Playpennies

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.

Once you've got kids, things like Valentine's Day don't have quite the same sort of romantic resonance they used to. You, your partner, plus 2.4 kids and a dog don't quite make for the same luxurious love-fest you might once have enjoyed.

But the kids are only around for a little while, and you can inject some of your own romantic fun in there too. But it is also a good chance to have a bit of family fun too.

And making a big, fun, extra-ordinary breakfast is a good way of keeping the kids occupied too. I don't know how you do it, but in our house we decided to alternate Valentine's Day and our anniversary. So one of us gets spoiled with a sleep in, breakfast in bed, and some quiet time with the kids rushed out of the house if the day falls on a weekend. Or the school run covered if it is a week day.

And of course we have our special Valentine's Day breakfast. If you do this too, I have just one word of advice. Make sure that you include a cleaning up and washing up clause in your agreement, so you don't come downstairs all rested and relaxed to a wreck of a kitchen!

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Lynley’s feature on how to create utterly awesome Valentine’s Day cards got me thinking. I am not a fan of the day either but I do like the idea of using it to do something creative and fun without spending money on cheesy cards or sparkly rubbish. So I decided to find some brilliantly unusual ideas that could make great Valentines gifts as well as translate into other presents for birthdays or Easter or Mother’s Day.

I loathe enforced holidays. Like New Year's. I hate that you're told you have to party. I'd much prefer to party because I feel like it, not because I am told to.

It is the same with Valentine's Day. Why all this emphasis on just that one day? Having said that of course, there's something really quite sweet about exchanging cards and telling people that you love them.

If you want to avoid the whole commercialism of it all, then make your own card. It also means something a little bit more, or at least that's what I think anyway. I've look around the internet and been amazed at some of the truly beautiful ideas that people come up with.

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It is January. You probably already noticed that. Hard to miss it when all the telltale signs are there. Grey skies, dark afternoons and empty bank accounts. Another clue is all the signs up announcing January sales. Although that's not quite as much an indicator as it used to be. Nowadays, the January sales seem to start in December.

However, here we are coming into the tail end of the sales, and anything that is left is going to go bargain basement. Also, there are stores that do GASP start their sales in January, and others that refresh the stock in the sale section each week. Here's a roundup of the big retailers of baby stuff who are still running sales. Boots, for example, have finished their sales so we've not included them here. Likewise, JoJo Maman Bebe still has its sale section, but the winter sale with up to 75% off seems to be finished now.

The same with the Mothercare Clearance shop, although the usual reductions you'll find year round are in there so it is still worth having a look. Such as the 50% Off Top Products section.

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You are going to hate me, I just know it, but it is less than a month until Valentine’s Day. So before you start throwing roses at me, this is a good time to start planning what you are going to do about it. Unless you don’t believe in it, at which point, “Move on, nothing to see here…”

I went out to find brilliant ideas for you to make this day of hearts and flowers really special, without spending a lot of money and here they are…

Feeling the burn after Christmas and staring at the next few months with an empty wallet? Yeah. January can be really depressing with the cold and the money problems. Although this year it is apparently spring in January so that’s one thing sorted! In an attempt to reassess and redefine my relationship with money I drew up a list of 20 ways to save money this year. Here it is. Feel free to add your own ideas and comments at the end, the more the merrier!

Two days back at school and 2012 was starting the way it will probably go on. With a letter advising of a case of head lice, aka nits, in my son's class.

One of my friends is a primary school teacher at a middle sized school (two classes in each year). She reckons that there's a class sending out one of those letters every week.

So nits are something that, if you've got young primary school children, you're going to have to deal with. On the plus side, it does get less of a problem as they get older and aren't so prone to putting their heads together.

After a discussion with other parents, many of whom admitted they had no idea how to deal with nits at all, I decided to go online and research this myself. Unfortunately, thanks to a bad outbreak in my son's nursery when he was 2, I have some experience as well.

One thing though talking to the other mums was how few of us had had nits as children. None of us in fact. Maybe there is a case for bringing back the nit nurses after all? Surely there's a way that this can be done without stigmatising children?

