Saturday 2 March 2019

Shopping Hauls - End of Challenge


So, I shopped until I dropped ... well not really ... I've thoroughly enjoyed this week .  

Having seventy pounds to spend in seven shops, on whatever I wanted to spend it on was something totally unusual for me.  I don't think I have ever gone into a shop thinking 'I must spend £10 here'.

But I really enjoyed each and every shopping expedition.

I think as a round-up I'll say what my favourite purchase was from each shopping trip.


From Asda, my first port of call, I think my favourite purchase just has to be the large Spiced Berries tealights.  


At just 30p for a pack of twelve, and five packs purchased for less than the cost of one bag of ten unscented ones, I really do think they were my bargain of the week. 


My favourite buy from my first Poundland visit on Day Two has to be my 32 black pens ... don't ask me why but lots of pens in a jar on my desk make me happy.   

And 32 for just £1 makes me even happier  :-)


My best buy from The Works on Day Three in my opinion is the Weekly Planner that you can colour in.


I'll have to keep it handy for when I'm on the phone chatting to people, I have a tendency to doodle away on the margins of magazines, shopping lists ... anything that's to hand really.  So this might help me doodle in a decorative way on something that's also useful.


I loved mooching around the charity shops on Day Four.  You never know what you are going to find on any given day in a charity shop and I think I did really well with my mostly wooden themed collection of finds.


My favourite out of the four items I bought just has to be the little egg crate.  Useful, beautiful and it really was something I needed.


I don't know what I would pick as my favourite item out of the things I bought from Home Bargains on Day Five, most of them were actually needed.  The Christmas outfits for the dogs were a bit of silliness ...


... but I think for the adorableness of the pom pom and the little cactus label on the pencil case that has to be my pick from this little haul.



My favourite buy from my second visit of the week to Poundland on Day Six has to be the bottle openers, with the two packs of vanilla scented votive candles a very close runner up.


We've been searching for some of these, not attached to an expensive thing for a while, and to find them at just 25p each in Poundland was a revelation.


There's no favourite item for my final shop of the week ... Sainsbury's on Day Seven.  

 I enjoyed the whole experience, choosing what to put in my trolley, keeping tabs on what I was spending, dropping all the food off in the Foodbank collection box and walking out of the supermarket with just my handbag over my shoulder ... and then the getting home with no shopping to put away was just the icing on the cake.

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So all in all the last seven days have been a brilliant break from my normal sort of Challenge, and they have set me up nicely for a week off from blogging as I settle into a new sort of life, in a new place.  None of my purchases have been just for the sake of spending money, if you know me at all you know I wouldn't do that.  Some have been a bit of fun ... the dog outfits for 49p each, the squeezy strawberry stress ball and the little make-up bag/pencil case spring to mind.  A lot of the purchases I have made over the course of this week have been with half a mind on my new 'here and there' lifestyle.  There will be more information about all that over on my other blog if you would like to follow along with what I'm up to next ... yes I'm always up to something as all my long term readers from my old blog Our New Life in the Country know.  

This blog will be picked up again when I start out on some new Challenges based from my new weekday home, which although still quite rural, is in a different country, as  I'm crossing the border back into England and a completely different setting.  Where I'll be going from having five acres of growing space to having five square yards ... now there's a Challenge in itself  ;-)

Thanks for reading along and commenting.  It's always nice to hear from you.

Sue xx


28 comments:

  1. 6 scented candles for 30p? what a bargain, were they on offer?
    Just shows what there is out there if you look for it.
    Nice haul.
    Briony
    x

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    1. There were 12 candles in each 30p pack. See the first post of this Challenge for all the info 🙂

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  2. I think you got a real bargain there in more than one way! I've been into 3 Asdas in the last few days looking for them and in each one, they were marked at full price. I reckon you had the same luck with the candles that I had with my Boots face cream 12 months ago. Bought them on usual 3 for 2 price offer only to get to the till to find someone had obviously keyed in the code wrongly as I got 3 for 1! I hit every Boots in a 10 mile radius LOL Savannah.

