Shopping Hauls - Day Six - Poundland

I loved going into our local Poundland at the start of the Challenge, so while I was in Prestatyn mooching about the charity shops I decided to visit the bigger one there and get myself a day ahead with my shopping hauls.

I spotted some of the same things that I had already seen at the start of the week, but there was so much that we did not have in our smaller branch in Llandudno in this much larger store.  I'll talk you through my purchases. 

I bought this book as I love the Agatha Raisin stories.  I have the first series on Dvd, I do hope there are some more coming out one day.  There are lots of books in the set ... lots,but I've never read them, maybe I should!!  Anyway I thought for a pound it would be a nice read before I watch my series again.  

I also got a pack of these small disc batteries.  We seem to go through a lot of these as we weigh out the dogs food twice a day and quite a few of our little gadgets take them.  Usually they are very expensive so I thought for once I would see how long a cheaper pack lasted when compared to the life of the Duracell ones we usually buy.

Also peeping into this photo are the little scourers that Alan likes to use for the washing up (I prefer a cloth) and a multi-pack of cereals to stash at the caravan, in case we have little visitors.

I bought a pack of these wipes to help speed up the caravan Spring clean next week.

A thick cotton vegetable bag for my potatoes.  

It's a good design this one as it actually has a little zip in the side at the bottom left.  This will be really handy for me as I tend to store my normal white potatoes alongside my sweet potatoes.  So if I put one sort on top of the other I can fish the ones I need out from either the bottom or the top.

I treated myself to three more nail varnishes. You can't go wrong at this price can you! 

I love these colours but at first I was unsure how the blue/grey one would look on, so I did my usual trick of painting just my little finger nail and leaving it on for a couple of days.  I found at first that it seemed strange as it is very matt, but I grew to love it.  So much so, that if they have some more next time I go back I will stock up. 

Up to now I haven't listed any prices as everything I bought was one pound each.  Although Poundland do do some things that are either £2 or £5 so you have to keep your eyes open and not slip up.  But the items below were from the clearance shelves.

For just 25p each I got these.

Two boxes of Vanilla scented candles and two bottle openers.

I don't like the design of the bottle opener at all but ...

... it was just that actual opener part I was after.

These can either be screwed straight into the edge of our breakfast bar at home and the the cupboard at the caravan, or put onto a piece of nicely stained or painted wood and then screwed on.

You will also notice in the top photo that I treated us to some little chocolatey treats too.  A great big box of lovely dark chocolate Poppets which I can eat and a Twin Peaks bar in the fruit and nut variety that Alan loves.  It's the Poundland version of a Toblerone.

So thirteen items for £10.  I'm a happy shopper once again  :-)

Shopping Hauls - Day Five - Home Bargains

Another day, another haul. 

This time I called in to Home Bargains, I usually go there every couple of months to buy the large multi-packs of the 'Nicky' toilet rolls that we prefer, but I don't always have time for a good peruse of all the shelves.  This time I intended to have a good look along every aisle, taking my time and seeing just what was available for my £10 budget.

Our nearest branch is in Llandudno.

It was quiet and pretty peaceful in there at 10am in the morning ... just the way I like it when I'm trying to shop.

First in my basket were these two 'Flexi Trays'.  I need a couple of fridge friendly boxes to put all the little bits of things in on the top shelf, it will save me scrabbling about pulling things out individually.  If they fit these will be great and at just 99p each they were much sturdier and roomier than the plastic proper 'fridge trays' that were on the shelves near them priced at £2.99 each.

If by any chance they don't fit on the fridge shelves, they will do a similar job in the cupboard to the left of the cooker at the caravan.

Next I picked up rail that fits neatly over the cupboard doors of kitchen base units, this was £1.49.  I desperately need something like this at the caravan as at the moment we have the tea and hand towels hooked over the handle of the oven door and as it's a drop down door we are always having to move them when the oven is in use.

I tried these out on the cupboards at home and they fit lovely and snugly ... fingers crossed it's the same at the van.  I hadn't realised that you could get rails like these for over cupboard doors, I thought they were just available for over normal house doors, what a brilliant idea.

On the end section of one of the aisles I spied these dishes.  Part of the Jane Asher range that Home Bargains seem to be channelling at the moment they are the perfect size for a slightly smaller bowl of pasta ... or of course a slightly larger bowl of homemade soup.  Although I usually just buy plain white crockery, these are just pale enough to fit in nicely with everything else we have.   So at just £1.79 each they went straight into my trolley.

Call me mad ... but I just could not resist these little Christmas outfits for the dogs.  

They were 49p each on the clearance shelf and have been popped straight into the Christmas decorations box.  In December they will look adorable trotting along the promenade in Llandudno next year dressed as elves  :-)

Still on the doggy aisle I spied these dog treats at just £1.49 for a big 700g bag.  At that price I thought they were worth a try.  Suky can't eat any of the hide type bones, they make her heave and upset her tummy, but these are the squidgy, bendy sort that she usually gets on okay fine with.  

