Ever since Christmas I’ve been on a mission to lose weight. Who am I kidding? I’m always on a mission to lose weight! Anyway, I recently discovered that one of my favourite foods, the scrummy bagel, is available at less than 2% fat. That isn’t a low sugar count, mind you, so you still have to be careful.

The New York Bagel range has five flavours that sit at this low 2% threshold so you can have a tasty cinnamon and raisin bagel for breakfast without feeling utterly guilty. I went and got the wholemeal, the cinnamon and raisin and the plain bagels to see how they tasted and to try out some ideas.

The cinnamon and raisin New York bagels are divine. They are one of my favourites, especially when toasted with low-fat olive spread. That’s it. The wholemeal ones are, obviously, far better for you on a GI diet scale and are very nice when eaten with some cucumber and turkey breast as this will fit into most low GI diet plans easily.

I expected them to be a bit cardboardy if I am honest. Often the wholemeal variants of such tasty foods are a bit dry and tasty processed. I didn’t find this an issue with the New York dudes at all. Very nice. They also taste divine with soup.

The plain bagels are a special treat. They are made with processed flour, white flour, which is always more fattening and higher in sugar content than wholemeal. However, as an occasional treat they are divine, especially if you stick with a low fat topping.

The New York bagel Facebook site has plenty of recipe ideas for you and the cost of a pack of five is £1.35 – that works out to 27p a meal if you only have one. Great price and great taste. Winner.

This is a pretty cute little set of racing minis that you can plonk on your desk for super racing fun. Down to only £4.99 for a brand new box of lovely racing cars, this is a fab deal that would fit nicely into any present cupboard for emergencies.

• Click here to get racing with Argos eBay Outlet

The racing desktop mini set comes with two cars, both are minis (obviously) and one is red while the other is blue. These tiny little charmers race around a track that’s made from 16 interlocking track pieces, also included in the set.

You also get two bridge railings and four bridge supports so you can create a track that offers uphill and downhill racing. There are 12 roadside fences and two starting markets and, of course, the two controllers for the little mini racers themselves. You will need to buy four D batteries to run the track though.

Thanks to theboss at HUKD!

This is a pretty good buy, especially with the freezing temperatures we’re experiencing at the moment. I want to go to the shops wrapped in a duvet right now! This Tinga Tinga Tales Hippo fleece blanket is down from £9.99 to only £2.99 which is a saving of £7.

• Click here to get some blanket at Play.com

The Tinga Tinga Tales series is on CBeebies and has become really popular lately. I’m not a huge fan because they mix and match animals from Africa as if it’s a blender, not staying region specific. Not only that, they have animals from Australia in the show. What’s that all about?

Anyway, fans will enjoy this toasty warm fleece blanket with a beaming hippo on the front. It is made from polyester and is 120x150cm in size. It isn’t very big and I would never have paid the original price for this but for £2.99 it would make a nice snuggly for TV watching.

Thanks to Arriaga at HUKD!

I am frankly astonished by this deal. What a lovely bargain. This Usborne Children’s World Atlas is down from £8.99 to only £1.99 which is not only a whopping saving on the original price but also a really awesome book to have.

• Click here to get an atlas at Argos

The Usborne Children’s World Atlas has internet links littered throughout the book. We bought the encyclopaedia version just after Christmas this year and it is really, really good. Each section comes with a bunch of internet links that show you even more videos, information, pictures and stories about the stuff on the page.

My daughter loves hers, she takes it with her when we go out and tells us all about the things inside it. We’re even learning things here! The book has 60 pages of maps along with introductions to the continents, satellite photography, and lots of facts about the various countries.

The Usborne Children’s World Atlas at this price is a complete and utter steal.

Thanks to wishihadadonkey at HUKD!

The Lego Alien Conquest Earth Defence kit is at 50% off at Tesco Direct taking it down from £74.97 to only £37.48. I still can’t get over how expensive Lego is, I mean, that is REALLY pricey the old price but it is far more reasonable now which should make Lego fans happy.

• Click here to get some Lego at Tesco Direct

The Lego Alien Conquest kit contains what kids with imagination need to defend the Earth against the alien invasion. Earth Defence HQ is the ultimate station with a bunch of features and extras like the laboratory trailer that can be unhooked for high speed pursuits.

