Bank Holiday Car Boot Bargains

On Sunday it rained all day so going to a car boot sale was out of the question. We lazed around the house which is something we rarely do but we both felt tired and in need of a lazy day. Bank holiday Monday was different and we were at the Cheshire car boot sale for 7.30 am with lots of bargains in need of finding. 

My first purchases were from one lady who had a box with everything for 50p. I bought three items and was delighted with this cute candle holder containing a Yankee Candles votive in rain washed berries scent. These are £1.80 to buy so why she would sell the whole set for 50p is beyond me. Equally I got this lovely Marks & Spencer gift set in Peony scent containing a mug with travel size shower gel and hand cream for 50p. Finally I got a Heathcote & Ivory gift set with Rose scented shower gel and body cream. I find these travel sizes are great for weekends away.

I found some Burberry sunglasses which had been gently worn with a case which is as new for just £2. I wil keep these in the car and use them for driving in sunny weather.

I am as usual on the look out for gifts for Christmas and managed to but a few items to put away for my extended family. I like Boots No7 products and use a a lot of it myself so was pleased to find this men's gift set for just £2. It contains full sized products and these would normally cost £7.50 each so at £1 an item this set was a bargain. I will put this away for my nephew for Christmas.

The other gifts I found were a number of Soap & Glory items such as this full sized bottle of bubble bath and a box full of 5 travel sized products. The travel sized items are Clean on Me shower gel, Hand Food hand team, Heel Genius heel cream and two pots of Righteous Butter body cream. The whole lot was £5. The full sized bubble bath alone is normally £6 and the travel sizes are usually £2.50 each so I reckon I have £18.50 worth for £5. I even found a Soap & Glory toiletry bag for 50p.

As is my usual way I came home with a selection of magazines. The June and May 2015 editions of Cheshire Life and Cheshire Magazine were 50p each which is good value as these are out at the moment and cost £3.99/£4. The other magazines were just 10p each.

I also came home with a selection of DVDs which ranged in price from 25p to £1 for the boxed sets. I bought the Bear Gryls 3 DVDs box set for my brother-in-law for £1 and will put this away to form part of his Christmas present. It is as new and looks like it may have been watched once. The other boxed sets I bought were Black Adder - series 2 and 3. I have series 4 already and am just missing series 1 now.

My favourite bargain of the day is this beautiful Marcel Wanders wine cooler from Marks & Spencer. I paid £2 for this and they are currently selling for £25 in M&S. Both David and myself love the designs of Marcel Wandesr and we have a few of his gems already from a scarf to Christmas Tree decorations. This will look lovely on the dining table keeping our wine chilled. I love the etched pattern design on it and think this looks so interesting compared to the plain brushed steel one that we currently use.

I am really looking for two matching throws for over the arm of one side of each of our two settees. I found two last week that were in excellent condition, lovely fabric but totally the wrong colour and they were only £1 for the two. Frustrating to say the least. We always say that if you go looking for something in particular you will not find it so don't go looking and what you want will fall in your lap. I hope this happens next week.

Car Boot Bargains

We were up at 6am today and out of the house at 7am heading towards the Cheshire car boot sale. No car boot sale in the country that we have visited compares to the Cheshire car boot for bargains. I am sure there must be some others that are just as good if not better but we have not found one yet. 

I like Orla Kiely designs and was delighted to find this duvet cover and two pillowcases in a subtle grey and white stem design. We have grey and white as our colour scheme in our bedroom so this matches perfectly. When new this would cost over £100 so second hand I would expect to pay a lot less so was really pleased when the lady selling the set asked for just £2. It was freshly laundered but I'll give it a freshen up with a further wash to make it mine so to speak.

My regular readers will know that I am buying Soap & Glory products to fill a toiletry bag for my sister for her Christmas present. I bought two minis which sell for £2.50 each and paid 50p for the Flake Away body scrub and 20p for the Righteous Butter. 70p instead of £5 sounds good to me.

I bought two packs of Yankee Candle car air fresheners for 50p a pack in Sun and Sand. They fit inside the car air vents and come in packs of 4. These normally sell for £3.99 a pack so again £1 instead of £7.98 makes these a bargain.

I bought a few girly bits and pieces such as this cute Patisserie candle gift set which had come from Laura Ashley. There are four gorgeous little cake sized candles in the pack and these will look heavenly lit after dinner one evening at the dining table while we linger over coffee. I was astounded to see a £16 price ticket on the bottom of the pack as I paid only £1. The lady selling them thought they were soap and was surprised when I told her they were candles.

