July 2026 update

 

Feels like only yesterday I was writing last month's update, this summer is absolutely flying by! Having to consciously get this update out this week as we're off to France for two weeks from tomorrow, and it'll be September when we get back so time for the next month's post!

As mentioned last month, June was absolutely insane busy, and July started out fairly quiet but soon became almost as busy! The first half was finishing off the last few weeks at school, and as mentioned last month, there seemed to be a lot of assemblies, sports days, matches, summer fairs to attend and this continued into the first bit of July.

As most long term readers will know, we're big campers and have been doing it both before having kids, as well as a lot with the kids as well. In July we did camping twice....

Camping at Sherwood Pines

This is one of our favourite campsites, facilities are excellent and you are right in the middle of Sherwood forest and all of the bike trails that come with it. I did the Green route with the kids and then went and did the Blue route by myself which was a lot of fun! The England - Norway match was on and I came prepared! None of this streaming nonsense, I went with a Jackery and an old small TV, however upon me setting it all up it quickly became evident that in the middle of the pine forest I was going to pick up zero signal! Argh! My fears disappeared quickly though when the caravan next to us set up a trellis table and suckered a big screen onto their caravan, saying "don't worry mate, I've got starlink!"

Since we last visited, Sherwood Pines have also put in a new pump track for kids to get used to trails. Both of them (and me!) found it excellent!

 

Camping in London (?!?)

Never thought I'd be typing this but we actually had a really nice camping trip to London, and it was even fairly reasonable price-wise as well! We chose the campsite tactically, as the intention for the trip Southwards was to visit both Chessington and Thorpe Park theme parks at the very start of the school holidays, between this month and last we have definitely made the most of this Merlin pass!

We stayed at a campsite in Laleham, just within the M25 and right next to the Thames. It was also a short drive to both Chessington as well as Thorpe park which meant we could get to both of them easily. The campsite was fab, our kids played with a load of other kids and they had a clubhouse which meant we got to catch the semi and final of the world cup without any jackery/tv nonsense!

Bournemouth, Glastonbury and Wells

After we had done both of the theme parks we set off on our travels southwards to Bournemouth on a flying visit to see some friends. Then onwards to Glastonbury to see another friend who works on a cider farm. They showed us around the extensive cider farm, how all of the equipment worked and the day after gave us a guided tour of Glastonbury and Wells

 

 

Tramlines Music festival 

Second year that we've done this festival with the kids, nice and easy to get to and back from for us (no overnight camping). Fat Boy Slim and Lottery Winners were very good! Unsure whether we are going to do it again next year as it's a lot of money, and a gamble if you get the tickets before any bands are announced.

The Hundred 

Also the second year that we've been to see The Hundred being played at Headingley. It's a fantastic event and great value for money where you get to see cricket from 3pm until about half 9! Leads Sunrisers also gave us free shirts included in the low ticket price as well! You're allowed to take in food and drink which also helps especially with having two bottomless pits as kids!

The match was great, Manchester Supergiants put down a great score for batting, and left Leeds a challenge to beat, but after a good amount of 6s and 4s, Leeds won by a fair margin! After the match the kids went and got some autographs from various players including some big names!

Finance update

Breakdown for June:

• ISA flat 
• Pension up £0.5k
• GIA/easy access down £0.5k
• Crypto flat 
• House price down £6k
• Total: down £1k

I was thinking it would be a bit of a flat month, until I updated the house price! *aaaaand it's gone!* came to mind again, although this time it wasn't Crypto!!

ISA was flat although the eagle eyed of you will notice contributions were up £3k, as this was my wife's ISA that she topped up.

As I type this I'm two thirds through the Summer Holidays and with my Unpaid Parental Leave I'm not getting paid for the whole of August as well as two weeks in July. You'll know that I like to put my money to work straight away so having to do a bit of juggling with my easy access savings to cover off August as well as the extra spend we'll be doing when away in France. I have a nice buffer in the Revolut 5% account and I've also been putting in a bit more into Premium Bonds, although unfortunately I've had no wins this tax year yet.

2026/27 tax year:

Flat in comparison to last month. ISA and Pension still doing the heavy lifting on the gains so far this year. So far in August we've had some good gains in the global markets so hopefully this will bump in in next month's update, despite the reduced income. 

See you in September! Everyone get doing your rain dances, although not too much that it ruins our holiday in France!

That's it, that's the update,

See you next time!