Beauty Bargains

I noticed that Marie Claire magazine had a free Nails Inc. nail varnish with the April issue. I plumped for the deep plum shade that is not dissimilar to my favourite shade of Victoria. There are 4 shades available and they are:

Dark Side of the Moon - deep plum
Moon River - pale taupe
Moon Dance - vibrant orange
Moonlight Shadow - deep grey

When I opened the magazine, there was a free House of Fraser magazine inside as well as two freebie samples of Aveeno body moisturising lotion and a L'oreal rosy day cream.

I noticed that there was an offer in Superdrug where if you bought two items from certain ranges there was a free Patisserie gift set worth £10. I bought two handcreams that were £1.49 each but on offer as buy one get one half price. These were included in the free gift offer so for £2.23 I got two handcreams and the free gift. I will keep the free gift and use it as a present for someone at some point throughout this year.

Boots have some offers on their No.7 range. I bought two items on Wednesday and got a free gift worth £22, which contained a moisturiser, a nail serum, mascara and very wearable eyeshadow in a mink shade. I was given two vouchers to use off my next purchase so yesterday I bought their facial wipes with £5 off and two more make-up items using the £3 off voucher. The make-up I bought was a bronze eyeshadow and an eye make-up primer. I love the Boots No.7 eye primer as it really holds the colour, there is no creasing of the colour or it moving to elsewhere on my eyelid. I was told some time ago by one No.7 assistant that it had been discontinued and was bereft. I moved to a Nars version that was good but not as good as No.7 and twice the price. When I found it on sale again on Wednesday you would not believe how excited I was!!!

I got another free gift and two more sets of the money off vouchers. The vouchers run out on 28th February (today) so I thought I may as well use them up and I went to a different Boots store on my way to Waitrose. I bought two more sets of the facial wipes. I love these and at £7 find them a little pricey but with a £5 off voucher I think that £2 is a more than reasonable price. I bought another two eyeshadows, one in a mid grey colour and one in a purple colour and used the £3 off vouchers and got another free gift. I turned down the offer of more of the money off vouchers as you can have too much of a good thing.

I had been running low on creme bath and bought a fantastic Champneys one the other day. When I was in Boots I noticed that Sanctually Spa had a free gift offer. If you bought two items from the range you got a free gift set worth £12.50. I chose two bottle of their creme bath at £6 each and got the free gift. It is my sister's birthday in April so I will put this to one side as part of her birthday present. The gift contains a full size body wash and body lotion and a large travel size body scrub.

I am delighted with my beauty bargains which should last me for a few months.

What I'm Loving Right Now

I'm loving that I used a £5 off a £12 spend on Champneys toiletries on buying the most divine smelling bubble bath. The voucher was free in the Daily Mail paper a week or so ago. The bubble bath is called Summer Dream, "a Well Earned Treat" and was £12 but I paid £7. I wouldn't have paid £12 and £7 seems still a little pricey but a much better price. The scent is zingy like grapefruit but with fruity undercurrents. 

I'm loving that my cat wakes me up by tapping her paw on the side of our bed. We have a wooden bedstead and she taps on the wooden bit rather than the mattress to wake me up to be fed. It is known as "the paw of food" in our house.

I'm loving Nails Inc. and my gel manicure. I've been visiting Nails Inc in Selfridges at the Trafford Centre for around 4 years, on a more on than off basis,  to get a gel manicure and sometimes a pedicure. Their gel manicures usually last between 2 - 3 weeks and I love the variety of colours that you can have. I have had sparkles and glitter on ring fingers at Christmas too. I went for the dark plummy shade of Victoria this time and bought another 3 for the price of 2 loyalty card for my next manicure. I was given 4 full size gel nail polishes as a gift. I love all of the colours apart from the blue shade which I think may be given to my niece.

I'm loving getting rid of items hanging round the house by selling them on eBay. I am not making a fortune but am making a reasonable amount but the reward is more in clearing out the clutter and helping me get some breathing space. I was beginning to feel I was drowning under all our possessions. I have sold mainly shoes & boots, books and make-up that is not needed or wanted. 

I'm loving that David was made redundant on Tuesday. I know this sounds odd but he is 57 and will be able to access his pension when he leaves work in 4 months time. He has worked for 39 years and has worked incredibly hard. He has worked long hours and Saturdays for the last 15 years which has caused problems for home life and weekends away. He has come home some evenings looking tired and grey and I could sense he was weary. He has been "time poor" which has led to work and chores going undone around the house and garden. I already have a list of chores for him for when he finishes in June. Most are for him to get someone in to do, like new windows, but he can organise it and be home for when the work is being done.

I'm loving that we have just 5 weeks to go to a family holiday in Tenerife. We went there last year for a week and this time we are going for two weeks. We have a fabulous two bed roomed, two bathroom apartment with huge terrace. I will be sharing the apartment with the men in life, David, my wonderful dad and my 17 year old nephew. They all treat me as a princess when I'm there. 

