I’m all for any genuine and secure scheme that allows me to save money off the products I use regularly, so I think that both these schemes are worth looking it.  After all, the more I save, the more I can shop!

Now I really don’t want to come across as an impatient person. I’m always polite (unless provoked!) and I’m not rude to people who work in stores (unless they’re particularly rude themselves). I’m even happy to engage in a bit of small talk here and there with the shop assistants. I believe strongly we should all respect each other and it makes for a much nicer day for everyone if you can have a bit of polite conversation as you go about your day. My problem with conversations at the till is when you’ve been standing in a long queue waiting to pay for your shopping and then you’re pleased to know it’s you next, but the person in front of you is having a full blown catch-up with the cashier long after their shopping is packed and paid for and they’re both completely oblivious to you and the queue of shoppers behind you. It’s almost as though, in their minds, they’re settled on the sofa in the front room with a cup of tea and a packet of biccies and they have all the time they want to put the world to rights!

With everyone so environmentally aware these days, it is now big business for the Supermarkets and other shops to sell reusable shopping bags in a bid to reduce the number of plastic bags that are being dumped every year. I’m all for this - ok they’re making money on the bags that they’re selling, but some of them are pretty good quality, large enough to get quite a lot of your shopping packed up and even quite durable. And they’re saving money in the long run if they don’t have to produce so many carrier bags. So they’re saving money which obviously makes them happy, but we’re doing our bit too, by being more conscious of recycling and protecting the world we live in. My problem is that these same stores sell products which have a ridiculous amount of packaging. I know that this is the responsibility of the manufacturers of such products, but if the Supermarket giants claim to be so hot on environmental issues it is something that they should be considering. I use a particular body cream that I will cite as an example. I bought a bottle the other day, but I got so much more. Not only was the cream in a bottle, it was then in a box, then in an outer sleeve and then wrapped in cellophane! What did I do when I got home? Well, I peeled off the cellophane, took the outer cardboard sleeve off, took it out of the box and put it with the rest of my toiletries. All this redundant packaging then went in the bin. I know we can all be suckers for some fancy packaging, but is this really necessary? I would have been quite happy to pay the same amount of money to take the bottle straight from the shelf. So, this is something we need to be aware of - sure we might be doing our bit by taking our carrier bags back to the supermarket, but are we really making any difference if we then fill them full of over-packaged products?

Here’s a question for you - what’s the easiest way to get a pram to the upper floors of a shop? Could it possibly be via a lift? Here’s another one - who is the largest target market for baby clothes, toys and other paraphernalia? Could it possibly be mothers with babies? So why is it then that baby products are more often than not upstairs in stores, often with no lifts? If I’m being fair I do understand that many shops don’t want to put potential customers off by putting all the baby-related stock in view as soon as you walk into a store. Fair enough - I’m sure they’ve done their market research. My issue is with the stores that tuck their baby products away in parts of the store that you’ll never reach if you’re a Mother (or indeed Father) with a pram.

Now here’s something that’s happened to most of us at some stage I’m sure. You’re out shopping, you’re pushed for time and there is a big queue behind you. The cashier seems oblivious to the waiting customers and is chatting to you about the latest instore promotions. You smile politely, hand over your money and move away from the till quickly, conscious of the people behind you. you then get to the next shop, pick up a couple of bits and reach into your pocket for the £2.70 change you got from the previous store (where you paid by cash). The change isn’t there. You search all your pockets, your purse and your bags, but no change. You know you paid by cash. You check your receipt which confirms you did and that you should definitely have £2.70 change. You run through the scenario at the till - you were trying to get out of the shop quickly and you didn’t get your change. Now for the dilemma - do I go back for it? Did I really forget it?

Now I know there will be people on the other side of the fence who will have no sympathy/empathy at all regarding what I am about to say! Ok, I understand that taking a double buggy to a highstreet store on a Saturday is nothing short of madness, so therefore I would expect to deal with the lashback of irritated shoppers. My problem is when I take my pushchair to the supermarket on any other day of the week. Let’s face it - mothers have to go food shopping! In fact it would be fair to say, that during the week they would account for a large part of daily trade. Therefore I feel no guilt at the rant I am about to have! Why are shops so poorly designed for pushchairs?

As a busy mum of two under-threes I know how a simple trip to the village shop for a few groceries can sometimes turn into a major expedition. You have to locate shoes, coats, retrieve the baby from under the coffee table, chase the toddler to get him in the pram and so it’s easy to heave a sigh of relief as you lock the front door behind you only to realise you’ve left the shopping list behind! So when I saw another ’stressed-out’ young mum at the till in the local Tesco Express rummaging frantically through her bag and under the pushchair for her purse, I really felt for her. We’ve all been there, haven’t we? All the shopping has been scanned through the till, we’ve managed to pack it into certain bags that will make it easier to unpack when we get home and we’ve got one eye on the time as we really should have been somewhere else ten minutes ago, then, all of a sudden the horrible realisation strikes that we’ve left our money at home. This usually happens when a huge queue of equally rushed ‘I need to be somewhere else’ shoppers has formed behind us, all huffing irritably and looking at their watches (or is that just paranoia on my part?) You look longingly at the cashier, hoping they can somehow sort this nightmare scenario for you without you having to utter those hideously embarrassing words; “I’m afraid I’ll have to leave it, I can’t find my purse”. So when I saw this poor harassed mother asking if they could just put her shopping by until she could get back to pay and being told by the stoney-faced assistant that they could only hold it for 10 minutes as there wasn’t the space behind the till and the frozen goods would have to be put straight back due to health and safety, well my heart went out to her. So much so, I was about to offer to pay for her shopping myself. But hold on a second, where did I put my purse….