I accompanied my daughter to Brownie Camp last weekend. What was I thinking?!
Quite aside from the eye-rolling and quite tangible disgust that her mother was in her space on a residential trip, my daughter knew that I would be tired for days afterwards. Nine-year-olds are not well-known for going to sleep early. Or lie-ins. They are notorious for wanting to eat cake and to keep the fun going as long as possible. And who could blame them? An opportunity to run in the woods, away from the usual rules of home, homework, and music practice. A chance to quite literally swing from the trees (in full safety harness, obviously!) with your friends. It’s the stuff every girl dreams of!
At least I saved money getting there!
Luckily, I did at least manage to save myself some money en route to the sleep deprivation. Tesco asked me to do some shopping with them, which I duly did, purchasing enough sandwich-filling and snacking products to see several Brownies through their first hunger pangs. At £50 of groceries, the Tesco 50:50 deal kicks in, meaning that I started to rack up 2p per litre savings on petrol for every £50 I spent. The more you spend, the more you save on fuel, and it’s cumulative too. By the time I actually needed to fill up my car, I had 6p off a litre, all recorded on my Clubcard. Which did at least take the sting out of all that followed:
As it turns out my daughter was right. Incapable of moving from the sofa for the entire afternoon of our return, the late-night whisperings had left me in a kind of glazed half-life until 7 0′ clock finally ticked round, and allowed me to sink into my super-kingsize bed. She, on the other hand, couldn’t stop talking about what an amazing time she’d had, making new friends at the top of the wobbly pole, and screaming in glee at the most epic swing she’d ever been on.
She declared it would have been even better if her mother had stayed home. I don’t think I’ll be allowed to go next time 😉
To find out more about saving money on fuel with your grocery shopping, visit Tesco Clubcard Fuel Save.
Disclosure: we were given £50 to spend on groceries to start the fuel save process, and £50 to spend on fuel, to write about a day out.
I think my kids would be mortified if I was go with them on a residential camp too.At least you had a dorm and not a tent Helen.
Gosh yes, my own Guide camp was in one of those basic canvas tents that allow half the population of the field to come in with you and leaks water as soon as you touch the sides! Thank goodness the facilities have improved!
Wow… you are one very brave lady for going to Brownie camp with GG! Don’t think I’d ever have attempted it with my 2!!
I would love to see what goes on at Brownie Camp – but maybe not stay and go through the hell of all those girls confined together!
Glad to hear GG made the most of it x
Can’t decide whether it would be worse with cubs and scouts – I think I’m safer sticking with the Brownies to be honest 🙂
I never got chance to stay over at Brownie camp, we only did a day camp. One I need to tick off my list one day perhaps! Or perhaps not 😉
Ah do it Penny – you’d be a perfect Brownie helper 🙂
Ooh I was a brownie once upon a time and my daughter is now. So much fun. Brave you !
It was secretly quite fun, but you have to have a grumble about lack of sleep don’t you? 😉
I bet you had a lot of fun at Brownie camp.
I am loving the fuel saving at Tescos, and because we shop online they send us voucher codes for any money we would have saved if we had shopped elsewhere.
Yes I like that too – and the fact that there’s a decent expiry on them.