Now, it took me a long time to dabble with it, a while to come to grips with it and a little longer to profit from it, but now I’m a self-confessed eBay addict!  As a busy Mum of two young boys, long afternoons spent browsing around my favourite shops are pretty much a thing of the past (I do got the odd pass out for good behaviour!) and the funds to support my shopping hobby have gone into decline somewhat.  No need to worry - up steps eBay.  Oh I love it!  So, I’ve got a big night out on the horizon and I’ve realised that these days splashing out on a gorgeous new top everytime I’m socialising is a little frivolous, so I simply log on to eBay.  I’ve picked up some fab items for next to nothing - most of them brand new with the tags on.   It gives me as much of a buzz when the package arrives in the post as I used to get returning home from town with a carrier bag containing a new top.  And, even better, I don’t have to feel guilty about my purchases, because I can sell all my old stuff on eBay to pay for them, therefore justifying my expenditure and meaning I no longer have to hide my purchases from my other half with the claim, ‘this old thing, I’ve had it for years’ when I’m feeling brave enough to wear them!  Let’s hear it for eBay!

Why is it that when you don’t have any disposable income, the shops are full of deliciously wonderful items that you just know you’d look amazing in, then when you go shopping with your purse full of cash, you can often return home empty handed? Is it just all a case of what you can’t have? I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve gone to the shops in search of a specific item of clothing for a night out or a wedding and no matter how hard I’ve searched and how many different things I’ve tried on, I just haven’t been able to find it! I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m more loathed to part with my cash when I have it (maybe because it’s more of a rarity these days). A dress that looks to die for when I don’t have the money to pay for it, suddenly looks a little drab when I do. With another wedding around the corner maybe I shouldn’t be taking my search for the perfect dress to the highstreet at all… maybe I should consult my bulging wardrobe instead!

I love my clothes shopping - a little too much some would say (the hubby in particular), but sometimes I see things I just absolutely have to have when my bank balance isn’t in agreement. This is when the simply fabulous invention of store account cards comes into its own! I’m pretty sensible with my highstreet account cards - I don’t put too much on to them and I almost always pay them off in full. If I can’t pay them off in full, then they’re usually cleared within a couple of months. I also have a rule that if I’ve still got a large chunk to clear on one card, I don’t put anything on another. However, despite this self discipline, things are still getting out of hand. It seems I can’t have a trip to Topshop these days without them offering me a 10% saving if I open a store card. ‘I’ve already got one I say’, ‘Ah, but it’s not our latest’ they respond. So, I stand there for another 5 to 10 minutes filling out the paperwork for the latest card. It’s when the statements roll in that the confusion really begins. For example, I have had 3 Dorothy Perkins Cards, simply because the first 2 had been filled out with slightly the wrong name! As I see the last purchases put on my Topshop card still sitting in the bag unworn, I’m beginning to wonder if all these Account cards are worth it!

Following on from my ponderings on the benefits of shopping around I’ve started to realise how much more money I spend on my grocery shopping when I pick up ‘a few bits’ each day from my local shops, whether it be Tesco Express or the Co op. It took me several months to realise that the prices in my local Tesco Express are more than those of the main Tesco in town – of course they are – it’s the cost of convenience. Not only that, but because the local little shops obviously can’t hold as much stock as the main supermarkets I often find myself buying items I wouldn’t normally get from the larger stores, which again costs more money.

Ok, it’s handy to be able to pop out down the road when you run out of bread, you need some cat food or some unexpected visitors pop by and you want to offer them a biscuit with their tea. The problem is I’ve started to begrudge every extra penny I’m spending! Don’t get me know, I’m no penny pinching miser (honest!), but since I’ve been at home looking after my children I’ve become more aware of the cost of living and more conscious of the money I spend each day. It’s just difficult to pick up 6 yoghurts for the kids for £1.50, knowing I could get 18 for that price at the big supermarket. I know, I know, if you’re really going to do a cost comparison you have to factor in costs of petrol (although I walk almost everywhere!), but I just worry that convenient shopping could be having a less than positive effect on my bank balance. Anyway, must dash, we’ve just run out of milk…

There’s always so many offers on in the supermarkets today that my head is quickly in a spin and I find myself picking products of the shelves and thinking, but am I getting the best deal? BOGOF – no I’m not being rude, but between Buy One, Get One Free, Three for Twos and discounted products there are some pretty good savings to me made. The question I ask myself whilst shopping in one supermarket however, is are there even bigger savings to be made in the other? What if I’m spending more for my shopping in Tesco than I would for the same items in Sainsburys, or vice versa. Now, taking this to the extreme, I could take my supermarket shopping extremely seriously, pricing everything up in each store before committing myself and then buying each product in the store where it’s available for the cheapest price – phew! But, as I don’t have the luxury of all that time and I think it’s a little over the top, I don’t quite take things that far. Having said that, I am more careful with my money these days. For example, I know which toiletries I use regularly and how often they tend to be on offer in Boots, so I want until there are 3 for the price of 2 and then I stock up. I also save up all the points on my Advantage Card and have great fun seeing just how much stuff I can get for ‘free’ spending my points on all the offers in store. You know what they say, look after the pennies and the pounds will take care of themselves! With this in mind I’m off to the shops in search of this week’s specials!

