I know it may not feel like it right now, but soon - please, oh please - it will be summer, and if you travel on public transport or go for a walk, you'll be advised to take your water bottle with you. A few years ago in Australia I bought a Brita Water Bottle that I took everywhere with me. It was really good, so I'm pretty pleased to see these on Groupon.

• Keep hydrated with Brita

These are 600ml bottles, which fit conveniently into standard cup holders. They are dishwasher safe and are designed to remove impurities such as chlorine.

What is really good with this offer is that they come with four filter discs. You have the option to increase that to 12 or 20 though, which is great. When I brought mine back to England, I couldn't find new filters, so it was resigned to the cupboard, which is less great.

The bottles are nice and streamlined too, so they look quite nice.

Just a heads up though - you have to pay an additional £1.99 for postage.

Each year my first feature in February generally finds me feeling a bit burned out. The materialistic spend-fest that is Christmas followed by the penny pinching weeks in January when anything that's spare in the way of cash is spent snapping up the basics in the sales. Like next year's winter's coat for the children.

By the time February 1st rolls around I've pretty much had it. Sick to the back teeth with counting pennies, doing a shop that's made up entirely of economy brands, and trying to make it all last. And to top it off, it's winter. The days are short, and dark, and cold. And there's nothing nice to look forward to. When it snows it feels like Narnia. Always winter, without Christmas.

So what can you do to brighten things up a bit, and introduce a little bit of cheer into your life, without actually spending anything. Or spending very little. Just what do you do when you find yourself awash with frugal fatigue? Here's a few tips.

Personalisedsantaletter.co.uk is offering a 60% discount on letters from the man himself, through Groupon. There are different buying options with one costing £2.50 two costing £4.50 and three costing £6.

• Arrange a letter from Santa

I'm a little torn about this because it is a really good price, but at the same time, you can get gorgeous letters through the NSPCC or Diabetes UK and get a letter from Santa while supporting a charity.

These customised letters can be personalised in nine places, like the Diabetes UK ones, and you can choose from various designs and templates. The letter is accompanied by a good behaviour certificate, a photo of Santa's reindeer, and a six-page activity booklet ready for festive fun. It's very much the same as the Diabetes UK option, but supporting a charity too.

Orders need to be placed before the 14th December and will be dispatched between the 10th and the 18th of December.

Thanks to zcgby03 at HUKD

If you're after a substantial artist's easel for your child - rather than one of the cheaper, flimsy varieties - you should take a look at this one on offer from Groupon for £49.99 instead of £99.98 (I did say it was a substantial one!).

• Click HERE to take a look at the artist easel *

So, this particular artist's easel for kids is made from a robust wooden A-frame and has all the features you could possibly wish for in a kid's artist's easel.

It features a blackboard on one side, with a solid tray underneath for holding/storing all your chalks; on the other side is a dry-wipe white board with a tray underneath with three holes for holding the three paint pots, which are included.

At the very top of the A-frame sits a paper roll on a horizontal spindle, so it can be unrolled to cover either side, to allow for paper drawing or painting - there are wooden strips which hold the paper firmly in place too, so no having to try and draw whilst holding the paper flat with the other; marvellous.

You've got until the close of play today (that's 11.59pm in Groupon's world) to buy your artist's easel and get your special price Groupon voucher; then redeem it by 1 December and have it all wrapped under the Christmas tree by 24 December.

Oh, by the way, postage costs an additional £9.99 and you'll need to have your screwdriver at the ready when it arrives packed flat!

*** Competition now closed ***

This is a fantabulous competition for all your deal-mad readers out there. You get to win a £100 voucher to spend at Groupon.co.uk which you can spend whenever, and however, you wish. And when you consider exactly how well priced many of those lovely Groupon deals are, well, you could end up buying yourself a lot of lovely loot.

Groupon, as you probably know, is a site that offers fresh, hot deals on a daily basis to people living across the UK. The deals are mostly area specific, although some national deals pop up on a fairly regular basis and that are terribly tasty, and you are bound to have lots of fun deciding where to spend your £100 prize.

How To Enter:

Standing a chance to win that tasty £100 Groupon voucher is really easy. Just answer the simple question below and then follow the instructions.

Question: Name one area where you can find a Groupon deal. Find your answer here.

