We had a busy Easter Sunday, and in keeping with my nature of trying not to spend money, we found several things to do….

We started out by heading up to the British Museum – which I found a little bit claustrophobic (disclaimer – I’ve been getting weird dizzy spells, and the light and dark didn’t help, so I felt a bit wobbly), until we headed out into the main area with the roof by Norman Foster – a marvellous sight too and a good place to clear your head. We found the mummy of a Cleopatra (not THE Cleopatra) although I couldn’t help finding it a bit odd… you die and end up in a museum? I know it’s ridiculously old and all that.. but.. I found it odd. We saw the Rosetta Stone too which was interesting, though a bit like the Mona Lisa in the Louvre – you can’t get that close thanks to the crowds!

Fortunately the museum is free so we can go back – their canteen was good, and had a deal giving you a free children’s meal if you bought hot food. We wanted sandwiches so didn’t take it up, but keep an eye out as you get there.

We headed down to Covent Garden where they had various easter eggs dotted around, as well as a man dressed as the Fat Controller by the Thomas one, and a large Moshi Monsters bus (which was closed, phew!). We intended to go to the London Transport Museum, but it’s pricey (edited to add – Sharon pointed out you can get 2 for 1 vouchers – check here – we’ll definitely do that in the future!)- it stays open later on a Sunday but even then it was £15 each for two hours (as that’s the time that was left) – though just going into the shop to browse was good enough for the two little ones. We popped upstairs for a coffee to be greeted with this….

EDITED TO ADD – the £15 is an annual price, so actually it’s a fantastic deal – you can go back several times over the course of a year which makes the London Transport Museum fantastic value – thanks for clarifying LTM! (see comments below)

Being in Covent Garden meant I’d have to pop in the Moomin Shop – be prepared to walk upstairs, as it’s unavoidable (so not buggy-friendly), but there are tons of Moomins things to buy, we picked up two books for just over £10.

A walk over the Thames always brings good views, and you can have fun spotting things as well as newer additions to the skyline. On the South Bank is the Royal Festival Hall – and views in the warm.

I popped into Foyle’s by the river, so caught up with everyone else inside the hall – my sister told me they were on the sixth floor, so on arriving at the RFH found the lifts by the entrance don’t go up that far. I walked further down to the next lift, and stepped into the Singing Lift which is possibly the best thing EVER. It goes higher for the top floors with a “Level siiixxxx” for that, and lower for the bottom with a “Level onnnnnnne” and big smiles from everyone who gets in.

Yes, we may have gone from Level 5 to Level 1, back up to Level 6 and finally Level 2… stopping at most floors. H and G both found it hilarious!

After that we headed home, overall spends were just for food, transport goodies (I got a great 1970-2013 coaster and a kids map of London) and Moomin’s books – so not a bank breaking day at all. We just missed the food market outside the Festival Hall, but I bet it’d be good for bargains…

Oh, and we did plenty of walking – H fell asleep on the tube home and slept well that night – phew!

We’re on a definite train theme this year, and were tipped off by a friend about Thames Ditton’s Miniature Railway which is operated by Malden and District Society of Model Engineers who have open days for the public on the first Sunday of every month after Easter and until October (as well as Bank Holiday Sundays).

We’re on the August Bank Holiday weekend right now and its open today and tomorrow – Bank Holiday Monday.

Admission to the site is free, where you get an option to buy various tickets to ride miniature trains on their two tracks – both of which go around twice. The coolest part of all this is it’s run by volunteers – there’s zero commercialism here – no sponsorship, just trains, people restoring them and the public getting to ride on them.

We bought two unlimited travel tickets at £6.50 each (there’s no parent or child fares) and swapped them between us so one of us got to ride with H (while I gossiped with a friend mostly).

There’s a buggy storage area, and they don’t allow bags or baby slings onto the trains – but you can store them at the station safely.

The trains run every few minutes on two separate railways – and are usually hauled by model scale steam locomotives. Some trains are hauled by diesel and electric locomotives.

On site there’s refreshments, and a large grass area which is perfect for picnics. You can access this via a footbridge from the main entrance. The site opens from 1pm, trains run from 2pm to 5.30pm.

Every year the club runs Santa Specials – pre booked rides to see Santa at a cost of £10 per child. I’ve no idea what it’ll be like, but I’m liking the sound of it.

How to get there – this is the slightly difficult bit. It’s on a trading estate type area in Thames Ditton – there’s not much parking, so park around the nearby park on the Portsmouth Road (A307) – it’s just off Claygate Lane – postcode KT7 0DL. We turned from the Tolworth Roundabout on the A3 and it took under ten minutes to get there.

