Cheshire Carboot Sale

After returning from our sneaky week holiday to Adeje on Friday I spent most of yesterday catching up with chores, emptying my suitcase and washing holiday clothes. The weather was so sunny yesterday that it still felt like I was still away apart from the temperature being a lot colder.

Well today we were pleased that the weather stayed dry again so that we could go to the Cheshire car boot sale and that there would be a reasonable turnout. We thought we had not bought that much when we were there, but when we got home and unloaded all the bags we realised we had bought more than we thought.

I found these gorgeous leather plate chargers for £2.50 for eight of them. They are a very large size which is perfect for my large white dinner plates. I think they will make a lovely change from having rectangular placemats of the table and I like the fact that they are a lovely shade of chestnut brown.

I bought numerous books and DVDs at 50p each. Two hardback Kirstie Allsopp books - Kirstie's Homemade Home and Craft. I loved watching both of the series on TV so thought these would be great to have a flick through or good read of when I have some spare time. From the same stall holders I bought a Travel Journal and photo album. Both of these had come from Paperchase and are new with £5.75 and £7.50 price tickets on them. I am going to arrange getting some of our holiday photos printed aand put them in the photo album as a gift for my Dad. The travel journal is a new one for me but I have always hankered to write about my holidays while I am away rather than after the event so I think this darling little book will be travelling some miles with me later this year when we have a couple more holidays. 

I found a very handsome empty bottle of Hennessy Paradis rare cognac. This cognac sells at around £500 so I thought 98p for the empty bottle was good. I will decant our much cheaper bottles of brandy into this bottle and use it as a decanter. It has the most lovely metal engraved top. I wouldn't lie to guests so that they thought I was giving them the Paradis cognac, I would tell them it was Remy Martin or Courvoisier or whatever is in the bottle, but I just think the bottle just looks so good.

I bought some cute glass olive cocktail picks that are new and originally come from The Pier. I used to love this shop but it has been a victim of the recession and all it's stores closed. I miss them so was happy to find these cuties. They have the original price of £3.95 on the box but cost me 50p along with this lovely smelling candle which was also 50p from the same stall.

A couple of other bits and pieces that I bought were two Marks & Spencer skirts for my sister for on her holidays for 50p each and the Nivea gift set for £1.50. The Jamie Oliver Recipe tin is new and complete and also cost 50p. Also, a selection of 8 magazines for 20p each.

Finally I bought a Jameson Irish Whiskey set for my brother in law for Christmas (yes I do buy Christmas gifts this early and throughout the year) this consists of 6 hot toddy glasses and a tin of hot toddy mulling spices which are contained in teabag type bags. The set was £8 and again is new and all boxed up.

David bought some navy deck shoes at £2, CDs at 50p and an inspection lamp for £1 so it was fairly slim pickings for him this week.

Well why would you buy full price items when you can buy things so cheaply on carboot sale? Tell me about you car boot bargains as I would love to hear about them.

Holiday in Adeje

Hello again and sorry that I have not posted for over a week. This is because I have been on holiday to Adeje, Tenerife with extended family and a very extended family it was - 14 of us in total. Some family were there for two weeks while others like myself, partner David and my Dad, just a week. 

We had a brilliant holiday staying at The Sunset Bay Club which is ideally located for all the shops, restaurants and bars. The Club itself was just lovely with two swimming pools one of which was heated with an outdoor heated jacuzzi. We had a two bedroomed apartment which had two single beds in one room and a double in another. We shared the apartment with my Dad and nephew. There was a great fitted kitchen and open plan lounge and dining area. The patio we had was huge with large table, chairs, sun loungers and umbrella.

 My sister has already booked for the same two weeks next year and I think we will be joining her and her family again but this time we will go for longer than a week as we enjoyed ourselves so much. We spent a few days by the pool, wandering around the resort down to the harbour and past the beach.

We went to Los Gigantes one day and chartered a yacht to go dolphin and whale watching. We saw several pods of them and it was just fantastic seeing these creatures in their natural habitat rather than captive. We went swimming in the sea just below the soaring cliffs afterwards and then had a few tapas and drinks afterwards on the way back to the harbour. It was a long but great day and some were nodding off on the way back to Adeje.  

We had some great nights out with some lovely food at different restaurants in the town. Many had live bands playing so we enjoyed the different types of music that they were playing while having a few drinks some evenings. 

I feel so much more relaxed after a week in the sun after such a busy time over the last few weeks at work. I really need to have a break every now and then to recharge my batteries and afterwards I find that I have renewed zest for my life back home.

What is great today is that we got home Friday evening and I now have the weekend to catch up. David works on a Saturday so he is at work today which means I have the day to myself... Bliss. The sun is shining, the washing is on the line and I have tomorrow to go to the Cheshire car boot sale too. 