Repel the UFO with the interceptor shuttle and fire the ground defence unit flick missiles. Study the alien commander and alien pet in the analysis bay – they actually say that in the description, how disturbing! – and be sure to keep them behind bars. Crikey, if I was an alien reading this I would never visit Earth.

The Lego Alien Conquest kit has an alien trooper, alien pirate, pilot, two alien defence unit soldiers, a toxic clean up scientist and accessories.

Thanks to mmillmor at HUKD!

Tesco has reduced the Star Wars talking plush toys to only £9.97 each and then slapped on the tasty “get three for two” label as well. Not only do you end up with awesome talking Star Wars toys but you get one of them for free.

• Click here to get Darth at Tesco

These are ace. I found this deal last year and remember thinking that it was soooo pants I had already sorted all my Christmas presents out. These are such cool gifts and not just for kids either. I mean, I grew up with Star Wars so these would make me very happy.

Can you imagine waking up to a plush little Yoda talking to you about the Force? Yeah. Or a little Darth yabbering on about your coming to the dark side while you make coffee? Oh yes. This is all too good for words.

Anyway, they each cost £9.97 and you can collect pretty much all of them in one spend under £20 really, well, three of them…

Thanks to wishihadadonkey at HUKD!

There are few things I love more than the word “free” except, of course, when I get told my offspring can eat for free. That works as well. At the moment Crown Carveries are offering a kids eat free deal during the school half term. Brilliant.

• Click here to find your nearest Crown Carvery

In order to qualify for your kids eat free deal you need to go to the website following the link above and download and print the voucher. Then take the voucher to your nearest Crown Carvery and hand in the voucher when you order your food.

The offer is available all day Saturday 11th February until Saturday 18th February (it excludes the Sunday) and to qualify adults must buy full priced carvery meals. This seems like a pretty good excuse to treat the family to a nice evening out without breaking the bank.

I find that going out to dinner with my child can be a little cringe inducing, even with low priced meals it hurts when she takes four bites, declares herself full and refuses to eat anymore. Free makes me feel much better.

Last week I wrote a feature on funky things to do for free for Valentine’s Day and I got a lot of emails from people who loved the hairstyle idea in the piece. In fact, so many people responded to it that I thought I’d deviate from the Valentine’s Day drama and head for a feature that looks at some of the best hairdo sites on the web,

Of course, I didn’t just choose these sites because they had cool hairstyles for girls, I chose them based on their level of practicality and the expense involved in getting the equipment needed together. For almost every single hairstyle I have found here you can do it with a rat-tail comb, hairbands, a hairbrush, bobby pins and a spray bottle. Nothing more. Although hairspray never goes amiss… and this excludes accessories like ribbons etc. All easily achieved on a budget of under £10.

Amazon sort of faded away in January I noticed, with not so many great deals hanging about. Well, they seem to have kicked February off with a bang. Here is yet another great deal for kids with the FyrFlyz assortment down from £7.99 to only £2. Nice.

• Click here to get flying with Amazon

The FyrFlyz are a revolutionary new spinning toy that puts the power to create amazing light shows into every child’s hands. The FyrFlyz are precision balanced instruments that are designed to spin on their axes and they can create continuous movement in figures of eight, Saturn Rings, Shooting Stars and more.

They can do this by swinging the connection strings and either applying tension or allowing slack. The real fun begins when the lights go out and the FyrFlyz multi-colour LED lights turn the movement into amazing light shows that kids will love. Kids can learn tricks as they go and as they improve they will come up with more and more variations. I love these!

Thanks to wishihadadonkey at HUKD!

The Drummond Park Stephen Mulhern magic kig is down from £14.99 to only £6 on Amazon. This, of course, comes with free delivery and a very tasty saving of £8.99 off the original price. This would make an ace addition to any Present Cupboard.

• Click here to get magical with Amazon

This magic set is a great way for budding magicians to learn from ITV’s Stephen Mulhern. Kids over the age of eight will have no problem reading the instructions and learning these astonishing card, coin and ball tricks.

Make cards disappear up your sleeve, astound with the self opening matchboxes, reveal sweets in a closed box and uncover the mystery of the folding note. There are enough gigs and tricks in here to make little magic monsters have hours of fun and the price is pretty near perfect too.