My other girly purchase was this lovely Royal Worcester fine bone china mug complete with box. This cost just 50p and this style, though not this design normally sells for £10.50 each. I think I will use this mug at work or I may gift it to my niece at Christmas.

I bought two Marks & Spencer Autograph items. This pair of darling gold loafer shoes in soft leather for just £1. These have probably been worn once or twice but look unused. I like metallic shoes in pewter, dark silver, bronze and gold because they go with anything.

My other item was this unused black and leopard print leather handbag. It has great detailing on the shoulder strap which is fairly long so could also be worn across the body. This style came out about two years ago and I really wanted a bag with the leopard print at the time but was too mean to spend £50 or so on one. This one cost me just £4.

I bought another Hairy Bikers cook book for £1.50. This is a hard backed book and looks like it has never been used (my cook books usually have something splashed on at least one of the pages on the inside). It is the Mums Know Best edition and there are a couple of recipes that I think I will have to test out in the next week or so.

As you all know I am a DVD fanatic and cannot resist anything that is 50p or less, so today I bought 8 DVDs all for 50p each. There is a real mixture of cartoon films to horror. I love just about every film genre apart from Westerns which somehow don't appeal at all. My favourite films are Ealing Comedies which I just adore. I could watch them over and over again and I have nearly all of them on DVD. I think my favourite is the classic Kind Hearts and Coronets - magical.

One lady was mad to sell me this original glass vintage Kenwood Chef blender for just 50p. I have a 1960s Kenwood Chef that I paid just £15 for at a carboot sale in Hale Barns. This came with the glass blender as well as a mincing machine. As I already have the glass blender I don't really need another one but who can resist a replacement one for just 50p. These are currently selling for around £30 on eBay.

I could not resist this Panasonic vacuum cleaner which is in perfect condition and has some real power behind it. This was just £5 and means I can take my old one to the tip. My old one is on it's last legs and has to be cajoled into working properly so I will enjoy giving it a decent funeral at the nearby tip.

Finally I bought 10 packs of bedding plants for some summer colour. I bought 4 packs of geraniums, 3 packs to petunias and 3 packs of elysium. These were for the bargain price of £1 a pack. Why would you go to a garden centre when you can pay these kind of prices? There were 4 plant stalls on today and I left it until towards the end to buy as the prices start to drop. People want to sell them and not take them back home so I was pleased with the price. I now have so gardening to do!

Tell me about the best car boot sale that you have visited and what you bought.

Weekend Away in Porthmadog

Another weekend away in North Wales! We love staying at Greenacres Holiday Park which is a Haven caravan park at Morfa Bychan just outside of Porthmadog. The caravan park is right on the beach at Black Rock Sands and what a wonderful beach it is. It has views across the bay over to Harlech and views along the coastline to Criccieth. Both of these towns have castles and you can just see them both on a clear day. We cannot visit Greenacres without a walk on the beach even if it is bad weather. It had been cloudy all day until around 5pm when the clouds parted and it was glorious for a walk on the beach. We turned around to find dark clouds behind us over the 'Black Rock' but we were in brilliant sunshine.

We were surprised to see that the entrance to the park had changed and thought it looked great although still work in progress inside the park. We then noticed that the touring caravan area has been moved from the rear of the park to near the front and that they had introduced safari tents for the glamping brigade. Wonderful.

We visited a couple of charity shops and I bought a lovely patterned top for £2.99 from the Barnados shop. It looks like new and will look good with some black trousers for work. My sister bought a dress from the same shop for £3.99 which fitted her perfectly.

I found these genuine Gucci high top trainers for £3.99 in an animal charity shop and at size 6.5 they are perfect for my niece. These are selling for around £100 on eBay at the moment so if she does not like them I will sell them at some profit. This will have pretty much paid for the weekend away.

We had to visit Wikinsons now known as Wilko to see what clearance items they had and I struck lucky with some moisturising shower gel and foam bath for just 37p a bottle. I can't see this being the most luxurious of products but it smells good and will be fine for everyday use. They had a choice of scents such as relaxing and refreshing but I usually go for any kind of product which moisturises my body.

Another ritual is visiting a restaurant on Sunday evening in the square at Tremadog called Y Sgwar which is only about 5 minutes drive outside Porthmadog. We love this cosy place with it's wonderful service. There is one waiter who always serves us and is an absolute darling. He is so warm and friendly but knows when to leave you alone too. Fantastic service and fantastic home cooked food at a reasonable price. It is currently £16.50 for two courses or £20 for three if you order between 6m - 7pm. There is a choice of starters, main courses and desserts with wine at around £16.50 a bottle.