What are you loving at the moment?

Final Full Day

It was our final full day in the Lake District yesterday and despite waking at 6am we were confined to our bedroom as my sister's family are all late risers and we had already been chastised for talking at 6.45am on a previous morning and waking people up. David and I are larks whereas they are owls. We woke again to a beautiful sunrise over the lake and I just could not resist taking another photo of it.

After a leisurely breakfast of bacon sandwiches and Danish pastries (we are on holiday after all!) we went into Morecambe again for a quick trip around a couple of shops and a revisit to the cheap

grocery stall on the market. I spent £10 on all sorts of bits and pieces:

8 boxes of 4 Oxo Rosemary & Herb stock pots for £2 for all 8

2 medium sized jars of baby beetroot for £1 for  the 2

6 packets of Reece's pieces for £1

5 Cadburys marvellous mix up chocolate bars for £1

12 packets of small tubes of toothpaste (bigger than travel size) for £2.50

2 large bags of Mike & Ike jelly beans for £1.50 for the 2

2 large bags of Whitworths cinnamon fruit & nut snacks £1 for the 2

I bought 3 magazines for 20p each. A Delicious cookery magazine for myself, a golfing one for my dad and this month's Esquire for David (he snaffled it up quick so I was not able to take a photo of them all)

We lazed around the log cabin again in the afternoon and watched two DVDs which we had bought over the weekend. Both recent oldies but goodies - Signs staring Mel Gibson and one of the X Men series. David and I went out to a local Chinese restaurant early evening called Trungs. We have eaten there many times over the years and the food is just so delicious. We were lazy and could not be bothered picking out individual dishes from the menu so went for a set meal which was good value for money.

When we got back to the cabin I looked on my eBay account and had sold loads of items over the last couple of days which I posted out today. I sold 4 books, a pair of boots, a ceramic travel mug, a needlepoint cushion cover, a brand new mascara and a pair of gloves. These are all unwanted items from around the house that I have been listing over the last few weeks in an attempt to bring some order to our house. I am really delighted to be getting rid of the clutter and making some money too. I have found the secret to selling, which seems to work for me, has been to list items as "buy it now" rather than auction and include free postage. I'll let you know at the end of February how much is in the eBay account that I am keeping a record of alongside my grocery budget account.

I forgot to mention that we were up early on 15th February and at Tescos to see if they had any Valentine's Day bargains. I found a shelf with 50% - 70% off prices and bought two cute Little Miss mugs for £1.25 each (75% off £5 price) and two lovely embroidered cushions that were £1.50 each (75% off £6 price). The boxes of chocolates were 50% off but I did not buy any as we have some boxes of chocolates left over from Christmas that were bought for us as gifts. I saw some Tesco staff buying the bargains and within a few moments the shelf was empty so it pays to get there early and snap up the deals the day after the event.

We set off at 10am this morning for our return journey home and expected to be back by 11.15am at the latest. We had not counted on the queue of traffic waiting to get to the Trafford Centre. It is half term holidays and raining so there seemed to be a mass exodus to the shopping centre. The journey ended up taking a additional 20 minute. I worked from home this afternoon and am spending the evening washing clothes from the weekend away and unpacking bags and bags of bargains. I feel the need for a glass (or two) of wine to finally wind down.

Back to reality tomorrow and I'm anxious about getting on my weighing scales after the amount of food we have eaten this weekend.

Recent Charity Shop Finds

It was another beautiful morning when the sun started to peep over the hills in the distance. We decided to hit the charity shops as there are some quite decent independent charity shops in the area. We avoid the standard high street charity shops these days as they charge stupid prices and often more than the brand new price. Why do they do this? Was it Mary Portas and her series on a charity shop that increased the prices? It irritates me no end as often the reason people shop in charity shops in the first place is because money is tight and charging inflated prices just defeats this.

So we went to Carnforth first and visited the Salvation Army shop where I got 6 home magazines for £1 in total and 3 DVDs for 50p each. One was new and unopened and contained 3 films inside. We then walked a little further up the high street to visit the Christian Aid shop and I bought a further 4 DVDs for 50p each, a pair of leather shoes for £1 (I must have an inner Bet Lynch) and a birthday card for my brother in law for 50p. David bought 3 CDs for £1 and my sister bought a pair of shoes and two swimming costumes for £1 each plus two books at 20p each.

Then it was off to Milnthorpe where I bought 6 books by one of my favourite authors, M C Beaton from the Bay Search & Rescue charity shop. These books were 50p each so a £3 spend. I also found a Gucci glasses case with Gucci cleaning cloth for £2.49. I found a brand new and sealed jigsaw puzzle for 50p that I bought for selling on via eBay. David bought a large glass beer stein for 50p. Karen bought a cotton blouse for £1, two 50p books and a glass liquidiser for her Kenwood Chef at the knockdown price of £1.99.