Today's Carboot Sale

The weather was chilly and foggy again today but not raining so we went to the Cheshire carboot sale again. It is always only about a third of the size at this time of year so we are usually finished within two hours maximum. At the height of the summer we can be there for five hours believes it or not. We see this as exercise as walking a couple of miles around a field must be good exercise for us and cheaper than a gym membership. 

Today a bought quite a few magazines as they were 10p and 20p each and were dated from April 2015 backwards to January 2014. I bought Country Living, Country Homes, House Beautiful, Style at Home, OK and Hello (known as Ay Up in our house - a nod to our Lancashire ancestors). I bought 20 in total which cost me £3 which is less than the full price of one of the magazines.  I found a number of DVDs again and bought 6 from one couple as they were 3 for £1.

I bought a net bag of  6 Boots No7 nail varnishes for £1. These were all new and 4ml size each. The standard size is 10ml and these cost £6 each from Boots so I thought this was a bargain price. There are some lovely colours with one metallic fustian colour. I will put these away for my niece as a stocking filler gift for either her birthday or Christmas.

I also found a lovely gift box which contained 10 sample and travel size toiletries for a young man. This was an unwanted gift and was wrapped in ribbon and tissue and at £2.50 is a good price. It contains Yves Saint Laurant Homme after shave balm, Murad face mask, 4711 cologne, Crabtree & Evelyn shampoo aswell as facial cleanser, moisturiser, calming aftershave balm etc.

I always have a Swiss Army style key ring on my everyday bunch of keys. This has come in handy so many times for all kinds of occasions because it has scissors, tweeters, a knife, emery board and screw driver on it. The one I have has seen better days as I have had it for too many years than I can remember. Today I found a Wenger one which is the same but better in that it has a set of nail clippers in it. This came complete with box and was just £3. These are currently £21.49 on Amazon.

I bought a travel hold-all that had come from Marks & Spencer and is a similar design to this one here. This had the keys and padlock with it and is a decent size for a weekend away. This was £3 and I think looks very classic.

I bought two large striped cushion covers from the same couple that I bought the travel bag from . These are a really happy stipe design and originally come from IKEA so not bad for £1 each. I also got the hardback book of Jamie's 30  minute meals for £1.

Well that was my haul for today. It sometimes suprises me how much some people want for their items. One man wanted £10 for a box of Yankee Candle tealights and a tube of Soap & Glory hand cream. This was only £2 cheaper than buying them new in the shops. I just politely say no thank you and walk on when this is the case but I would suspect he would be taking most of stuff home with him at the prices he was asking. When I have had a carboot stall I realised that you have to sell items cheap to let them go to somewhere else where they will be used.

David bought CDs, DVDs, some technical bits be pieces for wiring up some speakers for the ones we have in our lounge, a guitar strap and some shelving. The shelving was his bargain of the day at £1. The most he spent on one item was £2.50 for an LP.  He got a great DKNY t shirt for £1.50. He is delighted with his bargains.

Frugal Easter Weekend

Our weekend started on Thursday evening with David going out for a meal with work colleagues and needing a lift to the restaurant. After I had dropped him off I called in at the small Marks & Spencer store that was just a two minute drive away. It was 6.30pm so I knew they would be at the stage of reducing items for the second time and that they would be fairly cheap. It is also the time that they clear the freshly baked bread, cakes and patisserie section. 

Sure enough I managed to stock up on almond croissants, pecan Danish pastry and raspberry & lemon Danish pastries at 20p each. I also found individual pear tarts and bakewell tarts for the same price. I bought a large white bloomer loaf for 60p and two family sized cakes, a lemon drizzle cake for 70p and a banoffee cake for 90p.

There were three packs of posh hot dogs containing 6 large sausages reduced to £2.25 a pack. These were great for brunch with eggs one day and on finger rolls on another. There is something so naughty but nice about a sausage smothered in ketchup and American mustard.

I had a lovely suprise in the post which was a bottle of L'oreal Glam Bronze Eau de Soliel which was a free gift from the L'Oreal beauty team. You can buy the Glam Bronze powder for around £10.49 so I guess this is probably worth the same. This is a liquid bronzer which the letter said should be applied beneath the cheekbones and around the face for contouring. You can use it with or without foundation. I have my holiday to Tenerife in a week so on my return I will be using this to try to keen my tan lasting as long as possible.

We went to the Cheshire carboot this morning and it was fairly busy considering the weather was not brilliant. It was foggy with a damp mist hanging in the air. It has been raining for most of last week so the field it was being held in was very very muddy. We needed hosing down when we got home and our boots are still drying off outside. It was very much worth it though because we got an amazing haul of goodies for not much money. I spent just over £15 in total and David spent around the same. I bought 5 Jamie Oliver magazines for £2. These usually cost £3.99 each and two were from this year- January & February with the others from 2014.