David had chicken liver pate with onion confit & Melba toast and I had prawn & crayfish salad with mango & chilli salsa for starters. We both followed with a main of roast leg of lamb with vegetables and a choice of potatoes. David plumped for roast and mash but I went for potatoes boulangierre. For dessert I had a brandy snap basket filled with banana & toffee icecream and David had chocolate brownie with vanilla icecream. The whole meal was beautiful and we cannot recommend this restaurant enough.

Monday morning we drove over to Abersoch which we have been visiting together for over 28 years. After a stroll around it was time for a coffee for me and a beer for David in Zinc bar & grill which is in the centre of the village with an outdoor area overlooking the boat yard. It was sunny enough for us to sit outside which was a lovely end to our weekend away before setting off home.

Tell me where you enjoy spending your weekends away as I'd love to hear from you.Click on the "no comments" below and leave a comment! 

Welsh Car Boot Sale

There is a small car boot sale on the outskirts of Porthmadog that we have visited a couple of times or so over the  years. It was cold and windy Sunday morning so we thought it might not be on but sure enough there were around a dozen stalls with a mixture of traders and those genuine carbooters who have just had a clear out of their homes and want to just get rid of their excess belongings.

I bought a very pretty Laura Ashley vase which is new and still has it's label attached for just £1 from one trader. It has lovely etching around it and will look so pretty filled with a small posy of flowers. I guess this would have cost between £15-£20 when new so I am really pleased that it was only £1. 

I found a pair of Nike trainers which had been worn a few times but were gently worn and at £2 are a bargain. They are a good fit for me and will be great for the amount of walking I have been doing recently. I reckon these will have cost around £50+ when new.

Finally I bought quite a few DVDs which were between 50p and £1.50 each. I also bought the boxed set of the first series of Mad Men for £3. This is currently selling for around £5+ on eBay so only a small saving but £3 is a good price for a couple of evenings entertainment. I have not watched this series at all but have heard so much about it that I thought I would give this a try. If I like this first series then I will look out for further series on car boot sales. 

David bought a few CDs at 50p each and a Quicksilver wallet for 50p which was new and unused. My sister found a number of books for 50p each and bought two Gossard bras for 1.50 for her daughter who was delighted with them as they were clearly expensive bras. Some would baulk at buying a second hand bra but they were freshly laundered and will be washed again before wearing. My brother in law found a fishing seat and some trainers which he was delighted with. The fishing seat was like a large green padded sun lounger and only just fitted into the boot of my car.

We have slightly missed the Cheshire carboot sale the last two weekends and are looking forward to returning there next weekend. We have our fingers crossed for good weather for the next three weekends so that there will have the maximum number of sellers on. We go on holiday for two weeks the weekend after these three weeks so want to get there each week for plenty of bargain hunting.

What did you buy on a carboot sale this weekend?

Safari Tents at Greenacres

So we have spent the weekend away at Greenacres holiday park in Morfa Bychan. My sister, her husband and my niece have just left to travel home and David and I now have the caravan to ourselves. Bliss. We do not have to leave for home until tomorrow as we have both taken a day off work. Another bliss.

This year Greenacres have introduced around 7 safari tents to their touring section of the caravan park. I love the novelty value of these and thought their setting was good too. Each tent had it's own barbecue located at the side of the pitch. There was a large decked area at the front for sitting outside and enjoying the fresh air and weather. We think these will be ideal for the summer months when

the temperatures become higher and there is more chance for some sunny weather.

I noticed that the tents were from www.safaritents.net and have had a look at their website for a good look at the different styles of tent they provide. We asked at the holiday park reception if we could look around one and it was no trouble for someone to show us around the tent and the facilities block that can be used nearby. 

There was something slightly magical about the tent and set up within it that brought out the child in all of us when we entered. All four of us had smiles on our faces and we made oooh and aaaah noises at the cute kitchen area and pine beds in the bedrooms. We have decided to mull over the idea of booking a long weekend away in one of them over the summer months. I know it is not the height of glamour but for someone who used to sleep in a tent in the back garden as a child for fun the idea certainly appeals. 

There were two bedrooms with one having a pine double bed and the other having a pine single bed and two bunk beds. These were towards the back of the tent with the front holding a large table, chairs and bench with a cute kitchen area. There was a sink, fridge, microwave and two ring hob. There were power points and interestingly no television. I thought this was a good thing as I am typing this with the TV on in the background. I don't need it on but we seem to have the TV on a lot even though we are not always watching it. I agree with no TV. 

I have warmed to the glamping idea and will have to look into this further. Have any of you been glamping? Please let me know. Click on the "no comments" below and let me know!