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I recently read an article in the Economist that talked about how recent research has shown that people value things they make far more than they do shop-bought tat. The research was fascinating. They cited the case of instant cake mixes. When these were first launched the sales were dismal. Why? Because people didn’t feel like the cakes gave them any value, that they hadn’t really earned anything by making them.

So, what did the cake mix companies do? They changed the recipe to “add an egg” and the cake mixes flew off the shelves. While the article goes into far more detail on the where’s and why’s of how we value things we do and make ourselves, I have just stolen one simple idea – don’t spend this year, save and make it yourself.

Here are some ideas that I’ve come up with, that I’ve gleaned from other smart and sassy parents, and that I’ve uncovered with judicious research.

Here we are, the second day of the new year. Perhaps you're thinking of working off all that food you ate over the holidays. Or maybe you're thinking of getting fit this year. I always think about that one. With emphasis on the word 'think'.

But it is also a time to take stock, now that the hustle and haste of the Christmas holiday is over. No more rushing about buying gifts or snapping up bargains to last you the year in the sales. My next door neighbour has bought all the presents she might need for birthdays and so forth already. Now there's a woman who's far more prepared than I am.

What if you impulse bought something you shouldn't have? Or you got an unwanted gift? Or maybe you bought or were given something that was faulty? What exactly are your rights? Read on to find out.

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So, how was your Christmas Day? Was it stunning? I really hope so. It has been a really busy and interesting year so far and, with only a few days left until 2012, I wish you the loveliest week ever. Ok, that’s the nice bit done, now I am going to come over all mercenary again by talking about unwanted Christmas gifts.

While we all appreciate the sentiment behind our Christmas gifts, sometimes the giver just gets it completely wrong. This isn’t their fault really (unless they are an angry sibling who sent you coal on purpose) so we all smile and say thank you. But space is always at a premium at home and we don’t want a cupboard full of weird Christmas items taking up valuable storage.

So, here are some great ideas on how you can get rid of your unwanted Christmas gifts and clear out that dodgy cupboard.

It is Monday, the 26th of December. Boxing Day. And that means only one thing. The sales have started!

Brave the thronging crowds as you're jostled every which way, standing in long queues and trying to figure out what is left on jumbled shelves and racks? Not on your nelly. I have far too many traumatic childhood memories of shops on this day of the year for that. My mum's family believed in getting all the crackers, cards and wrapping paper for next year's Christmas on Boxing day.

I'm shuddering just thinking of it.

Thank goodness for the internet. Seriously. I'm sitting here kissing my screen right at this moment. I can do all my shopping sat at the dining table with a tin of Quality Street on one side and a big pop of freshly brewed coffee on the other. From the smells and sizzles wafting out of the kitchen my husband is making bacon sandwiches for lunch. Who would want to leave this?

According to the internet trade body IMRG, we were going to spend £550 million on Christmas Day and Boxing Day online this year. It will be interesting to see if reality meets the expectations. Apparently many stores started their sales early online, on Christmas Eve, taking advantage of the lack of opening hours on the internet.

Our sister site, HUKD, has a brilliant Boxing Day Dashboard, where you can see all the latest and best deals available at a glance. Be quick though, they won't last long!

Read on to find out about some of the sales you won't want to miss, all of which are either just starting today or with newly added items/stock. The focus is on treats for mum, and for dad too. I'm betting that the chances are, you don't tend to buy nice things for yourself. Well in the sales, you can do just that, guilt free.

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You may think I’m being a tad mercenary here telling you to get yourself ready for the January sales when Christmas hasn’t even arrived yet. But, let me tell you, the sales are looking set to start on Christmas Day this year and if you aren’t ready and waiting, you could lose out on that awesome deal on that stunning coat you’ve been drooling over for months.

Want to do a little something different for your Christmas dinner? I've not got a big budget to spend on Christmas this year, and it feels a bit mean to give a small inexpensive present. But one way to make the gift special is to turn it into a home made cracker. That's what I've decided to do. Partly to be able to give all my guests a little something, but also because this year we have a new dining table. So I've decided to dress my dinner table for a change. It is possible I've been spending a bit too much time on Kirstie Alsopp's website though.

It also occurred to me that home made crackers would make a brilliant gift for my son to give to his teachers. I really must remember that for next year!

