A Money Challenge Involving Frugal Fun and Travel

A Frugal Trip to Northern Ireland.

This is the summary of our frugal day trip of Thursday 22nd August 2013. It began at 5am on Thursday 22nd August and ended at about 11.30pm that same day. When we got to where we were going, the sun shone!

I hadn't been to Northern Ireland since 2009, when we went for the day to explore Belfast, enabling me to tick off 'Visit Ireland' from my list of 'things to do' for that year.

 

The Challenge - A budget of £100 to complete another couple of items from my bucket list.

This trip took care of items 8 and 9 out of a possible 10 on my current list, so I have now moved number 10 to a new list and made it number 1 - you know, on accounts of my still being here and actually managing to achieve it? I need a new list so there are other things to move on to during and after the final quest from my previous list - in search of Aurora Borealis.

 

The Bucket List - Items 8 and 9

 

8. Visit the Giant's Causeway

9. Walk across the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge

 

Budget = £100 for two of us (I seldom go anywhere alone, I'm a wimp.)

Northern Ireland is quite convenient for those of us living here in the sometimes forgotten southwest corner of Scotland. We're now 26 miles from the ferry port, since they closed down Stranraer and moved all operations to Cairnryan. This is a blog post about fulfilling an ambition on a small budget.

Trip to Northern Ireland's Antrim Coast

Fuel to and from port - £8.70 
Secure parking for the day - £5
Return coach and ferry tickets - £32 x 2 = £64
Carrick-a-Rede Bridge (group) fees - 2 x £5 = £10
Giants Causeway - FREE (We didn't go in the visitor centre or use the shuttle bus service.)
Coffees on the ferry - 2 x £2.50 = £5 (Including as many  free refills as you want.)

Total = £92.70 or £46.35 per person

Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge

 

The Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge is under the control of the National Trust, so members can walk across to the tiny island free of charge. (My membership lapsed some time ago into the depths of non-frugality.) The queues for crossing this bridge are staggering, meaning we had no time to explore the area - by the time we crossed to the island, we'd to about turn and rush back to catch the mini-bus. For those of us who were on the tour, we were charged £5 per person, which I thought was a little naughty; the National Trust webpage clearly states £4 per person in a group. I guess the tour company make themselves an extra £1 per person by issuing these tickets but that £1 difference could have covered the cost of a certificate to say you crossed the rope bridge. We didn't bother buying one after that.

The Giant's Causeway

 

This is as awesome to walk on as it looks, although the place was absolutely mobbed with fellow tourists and day-trippers. Despite this, we did find a quiet spot to sit down and eat our sandwiches while taking in the magnificent views of the stones, sea and surrounding cliffs. In the event I am ever fortunate enough to return to this area, I would choose to spend more of my day exploring these surrounding paths and rocky outcrops in an attempt to fully appreciate the scale of the Giant's Causeway.

 

The view we had from our chosen picnic spot on the Giant's Causeway.

 

The stones themselves are quite fascinating, as are the little rock pools that can be found among them. Walking from stone to stone was like crossing a fantastic, wild patio made up of thousands of hexagonal stone slabs. (They aren't all hexagonal.) Their differing heights made me think of Indiana Jones attempting to avoid the one step that could trigger a deadly onslaught of rising and falling rock columns, as they suddenly sink underfoot, casting the unsuspecting walker down into an abyss. I've never seen anything related to Game of Thrones*  but several filming locations can be found around this area of Northern Ireland. In fact, there's now a specific tour for fans to visit these filming locations.

 

The Giant's Causeway is now a world heritage site and has a very modern visitor centre of eco-friendly design. The building is set into the hillside and completely disguised from above by its turfed roof, over which you can walk. The first I realised I was on the roof was when passing the massive skylight windows. Many people were walking over these, but I found that a little disconcerting. The other rather disconcerting thing about this visitor centre is that it houses the main public toilets, tea room/restaurant and the gift shops. Nothing bad in that, you might think, except that it would have cost us £8.50 each just to get into the building! No thank you - a walk over the roof and down to the shore to appreciate the natural wonders of the Giant's Causeway was sufficient for us. There is a shuttle bus available, but this costs an extra £2 per person, again not very frugal or green, for that matter. Besides, it's only a short walk for anyone with a modicum of fitness.