Finally we went to Grange over Sands where I bought a Tresemme hairbrush hairdryer for £3 at the Bay Search  Rescue charity shop. There is also a local hospice charity shop where I bought two as-new linen and cotton shirts for my dad for his birthday next month. These were £3.50 each and will be great for him to wear on holiday in April when the whole family goes to Tenerife. An Age Concern superstore charity shop has opened in Grange overlooking the duck pond. I bought 6 DVDs for £4. Three of them were a series boxed set so I was delighted with these. David bought s new seat for his bicycle (random I know!) for £2 and my sister found two Pyrex roasting dishes for 75p each. We came home very laden down with the car boot bursting.

Back for a late lunch of reduced price sandwiches from Tesco & Booths.

We lazed around the log cabin in the afternoon as we needed a rest after all that shopping. We watched one of the DVDs that I had bought which was The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus by Terry Gilliam. It is an all star cast - Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Heath Ledger, Colin Farrell, Lily Cole even Paloma Faith. What a weird film! I don't know whether I enjoyed it or not. I think I did overall. We went for a swim and a laze in the jacuzzi around 6pm and then got back for drinks and evening meal. We watched another film, Shirley Valentine. What a classic. It was filmed in Mykonos and David and I stayed there a year after the film was made and again about 15 years later. We kept saying "been in that bar or been to that beach, restaurant" etc. etc. all the way through the film until my sister told us to shut up (she was laughing as she said it). Another lovely day. 

Valentine's Day Weekend at Pine Lake

I love going to stay at Pine Lake resort on the edge of the Lake District. We visit here usually a couple of times a year in February and October. My sister organises it all and David and I just turn up which is lovely for me as usually I am the one organising everything. 

We arrived Saturday afternoon for the 4pm check in and there was just the four of us for the weekend with my nephew coming later in the week. My sister has booked the cabin for the whole week and will be spending it with her husband and son. David and I are here until Wednesday when we return home. I am working Wednesday afternoon and David is back at work on Thursday.

After a lazy Saturday evening with plenty of drinks I had an early night at just after 9pm because I was shattered after a 4.30am start on Saturday morning. I woke on Sunday morning and looked out to this view from our cabin. Just lovely and so good for the soul.

I have a fondness for Morecambe even though it is a shadow of it's former glory days as a British holiday destination for the northern working class. It has shown signs of improvement over recent years but is still a little rough around the edges. I don't care as I love the place. I love that it has an indoor market which is bustling and is something that seems to be on the decline in areas around where I live. We always go on a Sunday as there is one stall that sells groceries at silly prices. The food and drink is usually near to its best before date but as I am sure you all know this does not bother me. Occasionally they give some items away for free with any purchase as they are past their best before date. When we visited in October last year we came home with bottles of burger relish for free. This visit I bought the following:

3 medium sized bottles of Heinz ketchup £1 for all 3

8 packets of Tyrell's posh popcorn in coconut & caramel flavour 10p each

6 large packs of Green Giant sweetcorn £2 for all 6

3 large tubs of Waitrose rocky road minibites £1 for all 3

4 large Soreen malt loaves £1 for all 4

5 boxes of Ella organic bars - 2 different flavours - £1 for all 5

3 medium size bags of peanut M&Ms £1 for all 3

8 bars of Oh Henry chocolate bars for £2 for all 8

8 packs of 4 Bisto Vegetable stock pots for £2 for all 8

2 packs of cheese and sesame savoury biscuit bites for 50p for the 2

There are also a few car boot stalls who are all traders on the nearby car park. I bought 3 DVDs for £1 each (one case had two films inside!) A pair of brand new Tommy & Kate sandals for £2 for selling on eBay for a few £ profit.

There is one stall that has "fill a bag for £1" and the stall holder gave us a huge bag. Between the four us we filled it up to the brim with all sorts of gubbins and decided to give the stall holder £2. She refused at first but eventually relented. You would not believe what we got for our £1 stake. Vinyl albums, DVDs, CDs, a Technics CD player remote control, Nikon camera case, box troll toy, Hello Kitty and Olympic Games plush toys, books etc etc etc. All for £1!!!! Some has been bought for selling on and some for ourselves. The remote control is worth £20 on ebay but we need one for our CD player as ours has broken so finding this was a real result. 

We have another 3 days here so have plans to go to Carnforth (David Lean filmed Brief Encounter on Carnforth station), Milnthorpe and Grange over Sands. I'll let you know what we do and what bargains we find in the charity shops. If you ever go to Carnforth, the station has a Brief Encounter Experience which is incredibly sweet to visit.