So, the bit I didn’t get done. We have family over at the moment and we had a bit of a crisis – payday can’t come soon enough, basically… that and birthdays imminent (H and Shaun), and with the family over lots of daytrips, we’re having to watch that we don’t spend too much – so without doing the ‘We’re skint, we can’t do anything’ route, we’re trying to do the ‘let’s not spend too much’ one instead.

We’ll see how we go.

Day 1 was a trip to Kew Gardens – somewhere I’d never been but often intended to. I think in my head I thought Kew would be a massive garden full of flowers and not much else, but actually as National Trust members and having been to Wakehurst Place, you can see why the two places are linked so closely – they’re quite similar – even if it’s not the plants and flowers they have.

If you’re a member at Kew, or indeed plan to visit several times in the year a membership is worth it. Kew is just slightly too far away and in London for us – so I suspect we’d probably go once a year which means we wouldn’t use it. Alas being a National Trust member doesn’t count for anything at Kew, so there were no savings to be had there. In fact, it’s only now I found the 2 for 1 deal over here (sigh) which would save you £15 or so – you just need a National Rail ticket.

Having said that, we wouldn’t have qualified as we chose to drive – parking is £6.50 all day, but you’re close to the park – handy if you’ve a tired toddler. There was free parking around one side of the gardens (at least it looked free!) but we couldn’t get a space.

Inside you have fields, glasshouses with some fabulous plants and loads to look at. There’s a children’s play area which reassuringly is big enough for an adult when your toddler decides she’s stuck (cough, then does it again straight away and doesn’t get stuck), food wasn’t cheap, but I didn’t see signs that say you can’t take your own picnic.

There was plenty of wandering around to be done, lest we forget the terrifying walkway which I didn’t get on – it was too high for me and apparently does sway a bit so be aware of that if you’re not good with heights. My fearless child just lay down and looked at us on the ground, as you can see through the floor. It is free to go on and has amazing views.

There’s also an underground display which she liked, identifying all the creepy crawlies.

There was so much to do and I know we could go back and do a lot more – and we will. I wish there was a reduction for National Trust members (though understand why not!) as we’d definitely go back there a lot more.

Money saved? Not much this time although running and walking around large gardens doesn’t cost you a penny.

Okay, I realise this is confusing being part 2, when part 1 hasn’t been written yet, but I’m trying to be chronological here and haven’t had time to do yesterday.

So – the in-laws are over from Australia and we’re sightseeing – however, I don’t agree in paying full price for anything if there’s a way you can get it cheaper, so this is essentially what this is about – especially when it involves kids.

Today’s trip was over to London’s South Bank – The London Eye, a wander along the river, a trip to Wahaca and loads of free things along the way (with more that we missed).

So, the London Eye. At £18 each it’s pricey – but don’t let that put you off. If you head over here you can register and sign up for a 2 for 1 voucher – which for us was an almost £40 saving (4 adults, one under 3 went free). All you need to qualify is a Railcard travelcard (Oyster cards are no good, nor are Underground issued ones) – check the T&C’s for more information, but it’s worth it if you’re getting a travelcard anyway. You can also buy a ticket for the London Aquarium which is worth a visit as a combined price saving you a little more – and is only a couple of minutes (even at toddler pace) from the London Eye.

When the London Eye isn’t busy you can walk on, so we had our tickets and were on within  ten minutes which was good too – no waiting around or arranging a time to get on – which considering it’s the day after the Olympics finished, you’d expect it to be a bit busy. Save yourself some money too – get someone else in the pod to take a photo of you with a good London Skyline and avoid the ridiculously expensive ones you can buy there…!

After that we wandered along the South Bank – where the Festival of the World is going on (until the 9th September) – so you’ve crates you can climb into, rides (which cost £2 per person – the carousel would need an adult if your child is less than 1m30), a fabulous Lego World, and the utterly fantastic Rainbow Park – a huge sandpit which starts in plain until it works through the colours of the rainbow – it’s sand you can’t build a sandcastle from, but that doesn’t make it any less fun. Don’t leave it too late! It rained a bit today but we were fairly sheltered under the trees.

There’s so much to do that we missed the Amaze Me maze built from books, and didn’t get to explore properly really – it’s definitely somewhere to go back to – but best of all it only costs you the price of your travel (and food) to get there!

Food-wise, I tried a free trial of a Tastecard, but couldn’t use it anywhere for 5 people (and FourSquare let me down too) – so we ended up going to Wahaca who have a pop-up store – they’re not cheap, but there is also a small stand for street food which does all the same things as in the restaurant – and Wahaca are yummy (and have plenty of vegetarian choices) – and very filling. Plan in advance and Pizza Express often has good deals – and free WiFi, plus if you have an iPhone or an iPod Touch their app is extremely useful.

All in all, our South Bank Trip did pretty well as far as not spending money goes! I’m not sure what’s in store tomorrow…