By then I was up to the stationery aisle and as I walked past the shelves I thought nope, I really can't justify buying any more notebooks, be strong, keep walking.  Then I spotted this pencil case.  it was the colours that I spied first, maybe my purchase of the turquoise flexi-trays had set something going (I bought that colour in the trays as it was the best of a rather strange selection).  Anyway I picked it up immediately.  I love the little Llamas so much better than the current fashion for unicorns, and then I spotted this ...

... it had a pom pom on the zip closure!!

I love pom poms,  always have, always will.

It cinched the deal, and even though I thought it took me 1p over my budget I put it straight into my basket.  It will be most likely used as a make-up bag rather than a pencil case though  :-)

When I paid the total came to £9.52.  As you might be able to make out the cashier had to scan the 49p Llama Pencil Case again as the bar-codes on the Christmas dog outfits were covered in sellotape and wouldn't scan ... but it was only when I put this photo upon the computer screen that I noticed she had only scanned it once more instead of the twice she should have done.  If I had noticed at the time I would have said something but my maths this week is not playing ball and I just thought I had once again gone wrong somewhere.

So I had 48p left over from my Home Bargains Haul.  I will add it to the final days money as I have something special in mind.

Shopping Hauls - Day Four - Charity Shop

 I couldn't do seven days of shopping hauls and not visit a charity shop now could I, it would have been soooo wrong!!

So I went for a little mooch around the high street in Prestatyn which is particularly awash with charity shops, most of them very good indeed, and of course ALL of them for very good causes.  

But in the end, although I had been open to spending my £10 in a few different shops, all my purchases came from this one shop.  The Claire House charity shop, which raises money for the local children's hospice.   A good charity to support.

My first purchase, it caught my eye as soon as I looked at the bric-a-brac shelves.

It's a little egg holding crate ... seen here being modelled by a couple of our eggs.

The egg section also lifts out in case you want to use the cute little crate for something else.  It was in fantastic condition and well worth the £2.99 price tag.

Next on the little shelf of wooden items my eyes fell on this gorgeous oak trinket pot.

I really just could not resist this, which was also priced at £2.99.

I have always had a thing for wooden items in charity shops and at car boot sales.  I think it's mostly because it's something that has come from a tree that has taken many, many years to grow and then hours and hours of someone's time to transform into something so useful, being sold at such a knock down price.  I can only hope that it made the original craftsman/woman a good price when it was first sold.

Anyway it's come home with me now and I will appreciate it while I own it.

The next thing I spotted were these two gorgeous nightlight or candle holders, priced at just £1.99 and still in their original box.  They had obviously never been used and were as good as new as they sparkled like anything even on a shelf of dusty ornaments.  

The caravan is going to look like a fairy grotto in the evenings with all my new candles and holders  :-)

My final purchase was this 'distressed finished' heart shaped frame, for another £1.99.  As I've mentioned before we have a bit of a 'heart shaped' theme at the caravan and this lovely cream coloured frame will look lovely in one of the rooms.  The sweet, chatty elderly lady on the till took one look at it and said 'don't worry about the missing paint you will be able to touch it up very easily with some emulsion' ... so we had a little discussion about the fashion for shabby chic items  and distressed furniture.  She made my day  :-)

So another day and another successful shopping haul.  And everything here fits in very well with the William Morris quote ... 

Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.

You will no doubt be able to do the maths and realise that my purchases came to the grand total of £9.96, the four pence that was left over was popped into the collection box on the counter and my £10 was spent.

Shopping Hauls - Day Three - The Works

I don't often shop in this shop, but ours is closing down for a refit ... or so the posters in the window say.  You never can be sure these days, sometimes it's just a ploy for a bit of a sale to pull in more shoppers, especially in a seaside touristy town.

A Google Images photo of the Llandudno branch where I shopped.

Anyway it was nice and quiet in there so I had a little mooch around first to see what I fancied buying, if indeed there was anything that I fancied buying.  There was, so this is what I bought -

A notebook.

I love stationery ... have I mentioned this before  ;-)

I love the wording on this one.

This one made me laugh too, I just had to pick it up.

Next I picked up another notebook that was furry and had a Pug face ... then I saw reason, I mean how old am I ... definitely NOT six!!

So instead I put down the four pounds worth of furry notebook and picked up this weekly planner, now this will come in useful and I can colour in the top section when I'm in a doodling mood. 

Maybe I am six!!

On the sale table .. Everything Reduced to Clear in big big letters to pull in the customers, amongst a lot of tat I spied this set of sticky notes.

Now these would be useful I thought. So in a flash they were added to my basket.

And then once again I had exactly one pound left.

