Budget Bucket List

I’ve started on the slope from 30 to 40, I realised the other day: I was quoted in the local press and the journalist asked my age, and he wanted specifics, so I actually had to work out how old I am. It’s not that I’m not bothered about getting older, you understand, but rather that I feel the years are evaporating without me somehow marking their passage. I suspect it has something to do with motherhood: the last birthday I remember is my thirtieth.

And so, as I head inexorably towards 40, I have decided to put together a list of things that I would like to do, before I am too old to lose my nerve or get good insurance. As it happens, MoneySupermarket is currently encouraging you to do the same with it’s Budget Bucket List Competition. The list is broken into big- Budget Buster- things and smaller things- Budget Beaters.

Budget Busters

Visit Hawaii. This is born of a need to watch Pearl Harbour at least once a year: the scenery is astonishing in the film. More significantly, I would actually like to visit Pearl Harbour. I have a gentle obsession with the World Wars, perhaps the result of having parents and grandparents in the military, and would love to visit the scene of the attack so shocking that it catapulted America into WWII. It’s a long way to go though so the Girls will need to be bigger.

Attend a Premiership Football Match– hire a box with friends and have a great laugh. I don’t really do sports, but it strikes me that it would be an awesome thing to do. I know nothing about football though so I may need help arranging this!

Host a ‘Festival’ of our own in celebration of my husband’s 40th: hire a campsite, erect a stage, get bands and a hog roast, as well as Bushcraft Instructors for the children, a candy floss machine and a Bombay Sapphire Bar. I am lucky that DH always wants to include our children in his plans for celebrating anything, although it makes me feel like a terrible mother when my plans for celebrations rarely include them. He would love nothing more to share his time with hos children, his friends and their children. I would love to do that for him, and we are already in the planning stages.

Go away for the weekend to a smart hotel with my husband and hire a sports car, just to remind ourselves what it’s like: a soft-top on a summer’s day and some 80’s pop on the stereo. OK, I’ve never actually done it before but it sounds like it would be great and was the epitome of a Romantic Getaway in the days when there was a -teen in my age and Bridget Jones’ Diary was the book to read.

Take my children to Lapland. That doesn’t really need any explanation does it?

Budget Beaters

Get a new bed: we’ve had ours since we moved in together ten years ago, have moved house with it, raised children in it, picked bedroom colour schemes around it. And although it is still lovely and beautiful, I would like a different look. Ironic because- as it turns out- leather beds are all the rage now. That’s how ahead of the curve I am! As with most things, it’s a question of priorities, but I’m hopeful that with love, trust and a little birthday-and-Christmas-money, my dream will come true.

Own a trampoline: as well as being great exercise within the comfort of your own home, we are moving house which means my girls will lose both their playhouse and climbing frame- both of which are staying put for the new owners- and so we have promised them one. I just want to mess around on it when they are at school.

Singing Lessons. I have always wanted them. Moving means leaving choir too, and I firmly believe everyone should have an outlet. Blogging doesn’t count as everyone blogs these days 😉

Keep chickens. Not that my kids eat eggs. But I bake a lot of cakes. And people tell me that keeping chickens is an enjoyable thing to do. Can’t be any harder than looking after children and dogs.

Get a replica of my wedding bouquet made. Odd request I know. It’s all I’ve ever wanted on my wedding anniversary as it is the perfect reminder of an awesome day. When my actual planned bouquet arrived it- frankly- looked like it had been run over by a truck. My amazing friend jumped in a cab and rode around the City of London banging on florists’ doors until one opened and they whipped me up a bouquet that was far more beautiful and fragrant that the one I had ordered, not to mention the exact bouquet my florist had talked me out of because it ‘wouldn’t suit the shape of my dress’. The morning after our wedding our room was scented by my bouquet, which I gave to the friend who had saved the day. DH has yet to get me a replica though so I may have to do it myself.

 

I’m sure there are more things. I’ll add as I go I imagine.

In the meantime, for more ideas, I’m prodding:

Mammasaurus

Mari’s World

& Cafe Bebe

to join in.

 

 

And if you want to enter all you have to do is the following…

 

1) Write your ‘Bucket List’ blog post. Include details of one ‘budget’ and one more extravagant bucket list item. Tell us what is preventing you from doing them and what it would mean to you to complete each of these items. In the post why not mention the competition page so your readers know what the competition is all about, they might want to enter too! www.moneysupermarket.com/life-insurance/competitions/budgetbucketlist

2) When you’ve written your post please list the websites of three other bloggers you think would be interested in joining in the fun. Don’t forget to contact them to let them know it’s happening via Facebook and Twitter.

3) The competition closes on 2nd August, 2013. You can let us know you’ve entered in one of three ways:

– Using Facebook you can link to your blog post on your wall. Mention ‘Budget Bucket List’ and don’t forget to tag the MoneySupermarket.com Facebook page

– You can use Twitter. Simply link to your blog post and don’t forget to include @MoneySupermkt and #budgetbucketlist so we can see it!

– Alternatively you can email us on competitions@moneysupermarket.com. Be sure to put ‘Budget Bucket List’ in the title of the email. Include the URL of your blog post as well as your name and phone number in the email.

4) Our judges will select the winner. You can view our terms and conditions here.