Old Bushmills Distillery

Old Bushmills distillery is said to be the oldest licensed whisky distillery in the world, funded in 1608. Our day trip included a brief stop here, just long enough for a quick trip around the visitor centre shop and for some photo-taking. This hadn't been part of our original itinerary, but it was a worthwhile stop just to be able to say we've been. Needless to say, we neither imbibed nor purchased any bottles of Bushmills whiskey.

By pre-booking the day trip tickets, travelling as foot passengers and taking all our own food with us, this made for a very frugal set of life experiences and provided us with some great memories. The Giant's Causeway made me think that a trip to Staffa and a visit to Fingal's Cave might well become a feature on a future list of 'things to do' but, then again, the site of the sea-going liner sailing out of Belfast harbour made me think of cruising a little further afield, which means I would also need to renew my passport and find a willing companion with similar goals and aspirations. Hmm... I wonder, I wonder, I wonder.

I don't think we did too badly considering how much we packed into our day. 5 hours of cruising, 'Brave' playing on the big screen, free Wi-Fi on board, all the coffee we could drink, some crochet time for relaxation and a lovely bit of top-up suntan while out enjoying some of Northern Ireland's top visitor spots and we each came home with change to spare. At less than £50 per person, this has to be a trip worth making.
 

I'd like to thank frugal friend who accompanied me on this trip, making it possible for me to travel to Ireland in the first place - her excellent company was much appreciated. I think we chatted non-stop from the minute the day began until we got home again. Hopefully, she managed to find some new inspiration for future gem stone creations while we were off on our travels.

Until next time,
NYK in Frugaldom

* Affiliated link

Frugal Bucket Lists and the Budget Bucket List

Bucket List on a Budget 

This is another of the exciting blogger contests hosted by the guys at moneysupermarket.com, which means you can read all the other entries (or take part yourself) by looking for the hash tag #BudgetBucketList on Twitter and Facebook or by checking out the competition rules here.

People laugh at me and my lists - I have them for everything from the steps I follow in my pursuit of a frugal life to renovating and decorating the fixy-up house, going places, doing things and, basically, spending in any way, shape or form. Overall cost is the major contributing factor in how things get prioritised for me, but my lists are rigorously maintained and always adhered to in an effort to pack as much into life as possible.

When I saw the chance to blog about the subject of budget bucket lists, I thought it was great - even if it was a last minute write-up for me. I always have my lists to hand.

Ignoring things like buying a cottage in the country, growing my own fruit & veg and keeping chickens and ducks in an orchard through which a stream runs, and aside from things like owning racehorses, meeting superstars and having one's own personal trainer, housekeeper and chauffeur driven car, my list is quite random, I'd say.



The summit of Ben Nevis

Under normal circumstances, my long-standing list would have included wanting to climb a mountain, but living in Scotland made this a fairly frugal choice. At the end of May 2013, I joined a group of friends at a hostel in Fort William and we all walked up Ben Nevis on an absolutely glorious day that allowed us every possible view. No amount of money could have booked such fantastic weather, so I count this as being one of my major goals achieved - and ticked it off my bucket list. So now I need to move onto the next of my less expensive goals...

Visit the Giant's Causeway and walk across the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge.



 

Giant's Causeway  North Coast Photographic / Foter / CC BY-NC

The trip to Ireland is relatively inexpensive from here, as I live only 25 miles or so from the ferry port of Cairnryan. I can simply cross to Ireland as a foot passenger on the ferry and then catch the tour bus from Belfast that will take me to my chosen destinations. The day ticket currently costs only £32 per person. In all, I am expecting this entire adventure to cost me under £100 but I haven't managed to arrange dates or times to suit my travel companion.

Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge: Samyra Serin / Foter / CC BY-NC-SA



The main hold-up is getting to Cairnryan for 7am, as I don't have a car and, as many of you know, don't live on a bus route - not that the buses run at those times, even from the nearest village. Around £50 of my costs will be on taxis to and from the ferry port but I think it's a small price to pay for what I would consider a once in a lifetime experience. Here's what's included in the day trip to the Giant's Causeway, with lovely photos of the Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge.



