New M&S Foodie Haul

A new Marks & Spencer Food Hall recently opened around 5 miles away from home and I drive straight past it to and from work. I called in last Thursday and bought quite a few reduced price meat  items but they all went straight into the freezer so I did not take any photos of them.

This week I thought I would call in again and show you what I had bought. I was a little earlier this week so they had not yet reduced the meat. They had however started the reductions elsewhere in the shop and I found myself almost following an assistant around as he put the reduced price stickers on the food. 

I bought:

2 large Quiche Lorraine for 30p each

4 packs of ready cooked streaky bacon for sandwiches for 30p each (great teamed with sliced chicken, lettuce and mayo) 

2 large tubs of Kalamata olives for 35p each

1 tub of marinated grilled peppers for 30p

I pack of sweet & smokey pulled pork rolls for 30p (my lunch for tomorrow) 

2 packs of pain au chocolat for 20p each

2 packs of croissants for 20p each

3 packs of 4 large white baps for 10p each

4 tubs of spreadable farmhouse cheddar cheese for 25p each (great on toasted bread, crumpets etc)

2 packs of new potatoes for 65p each

1 pack of red onions for 30p

1 pack of white seedless grapes for £1

I always leave some of the offers for other shoppers and never clear the shelves. There have been debates on other blogs as to whether this is the right or wrong thing to do and I go with leaving something. Not all the time, so there were just two packs of pain au chocolat and I wanted both for the four of us but I left packs of the croissants behind for others. 

My sister suprised me last night by calling to say she has booked for herself and my brother in law to take us away for the weekend this forthcoming weekend as it is a bank holiday. We are off to the Lake District again so some of the above has been bought for us to have over the weekend. In particular the pain au chocolat and croissants will be for our breakfasts. The Quiche Lorraine will be for lunch as will the spreadable farmhouse cheddar cheese. The olives will be eaten with prinks (pre dinner drinks) and are a favourite of mine and my brother in law. I will also takes some nuts and crisps to go with the prinks.

They also had an offer with wine - buy 6 bottles of wine and get 25% off. I doubled up the offer by buying some sparkling wine that was 1/3 off at £8 a bottle rather than £12. This worked out at £6 a bottle so half price. I am really looking forward to a few glasses of this with the olives on Saturday and Sunday evening.

Carboot Sale Slim Pickings

The carboot sale this week was back to usual but for some reason this week I feel like I have got slim pickings. I probably haven't but after initially walking down two rows and buying nothing I had a feeling that it was not a very good sale this week. I think people may be waiting until next weekend when it is the bank holiday to sell. 

Anyway, here is what I have bought this week at the Cheshire carboot sale:

Two boxed packs of Wella Lifetex extra rich shampoo and intensive hair mask. These are full size products and are supposed to last for a month and were £3 for each box. The stall holder told me these were usually £20 in the salon and I know I have bought this brand from my hairdressers in the past. At £3 for each box I think this is a good price and cheaper than some high street brands.

I also found a The Body Shop Chocomania shower cream for £1 which is a discontinued range. It smells divine and a real change from floral or fruity scents. I think I may save this as a little gift for my niece for just being lovely.  

Brand new and unused Masterchef at Home cookery book containing recipes and set menu ideas from the BBC TV series for 50p. I love a cookery book so will spend some time having a read through this and trying out the recipes over the next few weeks. 

Medium sized brand new Yankee Candle in Juicy Orange which has a real zingy scent to it. I paid £3 for this and they are currently selling for £18.99 on the Yankee Candle website. I think this may go in my kitchen to give a fresh smell when the kitchen needs a lift.

I found two brand new sets of table mats for £1 each. I already have some of these mats so these are exactly the same and will come in handy when we have the whole family around the table. We have quite a large dining table that seats 8 people so whenever there is a family get together it is usually at my house. I always try to find sets of 8 to 10 settings rather than the standard six. I also found two IKEA cereal storage containers for 50p each. I have a selection of these in two different sizes and they look neat and tidy on the same shelf in my pantry. They all cost 20p and 50p each from the Cheshire carboot sale over the last year or so.

There were two ladies selling all bags and scarves at £1 each and I have been looking for a navy scarf got some time (at least one that I like) and I bought this scarf from them. I also boughta throw/poncho for £1. The colours in it are not something I would go for but I think it will be ideal for throwing on when I am sitting out in the garden and the warmth of the day is leaving and the evening is starting to get a little cooler. I felt so bad when I got home and opened up the blue scarf to find there were 2 the same stuck to each other and I though I had just picked up one scarf. I suppose I will never see the stall holders again it was just £1 but I felt bad even though it was a genuine mistake. I am giving the extra scarf to my sister.

I went a little mad on DVDs this week because many were 50p each and I watch a lot of films. I wake up very early most days and will go downstairs put on a DVD and watch it while I deal with emails, do the ironing or potter around. So I bought 4 Star Wars films, the two Ghostbusters films, Timothy Spall in Mr.Turner and a 3 disc special edition of the Shawshank Redemption. These were between 50p and £1 each. There are couple of other run of the mill films at 50p. I also bought a boxed set of 5 Lee Evans live shows. These will be watched and then passed on to family which is what we all tend to do with comedian DVDs.

