A week off university is well deserved after weeks of hard work in all areas of our degree but the work must go on. During this week we took the opportunity to work on our project, doing all the background work to ensure we don’t fall behind.
We wanted to buy a pergola for our area, and through research we found a company called Edecks, who were selling a pergola for £199.99. We called them to discuss this offer, and explained the project we were completing. Kindly, they offered us £20 discount and said that we would be able to buy it. However, they said that we would have to pay full delivery and it would take 10 days to be delivered. We needed the pergola to be delivered within the week as we wanted to put it up the next time we visited the school, therefore we had to say that we couldn't afford to buy it. But, the company wanted to help us, so they said that we could have the pergola for the full price, but they would make sure that it is delivered within the next 3 working days, and we could have the delivery for free. Therefore, we brought the pergola and it was delivered in time ready for us to build.
We also put in an order for artificial grass samples, as we wanted to have artificial grass in our area. We called each other and began to discuss what style would be best for our garden. We thought about the aesthetic feel, the cost and also the durability. We measured the area in the previous week and estimated the grass will cost about £200 which is within our budget spreadsheet. Along with making a call to Edecks, we also managed to give Covers a ring regarding our previous meeting and email to see if they could offer us any discount. Through negotiation, we managed to get our sleepers for £10.80 and a bag of top soil for a reasonable price. They knew the resources were for a school and they knew all about our project so they even threw in free delivery. This was amazing, considering we were planning to hire a van to get them to our school. They also agreed to hold our order until Wednesday so we could clarify how many sleepers we required. We knew it was about 12 but did not want to over or under order.
A trip to Homebase is always good fun but even better when the store is closing down and they have discounts on everything. Roberto went there with his dad and managed to source 4 pairs of gloves for a ridiculously cheap price of £1.50 and also concrete mix to hold the pergola in place for £3 a bag. It is always nice when you find a good bargain. We searched on Amazon to see if they had any good deals. We knew that the sleepers will need to be held into place for health and safety reasons, so we found some metal brackets which we ordered (next day delivery with prime is the best £37 ever spent).
Roberto (who can’t ever sit still) decided to search his shed for odd pieces of wood, nuts and bolts to build a weighing scale to sit at the edge of the pergola. We thought that although it isn’t the prettiest, the idea of having educational resources in the garden is far more important than beauty alone. We managed to find a clock and also a thermometer which could possibly go on the side of the pergola to add to the educational nature of the garden.
Through slight naivety we hadn’t as yet written up a spreadsheet to record our spending’s. With basic knowledge of all Excel equations’, Roberto roped in the help of his father to teach him some tips on creating a clear spreadsheet. We were then able to put together a spreadsheet of our budget, expected expenditure and actual expenditure with ease (the equations did it all). With knowing what we needed to spend money on we actually discovered we didn’t exceed our budget which enabled us to think of ways which we can spend our money to benefit the pupils even further.
It has also been two weeks since we uploaded and shared our Just Giving page. We have been so fortunate and cannot express how thankful we are to everyone who has donated to this wonderful project.