There is something about Christmas that just inspires me and I think I have said before we do not buy the adults in our family Christmas gifts, so this year I decided to make use of my dried orange slices and make some home made christmas wreaths for my mother in law and sister in law.
As you know I have been taking part in the Tots100 Swagbucks competition along with 12 other fantastic bloggers and I wanted to tell you about my experience before the winner is announced next week. I am not sure yet that Swagbucks is for me, I haven’t been very stressful with it, but I do think there are a number of reasons. Firstly the toolbar doesn’t work in Chrome and that is my preferred browser and secondly the major one for me is that I think it is possible to get many more points if you are willing to use Swagbucks to register with gambling sites, but I don’t gamble, so it didn’t really work for me. Another issue was that often people post hints and tips to the Swagbucks facebook page and with the changes on facebook I often didn’t realise they were there until to late.
I am not sure that this time of year was the best time for me to focus on Swagbucks, as I am short of time and I think that if you have time to use it to do the daily poll, survey and searches via them you can make a lot of cash. Wendy made £100 in just three weeks, where I made less than £10! Pippa also made an amazing number of points too, which highlighted to me that it is more than possible and it was me that wasn’t using the site right!
Also I think it is really important that you get other people registered and using swagbucks as you get a proportion of their bucks too and neither of my referrals used the search function.
So my top tips would be:
Get in to a routine (I will try again after Christmas)
Use the seach toolbar
get your referrals to use swagbucks
So I am going to try again in the new year when I have more time and if you want to have a go with me, http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/MuminTheMadHouse
And I have kept saying no. But the boys love them and want them. They have played on Skylanders with Master Frugal and I am coming to realise that they will not need them all as they can share and swap with friends. Plus all their friends have them and they love to talk about them.
However, we have a rile at christmas, they are only allowed to ask for four things and as they both really want bikes, Skylanders are out of our price range But thankfully the Tots100 might be able t come to our rescue with their great Skylanders competition.
So this is Decay. He is a magic Skylander with his candy cane light saber which shoots sweets at you and tricks you in to getting bad teeth!
Let me introduce you to decay the next skylander! Read More »
The boys chose their hats from the Zaini Kids range.
All Zaini Kids hats are fully fleeced lined for the utmost comfort and quality and are made from 100% acrylic which is extremely durable towards rain, snow and wind. It is not waterproof , but it will resist rain without altering the hat. They can be hand washed only at 40 degrees.
The idea of Zaini started in 2010 in a ski resort in Northern France, when Scottish ski instructor Miranda Harper started hand knitting hats for friends because she couldn’t find the kind she liked. Since then Zaini, and Zaini Kids, has become an established brand which sells and distributes hand made products throughout the world.
So back to the hat, how did it fair. Well he has been wearing it for a week, as it is fleece lines it doesn’t itch per say and he is doing much better than he has with any other hat. He loves the pom pom on the top and it has withstood both hail and rain. At £14.99 it is much more than I have ever paid for a hat for him, but as a cost per wear it is the best value hat I have ever had for him too!
Keeping hypersensitive heads warm with Zaini hats Read More »
Just over a week ago me and the amazing Penny Golightly,held a twitter party all about shopping habits and family treats. We found out how about how you stick to a budget, choose appropriate family rewards, spend your money wisely and that your shopping habits have changed recently compared to previous years. it was amazing, there were so many tips and ideas and I wanted to
I have made no secret that as a family we love Micro Scooters. Both the boys have a Maxi Micro, we also have a Macro Sprite and one of their stunt scooters. We are also loving the accosories that they have and the boys have been testing some more out.
Scoot Beamz (£6.99)
These have been a huge hit and I have had four of the local mums ask me about them. They are lights that for on to any scooter. You can have them on fast flash, slow flash or constant and they come in four colours. They make the boys stand out on dark and dismal days.
Rucksack (£25)
So you have dried your oranges, what do you do with them?
Both the boys have stockings that I made for them when they were first born and each year I fill them with an assortment of items.
So my top tips for stocking fillers this year are:
Playmobil Fi?ures (£1.97)
What can I say you can never have too much Playmobil!
Magic Spring £1.49 – Yellow Moon
Perfect for children of any age. My boys love watching it spring itsr way down the stairs! Size 75mm
Notebooks by Jennie Maizel £3.99
We are huge fans of Jennie in the Mad House. Mini is a big fan of her London range and her notebooks are fab. Great quality and super designs, plus free postage in the UK.
Speed Racer Sets – !1.49 Yellow Moon
Fab mini construction sets from Yellow Moon, which are easy to assemble and really great value for money.
Stabilo Pens
We particularly love the EASY Original pen (£6.99) which is designed to aid children learn to write with easy to grip areas and specifically for left handers or right handers. We have loved these pens so much that I went out and bought the boys an EASYergo pencil (£6.99) each. The boys have found them very easy to grip and use.
Other items that go in every year are:
Chocolate coins, a toothbrush, a mandarin, marbles and lip chap.
Stocking fillers for six and seven year old boys Read More »
As a family we love York. It is only an hours drive for us and somewhere that we enjoy visiting and browsing. This past weekend was St Nicholas Fayre in York, which is billed as one of the most popular Christmas markets in the UK, with thousands of visitors coming to York over the four-day event.
We hadn’t been to York for a while, so thought that we would try and do some Christmas shopping at the Fayre and gave both the boys their pocket money and we set off with a challenge to try and buy presents for my mother in law and farther in law.
