Well this would take about 6 hours for you. Book trainS on the
East Midlands Trains site - it's sort of what you were talking about when the fares change at certain points.
So £3 each way from Sheffield <--> Nottingham as 2 Singles | Friday am depart 08:38 arrive 09:30 | Monday pm depart 15:45 arrive 16:38
£31:50 Nottingham -> Salisbury Single 2 Changes (wait for it...)
depart 09:37 arrive 10:54 Birmingham New St
depart 11:12 arrive 12:40 Bristol Temple Meads
depart 12:51 arrive 14:10 Salisbury
£5.40 Wilts & Dorset Bus X3 Salisbury bus station -> Ringwood depart 14:40 arrive 15:21
Right, so it's a bit of a faff, but I reckon the breaks will make it a lot more bearable than, for eg, stuck in 1 uncomfy coach seat listening to who knows what wailing kids / boneheaded loudmouths / etc. a whole 7hrs. If we get some irritation, it won't last that long...
Return Monday am
£5.40 X3 bus depart Ringwood 09:42 arrive Salisbury 10:22
£27 depart 10:47 arrive 12:47 London Waterloo
Tube to St. Pancras Intl in 56mins = easy | I dunno how much but can't be more than £5
depart 13:15 arrive Nottingham 14:59
£25 now + £60 balance to pay to GZ
£50 food & airsoft consumables
= £89.50 before August and £125.80 to take with = £215.30
So yeah, you're right-ish... but it's in 2 chunks. I dunno how your finances work but that split helps me loads! I realise that saving £25 by taking a coach seems attractive, but I promise you it's worth £25 to arrive in a mood to enjoy yourself vs ready to go home as soon as we get there but dreading the prospect... I used to do Liverpool to Bristol & back quite often when I was a student and I swear the mood the coach trips left me in contributed to my g/f and I splitting up!
The only other issues I see are:
1) that we'll need to be well organised beforehand so that we can get all the stuff onto the train from Nottingham on Friday am, because we'll only have 7mins max from when you get in;
2) crossing London carrying RIFs on the way back - personally I'm not too bothered: if we get any grief it'll be too late to stop us enjoying the weekend, but it's not like we'll be waving anything around like knobs, is it? We'll look like what we will be - tired and probably a bit dirty hobbyists on our way home. Airsoft ID handy for quick deployment - job's a good'un.
:lol: 
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarstaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaard! 
