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L’Occitane are so generous with freebies
I love L’Occitane en Provence products since discovering while on holiday in France.
The company’s hand wash in Verbena smells so devine and Mr BH and I see it as a big treat. At £18 for 500 ml (eeks) it is a very pricey hand wash. But refills are a tenner at Bicester village though and on eBay and it lasts ages.
I like their soaps too, but again they aren’t cheap. I do find that Soak and Sleep do a similar soap range that cost less.
Anyway, I think that L’Occitane are generous with their freebies. I have today picked up a week’s trial of its Creme Devine face cream, so seven sachets of cream. All I had to do was fill in a form and pick up the sample from a L’Occitane store. …
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Don’t chuck it, fix it with Sugru – the miracle fixing stuff
What is Sugru and how has it changed my life forever? Well both Mr BH and I are massive fans of Sugru, a sort of mouldable play dough that sets hard and can be used for stacks of things.
Sugru is malleable when removed from its airtight, moisture-proof packaging, which Mr BH keeps in the fridge. It hardens at room temperature and is malleable for 30 minutes, so he has a couple of jobs in mind before opening a packet. It comes in different colours too, we have yellow, red and black and picked it up at the Sugru website for £12.99 for 8 packs of Sugru. Smaller bundles are also available.
Sugru sticks to almost anything including aluminium, steel, copper, ceramics, glass, fabric, brass, leather and plywood.
His first use was stopping my soap …
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Where to buy cheap designer jeans?
Unless you’re a regular visitor to the US, designer jeans are not cheap, so where do you find the brands without splashing the cash?
I wear jeans pretty much every day and so do most of my friends and family. And when it comes to buying jeans, there are plenty of shops that sell them. If you’re shopping for jeans on a tight budget, you’ve got plenty of options both on the high street and online, from Primark to New Look and other similar stores.
The only problem with cheap jeans is, as with anything, you get what you pay for.
So I turned my quest for a good pair of jeans to the designer aisles – I do not deny myself luxury once in a while, I deserve it. Brands such as Levi’s, G …
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Specially for you – personalised gift retailers with reasonable prices
Making someone feel special is easier with a personalised gift, as it shows you put some time and effort into getting that something special.
I met up with my cousin for a coffee and her daughter is turning 8 next month. She wanted to give her something to remind her of this momentous occasion…so we started looking around for personalised gifts and this is what we found.
Personalised Gift Ideas
Now this retailer really has a fantastic range and everything is personalised, from hip flasks, shot glasses to jewelry and teddy bears. I love, love, love the personalised pillow cases and have ordered the gamer one for my son.
At £9.99 with free delivery, I think it will make a really sweet surprise and something to make him laugh every day. And my cousin is …
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Aldi Lacura antiperspirants and deodorants perfect for teen boys
So me and my mum friends have been talking about smelly pre-teen and teen boys, and debating what to offer them to stop the smell.
Of course washing is a great basic step, but two showers a day is one too many, so products must be purchased.
As a teen, I remember buying Impulse, but that’s not an option. So first step was a deodorant and next an anti-perspirant. Lynx sprang to mind immediately and there are always offers on for it, but I wouldn’t be called Mrs BH if I wasn’t going to find an alternative that does the job just as well without costing as much.
I did some research and didn’t like the idea of the boys wearing anti-perspirant so early, so decided on an anti-perspirant for extra hot or activity filled …
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Kids saving account with 3% interest
We have accounts for our kids at Nationwide and I popped in today to deposit some money.
The friendly assistant told me about the building society’s new kids Smart Limited Access account. It was launched two weeks ago, so I was glad I went in.
The account pays 3% per year if you only withdraw once a year. If you withdraw more times, the interest reverts to 0.75%. As we have never withdrawn from the kids accounts, this is perfect for us.
We are pretty ad-hoc with their saving, so don’t want to commit to depositing a regular amount, so this account is even more interesting.
With a whopping £50,000 limit for deposits, that’s attractive if we win the lottery ;-).
Here are some key facts about the Smart Limited Access account for children:
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My visit to HomeSense
Today I thought I’d check out HomeSense, a store that recently opened up here, but is part of a national chain.
Now HomeSense is part of the TJX family, which also owns TKMaxx, and there are definitely similarities.
I would say that if you want quirky, cool stuff for your home, this place fits the bill. I loved the selection of clocks above.
There are some well-known brands there. I saw Christy, Monsoon, Dartington, Royal Worcester and Sabatier.
I also saw some unknown to me brands from the US and Switzerland. After the programme, The Secret of the Discount Stores, I am a bit sceptical about brands at TJX stores, so my eagle eyes are open a little wider when I enter their stores.
There wasn’t as much furniture as I expected but a …
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Wasgij Destiny 14 How Times Have Changed Jigsaw Puzzle – solution
In my cheap things to do for February half term, I mentioned Wasgij from Jumbo Games, as a cheap way to while away a blustery Feb half term day and actually it’s good fun family entertainment for anytime.
Anyway, we tried out the Wasgij Destiny 14 How Times Have Changed Jigsaw Puzzle. You can pick it up from around £9.99 from Amazon. It’s a time-travelling puzzling concept where we had to imagine what the image on the box will look like 50 years on. This will keep your whole family busy over a few days, unless you fancy a mega puzzle session.
We liked it so much, it’s still made, so here’s the solution for those of you who love this puzzle….don’t look if you don’t want to know.
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A £59.99 wedding dress – would you wear it?
Isn’t the average cost of a wedding around £14k today? Thank goodness I got married over 10 years ago.
My wedding outfit cost around £500 in all, but with the cost of weddings, and wedding dresses, soaring a low-cost option will be attractive to many brides to be….or will it?
A wedding dress has to be the most important dress you’ll ever buy or wear, but with the average dress costing hundreds or even thousands, it does seem a lot for just one day.
So could H&M’s first wedding dress – available at the end of March for £59.99 – be the answer? Despite costing a fraction of the price of the average wedding dress (£1,340, according to Brides magazine), it has high aspirations, taking “Hollywood in the 1930s” as its inspiration and promising to …
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Online poundshops – Poundshop.com vs Hereforapound.com a comparison
I recently compared online supermarkets, so I thought I would take a look at the new online pound shops. At the beginning of February, there was a media buzz around the new online discount stores. The major contenders were Poundshop.com, Hereforapound.com and Pound Panda. Now Pound Panda seems to have already exited the ring and its site is still down, so I decided to focus on the other two. My summary of pros and cons and my first impressions are below.
I have to admit that with two Pound Land shops within walking distance of my house (I am really lucky ;-)), I am not that tempted to shop online, however, for those that have to drive into town or want to buy a stack of stuff and use public transport, or for those …
