Bumper Bargains at the Carboot Sale

We spent 5 hours - yes I do mean 5 hours at the Carboot sale yesterday because it was MASSIVE. Our feet ached with walking around and I went back to the car 3 times with bags full of bargains. Part of me wanted to go home half way round but part of me was wanting to stay for more DVDs at 5p each (5p!!) or CDs at 10p each. I went a bit mad on DVDs because of the cheapest prices ever. 

It's going to take a while for me to show you everything I bought, so be patient and I am sure you will be impressed with the bargains. 

Two ladies were selling masses of beauty bargains. Large tester bottle of Aura perfume by Swarovski (unused) £5. I had looked at this in the duty free shop at the airport in June but it was around £40 so I passed. Delighted to find it at £5.

Two tubes of Soap & Glory Sunkissed Tint Body Lotion, £2 each (£8 in Boots) and a Soap & Glory Pillow Plump lip gloss £1 (£10 in Boots).

Avon Genics Treatment Cream £1 (£23.50 on the Avon website). Naturals Lemon Blossom & Basil body lotion and room & linen spray 50p for the two.

Three Christmas Cards with flock material detailing for 10p each (priced £2.99 each on the back of each of them)

Two bottles of Baby Bio Orchid Feed 50p each.  I love white moth orchids and have them all over the house.

Two Wacky Races keyrings. One Dick Dastardly & Muttley and one Penelope Pitstop £1 each (currently £10.99 and £12 on eBay).

Padded black coat which has been gently worn £3 for me. This is lovely and thick so should keep me toasty during the cold winter months.

Six metal studded balls, two large and four small, which I now have displayed in a bowl on my window ledge £1 for all of them.

Boxed set of Terry Thomas films £2 and a boxed set of 14 episodes of the original The A Team series 50p. I also bought 15 other DVDs which ranged in price from 5p (2 films), 20p (12 films) and £2 (1 film)

I work from home and sit on our settee in the lounge but find that my feet get cold so £1 for this large hippo foot cosy was money well spent.

Dress ring 50p.

I also bought a massive commercial bottle opener, new and boxed for 50p. The people selling it wanted to go home so everything was 50p.

I bought David a pair of Helly Hanson waterproof/ski pants for £10 (original cost £140) which look really good on him. He wears this style of trousers when we go away in the winter as they keep him warm. He pretty much lived in them when we were in New York.

He also bought a Sony Media Player to turn our bedroom TV into a smart TV. This was £15 and is working as I type. David likes to watch TV in bed so is delighted with this find.

He also bought LPs, CDs, light bulbs, deodorant and a pedal for his guitar. Bloke things I suppose.

How did you do at the Carboot sales?

eBay Sale

I have not sold anything on eBay for some time but had an urge last weekend to list a pair of genuine Gucci trainers that I bought in a charity shop in Porthmadog earlier this year. I bought them for my niece but she was not too keen on them so thought I would sell them on. I paid £3.99 for them.

I knew they were genuine because they had a reference number inside them and you could tell by the detailing that they were genuine. I checked them out on the Gucci website and they are currently selling for £370.  I noticed another identical pair sell for £132 on eBay a couple of weeks ago.

The ones that sold for £132 came with the box, receipt, extra laces and cloth bag so I did not expect to sell them anywhere near this price. Although these were a size 8, mine are a size 6.5 which is an unusual man's shoe size. This must have been a deal breaker because they sold for .......£122.00. Whoever turns their nose up at shopping in a charity shop needs to have a re-think. 

Slim Pickings At the Carboot Sale

I feel like I got slim pickings at the carboot sale today although I have not done too bad. There seems to be a distinct lack of clothes and shoes in my size and when I do find an item that would fit, it is usually a horrible colour, very worn or not my style. In the past I have bought plenty of jeans, coats, tops and shoes. I live in hope.

