April
Best friends,
32-year-old Kenny Barnhill and 29 years old Chloe Bulman, had moved in together
and were saving hard to fund their dream holiday in Greece where they were
hoping to find their soulmates.
As a result of
their saving up, Kenny and Chloe had become a quite boring pair and put on hold
any expectation of finding Mr/Miss Right as their focus was one hundred percent
on the holiday.
The run up to
Christmas added to the coffers as they picked up extra shifts at Threadgold’s
as a result of the age-old tradition of seasonal panic buying.
They also
restricted their spending on entertainment by only attending certain
festivities, like staff parties and such like, and by cutting back on buying
Christmas gifts.
This was a
difficult decision as they were both huge Christmas fans and liked to make the
most of the season.
The decorations
went up promptly on the first of December and that Christmas they had twice the
decorations to put up.
What they
didn’t stint on though were the festive services from the first Sunday of
advent to Christmas morning.
After the
morning service on Christmas day, they really pushed the boat out, despite
having spent a pittance.
They shopped
frugally and bought the damaged or reduced items wherever possible and used
their staff discounts on the rest and as a result they had a sumptuous feast.
“Well, that was
very indulgent” Kenny said as they sat on the sofa after dinner.
“Very” Chloe
said and burped.
Both of them
laughed and Kenny patted his stomach and said.
“I don’t know
why I’m laughing this belly is going to look great with my speedos on the
beach.”
“I hadn’t
thought of that” Chloe said and patted her own tummy and burped again.
When they
exchanged presents, they both had novelty chocolates and one main present each.
Kenny bought
Chloe a small Gold crucifix and she bought him a Gold tie pin engraved with his
name.
On New Year’s
Eve, they normally hit the town hard, but this year they stayed home and saw in
the New Year quietly with Jools Holland and then they worked the next day for
double time.
January was a
hard depressing month, the decorations were packed away and the flat looked
bare, the weather was bitter cold and snowy, and it was a long 5 weeks until
payday.
When the pay
day finally arrived, they put as much as possible into the holiday fund.
February
brought more cold, and more snow but a much quicker payday, more saving, but no
Valentine cards save for the joke ones they gave each other.
March brought
an end to the snow and cold and showed the first hint of spring.
With April came
Easter and another chance for extra money which would be in their fund in time
for them booking the holiday.
Unfortunately,
when they checked the website, the prices had massively increased and when they
did the reconning, it turned out they didn’t have enough savings.
There was
stunned silent disbelief initially, followed by tears from Chloe and comforting
hugs from Kenny.
“It’s not fair”
she sobbed.
“We saved so
hard.”
“I know” he
said sympathetically.
And after her
sobbing had subsided, she asked.
“What are we
going to do?”
“Well, I think
we have two choices” he responded.
“Which are?”
she asked as she wiped the tears off her face.
“We carry on
working and saving and postpone the Greek trip until the end of the season, or
next year” he replied.
“Or?”
“Or we have a
cheaper holiday.”
After some
consideration and some lengthy discourse, they opted for the latter.
They then spent
the next two days trying to find another destination but the countries they
could afford they didn’t fancy.
“How about a
staycation?” he asked
“What’s one of
those?”
“We stay in
this country, and then we don’t have to splash out on passports” he explained.
“Good idea” she
agreed.
They browsed on
his laptop, having already made the decision they wanted a seaside resort and
after about half an hour Chloe suddenly said.
“I like the
look of that one, where is it?”
Kenny clicked
on the link and enlarged the image.
“Its
Sharpington”
“I’ve never
been to Sharpington” she said.
“Nor have I” he
admitted.
“That’s not far
away, is it?” Chloe asked.
“No, which
means we won’t need to spend a lot on travel.”
No comments:
Post a Comment