I bought this large Macy's tote for £1 and also a set of 8 ethnic style butter knives for £1 from the same lady. She told me she was moving home and having a real clearout. Again this ethic style is not usually my thing but I just loved them when I saw them and had to gave them.

David bought a fabulous pair of genuine Ray Ban sunglasses plus lots of CDs and vinyl. He also found a great pair of very muddy but hardly worn Nike trainers for £2 and adidas trainers for £2. 

Carbooting

So we get home from our holiday at 1.20am and are both up and out 6 hours later to go carbooting to the Cheshire car boot sale as we have missed it during our holiday.

What a lovely sunny morning and we are hopeful of a massive carboot sale to wander around in the sunshine. We get to the field to find it has been raining so heavily while we have been on holiday that the field is waterlogged and the sale cancelled. Disappointed we travel to the farmers market not far away to find that all the sellers are there after they could not get on the Cheshire carboot sale. A yippee from us and some good buys.

I find my favourite seller and buy two Jo Malone colognes in 30ml size from her. They are Nactarine Blossom & Honey which is such a summer scent. Fruity and light. The second is Wild Fig & Cassis which is a spicy fruit and cedar wood scent. Great for a summer evening. I love them both and paid £25 each for them. They are both brand new but without a box. They are normally £42 each so a £17 saving on each one.

I also bought more of the Oilily Ovation range as it smells just gorgeous. At Easter I bought two perfumes and two body wash. I gave one of each to my sister but regretted not buying the body cream so when I saw she had all three items this week I bought two body creams, another perfume and a body wash. At £2.50 each these are such a bargain, especially as the body cream is over £31 on line at the moment. The seller is such a lovely lady and I only just resisted buying Liz Earle and Cath Kidston items off her this week. No doubt I won't be able to resist next week.

There was a great little animal charity stall where I bought a Lily flame chocolate truffle scented candle for £1 (usually £8.95) and a brand new floaty scarf for 50p. I think these candles are really cheap and cheerful and always buy them when I see them for sale at 50p or £1.

I bought two perfume tote bags for £1 each from two different stalls. I use these as gift bags to put birthday presents in for girlfriends and my sister and niece. They are cheaper than paper birthday gift bags and far more useful afterwards. They make great beach bags or shopping bags. There is a Vera Wang one and a Marc Jacobs one.

My brother in law is a real whisky connoisseur so when I saw these two whisky tasting glasses at 50p each in their boxes I thought they would make great stocking fillers for him.

I bought a couple of Avon items at £1 each. One is a box of their planet spa range single face masks and the other is a jar of Ultimate age repair cream. I feel I need this cream after two weeks in the sun. I am much more careful with sun cream on my face after having skin cancer on my nose last year. I put factor 50 on every day but my skin still feels like it need a real thick cream as it is dry at the moment.

I also bought three bottles of ciate nail varnish and glitter because no matter what age you are, a woman (girl?) always needs a bit of sparkle.

I bought my usual collection of DVDs at 3 for £1 and 50p each to keep my occupied on the evenings when the TV is rubbish.

Well we hope for the full Cheshire carboot sale experience next week so I am praying for sunny weather for the whole of this week to dry out the field.

Costa Adeje

Sorry for being AWOL for two weeks. I have been on holiday and could get WiFi easily but for some unknown reason, I just could not upload photos to complete my posts for my blog so have had to wait until I got home. Here is last week's post.

Another holiday at the delightful Sunset Bay Club in Costa Adeje, Tenerife. My sister books this April holiday break every year. David and I have resisted going to Tenerife for many years as we have been disappointed with holidays in the Canaries before now. Poor weather and not particularly picturesque. We were persuaded last year to join her and her family and we came out for a week. We enjoyed the holiday mainly because it was with all our extended family and this year we have come for two weeks. 

The two bedroomed apartment that we have could not be more lovely as we have a huge terrace on the front of the complex with sea views. I am sharing with my dad and my nephew who are staying in the twin bedded room, with David and myself in the double bedded room. It has the best facilities you could wish for in an apartment and we couldn't be more pleased.

The weather is warm but a little mixed with cloud for part of the day for most of the time we have been here. This hasn't bothered us as the sun is hot and we have needed to spend some time in the shade. We are having a lazy day by the heated swimming pool today and the jacuzzi is a welcome for resting weary legs and feet from all the walking we have been doing pottering around the resort. 

There is extended family again this year. with my stepbrother and his family in one apartment, my sister and her family in a second and us in a third. We are all just a couple of doors away from each other and as the evening draws in we call on each for pre dinner drinks and a chat on the terrace. David and myself are morning people so we are off to bed at around 11pm each night leaving teenage nephews and nieces staying up to the early hours.

I was in such a rush before we came away that although in managed to get a trip in to the hairdressers, I just did not find the time to get my usual gel manicure. I painted my nails myself  but as usual they were chipped within a day. My niece told me she had seen a nail salon not far from the complex so yesterday I managed to get a gel manicure for the bargain price of around £10.50. I plumped for a mid red with a slight shimmer which should see me through until I get home in 10 days time.

We have had some amazing meals out in the evenings. Most people are going to one restaurant tonight that we have already visited so we are planning on visiting a different restaurant nearby and meeting up afterwards for drinks. I like that we all dip in and out of each other's company rather than going everywhere en masse.

Well some more sun bathing calls me so I'll sign off now and give another soon.