Even adults will have fun trying out some of these tricks I reckon and I am so nabbing this for when my daughter is the right age.

Thanks to wishihadadonkey at HUKD!

Oooh, this is a superb deal. The Vtech Kidizoom digital camera with the Cars 2 design and featuring Lightning McQueen is down from the hefty £59.99 to only £15 on Amazon. That’s a whopping saving of £44.99 and you get free delivery too.

• Click here to get digital with Amazon

Take photos and videos with all your Cars friends on this McQueen styled digital camera designed specially for kids. They can store over 500 photos and have lots of fun editing the images and adding Cars themed frames, stamps and effects.

The features of the Vtech Kidizoom camera are easy to use with the controls designed to make navigation simple for kids. There is a flash, a colour LCD screen, a zoom feature and you even have games included. The memory can be extended with a SD card and you get a carry strap and PC connectivity cables too.

The price for this Vtech Kidizoom kids digital camera is fantastic and it would make a great gift.

Thanks to pinkfrost at HUKD!

Kiddicare has marked the Quinny Senzz pushchair down from £435.00 to only £149.99 which is an astonishing saving of well over 50% and well over £200. I am gutted that I don’t need this. I feel like such a good deal needs to be bought.

• Click here to stroll on over to Kiddicare

The Quinny Senzz pushchair is bedecked in the colour they call “Flame” which I rather like – a grey, black and orange combination that’s rather gender neutral and looks pretty zesty to me. Then again I love orange so perhaps that is just me.

The Quinny Senzz set comes with a carrycot, footmuff, raincover and car seat adaptors and is suitable from six months old. IF you use it with the Maxi-Cosi Cabriofix or Pebble carseat which is not included then it can be used from birth.

The Quinny Senzz has an adjustable back rest, one hand easy folding, padded seating and a carry handle. In short it is pretty much everything you need to get your baby kit up and running.

Thanks to izzybizzy09 at HUKD!

This very pink and pretty pack of princess hooks and a heart shaped photo board is down from £12 to only £6 at Tesco. And if you don’t fancy paying delivery charges you can arrange to have it delivered instore for free collection at your leisure.

• Click here to get photographic with Tesco

The Princess Hooks and Heart Photoboard set is the perfect way to display those all important accessories. The heart photoboard allows easy presentation of pictures of friends and family, drawings, and any other essential items a girl needs.

The princess hooks make a great addition to any little princesses’ castle with pink calligraphic handwriting of the word ‘princess’ on four of the hooks which are ideal for hanging clothing, hats and accessories such as jewellery. The maximum weight these chaps can take is 5kgs and they are not suitable for kids under the age of 36 months.

The picture really doesn’t help you visualise what they are selling here but it’s basically a kit to help keep a room tidy but with lots of pink added in.

Thanks to wishihadadonkey at HUKD!

Remember Luschka’s lovely review on the delicious Baby Blooms last Friday? Well, we nabbed a PlayPennies Exclusive discount for Baby Blooms that takes a very tasty ten percent off the price. What better time to nab a gorgeous bouquet of baby goodies for someone special?

• Click here to get shopping at Baby Blooms

The Baby Blooms range costs anything from £3.95 to £55 depending on what you order and are simply a stunning way of saying “congratulations” to any new mother. Baby Blooms don’t just to bouquets of “flowers” made from baby clothes either. You can also get baby cupcakes which are too cute for words.

• Discount: 10% Off
• Valid On: Everything
• Valid Until: 29 February
• Discount Code: PYP10

The 10% discount will get you some lovely items with a neatly reduced price and will make your chosen parents utterly delighted. I love these and if I have another child I am going to send links to the site to all my friends along with a meaningful look (kidding).

Littlewoods has marked the Cerise 3-Wheel jogger kids toy down from £36 to only £10 – that’s a saving of £26 (well over half the original price) and it comes with free delivery. And yes, it is a kid’s toy so no real babies in here please!

• Click here to get some prams with Littlewoods

I am honestly taken aback at the idea of the Cerise 3-Wheel jogger costing £36 originally. Wow. That is a lot of money for a pretend pram. For only £30 more you could probably buy a real one! Anyway, £10 is far more reasonable for this bright pink three wheel jogger for little baby toys.

