Flowers

Most people love receiving flowers  but I enjoy buying and givingthem just as much.  I always make sure that the bunch  matches the personality of the person I’m buying for or at least matches the colour scheme of their living room!

My partner tunred up on my doorstep the other night with a gorgeous bouquet – hmm I thought, whats he done he needs to apologise for and how gukity I felt when he handed them over and said they were just for putting up with him!  Two weeks later they still look really fresh and make me smile and makes me feel I’m worth somehting to someone.

Flowers can say and mean all sorts; ‘Thankyou’, ’sorry’, ‘keep your chin up’ ‘love you’.  and they don’t cost that much so get out there and make someones day and buy them a bunch!

Valentines Day

Sorry – I know this has been written about only a few posts ago, but I feel like I need to get down my opinion on the day!

Most girls love it – what’s better than being pampered, being taken out for the night or  if you’re a really lucky lady, being whisked off somewhere romantic for the weekend.

But what annoys me is the fact there is  ‘day’ which most of us feel compelled to join in with and end up spending a fortune, when all it is is a day for which card companies and florists can make a dam good profit!  Why should we need a specific day to tell our loved ones we love them – any day is a good day in my eyes to be told how much I’m loved and have gifts thrust upon me!!

Boys?  I’m sure they’d feel the same too!

Gift Sets

I always thought Gift sets were a bit of an easy option when it comes to buying a present but recently I have spotted quite a few really nice ones. Clarin’s always seem to have really good ones. You can purchase these sets usually from Debenhams and John Lewis. I think this is a great gift. In most sets there is a carry case or make up bag of some sort, and depending on which type you get there are about 5/6 products in each set. The online shop is even better as you can create your own gift set and custom it yourself to suit the recipient of the gift set. I think there are very reasonable priced too for the amount of Clarin’s products you receive.

VAT Increase

Well the VAT in most stores has now gone back up to 17.5% but will this effect buyers habits. There were in reports in the papers that people just before the increase were buying big items like cars and electrical goods to avoid the tax increase and get a better price. I was thankfully one of those people. I bought a new car when the tax was still 15% and when the government was offering the scrappage allowance and I am very glad of it. But it makes you wonder what will happen the certain industries now. I don’t the government will be helping out industries like car manufacturing again after the tax increase, and although we are heading out of the recession, it is still a slow process and I don’t think people are likely to start spending big anytime soon! Will it make a difference to people’s general spending? i.e food shopping and luxuries like clothes and shoes etc, I guess only time will tell.

Charity Gifts

For my friend’s birthday this year she didn’t want presents instead she asked us all to donate money to a charity of choice. I couldn’t decide which charity to donate to so instead I thought I would do something a bit more comical. If you check out this website and click on the tab that says ‘charity gifts’ you can purchase presents that also help the charity. So I decided to adopt a baby Orang-utan! Not only did I donate to the WWF but my friend also got a present. She is sent photos of her Orang-utan and gets reports about he is doing. I thought this was really cute.
There are lots of things you can purchase too, not just animals you can even buy seeds for community farmers in Africa.

http://www.donation4charity.org/index.php

Unwanted Christmas Gifts?

Now you’ve finally got round to sorting through all your Christmas presents there is always as small pile of unwanted presents. Of course they are appreciated and gratefully accepted at the time but they are usually still not to your taste. The question is, what do you do with all those soaps, bubble bath, dodgy pair of socks or a funny looking scarf and glove set that not even your Nan would like? There are a couple of options; use them, take them back to the shop (often not an option!), regift them, sell them, give them to charity or swop them.

I have heard about a great shop in Sweden that helps you get rid of all your unwanted gifts. At this shop you take your gifts and exchange them for something you do want in the shop. I don’t know how successful this would be however because surely everyone else is taking the rubbish they don’t want too!! Surely you are just swopping like for like!

Along the same sort of theory you can organise a Swop party. This is where you get together with a load of friends and swop the gifts you don’t like for something you might. However I don’t know the ins and outs of this sort of arrangement – for example are gifts worth certain amount of points depending on how good or shocking they are? And you can only swop for something of similar or less than equally value? And you’d have to be careful that you didn’t take a gift that you had received from a friend that was going to the party!

Valentine’s Day

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner the shops are full with present and cards. However Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be expensive. MoneySavingExpert.com is a great site to find out what kind of deals you can get on things like red roses, flowers and perfumes.  Some people really get into Valentine’s Day and spend money on weekends away, if that’s the case for you then check out Lastminute.com. This not only gives you great deals on hotels for the weekend but you can also get great deals on theatre trips, restaurants, city breaks, spa days and days out. So you can treat your loved one but on a budget!!

Christmas Shopping Holidays

Christmas shopping holidays are becoming more and more popular. One of my favourite websites for getting great deals (and ideas for trips away) is lastminute.com. And Christmas shopping trips are proving really popular on this site. So if you fancy a long weekend away check out the site. You could be jetting off to New York for the week or visiting the original Germany Christmas markets in Berlin.
I personally would love to be whisked away to experience Belgium for Christmas, just imagine all those chocolates in Bruges!
I think the whole Christmas shopping experience would be made a lot more enjoyable if it was done in another country! And how festive would you feel shopping in snowy Paris or Germany.

Christmas Shopping Tips

Christmas Shopping tips to avoid the stress and to stop you becoming a Grinch/Scrooge!!!
1.    If someone mentions something they like write it down that way when it comes to thinking about Christmas presents you refer back and avoid the stress of thinking what you are going to get them.
2.    If you have kids then spend a couple of hours shopping online and get everything delivered to your work address , that way the kids won’t see the presents and even better you won’t have to drag them round the shops at the weekends.
3.    If you don’t have much time to get all your presents and you are restricted to only a couple of days shopping then plan it like a military attack. Write a list of all the things you need and if needs be plan a route to get them all in the quickest time. (on an extra note make sure you get the heaviest things last!) Then when you get home after only a few hours of shopping with everything done you will feel like you have really achieved something – you can every celebrate with a nice festive drink!!
4.    I like to take one day off work fairly close to the Christmas break just to chill out and finish off all the little shopping bits, cooking, cleaning and christmas card sending that may have been left to last minute. It’s really relaxing as most shops are a look quieter and it really puts me in the Christmas mood!
5.    Some money saving advice;
•    Save up your points from supermarkets and other shops (e.g Tesco, Sainsburys and Boots) and use them the get the majority of your Christmas goodies – it’s like getting stuff for free really!
•    Take advantage of offers; voucher codes, promotional offers online, buy one get ones free and 3 for 2s.
•    Buy Christmas cards, wrapping paper and crackers etc in the January sales – much cheaper and if you manage to bag the ‘luxury’ products you can show off the year after by being posh!
•    Save all your Christmas cards and then use them the next year to make gift tags by cutting out the pictures.
6.    When it comes to cooking your freezer is your friend, make things in advance and freeze it.
7.    Last but not least; treat yourself to at least one thing!!!

Review and Comparison Sites

When shopping around for ‘big’ presents I urge you to do your research online before you purchase. I was only looking for a children’s camera for my 4 year old Godson but I just thought I would check to see how popular the one I had chosen actually was. I went on a couple of comparison sites and a couple of review sites and found out that the camera I would have bought was actually pretty shocking!!! So I’m thanking the internet from saving me from spending nearly £40 on a camera my Godson probably wouldn’t have been able to use or it was such poor quality that he would have gotten really bored with it anyway. But now I have to start the search all over again.
Make sure you check out all the products you are going to buy before you hand over the money, it will save you money and stress when you don’t get what you want.