• Leave a comment in the thread below with answer (1 entry)
• For bonus entries to the competition:
• Subscribe to the PlayPennies daily email update (1 entry)
• Tweet a link to this contest and leave your twitter link below (1 bonus entry)

Rules:

1. Contest ends on 4th August 2012
2. Open to UK residents only
3. One type of entry per household
4. Must complete email verification when subscribing
5.  Must include a valid email address if commenting
6. Admin’s decision is final in all cases

If you're in the market for a dollhouse, or boy equivalent, then you might want to get your proverbial skates on and have a look at this Groupon deal - a KidKraft Sweet and Sunny Dollhouse or Fun Explorer Castle play set is up for grabs for £59.99 instead of, wait for it, £149.99!

• Click HERE to grab this Groupon

I never had a dolls house when I was little, probably because I never asked for one (at least I don't ever doing so), but my friend who lived a couple of doors down did and I remember being fascinated by the miniature standard lamps that actually worked.

The KidKraft Sweet and Sunny dollhouse looks enormous and, I'm sure, would be the pride and joy of any little girl's Christmas this year.  It requires some self-assembly, but comes with detailed instructions, and is made from wood and other 'sturdy materials' (whatever they may be).

It has 12 pieces of furniture, including a piano and chandelier, a moulded plastic staircase and two outdoor patio areas; dolls already living in your household who are less than 30cm tall can move in and live comfortably.

The Fun Explorer Castle is made from MDF, wood and plastic.  It measures 80cm x 66cm x 38cms, has four plastic moulded roofs and comes with a canon, drawbridge and four moulded figures to live in it.

This Groupon deal expires TONIGHT at the usual 11.59pm and you can redeem your voucher from 8pm on Thursday 17 November - you MUST redeem your voucher before 17 December.

If you're looking at either the KidKraft Sweet and Sunny Dollhouse or the Fun Explorer Castle to give as Christmas presents, you must allow two to three weeks for delivery (which is going to cost an additional £6.95) so I'd redeem your voucher as soon as you can.

Thanks to BEANZ-ON-TOAST at HUKD

If you're as bored as I am with the usual 'photos in a frame', or 'photos on canvas', then you might want to take a look at this acrylic photo print deal from Groupon.

• Click HERE to get yourself over to Groupon

I've always liked acrylic as a medium for displaying pictures - if you don't know what I mean, think of your favourite picture encased in clear 'plastic' and  mounted away from the wall using metal spacers - they have always been expensive though, and still are, so when deals like this come up it's always worth taking notice.

With this deal you can choose to have an A4 photograph presented in acrylic OR on stainless steel (which is worthy of some though too - although you need the right place to display stainless steel in, I think) with a thickness of 4mm and bevelled edges.

An A4 print, including fixings, will cost you £19.99 instead of £119.95; if you want bigger sizes then you can choose to upgrade to A3 for an additional £19.99 (normal full price, £155.94) or A2 for an additional £60 (normal full price, £191.95).

All you have to do is buy this deal through Groupon BEFORE MIDNIGHT TONIGHT (Friday 16 September) and redeem your voucher with Contemporary Acrylics before 19 October.

You'll also need to pay £9.95 for postage and allow 28 days for delivery.

By the way, if you're one of the first 100 people to redeem your voucher (which you'll be able to do from 8pm on Monday 19 September) then you'll get a 50% discount of your next purchase from Contemporary Acrylics.

Marvellous.

If you've missed the previous Groupon canvas print deals I've told you about, then here's another one for you.

• Click HERE to go over to Groupon

I'm rather fond of canvas prints; when you have a special image that you'd like to hang on the wall, sometimes a normal photo in a frame just isn't going to cut it.

I've got an enormous close-up canvas print of my dog hanging on the wall at the top of the stairs, he often lays under it with his head hanging over the top stair looking down at everyone (which has made for a great photo in itself).

Anyway, enough about my canvas pictures - here are your prices and size choices:

• £12 instead of £34.95 for a 12" x 16" personalised canvas print
• £20 instead of £69.99 for a 20" x 30" personalised canvas print

All you have to do is choose the size you'd like and pay for it, through Groupon - you have until 11.59pm tonight before you miss out again.

You'll be emailed a voucher which will activate at 6pm tomorrow (Wednesday 17 August), then you simply upload the picture you'd like to have printed and submit it; simple (you will need to pay for the postage though).

