Fur Coat

I know this sounds crazy but I actually like the Recession!

Am I mad?! I do think that one must always strive to see the silver lining in each cloud. Even, as in this case, it has proven to be the perfect storm.

Take for example, the humble car wash. During the boom times, I used to employ Warren to clean, wash, wax and polish my car every month.  He would trundle up on his bicycle with his backpack containing his gear.  Two and half hours later, I would hand him £25 and inspect my sparkling car. 

This arrangement was set to continue, until the nasty recession got in the way. Nick and I decided to cut costs and the luxury monthly car washing service was one of the first victims. We had to face the reality of washing and cleaning our own car!

As we have three children, this is no easy quick vac, wash and wipe down.  It is a matter of scraping the chocolate off the leather seats and scrubbing the carpet to  rid it of orange juice stains. But needs must, so after a trip to France by car, we set about our first car cleaning experience.  Let me leave you in no doubt about the state of the car.  It  was filthy, both inside and out.

As the kids were hanging around, I suggested that we all wash and clean the car together. They were delighted, and along with the neighbour's kids, joined in.  We did it together as a family. We enjoyed time together as a family.  We achieved something together as a family, without resorting to complicated or pricey measures. Simple fun…

People are returning to basics and I like that. We are spending more time around our homes cooking or cleaning instead of rushing off in a frenetic manner looking for the next best thing for either us or our children to do.

Now to the credit crunch ski holiday! Surely, an oxymoron, you might venture to ask? 

Well, our family, as well as great friends whom we accompanied on the ski trip, are here to tell you that it can be done. Yes, you will spend more than the minimum wage earner's holiday budget allows, but you can save substantially on costs.

Here are FCaNK's little secrets! 

1. Destination.  Italy is on the whole cheaper than France.  Bear in mind that France definitely has the better ski runs.
2. Drive to your destination.   This achieves three things. If you have a family of three or more kids, you will save on airfares, transfer costs and car parking at the airport. You can also take all or most of your food with you in the car. Lastly, you don't have to stress about excess luggage or ski luggage costs.
3. Take you own food. We saved a mountain by taking our own snacks and drinks for the day.  We used to eat all our meals at our apartment. We would ski in the morning and come back for lunch. After a short break we would venture out again onto the slopes.
4. You can stop off in the Champagne region, the Cote du Rhone region or another region of your fancy and pick up your alcohol.  We drove through and visited two divine Champagne houses on the way.  We paid around 15-16 Euro for first class Champagne. In my humble opinion, better than Moet and Chandon or Verve any day…
5. Book budget accommodation.  We booked a four bedroom apartment for a week with Belumbra Apartments.  It cost 1400 Euros for the week.  We could have squeezed into a three bedroom apartment at 900 Euros, but we wanted our children to have separate rooms to ensure everyone had enough sleep.   It was a 5 minute walk away but as my husband loaded up the car with children, food and skis every morning, dropped us off and came back on foot; the hassle of normally being away from the slopes was taken away.  We did look a sight with five or so kids, a couple of adults and skis piled into the back of the estate car every morning. The police didn't seem to bat an eye lid, so we carried on all week in this manner!
6. We ended up eating out twice at between 80-100 Euros per family. Not too bad, but wouldn't want to do that every day and night!

We ended up spending around 4000 Euros for the week.  Not bad considering we had a first class ski holidays in one of the best resorts in the world!  Roll on the recession. We love it! Signing off, Fur Coat