My family are SUCH misers!

OK i thought i'd dedicate this to what my family have done over the years to save money...

Ok my mum and dad had just bought a new tv (old one had broke) at a brilliantly discounted price. However it won't fit in the boot so they call the supermarkets mini cab service. The building next to the car park has scaffolding on and it is a very windy day. As the van pulls up the scaffolding peels of the building and crashes down to the ground and hits the back of the truck (no one was hurt). Mum and dad step protectively in front of the tv to protect it. They check the guy was all right and soon a new van pulls up. They drive up the hill and when they get to our house the guy in the van says its £10 if you want help to carry the TV into the house and then install it. Mum and dad aren't going to pay £10!!!!! So they turn him down and he drives off. Ok just to explain something, this is a 32inch TV and it isn't a flatscreen, its one of the ones with a big back, IT WAYS A TON!!!!!!!! So mum and dad pick it up and go foot by foot (with a five minute break in between) and then up the stairs and into the pink room. When i get back from school i see them panting and drinking a cup of tea in front of the tv, which had taken 5 hours to carry up the stairs then install!!!!!! All for the sake of a tenner!

OK isabelle is in airport at someplace and she has an extremely heavy bag with her, I couldn't lift it, BUT you have to pay $2 for those trolley things and she isn't having that so she picks it up and stumbles across a HUGE airport with a break every 30 seconds!!!

Ok me and my mum are coming back from heathrow airport at 4 in the morning, we haven't slept for nearly 36 hours and as we get out of the airport we can barely walk. We see a row of black cabs pulled up besides the airport but mum isn't going to shell out for the £30 it would cost to go back by cab! so, with our luggage, we go to the bus that will take us to the nearest train station, and get the train then walk for a bit to get a bus then walk some more to get the train home... it took 3 hours... and we walked for half an hour of it... £30 FFS!!!!!!!!!!!

The Classics

You probably, if you know me well, will have heard some of these but i thought what the hell might as well put them up...

OK you guys already know my mum is a bargain maniac, but a couple of things about my dad before we start. He's a computer wizard! He's got a PHD in computer engineering and built me the computer i'm using now! You might think 'thats awesome' or 'i don't see the problem'. Now what you don't know is my dad has created a series of firewalls that stop me from playing online games unless i annoy him for enough time to make an exception. Also at anytime he can look at my screen from his computer downstairs, without me knowing!!!! he can remotely shut down my PC at any time etcetera etcetera...

Ok now for the stories:

We are on the way to Birmingham, mum is map reading (they don't believe in Satnav, another story) dad is driving and my 16 year old sister (at the time) was slouching across the whole of the back seats with her feet on my lap!!!! Dad is rabbiting on about god knows what, mum was listening to the sardanas (a type of Spanish dancing music, look it up on spotify if you want to hear hell on a track) and Isabellle is listening to music with her ipod and texting away. So anyway we are going to Birmingham for a wedding and we are on the motorway and mum is moving her finger along the map in time with us... we miss Birmingham... the second biggest city in England and we miss it... mum aparently was following us on the wrong road and according to her we were not in the country side we were in the middle of Birmingham and Dad was going on about how we should have known from the position of the sun. Isabelle hasn't realised and is still texting away and bopping along to goodness knows what. And theres just me sitting in the back wondering how the hell did i deserve this?

I was a couple of years old and my parents were out and the babysitter has gone to bed. Ok imagine mission impossible music while you read this... ok so i get out of my cot, go down 6 flights of stairs to the kitchen (quite impressive for a 2 year old) and then get a chair and push it up to the cupboard and get the chocolate biscuits! I then eat them and stuff the evidence in Dads bin, hehe, and then i crawl back into my cot. When my parents get back they spot the chocolate wrapper in dads bin and could imagine mum visibly filling up with anger... then they see me... with chocolate all round my face =]

Ok last one... Isabelle was skiing with mum and dad (i wasn't born yet). Mum and dad were doing the traditional side to side skiing then they see Isabelle just plummet through the middle going ridiculously fast laughing. Now this wouldn't be that bad but at the bottom of the ski run there is a big mound of snow that could be used as a ramp... that leads strait into the car park! So Isabelle is racing to the ramp (hopefully without realising what it would mean) and mum and dad start to race after her. Mum promptly fall over and dad (the better skier) carrys on racing after her. He finally rugby tackles her to the ground a couple of metres from the ramp =]

My Family

Hey i'm called Laurence and i have a weird family. They might seem fine on the outside but when you look closer you realise. My mum for example has bargain fever, you might think all mums do?, but mine is in a different league! For example she came home the other day with 10 packs of toilet roll (6 in a pack so 60 single rolls!) and as im staring at her unloading this huge mass of paper i ask why... and she says, 75% off... WE DONT NEED THAT MUCH!!!!!!!!

So you get the idea. I have always told these kind of stories to my friends and neighbours then my next door neighbour says 'your family's crazy, you should write a book!' but i'm fourteen and here i am writing a blog.

Every week or so i'll post a couple of stories ALL COMPLETELY TRUE!!!!!!! which, hopefully, will make your day =]