I bought 9 toiletry items for £3 as they were 3 for £1 from one really lovely young girl. All are new and not been opened. So I got 4 items from the Soap & Glory range. These are all the travel sizes and cost £2.50 each from shops like Boots. I got shower gel, body scrub and two lots of body butter. I found two 100ml bottles of Trevor Sorbie straight shampoo and conditioner. These usually sell for £5.50 for a 250ml bottle so not bad for 66p for the two. I then bought a set of three Mark Hill Straight shampoo, conditioner and hairspray. These are travel sizes and are 75ml size. The full size 250ml bottles sell for £5.49 each so again £1 was a good price to pay. I now have enough for my holiday toiletry travel bag for the next couple of holidays. I also found a bottle of L'Occitane liquid soap for 50p and these cost £15 when bought from the L'Occitane shop.

I bought 5 DVDs at £1 each and the box set of The Tudors for £2. I have already got series 1 and 2 and just loved it so when I found this boxed set of series 1, 2 and 3, I could not resist for £2. I will sell the two sets I already have so I do not clutter up the house.  The other DVDs include The Hunger Games and The Hunger Games - Catching Fire. I've watched the first one on the TV and really enjoyed it so will look forward to watching it again with the sequel.

I found a men's Soap and Glory toiletry bag for 50p. This is just so great as it is a handy size for taking on holiday, is completely new and has a great lining. I thought I would give this to my 17 year old nephew but as soon as we got home and David saw it, it was whisked away.

I was after a new pewter bag for taken on holiday and one family were selling loads of shoes, bags and clothes. This cost me £2 complete with purse. I had seen these for sale as part of a gift set in Boots at around £15 last year. I'm happy with £2 as it has never been used and the lining was immaculate. It has a pale cream butterfly design on both sides on the bottom right hand corner.

Finally the first item I bought was a stoneware pot for cooking a Camembert inside. This turns the cheese into a warm fondue style dip. This was new inside it's box and cost £3. It comes with a recipe card with what the place in the pot with the cheese to change the cheesy dip into different tastes. I think I will give the pesto and pine nut recipe a go.

Well the car boot sale is on again tomorrow as it is a bank holiday and we'll be going again to see what bargains can be found. Oh! I nearly forgot to tell you what David spent all his money on. Well he bought LPs at £1 each, CDs at 50p each and a Crew Clothing sweatshirt for £1 and these usually sell for £55 upwards.

Jumble Sale Bargains

I love jumble sales, always have and always will.......

I love where they are held which is usually a 1930s or 1940s community or parish hall with wooden floors and that unique smell of polish and dust.  I love the people who are selling the items at the jumble sales. Brown Owls from the brownies who have fantastic organisational skills and are always so pleasant and friendly when you ask them how much they want for the treasure I have just found.  Most of all I love the serendipity of what I will find at a knockdown price.

I went to the local Scouts jumble sale the other Saturday afternoon and came back with a small haul of treasure. A cute grey felt mini hot water bottle cover with appliqué bird house for 10p. It is just the right size for a mini hot water bottle that we have. Nothing beats a toasty hot water bottle on a chilly night when tucked up in bed.

I love the author M C Beaton and found two hardback novels that I have not read for just 20p each. Both will go in my suitcase for my up and coming holiday to Tenerife. I found a couple of DVDs and CDs for 20p each too. My biggest cost on the day was 50p for an instamatic Polaroid camera. The films for these cameras are extremely expensive so we do not plan to use it but I just loved the look of it and it reminded me of my childhood so it is now an ornament in the spare bedroom.

The next day we went to a sale at the local grammar school. I found more DVDs at between 20p and £1 each but found the most gorgeous Hello Kitty/Liberty toiletry gift set for £1. It is new, unopened and had the original price ticket attached of £18. I also found a new tube of hand cream for £1. I always keep a tube of hand cream in the car so that when I am sitting in traffic I can put some on. I must spend a lot of time stuck in traffic because I go through quite a few tubes each year.

The last couple of weeks have seen me still clearing out items for the charity bags I get posted through our door. So although I buy items from sales I do give items away that are no longer needed otherwise our home would become very cluttered.

The items are as follows:

• Two padded coat hangers
• Handbag hanger for on the edge of a table so that your bag is not on the floor  - just not me!
• Heart shaped bath bomb - just not me!
• Toiletry bag

• Straw sun hat - given to me by my dad but too small for everyone in our family
• Cadbury's hot chocolate tin
• Small ramekin with lid
• Catnip toy for a cat - our cat is far too ladylike to get involved with catnip
• Toiletry bag