I bought this Louis Vuitton Ellipse style hand bag. At £2 I know it isn't an original but it is really well made and will look good in the corner of our bedroom on top of a Louis Vuitton suitcase that I have. I use them as storage boxes for all my toiletries (bought from car boot sales of course)

I bought a number of gift sets for putting away for Christmas presents. Firstly this Boots No7 men's set containing full size hair & body wash and a face wash for £2. Each of these items are currently £7.50 each in Boots.

A cute Philosophy Marshmallows for Toasting gift set for £3 (£18 price sticker on the back) containing shower gel, body lotion and lip gloss.

Beauticology set containing socks, foot cream and foot soak for 50p

Two Soap & Glory full sized items. Mist you Madly body spray £1 (£6.50 in Boots) and The Daily Smooth body butter for £1 (£9 in Boots).

Large Tusan Rose bar of soap which has been made in Italy and smells divine £1.

A set of 3 Partylite candles in a gift set. These are great candles and my second favourite after Yankee Candles (although Jo Malone would be my all time wish). The set contains three different scents, Red Tea & Sweet Flag, Wild Fern and Teakwood & Cardamon. These are usually quite expensive so a snip at £2.

A Bobby Jones peg bag full of multi-coloured clothes pegs £1 - you can never have enough clothes pegs. I also bought 4 House Beautiful and Homes & Gardens magazines from the same lady for £1 for the lot. They are all recent - July 2015 going back in date.

On the present front I also bought this new Marvel comics lounge/ pyjama set for my brother-in-law for Christmas for £2. This had a £12 price ticket on it.

For my nephew a new Bench wallet £1. Bargain.

My usual collection of DVDs. 5 for £2 and some at 50p each.

Finally I was absolutely delighted to find this 50p organiser because I sorted through my necklaces yesterday and thought I could just do with some kind of hook system or organiser to hang them on. So my wish was granted today.

David bought LPs, CDs, a fabulous Henri Lloyd Americas Cup weekend bag for £10 and a Sony video player for £1. We still watch videos...... are we strange?

I was surprised at how much one lady was asking for items on her stall. Nothing spectacular or designer but just run-of-the-mill kinda stuff. I understand it must be a wrench to sell items off cheaply but I suspect she took most of it home again which defeats the objective. On the other hand there was one family selling everything at 50p because they did not want to take it home. Sadly they had nothing I wanted.

How did you do at your car boot sales?

Laptop Photographs

I got my iPad about 20 months ago and my faithful Sony Vaio laptop has been abandoned since then. The other day I realised that there were thousands of photographs on the laptop that were saved to the hard drive and could be lost. Several hours later and after blood, sweat and tears I ended up saving each photo individually to my web photo album. There appeared to be no other way of saving the files of photos. I 'googled' it and came up with lots of useful tips, none of which worked because the software on our laptop was so out of date that it would not support the various methods suggested.

What a time I have had saving all the photos. I have revisited so many holidays and happy moments. The changing shades and length of my hair, the shrinking and growing of my waistline (I lost over 9 stone in 2010/2011 and have then spent the next 3 years putting a lot of it,  although not all of it back on), the growing up of my nephew and niece. Looking at happy times spent with some relatives sadly now no longer with us. It has been just wonderful emersing myself in the photos and the memories.

What has this meant to me?

• I recognise that I need to lose the weight again. I was happy and liked how I looked when I was thinner. I felt liberated. I could walk into any shop and buy clothes in my size which I can't do now.
• I need to cherish the times spent with my loved ones. My career, my possessions count for nothing without the love of my family. We are all here for such a fleeting moment that we need to spend it with those we cherish and love most in this world.
• Memories are more important than possessions. Remembering the happy times and experiences of holidays and weekends away has brought more joy to me over the last few days than owning the latest designer handbag or designer perfume ever would.

Here are some of my favourite 'laptop' photos.

My grandad at Christmas 2008 at our home eating Christmas lunch. Sadly no longer with us and greatly missed.

