So far, so good. After the initial decluttering push, I've slowed down a bit, but am gradually chipping away at it, one messy cupboard or drawer at a time. But a couple of weeks ago I started thinking - what next? The idea was to clear some space in my life to do something new. To use my fledgling analogy, so far I have been busy defeathering the nest, but it's time to get out and start do a bit of flying.

So time to start on the next challenge - 'Get out and Do'.  Get out of the house and do something new or interesting.

Half term has been a great time for this as it;s a chance to get out with my teenagers. Part of the drive for this whole project comes from the realization that we're way past going down to the park to feed the ducks (although the puppy does add a new twist on that one..) and that we need to find new things to do together that will engage us all.

So with that in mind, on the morning of the first Saturday of the hoildays I find myself on a train to London with Milady de Winter from The Musketeers, Velma from Scooby Doo, and Bigby from I'm not quite sure what. For those of you in the know, you're right, we're off to MCM Comic Con in London.

I hadn't even heard of Comic Con until we discovered The Big Bang Theory on telly a couple of years ago. And even after we laughed at Leonard and the boys getting their car stolen while dressed in full Star Trek costume, it hadn't occurred to me that there were Comic Cons in the UK, and that you could just go along for the day in normal clothes. So when one of my daughter's friends went along last year, I was intrigued and thought that my youngest son would enjoy it, so when we had the chance last spring to go along together as a family, we took the opportunity and had a great day out.

For those of you not in the know, MCM Comic Con describes its events as 'The UK's biggest modern pop culture events'. If you like sci-fi, YouTube, Manga, gaming, fantasy, steam punk or just like to sit and watch people walk past in the weirdest costumes imaginable, it's the place to go.

It's also a great place to let teenagers off the leash. As the convention is all under one roof, once we had found our way around it was easy to let everyone wander around on their own if they wanted, with regular meet ups to feed the teens. So this time, while my teenagers roamed the halls stalking Youtubers, I was able to go a bit more mainstream and sat in on a really interesting Q&A session with the about half the cast of 'Humans' including the incredibly beautiful Gemma Chan. This was followed by another Q&A with a  number of writers from Dr Who including the very talented Steven Moffat. 

So, if anyone is looking for an interesting day out with teens - try Comic Con. You might even be tempted to dress up as My Little Pony.