You know what it’s like - you’re standing in a long queue at Boots and before you get to the till to pay for your goods, your eye has been caught by sweets, tights and minature toiletries. By the time you actually get to the till your shopping costs a few pounds more than it would’ve done if you hadn’t been tempted on the journey to pay! It’s the same in the supermarkets where chocolate bars and magazines are screaming out ‘buy me’ as you wait your turn in the queue. It doesn’t even stop when it’s your turn. There you are emptying your goods onto the conveyor belt and boxes of cut-price CDs are resting on the side saying ‘Go on, add me to your shopping!’ I know it’s a deliberate ploy by the retailers and for them, it makes good business sense, but why do I have to be such a sucker and succumb? What is it about items that I’ve ignored whilst walking around the store that suddenly becomes so tempting when I’m standing in the queue? Boredom probably! I’m not even safe in Topshop these days - bags of sweets and bangles are vying for my attention, trying to get me to send more! The only thing to save me from myself is to get to the checkout as quickly as possible, which is just another reason to add to my long list of reasons why I’d send queues to ‘Room 101′ in an instant!

It’s that time of year again - you can’t move in the shops for chocolate eggs, chicks and bunnies. They all look so tempting, but I’m really starting to question whether I should be parting with my money to buy them. I mean, take your average Easter Egg - it looks amazing in its shiny paper and it’s attractive display box, but when you take all that away, what are you left with for your £6.99? Not an awful lot of chocolate really. So, we’re paying for all the packaging, which, when we’re all ranting on and on about saving the environment, is a pretty daft thing to do! Admittedly, as gifts it’s nice to pay a little for presentation, but if you’re concerned with value for money (as I seem to be more and more these days!) then you’d be best advised to go and buy yourself a huge bar of chocolate and two Mars Bars (or whichever confectionary corresponds to your egg of choice!) Yet, despite my logic and my best intentions, I’ve got a funny feeling I’ll ne struggling home from town on Easter Saturday with a few carrier bags full of bulky, cumbersome, over-priced eggs. So, it looks like the retailers will be laughing all the way to the bank and I’ll be left with egg on my face!

My local Tesco has now finished it’s refit which seems to have taken forever - my verdict - I don’t like change! To be honest, the layout doesn’t seem anymore logical than it was before, but it does resemble other Tesco stores I’ve been to, so maybe it’s simply a case of making them more uniform. Yeah, it’s fine, but why has it taken so long to complete? It’s been months of chaos and customers wandering around the store getting more and more irrate as they struggled to find the cereal or the teabags! It makes me wonder how many of them have given up all together and sought sanctuary at Asda or Sainnsburys. Still, with Tesco dominating the market, I don’t suppose they’ll be losing too much sleep. As for me, I’m still going to Tesco and I’m still struggling to find the items on my list. Let’s just hope they don’t decide on changing tha layout for at least five years - it’s going to take me almost that long to find my way around!

I know, I know – many of you won’t be sympathetic about my double pushchair in shops difficulties – I should never leave the house with my kids and should buy all my groceries, clothes and home furnishings online.  Well, you may not sympathise, but one kind chap did.  There I was struggling with a double pushchair in the queue at Tesco Express, weaving around to the till, balancing a basket, fielding a ‘free-styling’ toddler (released from the pram), when suddenly it was my turn and I was having great difficulty manoeuvring the pushchair, loose child and basket behind a trolley of stock that had been left in the most ridiculous, inconvenient place by the tills.  I could sense the queue forming behind me and could feel my blood pressure rising when I heard a voice behind me say “Would you like me to pass your basket over to you?”  My Saviour!  I managed to get to the till, he passed my basket over and most of the people in the queue looked relieved on my (and their own) behalf.  If only someone could hold my basket and someone else could push my pram (and chase my toddler) every time I’m out shopping, life would be far less stressful!

With Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Easter in hot pursuit of each other this year, the shops seem to be struggling to accommodate all the seasonal merchandise.  In fact, in Sainsbury’s today (bearing in mind it’s Valentine’s Day in just two days time) had an aisle dedicated to all three events.  You’d think this would mean that the stock was bursting off the shelves, but quite the opposite  - it was almost as though they were slightly flummoxed with how best to market everything and had just give up.  The aisle had lots of gaps on the shelves and I’m not talking ‘selling like hot cakes’ gaps.  These were gaps that simply hadn’t been filled.  Usually, the supermarkets try to shove the merchandise for any event down our throats, but quite the opposite was happening here.  It even confused me as Mother’s Day teddies merged into Valentine’s teddies and chocolates into Easter Eggs.  It’s a wonder I didn’t end up coming home with a Rolo Easter Egg for my husband for Valentine’s Day!  I’m just surprised they didn’t make more effort – normally they go to any lengths to get us to part with our cash.  So, there wasn’t much love in the air for Valentine’s in my local Sainsburys.  Let’s just hope the other stores are managing to rise to the occasion!