Don't worry if you can't make up your mind about which photo you'd like on canvas - or perhaps you have an event coming up, like a wedding, that you'd like to save it for - as your voucher will be valid until 17 February 2012.

So there you have it - another canvas print deal from Groupon!

While my personal jury is still out on the whole Groupon thing, this particular deal is rather good and just in time for the last few weeks of the summer holidays. Paying for entry into parks can be prohibitively expensive for most of us, so paying only half price at Thorpe Park is a total bonus.

• Click here to get some fun with Thorpe Park

The tickets for Thorpe Park usually cost around £30 per child and £40.80 per adult. That means a family of four is paying through their noses for a day of fun. This deal will drop that down to £15 per child and £20.40 per adult which is far more palatable and makes the long drive well worth it.

The tickets are sent out instantly as opposed to the usual 24 hours and are valid from today until 15 September. While there are lots of other offers like 2 for 1 going around at the moment, this is a cheap deal for those of you don’t have the standard two adults and two child family and end up paying more. Enjoy!

Thanks to sickly sweet at HUKD!

I have another Groupon deal for you today; a six months online language course in one of seven languages for £8.95, instead of £29.95.

• Click HERE to go over to Groupon

There are some people who are firmly of the belief that all people should speak English, and when they go abroad make no effort to converse with the locals in their native tongue.

However, for the rest of us more adventurous linguists here's our chance to learn a new language for less than a tennner.

My mum lives in Italy, so I quite fancy learning to speaking Italian - not only that, it's such a beautiful sounding language that anything said in it just sounds wonderful.

My cousin lives in Spain, so I quite fancy learning THAT - that way I might actually stand a chance of understanding some of what's being said around me, when I finally get myself over there to visit her!

The other languages included in your choice of seven are:

• French
• Portuguese
• Swedish
• German and
• English

All you have to do is buy this Groupon deal before 11.59pm tonight, redeem your voucher once it's active and get learning.

All you need after that is a cheap plane ticket deal, to the country of your chosen language, so you can wow the locals with your linguistic skills!

Fantastico; molto bene!

If you haven't got to grips with Groupon yet, here's your chance.

If you like hanging pictures on your wall but want something a little more contemporary than your bog standard picture in a frame, you might want to consider an Artbloc print from Photique Images.

• Click HERE to go to Groupon

For the uninitiated, here’s how it works:  you buy a deal through Groupon and you’ll pay less than you would if you didn’t.

It really doesn't get more complicated than that, but you'll have to be quick with this one as you can only buy up until 11.59pm tonight.

Once the deal closes you'll be emailed your voucher code and as of 6pm on 27 July (that's only tomorrow evening) you'll be able to beetle off to www.photiqueimages.com and place your order.

So with this Groupon deal, you'll pay £10 for a 30x40cm Artbloc print or £20 for 70x50cm size - their usual prices are £24.99 or £52.99 respectively.

There's no huge rush to place your order as your voucher won't expire until 27 September.

So you've got plenty of time to choose a photograph; or you may have an event coming up like a wedding, or a holiday perhaps, that you might want to save it for.

That’s really all there is to it – you pay £10 instead of £24.99 for a 30x40cm print or £20, instead of £52.99,  for a 70x50cm print; marvellous!

Happy Photo Choosing!

If you've been longing to sleep on a memory foam mattress but run away, in terror, because of the usual prices then this Groupon deal is for you.

• Click HERE to grab this Groupon deal

I've been sleeping on a memory foam mattress for years and it is one of my most favourite things in the whole wide world, EVER!

There's really nothing that can compare to them; they are supremely comfortable and all the claims made about them are absolutely valid.

You DO toss and turn less, your body heat IS much better regulated and if you sleep with someone who fidgets, 1) they'll fidget less and 2) you won't end up bouncing around all over the place when they get in and out of bed.  In fact, you'll barely even FEEL them get out of bed.

Just in case you're not familiar with Groupon, here's how it works:

You buy the deal through them for significantly less than you would by going direct to the retailer.

When the deal is finished - this one expires at 11.59pm TONIGHT (Friday 15 July) - you will be emailed a voucher code, which activates on Monday 18 July.

Then all you have to do is go to www.cloudsmemoryfoam.com to choose your mattress and pay the £19.99 delivery fee.