This doll’s pushchair has a canopy and a comfortable EVA handle grip – that description made me laugh. An EVA grip? For a child’s toy? It seems a little excessive. Anyway, there is even an under seat storage net and the handle sits at 59cm high making it ideal for kids over the age of three.

Thanks to missgem at HUKD!

If you fancy getting your kids some scooters to zoom their way to playgroup or school without spending an absolute fortune, then these are the ones for you. Available in either pink or blue, the Ozbozz Nebulus TX scooters are good quality and do what they should and only cost £7.99 at Play.com right now.

• Click here to scoot on over to Play.com

The Ozbozz Nebulus TX scooters usually cost around £10.99 but this discount, plus the free delivery, means you can get two for only a little over the price of one. Great for those of you who have lovely big families!

I have reviewed some of the Ozbozz scooters in the past and I found them very sturdy and reliable. While they are solid metal and as tough as old boots they don’t offer the same soft and elegant lines as the MicroScooters do, but they are almost 100% cheaper.

A great buy, especially with the folding down mechanism for easy storage, that can be adjusted to cope with kids over the age of five.

Thanks to Syzable at HUKD!

The Chad Valley round sandpit frame is down from £34.99 to only £13.99 which is a brilliant new price and I wish, wish, wish we had a garden so I could nab this for my offspring. The discount is well below half price for an ace sandpit.

• Click here to get sandy with Argos

The Chad Valley round sandpit frame has compartments for water or toys scattered around a central sand holding area. There are six identical sections that form the round frame and the entire kit comes with a ground and cover sheet as well.

You also get approximately 30kgs of sand to fill the pit, which is really good value for money here, and the entire sandpit is 141x18cm in size. It is brilliant for little ones to play in on hot summer days and to create all sorts of mess as they wriggle around in the sand.

This is an excellent deal for a really unusual sandpit that I rather like!

Thanks to dreamer at HUKD!

This is a brilliant freebie and one that keeps on giving. You register with the site Grow Your Own Potatoes and you can get an entire kit sent to your child’s primary school that will teach them everything they need to know about these scrummy veg.

• Click here to get your school a free potato kit with Grow Your Own Potatoes

The website is a project that teachers primary aged children all about potatoes. They learn how potatoes grow and how they fit into a balanced diet. All you need to do is register your school to receive a free potato growing kit.

The free kit includes supporting lesson plans and worksheets and kids get a chance to win ace prizes for the school. You need to register for the free potato growing kit before 03 February so get started now if you haven’t already raced on over to the site.

This seems like a really cool freebie and one that I am definitely taking part in but I do have one question, why potatoes?

Thanks to chesso at HUKD!

The baby freebies are stacking up today. I can’t believe how many of them there are at the moment. Last year it felt as if baby freebies had dried out for good. This one is brilliant for mums toilet training their tots as DryNites is offering a free sample as well as money off coupons.

• Click here to get your free sample from DryNites

DryNites gives you and your child peace of mind as they deliver the ultimate protection for a good night’s sleep. They offer a great way to help you both manage bed wetting and are a brilliant way of getting over those difficult patches without too much drama.

To get your free sample of DryNites you will need to fill in a form and answer some questions on the site. It isn’t too much of a bother but it is a bit more information that most other freebies ask for. The DryNites free sample is only open to residents of the UK and ROI.

Thanks to aishaukhan at HUKD!

Oooh, now this is a great freebie! If you go to the link below to the Nuby Facebook page you can get yourself a free Nuby soother for your little one without having to do anything more than click Like. Easy peasy.

• Click here to get your free Nuby soother

This baby freebie looks set to be a goodun. You just click Like on the Nuby Facebook page and you’ll be taken to a pic asking you to click on it to get your freebie. You will also get a code that will take 25% off your total order of all Nuby products on their website.

When you click on the image you will go to possibly the yellowest page I have ever seen and you’ll need to fill in a bunch of information that ranges from your name to your email address. It isn’t excessive or difficult so you won’t take very long at all. Then you’re done and your free Nuby soother will be on its way to you.

Thanks to tamarj at HUKD!