Since I moved back home from uni I’ve been so focused on saving money that doing things at the weekend hasn’t really been possible. Days out and trips all add up and I’m trying hard to watch all of my spending.

As you can imagine it has lead to life feeling quite repetitive and dull. Go to work all week, chill out at home at the weekend, repeat. 

I was starting to feel if I spent another weekend at home I would go crazy. 

Last weekend we had such utterly fabulous weather, the clocks went forward and it really felt like Spring had finally arrived.

As we’re watching our budget Jared and I went for a drive. I know, we sound about 74 but we are really lucky to have fabulous countryside on our doorstep that Jared hasn’t seen before. The drive itself was lovely in the sunshine, with some tunes playing and chatting away about our week. 

We headed for the tiny village of Compton Chamberlayne which is where my Nan grew up and my Dad was born. The whole village is one street so I showed Jared the house they used to live in. It really is the cutest little place and has a real old charm to it, with its daffodil lined verges.

After having a quick look around we headed out of the village towards Fovant in order to see the Fovant Badges. These are military badges of regiments that fought in the First World War which have been carved by soldiers waiting to head over to France. The oldest was created in 1916 and they are carved into the chalk hillside. You can see them from the road and there’s a viewing layby which has a guide to the badges. Well worth a look if you are interested in local history.

We then drove back through Barford St Martin and stopped for lunch at The Barford Arms. Two enormous plates of food and drinks cost us around £25 so we were really pleased with the value for money. The food was hearty and tasty and the cosy interior of the coaching inn topped off a really fun afternoon. 

Overall we had a really lovely time and it was so nice to actually get out and explore our local area a bit more. I'm going to try and think of some more fun things to do that are close by and still inexpensive. If you have any ideas, let me know!

My Birthday!

 Now in case I hadn't milked the fact it was my birthday enough, it was finally the actual day!

I went home for the weekend to see my family and we had a lovely meal out at a local pub, getting very drunk on bubbly and just generally being rowdy and mad.

I received some absolutely beautiful gifts, mostly of amber jewelery which is all stunning and I cannot decide what to wear first. My mum made me an incredible basket of happiness (alcohol and chocolate). Also had some generous money gifts (big thanks to relatives for that, I am totally skint at the moment, so MUCH appreciated thank you!). My boyfriend bought me a beautiful ring (FYI we are NOT engaged, its just a casual ring that I had my eye on) and put up with my mental family for the weekend.

Spent the Sunday messing around on the farm with the horses, trying to get better at archery and attempting to shoot ducks with the air rifle. Proud to say I won this :D

Afraid I didn't take that many pictures as I was too busy having fun but there are a few. Big thank you to my parents, I had the most incredible 21st. There I said it, I'm old now. Its official. Heres to getting a million cats and being a mad old lady.