So, with the January sales well under way how many bargains have you managed to pick up? Does your wardrobe now boast a few well-selected designer bargains that you’ve snapped up at amazingly low prices? Have you had your eye on a certain dress or that must-have pair of shoes for the last few months, but you’ve patiently waited, biding your time until you knew it would be marked down in the sale and it’s purchase would give you an even greater buzz because of the cash you’ve saved? Well done is all I can say. My experience of sale shopping tends to be a much different one to that. Sure, I’m not saying I haven’t picked up a real bargain in the past that I’ve gone on to love and cherish, but more often than not it doesn’t work out that way. Ok, so I try to be sensible - I see an over-priced pair of boots that I adore and I think to myself why pay that inflated price when they’ll probably be a third of the price in a month or two? So, I wait, I keep my eye on them and go in to the shop each time I pass and to make sure they haven’t been reduced. Then the sales start and I return to the store excitedly imagining what outfits will be instantly transformed simply by teaming with my fantastic new boots. I go into the shop and everything is all over the place, then I see them. It’s almost like they’re gleaming at me amongst all the chaos. I rush over to them and pick them up - size 6. Ok, put them down, pick up the next pair - size 5 and so it goes on, but still I can’t bring myself to accept that there is no pair in size 4 waiting for me to slip my feet in. The disappointment overwhelms me every time. So, now I have a new policy. I’ll still wait until the sale if I don’t have any particular night out or event to wear my desired item to before that time, but if it’s part of a must-have outfit I’ll snap it up there and then and at least when my size is still available in the sale (as it always is if I already have it), then I can console myself with the fact that I’ve already worn it 6 or more times and it’s no longer quite as amazing as I first thought!

Currently, my main local Tesco store (I specify main, because Tesco is fast becoming like McDonalds in that they’re springing up on every corner!) is undergoing some sort of reorganisation. I wouldn’t go so far as to say refurbishment, because as yet there is no sign of cosmetic uplift. But things are being moved (quite often a bone of contention in itself when you’ve finally got to grips with where all the produce on your regular shopping list is housed). They are whole aisles that are completely bare, the other aisles are shifting location and instead of the usual professionally printed signs suspended from the ceiling directing you to the aisle you need, there are ordinary bits of white paper stuck haphazardly to the ends of shelves telling customers what they’ll find if they venture further down the aisle. Now, this may seem daft, but it spoils my supermarket shopping experience slightly and not for the reasons you may assume. It’s not so much to do with the inconvenience, but more to do with the presentation of the store. Ridiculous really when you consider that I can still buy everything I’ve gone in for (although it may take slightly longer to find), but I suppose it goes to show how much we really are sucked in by all the additional marketing and presentation. While the store is undergoing this transition, I’ll simply go in and get what I need, getting out as quickly as possible. Where all the usual bells and whistles in place I’d be more inclined to stay and browse, probably leaving the store with a couple of items I really don’t need! So, I suppose if the presentation of my supermarket is so important to be I should be eagerly awaiting the result!

Personally, I have a real problem with Crocs and this latest incarnation is quite frankly, hideous. Ok, to be fair to Croc fans, I know they have a practical purpose if you’re jumping on and off boats - we played count the Crocs on our summer holiday in Cornwall - but as a fashion item, it’ll take a lot to convince me…

January is a rubbish month isn’t it? It’s cold, rainy, dreary and you usually have even longer to wait for pay day, because you’ve been paid early in December. To make matters worse, you’ve overspent at Christmas so the month really seems to drag. It’s almost as if some of the shops can’t be bothered to make an effort - as though they think - no one’s got any money so what’s the point trying to entice them with tempting displays! Sure, there’s plenty of reduced stock on the supermarket shelves, but what I’m talking about is the attention to detail, the presentation, the ‘Wow’ factor. It just seems to be missing. And, what makes it even more apparent, is the fact that it comes straight after all the Christmas decorations and festive displays. I just think the shops look forlorn in January. It’s kind of the equivalent of taking your Christmas tree, cards and decorations down and your house suddenly looking really bare. But, the difference is, I see this as a chance for a fresh start - I have a good old clean and maybe brighten things up with some flowers. So come on shops, with so many of us suffering from S.A.D in January, don’t give us more reason to feel blue!