Photo credit: spodzone / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

On the not-so-frugal bucket list is my desire to witness the awesome spectacle of the Northern Lights. So many friends have been to see Aurora Borealis, including trips to the Scandinavian countries at what was deemed appropriate or probable times of year, but to no avail. We are all in agreement that in order to witness such a magical, yet natural, phenomenon, it takes longer than a weekend or even a week long holiday - it means being there for long enough to witness the event.

September through winter to early March are the months with potential for spotting the aurora, but there is no way that I can just pack my bags and go exploring the north for 6 months - or is there? I started looking at the possibilities for real - how much would it cost?

Going self-catering can cost from about £300 to £550 per week and that's a huge amount of money if it takes until March to even glimpse the Aurora - over £15,000 if I average the costs and include normal day-to-day living expenses plus transport. I do watch for Aurora alerts but it's impossible to book accommodation and then get there at short notice. But then again, not even by taking the 6 month option can anyone guarantee you will catch sight of the Northern Lights.

For another few thousand pounds I would far prefer to buy a fixy-up property - something like this -  and then share it with everyone else who wanted to Aurora-watch. I'd have been on the first available ferry to the Shetlands had I been in the financial situation to do so when the above property was available! A small fortune needed to renovate but what a place to be if the Aurora Borealis put on a magnificent display! I'd then offer it for frugal, but phenomenal, winter breaks for those who couldn't normally afford such luxury. Back in the real world, £1,000 would afford me to take a friend / companion camping to the northern-most point of the Scottish mainland for at least a month, perhaps in October, with the outside chance of catching sight of the lights.

Those are my chosen bucket list items - nothing far-flung that involves Atlantic crossings or sandy dessert adventures. Walking the Machu Picchu trail sounds fascinating, climbing to Mt Everest base camp sounds awesome and exploring Egypt's great pyramids looks fabulous. A fun-time looks possible in Florida with a trip to Disney, a visit to one of Canada's great 'Stampedes' or even visiting all the natural wonders of the world, as depicted by sites like Seven Natural Wonders, but these don't feature on my bucket list and if they did, they would come much further down any list than witnessing Aurora Borealis.

A bit of travel insurance and life insurance wouldn't go amiss, perhaps a funeral plan so my kids don't have any worries when I eventually pop my clogs but these things are being attended to along the way. My bucket list is purely about experiencing the thrill of life before death catches up and I hope to be rattling my bucket for a long time, yet. There are certainly plenty of mountains to climb, islands to explore and spectacular skies at which to gaze right here in Scotland.

Apologies for the last minute-ness of my entry, but I got the chance of a few days away over this past week and grabbed the opportunity, so I only got back last night. I also apologise to Gnat Bottomed Towers, Silver Sewer and the Frugal Handmade Home for leaving them not much time to type up their posts. Good luck, guys! :)

Frugaldom.

 

Edited in:

I have noticed that many of the entrants into this competition have listed full bucket lists rather than just one budget item and one expensive item, so I feel it right to tag on the fact that my list has been long and included much of what others have written. However, it would appear that I have already achieved a great deal and that if I'd to die tomorrow, which I guess is the main point of a bucket list being completed, my biggest concern would be having my house in order by way of paperwork to avoid a messy estate. So much has happened during nearly 50 years of my life - I now feel a little guilty in not always recognising these things as having the potential to be other people's dreams. The far-flung travel and adrenalin-rush stuff aren't really me, but I now also realise that we each experience things differently and what some perceive as 'normal', or even 'mundane', by way of life experiences, others can only dream of and see them as thrilling possibilities.

 

Thank you to all for reminding me that even the smallest of achievements in our lives should never be taken for granted - they should be appreciated and recognised for their importance as life-defining moments.

Second Edited-In Addition:
The winners are listed here but I don't know how to find their competition blog posts as I don't know their Twitter usernames, sorry.
http://www.moneysupermarket.com/life-insurance/competitions/budgetbucketlist/