Also on the sale table was a big box of postcards, I must have had John Gray's recent postcard competition on my mind because when I saw these at just 10p each I thought BARGAIN and picked out ten to buy with my last remaining pound.

Oh and I nearly forgot to mention the big red blob in the top photograph.  It's this squishy strawberry.

It's actually a stress busting, squeezy strawberry that really smells of strawberry.  I picked it up as a bit of a joke, because just as I was leaving home Alan had been on the phone for what seemed like a very heated conference call and had been getting noticeably annoyed by someone.  Aha I thought, this might help ... and it wouldn't do any damage if he lobbed it at the wall in frustration either.  So it's lived on the desk since I got back ... ready for action  :-)

Shopping Hauls - Day Two - Poundland

Day two of this Challenge saw me back in Llandudno as I had to pay a cheque in at the bank.  So I used this as an opportunity to do more shopping, this time at a completely different shop and at the other end of town.

It's only recently that I have rediscovered Poundland, and I didn't realise they had a website!!

See HERE if you want a peek.

When they first opened and I lived up in Cumbria I used to pop in there all the time, now many, many years later here I am thanks to social media rediscovering what they have to offer.

My Shopping Haul

Four pots of Dolmio Stir-In Sauces at just 50p each.

We enjoyed the other ones so much the other week that when I saw a few left I thought I would get some more.

A pack of 30 pencils with rubbers on the ends (my favourite sort).

A pack of A5 sized Post-It notes, which are really handy for sticking briefly in my large desk diary when I have taken notes.

A lovely pack of four nail varnishes.

A pot of 'stick your finger in and twirl' nail varnish remover to go with the above.

A multi-pack of my favourite little biscuits.  Ideal for popping into my bag or the car in case we go somewhere for a coffee that doesn't have dairy-free cakes or biscuits.  These biscuits are packed in pairs in individual packets inside the main wrapper.

A pack of three toothbrushes.  I always try to have an unopened pack of these at the caravan in case someone stays overnight and hasn't got one with them.  At just £1 for three you can't really go wrong can you.

A pack of 32 black ballpoint pens.

All our pens seem to be running out at once at the moment, so these were very needed!

And finally, because I couldn't forget my furry friends ... a packet of dog treats.

I like this sort because I can snap them up and feed them as little treats when the dogs have been good when we are out, or to tempt them back when they run off ... they know when Mum has tasty nibbles in her pocket!!

So that's it today's £10 spent, and lots of useful and a couple of tasty items.  Not a penny wasted and today I got the maths right today ... well it would be hard not to when virtually everything's a pound each !

I was really pleased with this little shopping outing.

Shopping Hauls - Day One - Asda

Day one of the Shopping Hauls Challenge saw me off to Asda in Llandudno.  Chosen because I needed to fill the car up with petrol and it's the cheapest price there ... and I was in the mood for a bit of a drive rather than just nipping to Tesco which is a little bit more local.

The car park was nice and quiet, which always bodes well if you want a nice calm mooch around the shelves.

My first stop was the candles and nightlight section as I really needed some more of the jumbo nightlights that burn for nine hours.

They quickly found their way into my trolley, there that was my first £2 spent.  This is not to be a spend it wildly on things I don't really need week.

Then I spotted these!!

Packs of 12 same sized 'Spiced Berry' nightlights reduced to clear at just 30p a pack.  They quickly replaced the plain nightlights I had already put in my trolley.  I bought all five packs that were left on the shelf for a total cost of £1.50.

Sixty nightlights for less than the cost of my original 10!

Now to talk you through the rest of my Asda treasure.

 I also bought a pack of 100 normal sized nightlights

A nice little nightlight holder with cutout heart shapes. 

I  love it when candlelight flickers through little cut out shapes and we have a heart theme at the caravan.  

Three face clothes to replace some worn out ones in the bathroom.  

Two tumbler sized drinking glasses to add to the two I already have for the caravan, so now we have a matching set of four.

And then I thought I had one pound left so I was on the lookout for something for an exact £1, quite easy in Asda really as lots of things are at nice rounded prices.  I spied the little food storage boxes and thought they would be brilliant to also take to the caravan next week.

I paid at the checkout and got 50p change ... maths never was my strong point!!

All that mooching around the shelves had left me thirsty so remembering the 'free cup of coffee' card I had in my bag, I drove across the road ...

... to Debenhams.

And traded my little card for a large Americano, and as I always have some of these little biscuits in my bag I had a little snack, used Debenhams free WiFi for half an hour and then I had a little look around the bargain shelves right next to the cafe ... well it would have been rude not too 😉

Look what I found for 50p.

Prosecco flavoured candy canes ... two of my favourite things in one sweet little package, for the exact same amount I had over from my little Asda shopping spree.

It was fate!!

There that's my first £10 spent, and lots of new and very needed goodies to take home.