Happy New Year! Or, should I say Happy Sale Season. Yes, it’s Sale time again. No sooner have we polished off our Christmas dinner and sunk back onto the sofa to watch a film than the shops are dragging out rail upon rail of sale stock and putting big money off banners up in their windows. The Next Sale always seems very popular, with people queuing in the night to be there for the 5am opening. Now, what’s that all about? I never understand (not least because I don’t buy an awful lot from Next), why people can’t just turn up at normal time to take a look at the sale. They’re obviously desperate to be first through the door, but why does that have to be at an unearthly hour? It’s the poor staff I feel sorry for - retail’s no fun around Christmas. I can appreciate that if you’re genuinely up for a sale there are some great bargains to have, but as with sales in most clothes shops, they wheel out all the tat from years gone by that has been festering in the stockroom since the last sale! I for one, can’t be bothered to search through it all, while other customers push and shove to get past me. I much prefer to wait until all the fuss has died down and have a more leisurely browse at the remaining sale stock at the end of January, beginning of February, when the last items will be reduced even further and you can still pick up a real bargain. So, what about you? Are you a Sale Sucker?

So, whilst the Spice Girls are buying each other cashmere jumpers and
other lovely gifts from Tesco, the likes of Lulu, Gaby Logan and Nick
Hancock will be stocking up for the festive season at Morrisons. Well, I
hope they will be anyway and not sneaking off to the M&S food hall once
they’ve finished filming their advert!

I can see how Credit Cards cost us £94 billion, but I shudder at the thought. Even with all the bargains available online and on the high street, the cost of Christmas soon mounts up and many of us are still paying for it well in to the New Year. I hope you haven’t overspent?

I have the same dream every year, just before Christmas. It goes like this - it’s Christmas Eve, all the shops are shut and I haven’t got my presents. It’s such an awful feeling - what am I going to do? What are people going to think?

Luckily, the reality is always very different. Sure, I’ve still got a couple of bits to get, but I’m normally quite organised with my Christmas shopping and have it mostly wrapped up by the week before. I just don’t understand those people who leave it all until Christmas Eve afternoon, when the sale signs are already being put up in the shops, the shelves are half empty and the remaining stock’s looking a little sorry for itself. I remember when I used to work in Boots. All the staff would be looking forward to early closing, so they could get away and start celebrating Christmas and about half an hour before the store was due to close, you’d get people ambling in who’s spent most of the day in the pub and had decided this was a good time to do their gift shopping. I suppose it’s one thing if you don’t really care and are quite laid back about the whole process, but it’s quite another if you feel like I do in my recurring Christmas dream and you’re panic buying any old tat just so you have some presents before the shops close.

I hope you’ve all been organised, your gifts are all wrapped under the tree and you can smugly sit and drink mulled wine and eat mince pies on Christmas Eve, whilst those panic buyers snap up anything going - let’s just hope we’re not the recipients of their tat!

I feel sorry for shop assistants at this time of year. Not only do they have to deal with harassed customers, queues of shoppers and non-stop trade, but more often than not, they’re also often forced to dress up and get in the ‘festive mood’ at this, their busiest time of year.

How many times have you gone into the Supermarket in the week before Christmas to see all the staff dressed up as Elves and Fairies. It never ceases to amuse me - no, not because I’m cruel and having a laugh at their expense, but because quite often you’ve got a miserable, tired shop assistant dressed up in a ridiculous costume that simply doesn’t suit their mood! Of course, you also get the young ones (and some of the older ones to be fair) who take it in good part and really enter into the spirit of things. It’s a shame then, when you see them having to deal with an irate customer! Oh, how tempers can fray when Christmas shopping!

So, if you’re out and about doing your last minute Christmas shopping and the people serving you are dressed to the nines in festive attire, then make time to acknowledge, compliment them and wish them seasonal greetings!

I love the Soap and Glory Range and think if you have three friends who love it too, then it’s an easy way to get your Christmas Shopping a little further on! If like me, you tend to treat yourself while you shop, why not buy Soap and Glory for two ladies in your life and keep the third (free) set to pamper yourself after all the hard work shopping!