#BeatBlue Monday Nectar Challenge!
This time of year is said to be the most depressing of the whole calendar, with this coming Monday being supposedly THE most depressing day of the Year, known as 'blue Monday'. Do you know what? I can totally believe that and I'm honestly feeling it this month, this past week especially.
I think the come down after Christmas can be hard for many of us, especially as a parent when you put your heart and soul into making it special. All of a sudden it's over, the January blues officially kick in and to make matters even worse we are no longer allowed a mince pie every hour of the day and are back to school and work as if nothing even happened with a lot less cash too. What is this misery? No wonder people choose this time more than any other to book their summer holidays!
Nectar challenged us to a combat this January issue and turn our frowns well and truly upside down with a fun family Blue Monday Busting Day Out - the #BeatBlueMonday challenge. We can all feel better with a little retail therapy! The only difference on this occasion was that we have to use our Nectar points and see if we could collect some more on the way. This challenge is right up my street, I'm really familiar with Nectar already and well aware of how to bulk up those points, spend them wisely and make the most of them. If you're planning a trip away right now like many others, it's well worth checking out the current travel offers with Nectar, this months offers focus specifically on travel, you could save a fortune! We couldn't quite stretch to a holiday, but a day of fun all together would be just the ticket.
Where to go?
So what could we get up to together using our Nectar points? There are tonnes of places you can use and collect points and here's just a few;
- Alton Towers
- Longleat
- The London Dungeon
- Sainsburys
- East Midlands Railway
- Legoland
- Sealife Brighton
- Pizza Express
- Cafe Nero
With lots of thinking we finally decided on a plan. We really wanted to get the train to another city for starters but unfortunately this didn't quite go to plan on the day (illness/tiredness/toddlers that won't sleep!!/rain/possible snow), but if we did, we could have purchased our tickets using our Nectar points online and even bagged an extra 500 points this week! Never mind though, as there were lots of other ways we could spend our day locally.
Retail Therapy
For starters, we LOVE shopping and seeing as it was a freezing cold winters day, we decided to do a little retail therapy to start the day off and treat ourselves to some winter warmers from the TU range at Sainsburys and a little something to brighten up the house and make us smile. On the way we popped into the Sainsburys petrol station too, where we could not only spend our points on petrol but also rack up more along the way!
We spent a total of £25 in points (5000 points) on petrol, and collected a further 21 filling up. We also spent £25 (5000 points) in store , where I managed to bag myself two new tops, some underwear and a special soup pot and some fruity bits for the kids to tide them over. We picked up a new Disney DVD for the kids to watch when we got home and a few little extras.
We spent a total of £25 in points (5000 points) on petrol, and collected a further 21 filling up. We also spent £25 (5000 points) in store , where I managed to bag myself two new tops, some underwear and a special soup pot and some fruity bits for the kids to tide them over. We picked up a new Disney DVD for the kids to watch when we got home and a few little extras.
Feeding time!
All that shopping was hungry work so we ventured to our favourite family restaurant for a bit of a sit down and refuel. In Pizza Express we could use our Nectar points (arranged online beforehand) with no voucher printing and eat for 'free' using out points. At the moment you can exchange 500 points for £3.75 to spend on food so it cost us £25 in vouchers (6000 points) for £45 worth of food vouchers!
We all had an amazing meal, really enjoyed every bite and it felt like such a treat after such a hard couple of weeks and being so cold! It was really easy to convert our points on the Nectar website and we were instantly given the codes followed by an email copy.
Exploring
We then went for a walk round Lincoln city, visited our favourite free tourist hotspots and ventured to the museum so the kids let off some steam. It was freeeezing out there but we had a look around the cathedral, a quick visit to the castle and play in the local parks.
Pit Stop!
On the way home we made a quick pit stop at Cafe Nero for a coffee and hot chocolates all round to warm us up for the walk back to the car. Again we used our vouchers and it cost just £3.75 in points for two grown up drinks of any size, we went large - of course!
We had a really fun busy day out and with the help of our saved up Nectar points we spent less than ten pounds and went home happy all with full tummies and even a few new things to brighten up Blue Monday! We bagged a few points on our card to put towards our next purchase and got vouchers printed out in Sainsbury's for triple points on our next shop and £15 off an online shop! Not bad huh?
I'm feeling so good after this weekends fun and as for Blue Monday - bring it on! It was so easy to swap our points and we didn't even need to print anything. I can't wait to put the rest of our points to good use and collect some more whilst shopping! If you pop over to Nectar on Twitter, you can keep up to date with all the latest travel promos and offers as well as details on their current competition to win 5k points!
How will you be beating blue Monday this year?
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post with Nectar.
