2020 The Pre Trippy Yet To Be Named

[LittleTibbs]

Wow! Ok so firstly before introductions, I must admit that I haven’t been on here for a while. We’ve had some huge changes in our lives (which I’ll get to shortly) and to be fair, I didn’t think we would be on here planning a USA holiday this soon!

We’ve had family recently get back from Orlando, and seeing the photos and enjoyment really pushed this trip forward by like 2 years 😂 Jealousy is a wonderful thing ain’t it.

So...

Introductions

Some of you may remember us. We are Holly & John (those that remember us will remember the many movie references, especially Die Hard due to our names)... AND we now also have JT, one of our biggest changes to our lives, our amazing little 18 month old boy 🤗

As you can see from the photo, he’s very social.

We’re from Newcastle and love everything about being from up North... yes even the weather, we don’t wear coats and yet no-one knows why 😂

I love planning absolutely anything and have a vast amount of notepads... I have actually upgraded since last being on here and use an iPad, but there’s something special about a little notebook.

John is still massively into his sports and always gets really into the Basketball, Baseball and American Football.

And it would be wrong for me to miss out JT... he currently likes Marshall from Paw Patrol and Pizza... the simple things in life eh!

The holiday

We hadn’t planned on going on holiday to the US for some time. We’ve had some highs and lows since we were last on here. It’s kind of because of the lows that we’ve decided on the holiday. Life’s really waaaaay too short and if we can get it sorted and can afford it, then why not.

Yes JT is young, but we want to be making memories with him. Plus he kind of already likes packing:

Now, this beings me to the next point which I’m going to track through this post:

Life changes

There’s a few other things that we want to sort leading up to the holiday. One thing being our general health. We did really well with My Fitness Pal a while back, each loosing between 1.5-2 stone. We felt better both physically and mentally.

For those who are on and would like to be Friends, my user is HJJJ18 - you will quickly realise my meals are very ‘beige’... I’m trying to improve this 🤞

The second thing being what I’ve recently been advised is named a ‘life cleanse’... in other words, trying to rid our house of all the ≈≈≈≈ we’ve gained over the years. And hoping this will pay for a couple meals at Sanaa 🤞

So for the above two points, I’m going to keep track on here of how it goes. Lots of health changes including meals and fitness and also a good ol sort out for eBay etc. I would’ve tried Gumtree again, but since being messaged some very... let’s say ‘odd requests’, I’ve decided eBay is my safest option! 😳😳😳

I find writing soooo therapeutic, so what better way to keep us on track and to keep you guys updated too... I’m saying guys plural as I’m hoping there’ll be a couple of you readers, granted double figure would be nice but all in good time people 😂👌

The plan

- Ideally the plan will be two weeks (with the potential of driving to Clearwater or Indian Shores for a couple nights).
- Go to Mickeys Not So Scary night... our relatives have just been and said it was absolutely amazing... I love all things Halloween and would love to go here.
- Budget as much as possible. Normally we save up emails and coupons etc but we really want to try go all out. Especially with having the little one with us. He may at any given time be referred to as ‘The Bairn’, those that are familiar with The Broons will appreciate that I’m sure.
- My sister has literally the best knowledge when it comes to children’s meals for when they can eat free etc...so yeah if people know where adults can eat free then 👌👌👌

I plan to write as much as I can... so until next time guys 😘

UPDATES

9/9/19 So today me and my sister went along to the allotment. Managed to get some onions so there’s a good start with the food budgeting... plus the hard work, blood, sweat and tears have got have been good towards the weight loss!

[vampiress88]

You both looks so young!

Following. Hope you have an amazing time with your little one. I’m from up north too but not so north to use the word bairn.

[LittleTibbs]

Aaaaw thanks fellow northerner! That photo was from 3 years ago. We’re both 32 now... eeeeeek!

[vampiress88]

Wow your a year older than me. Wish I looked that young.

Do you know when your going in 2020 yet?

We didn’t strict budget but used lots of coupons. They have coupons for everything over there. I wish we had more over here for eating out too

[LittleTibbs]

Aaaw thank you 🤣 We look a tad older now... even our oldest dog is looking old since we’ve had the baby... poor thing is great for baby sitting duties but it’s turned him grey! Yeah - when we were there last we used a few coupons. Mainly for the shopping... I don’t think we used any for food though so I’m taking it on as a challenge! Like I think I might start watching Extreme Couponing just to get into the feel of it 🤣🤣🤣

[vampiress88]

Originally Posted by LittleTibbs

Aaaw thank you 🤣 We look a tad older now... even our oldest dog is looking old since we’ve had the baby... poor thing is great for baby sitting duties but it’s turned him grey! Yeah - when we were there last we used a few coupons. Mainly for the shopping... I don’t think we used any for food though so I’m taking it on as a challenge! Like I think I might start watching Extreme Couponing just to get into the feel of it 🤣🤣🤣

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We used a coupon quote i few times for food. Didn’t actually get much coupons for shopping.
I like the extreme couponing but why would I need 1000 chewing gums stocked in my shed. I don’t find it as helpful as I thought.

Dixonontour has some really good things about food coupons. She does $100 a day and we managed $111 a day but that included everything such as petrol too. When we go in 2020 we are budgeting $150. We have two girls who will be 4&5 when we go next.

[LittleTibbs]

Oh I’ll definitely go check those out. Yeah we’re pretty good with budgeting when we set our minds to it. We’ll be going with quite a few family members too so it’ll be nice to share the ideas etc. Think I’ll have a sit down and budget per day like you’ve done 🙌

[kellyreathomps]

Hahahah loved the start, see if you can keep the pre trip up this time! When can I graduate from pulling up weeds to something a bit more exciting? and when I think about it, all my efforts seem to only be helping your food budgeting😂
Can't wait to go next year and JT will have an amazing time. MNSSHP was amazing and hope we can source the costume idea xxccx

[vampiress88]

Originally Posted by LittleTibbs

Oh I’ll definitely go check those out. Yeah we’re pretty good with budgeting when we set our minds to it. We’ll be going with quite a few family members too so it’ll be nice to share the ideas etc. Think I’ll have a sit down and budget per day like you’ve done 🙌

See more...

We luckily went with a really big budget so went trying to watch the money, we just bought what we wanted but as it was so hot ate less than we do at home. I kept a track so that I could better budget for this years too. I alway like to over estimate and then come back thinking I’ve done really well 😂
Will also be stricter next year cos I’ve some how talked hubby into two big holidays

[LittleTibbs]

Yeah I just realised I never gave you any of the onions 🤣🤣🤣