Dalyan – 31st March

It was my last day with Norman on Tuesday 31st March and he was eager to get his breakfast rather than featuring in a video for Little Daddy. Jamie was due to land at 7pm so I had all day to tidy, clean, nip to the shops and do work. Norman was aware of what was going on because he was doing a security check and seemed a bit sad.

In the morning I worked on helping potential customers with hand luggage only packing tips and quotes for the Costa Del Sol in Spain. Since the war against Iran had started, I’d noticed that some of my customers were choosing to holiday nearer to home this summer. Of course, I had managed to have booked in even more travel bargains for myself. For 2026 I now had 8 holidays booked, 4 with Captain Caveman. This made a good change compared to last year and I was certainly taking advantage of the cheap deals. This didn’t include being lucky enough to also be visiting the UK 3 times this year, as well as having the holiday town of Dalyan as my home for the rest of the time. Already, I had booked several friends their holidays to come to Dalyan too, so I was looking forward to this year.

After some work, I cleaned the house. In between all that, I used up some browning bananas and an egg to make an oatcake (as you do)! As it was Sabotage Tuesday I didn’t want to be tempted to eat things I shouldn’t because I had been quite good since Norman’s birthday celebrations.
I found a lovely deal in Corfu at one of the fancy Grecotel chain hotels and sent it to 3 people who had asked about Corfu and Greek holidays. In the afternoon, I nipped to the bank to take out my ‘spare’ money for March, in readiness for doing the same during April (tomorrow). I popped to the shop to top back up anything I had used at Jamie’s, and spent just 111.85 lira (£1.89) on those essentials.
Norman snored away while I worked and seemed quite happy on the sofa. I spoke to Captain Caveman who was getting a train in Vietnam and heading back to Ho Chi Minh before his flight back to the UK tomorrow. Once I knew Jamie was on his way, I was able to pop back home and relax. It was my dad’s birthday so I managed to get a video call in and sing Happy Birthday to him before eating and then having an early night.
I bravely checked the March spending for the whole month. This last 3 days I’d spent £17.88 which meant that for the last 10 days I had spent only £46.52 against a budget of £100 (£10 per day). The monthly budget ended up being £270 for March, after I upped it from £221 (£5 per day) 2 weeks in to the month. I actually spent a grand total of £228.73 in March which meant I was £41.27 under budget and only £7.30 over the original budget. Adjusting it mid month had helped me claw some of it back and I was pleased to have done it. This had meant that the money I had saved was used for some of my 2026 holidays. I’d enjoyed the challenge of Money Minded March and was pleased to see that I’d spent half the amount of the previous month. Unfortunately, my weight loss had not gone as well in March and I was slightly heavier at the end of the month than I was at the beginning.
More shenanigans were coming up for April; more outings, some celebrations and The Aussies were back in town!

Gratitude List
1. Norman
2. Managing to be under the (revised) budget for March
3. Video calls with Captain Caveman and Dad.