Myself & David on our first time on the Northern Belle visiting Edinburgh.

With my Dad and sister Karen on holiday in Scotland in 2010. There were 7 of us all together staying at the Kenmore Club. What a great week we had - so much fun, laughter and good times. 

With my niece Roberta (Bobby) and nephew Joseph (Joe) with Dad and Karen.

With David at the last ever Senior Officer's Mess Ball held at the Imperial War Museum North.

With David at Mount St Michel in Normandy when visiting my mum & stepfather, John.  I was slim, happy and with all my family.

With my Dad and sister on the same day

With my wonderful mum and stepfather John at their home in Normandy.

On holiday in Kas, Turkey and at my lowest weight for around 25 years.

  

Carboot Sale Treasures

My car died this week and it rained so badly on Friday that I thought we would not make it to a carboot sale today. Well the weather improved no end and it has been a very sunny morning so we used David's small sports car to get to the Cheshire car boot sale today.

Here are the treasures I found:

Four cushions in excellent condition and a cream/beige throw for my settee for £5 for the lot. The cushions are lovely but I wanted the pads inside them really. I may still use the cushions because they are quite fresh looking but they do not match my settees. They are from Next and are currently in the wash. The throw is already on my settee.

The lady I bought these from had her stall next to her daughter and I bought quite a lot from both of them as they had such lovely things. I bought two St Tropez tanning sets from the daughter for £5 for both of them. They are priced at £15 a set from Boots and I have checked the price of the Self Tanning Bronzer Lotion and it is £20.50 for 120ml. The sets contain this but in 85ml bottles along with a Body Polish and Body Moisuriser.

My mum reads my blog and says I buy too many toiletries and that I could open my own shop. Just so she is not disappointed I bought 6 tubes of Donna Karan Cashmere Mist shower gel and 6 tubes of the same in a body lotion for 20p each. These are travel sized at 30ml, and I also bought two tubes of Clinique foaming wash off cleanser for 20p at 15ml each from the same stall.

Finally I bought 3 Toni & Guy shampoos and conditioners at 50p each along with a Sheer Blonde shampoo for the same price.

I love pinky gold eyeshadow as it suits my colouring and eye colour. I have been wearing Boots No7 Antique Rose for some time but this has now been discontinued so I occasionally find one for sale on eBay or at a car boot sale. Today I was delighted to find a similar shade in a Clinique set called Strawberry Fudge. Two eye colours - one pinky gold and a smaller dark caramel colour. I bought two at £1 each (normally £22 - here) and I also bought two Ruby & Millie eyeliners for 50p for the two. I chose dark brown and silver grey colours.

I found a lovely ivory coloured enamelled and diamanté statement necklace and earring set that looks new for £2. I think these will be great for on holiday to wear with my maxi dresses. 

I bought this new (maybe gently used?) Burberry shoulder bag. It still has its tag on so I thought it was new but there were a few bits of fluff on the inside so it may have been used. I love the grey tartan material and that it looks like a duffle bag. It has an adjustable strap so can be a shoulder bag or carried by hand. There was no bargaining the lady down on this so I paid £10 (gulp!) but I think it will be great for in the winter as it will look good with my winter coats. I felt a bit better when I saw a similar second hand one for sale on this website for £250.

These two Tipperary Cystal tealight holders were £2. Both still have their labels on but one has been used as it had some wax stuck to the inside. I love their simplicity.

My mum has also said that I buy too many Jamie Oliver books. What can I say? I love his recipes so again not to disappoint my mum I bought this 15 minute meals book for £1.

Two DVDs were £1 each. One has three films in it so a bargain.

My favourite purchase (how sad am I?) was this Oreck Vacuum Cleaner for £4. It had to travel home on the front seat with me as it was too big for the boot of David's little car.

David bought a Sprayway coat for £5, some CDs and a Stylophone for £2. He has been playing it already.....arghhh.