Newbury to Plymouth - help with fares

[whole diary]

[amiddl]

Any advice gratefully accepted. I now need to travel to Plymouth twice a month from Newbury at the weekend. Sometimes it is travel there on Saturday and back Sunday, sometimes on one of the days there and back same day. Often the journey is finalized at the last minute making advance tickets sold out/expensive. I don't qualify for any railcards and am under 55.

Usually I use a off Peak return @ ^64.00. I have been looking at split fares and realized that if I buy a combination of day returns Newbury-Westbury-Taunton- Exeter-Plymouth on the days I go there and back in a day the total fare is ^45.50 for the four day returns which are cheaper than off peak return (^64). Providing I am on a train that stops at all I presume this is ok - the day return fare doesn't exist for Newbury to Plymouth (only the off peak return).

1. Am I right on the day returns
2. Am I missing a trick in some combination of tickets that I could use to bring down cost (is there a break point that I should be looking at).

Any thoughts or help would be great.

[devon_metro]

Unless you return on the same day what saving will that make as you will need single tickets. If yougo out on Saturday and return Sunday then an off peak return will work out cheaper and it might even be valid via Reading.

[moonrakerz]

If you have to buy OPRs you can save a couple of quid by splitting at Westbury.

Also, do check the Advance single tickets at the last minute, especially from further down the line. If you were going this Sat and returning Sunday: Newbury/Taunton ^37 OPR, Taunton/Plymouth on two advance singles ^17: - a ^10 saving is no too bad.