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The rampant consumerism at this time of the year can really get you down. Well it gets me down at any rate. I've been looking increasingly over the last few years at alternatives that aren't going to cost the Earth, literally.

Wrapping paper is one key item that I resent spending money on. OK, so it isn't exactly a huge expense. You can pick up a couple of cheap rolls of paper for less than a quid. It will be really thin, mind, and rip easily. But still it is fairly cheap, especially when you consider it is simply going to get ripped right off.

But it is all such a waste. Then there are the Christmas cards. And decorations.

So what else can you do? Here's some ideas, a few of which you and the kids can have fun doing together if you like. It also teaches them about recycling, and ways they can make good use of everything.

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We here at PlayPennies HQ spend our days hunting for deals, bargains, PlayPennies exclusives and reviews so that you can make informed (and cheap!) buying decisions. So I decided to find out exactly how Luschka, Lynley, Emma, Sarah and I saved money this Christmas.

My first victim was Lynley. I asked her what she’d bought this Christmas for her family thanks to PlayPennies deals she’d seen and whether or not she thought she’d saved any money. Her response was instantaneous, “I’ve bought stacks of stuff, to be honest. So much, in fact, that I can’t even remember all of it.”

As you know, I dove into the murky waters of Christmas cake making a month back and have been feeding no less than six Christmas cakes ever since. Yes, six. Everybody wanted one. I did try to explain that I had never made them before and that they were high risk but nobody seemed to mind.

So, after patiently feeding my cakes for four weeks it was time to wrap them in marzipan and icing and make them look fabulous. However, this task really worried me because I am not very good at that sort of thing and often the instructions on websites don’t really tell you everything you need to know. And they didn’t…

First off, nab some readymade icing from your nearest retail store. You can make your own, of course, but I honestly don’t have the time or inclination for such a sticky endeavour. For those of you that really, really want to make your own icing this is a great recipe right here.

You’ll also need some marzipan, a rolling pin, apricot jam, baking paper, icing sugar, a knife, a pastry brush, and some coloured icing or decorations. And some brandy.

Looking for something techy or gadgety for Christmas this year? Well I am at any rate. And I'm not talking about just the kids here but the whole family. Oh yes, isn't it about time we looked at some toys for mums and dads too?

There's something about flashy lights, and whizzy graphics, and things that go 'ting'. Or apps. Now apps are great although you can't wrap them and put them under the tree. At least it is one less bit of clutter to have around the house!

Here's a selection of some of the top tech Christmas presents to inspire you. I've looked for hot and trending toys or gadgets for all the family, from mum and dad, through teens to tots.

Also, I've not included toys that we've covered a bit here on PlayPennies, like the Fijit Friends. Or tablet PC toys, the Leapfrog LeapPad Explorer and the vTech Innotab. Personally I'm not sold on them, the tablet PC toys I mean. It sounds like the Innotab runs through batteries fairly quickly. But they definitely sound better than some of those toy laptops I've tried in the past that have just dreadful screens!

I can’t believe I am about to say this…It’s only two weeks to Christmas (give or take a day or two) and the time to place online orders or post Christmas cards is here. If you don’t get those items in the post, then the could very well be lurking in the cold depths of a post office come Christmas Day. To help us all in the fight for the perfect Christmas, I’ve gone out to find the Christmas posting deadlines so you can get everything done in time.

I did a Santa box last year, instead of a stocking or Santa sack, but the principle is the same. This was a sturdy, silver covered present box that I'd bought at WH Smiths, I think. Inside it was filled with all his stocking filler presents, individually wrapped. The advantage of the box (and why I thought of it) was that all the little bits could be popped back in there to keep from getting lost in the unwrapping frenzy.

Last year on PlayPennies we talked about the amount of money we would spend on the stocking fillers. Most people seemed to have a budget of around £20, and felt they were good at sticking to this. The cannier spenders made the money go as far as possible by snapping up bargains.

So here's the top ten hottest toys for children, and by hottest I mean cheapest, that are still in stock. I trawled through the pages of bargains that are posted on our sister site HUKD to find these for you. Read on for cheap stocking filler ideas.

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