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    1. Yep, they are back up to full price now and I have the photo to prove it. Which makes it very puzzling and of no retail sense that they sold the last of the stock off for 30p a pack. Still I'm not complaining 😀

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  3. I think my absolute favourite out of all your favourites just has to be the little egg crate. It's gorgeous and useful - what more could one ask for?

    Good luck with your new life and I'm really looking forward to the next challenge, whatever that will be.
    xx

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    1. It's currently on my new shelf full of eggs and looking even nicer ♥️

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  4. Hi Sue, I've just read the challenge..... I've not been about as I've had a flu so been in bed for over a week. Great bargains on the candles and the food bank shop xx

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    1. Welcome to the Challenge. Hope you're feeling better. Xx

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  5. Yes folks it's me ... answering under the wrong Blogger ID .🤣🤣😁

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  6. hi how do I find your other blog ? kind regards

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    1. Click on the photo on the sidebar on the right and it will take you straight to the latest post. Then you can click on Older Post arrow at the bottom of posts to go back to the beginning. It's only been about my 'new' life for two days, so you don't have too much catching up to do 🙂

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  7. What a great week you've had, haven't been around much as hubby has had some leave to take. My favourites are your spiced berry nightlights, what a bargain and your note book with "I'm not weird I am a Limited Edition", lots of people would say I should have one of them and they'd be right. You are very kind thinking of others and donating all that lovley food to your local food bank. Helen S.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for following this Challenge, it's been a lot of fun 😃

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  8. I have thoroughly enjoyed following with this challenge Sue. Your "new life" came up in my reader first. Yes it will be quite a change living in your new home part of the time. Lots more leisure time because of far less housework and virtually no outside work. I can see you sitting on your little deck with a coffee and a book soaking up the sun!

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    1. I'm not used to 'sitting' so I'll have to practice 🙂

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  9. You've done extremely well with your challenge this week. How generous you are to donate the last days to the food bank. Great hearing from you again Sue.

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    1. Thank you. I shoul have more time for blog hopping from now on, so you could be hearing from me a bit more 🙂

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  10. Hi Sue,

    Have read all your various blogs over the years and very occasionally I comment. Absolutely love your challenges and have also been enjoying your other blog. However, I understand you are changing this new blog and I would love to follow it. How do I get accepted for reading it? Would really miss my fix!
    Kim (chris.daltrey@hotmail.co.uk)

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    1. All three blogs are open for anyone to read. This Challenge blog will continue to be used for specific challenges, Our New Life in the Country is open for reading but is dormant and won't be added to as it's now 'a former life' and history. My other blog is simply changing tack slightly and will be about my new day to day life ... hopefully it will be a bit interesting 😄

      All my blogs are linked on the sidebars of each other, simply click on the photo on the sidebar that is the blog you want to hop over to.

      Hope that makes sense 🙂

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  11. It seems ironic that while you are " down sizing" to less things and a simpler life, you've just spent a week purchasing " stuff" you don't really need!

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    1. There's not much here that I won't need, except maybe a couple of fun items. If you follow my other blog you will soon see everything that I have purchased this week in use.

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  12. loving your challenges how about a ten pound for seven days food challenge to see how much you can get then how many meals or how long the food will last you

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    1. I've already done £1 a day, so £10 for 7 days should be very manageable. At the moment though I'm posting on my other blog so the Challenges will resume in a couple of weeks 🙂

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  13. What a useful selection of things. I think my choice of shops would be book shop, craft shop, plant nursery, and round again a 2nd time!! Your choice for the food bank was the best choice of all though. Well done.

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    1. Virtually everything was what I needed for my new life and is already in daily use 🙂 Yes, I enjoyed the Food Bank shopping the most.

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  14. That's quite a nice challenge to do! :D

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  15. I love your Challenges and things are less expensive there and your yellow stickers! I was over there almost 3 years ago and noticed the difference in price from the US. I loved the Charity Shops and mailed home over 20 books!! Looking forward to what you do next as I keep scrolling through.

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