3 night Staycation in Bath

The Roman baths

The Roman baths

Mrs Potts chocolate house

The Ivy brasserie

The Ivy brasserie

Eggs benedict, Apex hotel

Bath is a beautiful city located in the county of Somerset. There are a lot of picturesque views and lots to explore around the city. It's the perfect place for a couples getaway or a family trip.

Travel: It takes just under 2 hours via train from London Victoria station and just over 3 hours via coach from Victoria coach station. We opted to take the coach as it was a lot cheaper and wasn't much of a difference in terms of travel time.

It was my second time visiting Bath as I visited for the first time in September 2020 for 2 nights for my Wedding anniversary. We decided to stay at the Apex hotel once again as we had a positive stay last year, it is a 4* hotel located a few minutes walk from the city centre.

We had a very pleasant stay our room was modern, comfortable we also had a bath and a separate shower which suited both of our preferences. The hotel has a gym, pool, sauna and a steam room, we utilised the pool, sauna and the steam room during our stay and had no issues with any of the facilities.

We had breakfast included in our booking you are given the option of a choice of one hot breakfast option and the freedom to serve yourself at the continental bar which had pastries, fruit, fruit juices etc. There was a variety of breakfast options suitable for different diets and the food was great too, the staff were friendly and we didn't encounter any issues with the service of the staff.

We did a lot of exploring around the city which is easy to do so on foot. We visited the Roman baths which was a really interesting tour I'd definitely recommend. We also spent our time relaxing at the hotel, visiting a mixture of cafes and restaurants.

Our budget for our trip was £1,000.

Here's a breakdown of what we spent:

• Apex hotel (3 nights inc. breakfast): £664 *(I will be getting 5% cashback with this booking via airtime rewards and will get 1814 honey gold points once my purchase is verified which will allow me to get a £10 voucher).*

• Coach tickets x2: £21.60

• Roman Baths x2: £34 (prices vary depending on the month)

• Victoria falls Mini golf: £11 (was really impressed with the price, it was definitely value for money)

Eating out:

• Sainsbury's: 3.80

• Tesco: £2.10

• KFC: £5.46

• Chinese takeaway x1: £18 (pricey but food was average)

• Fish & chips x1: £9.50

• Society cafe: £9.80 (x2 drinks and a muffin)

• Chez Dominque: £60 (inc. tip) we both ordered the Onglet steak which we tried for the first time it was cooked very well and very flavoursome. The service was great and staff were friendly.

• The Ivy: £65.81 (inc. tip) we both enjoyed our food and the service was great.

• Creams: £7.95

• Friends takeaway (kebab): £4.99 (reasonably priced and tasted good)

• Mrs Potts chocolate house: £10.20 (x2 hot chocolates) a little pricey but definitely worth visiting

• Papaw cha (bubble tea): £4.90

• Sweet little things tea house and bakery: £18.05

• Pizza hut delivery: £16.82

Total spend: £967.98

If your budget is a little tighter there are plenty of ways that you could reduce your spend by opting for a 3* hotel, air bnb or eating out a lot less than we did (lol we wanted to treat ourselves).

To view more pictures and videos of our trip head over to my Instagram page @YourFinancePT

Referral links:

1. Airtime rewards: You can download via https://airtimerewards.app.link/friend if you use my code CUVKDFG6 you'll get a bonus once you sign up, it is free and once you set yourself up there's nothing you need to do as the app will automatically track your purchases for you and reward you cash back on eligible purchases.

2. Honey online browser extension: sign up using my referral code to get access to discounts when shopping online http://joinhoney.com/ref/pson80t

Should I Save whilst clearing debt?

This is a question I’m frequently asked, and my answer is usually the same. There are a lot of conflicting opinions online that suggest that if you are in debt, you should solely focus on clearing your debt and postpone saving until you are debt free. While I understand the logic behind this, I believe that focusing all of your efforts on clearing your debt and having no savings or reserves in place can leave you susceptible to falling into further debt in the event of an emergency.

Over the last year I’ve coached over 100 people, a pattern I’ve found amongst some of my clients who are in debt was that prior to getting into debt they either had no savings or a minimal amount- when a need arose, they did not have sufficient funds to cover it and resorted to credit cards and loans.

In my opinion if you are currently in debt you should focus on clearing your debt but also aim to build up an emergency fund that you can utilise should an urgent need arise. This would provide you with an added level of security and peace of mind. I’d suggest working towards saving up 1 months’ worth of your expenses in an easy access savings account as a starting point. Once you’ve cleared your debt or reduced it significantly you can then decide whether to continue to build your emergency fund to cover 3 months’ worth of your expenses and so on.

If you live in the UK and are struggling with debt you can access free debt advise via the following charities: 1) Stepchange: https://www.stepchange.org/

2) Debt advise foundation: https://www.debtadvicefoundation.org/

3) National debtline: https://www.nationaldebtline.org/

If you’re ready to break bad finance habits, change your mindset when it comes to money and learn how to effectively manage your finances book in a Finance 101 one to one session.

Your Finance P.T

Does the Honey extension really save you money? Review

Saving money with Honey

Honey is a coupon app designed to save you money when shopping online. The app is only available as a browser extension, it is compatible with popular web browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, and Opera.

The app removes the grafting of searching online for discount codes ( I know I have lol) by searching for coupon codes on your behalf once you arrive at check out. If multiple coupon codes are found honey, honey will apply the best deals to your cart.

Honey covers a range of stores for clothing stores to utility providers there is an extensive list of stores that you can search from through the app.

Not only can you save money through using the app but you can also receive honey 'gold points' through the rewards scheme, which are essentially points that are accrued every time you make a qualifying purchase. Once you accrue 1400 gold points you can redeem your points for a £10 voucher to use at one of the Honey gold stores.

You can also collect 500 honey gold points when you refer friends using your referral code. The app is free to download and does not cost anything to utilise the service.

If you are still wondering does the extension actually work? Yes it does. I've had the browser extension for about 2 years now( I don't often shop online) BUT there are occasions when I have shopped online and have received discounts using the honey app.

The app does not always have coupons available on all online purchases but on most occasions it does.

If you like the sound of the app and want to give it a try download it via my referral link: joinhoney.com/ref/pson80t

If you are some one who is quite concerned about privacy I'd recommend checking out their privacy policy before you download the extension as Honey does use a range of cookies to provide the service.

Note: this post is not sponsored by honey but is my honest review and experience.

Have you ever used they honey extension or another browser extension if so what was your experience? Let me know in the comments.

Your Finance P.T