Just to remind you, this is what you're getting:

• £250 instead of £1,199 for ONE Super Deluxe Memory Foam mattress in any size from single to super king
• £450 instead of £2,398 for TWO Super Deluxe Memory Foam mattresses in any size from single to super king

Sweet dreams!

Thanks to cyclops at HUKD

Have you got your head around Groupon yet? If you haven't and have been looking at photobook albums, now's the time to grapple Groupon.

• Click HERE to go to Groupon

So here's how it works:  you buy a deal through Groupon and you'll pay less than you would if you didn't.

That's about as tricky as it gets but you have to be quick as most of them only have a 24 to 48 hour lifespan, when the clock stops ticking you've missed out.

That said, you've got a little longer to take advantage of this Photobox Groupon deal as the time doesn't run out until 11.59pm on Monday 27 June.

So with this Groupon deal, you pay £9.50 for an A4 photobook, that you create from your own photographs, from Photobox instead of £31.99.

Your book will contain up to 26 photographs, they'll be printed on 170gsm glossy paper and it will be bound in a glossy hardback cover.

At 2pm on Tuesday 28 June your voucher will become active and you'll be able to go to Photobox and start creating your book; you have up until the 29 September to do this, so there's no howling rush if you want to take your time or haven't taken the photos you might want to use, from a forthcoming wedding for example.

That's really all there is to it - you pay £9.50 for an A4 Photobox photobook that should cost you £31.99; marvellous!

Happy Photo Choosing!

There are just over two weeks left until Father's Day (19 June) and if you're really stuck for an original pressie then a personalised Bobblehead doll might solve your problem.

• Click HERE to bag a Bobblehead

Ok, the usual price for a custom Bobblehead doll is £59.99 but if you buy this Groupon voucher you'll be able to pick one up for £29.99, saving yourself £30.

I'd not come across these Bobblehead dolls before but having had a look at their website - click HERE to go there - I'm rather taken with them; they're funny and TOTALLY unique.

You choose the statue body you want, send in a photograph of the person whose head you want to adorn it and then 1minime do the rest!

They'll create a model of the head from the picture you give them and within 48 - 72 hours you'll have your very own minime - or mini-someone-else -  back at home with you.

There are lots of bodies to choose from ranging from sporty bods, hobbies, work bodies and even ones for weddings if you've got Father's Day covered already.

All you have to do is buy this £29.99 deal through Groupon BEFORE 11.59pm on Friday 3 June (that's tomorrow) - the clock is ticking.

Your voucher will activate on Monday 6 June, you won't be able to place your order before then, and is valid until 6 September; you'll have to pay for delivery which is an addition £13.90, I imagine that's to make sure your minime arrives in one piece so won't be by standard 1st Class mail via the posty!

Happy Bobblehead creating!

This particular Groupon deal is spectacular and it doesn’t matter where you live in the world, it can be yours for a mere £28 including delivery. Hello Canvas are offering you a 24x32 inch canvas print that is professionally done and can be upgraded for a fee if you wish.

• Click here to get printy with Hello Canvas and Groupon

You can use the deal to get your 24x32 inch canvas or you can upgrade it for a fee to get a larger print, or you can get multiple smaller prints. It all depends on what you feel like making and where your creative juices take you.

The frame is 1.2 inches deep, delivery is free, you can get this Groupon no matter where you live, and it will look fabulous in your chosen spot. These are a brilliant way to put those memories into big, vivid colours and it would also make an excellent Mother’s Day present too.

So take a peek at the deal, and see if there’s a gorgeous photo waiting to be made famous.

Thanks to DDTTAA at HUKD!

Right, pay attention to this one as there's lots to tell you - Groupon are offering you £30 worth of Body Shop products for £12, that's a whopping saving of 60%.

• Click HERE to grab this Body Shop Groupon

If you're new to Groupon then 1) where have you been?! and 2) here's how it works.

• You buy the Groupon voucher - in this case £12 for £30 of whatever you fancy from the Body Shop
• They send you a voucher that you hand over in your nearest Body Shop store that's taking part (there are some which aren't*)

* Body Shop stores NOT taking part: Norwich, Cambridge, Cambridge Hospital, Derriford Hospital, Hove, Horsham, Sheffield, Plymouth, Exeter, Luton and stores in Northern Ireland. Not valid online, at John Lewis concessions or in The Body Shop At Home™

You can buy Body Shop discount Groupon deal as a gift for someone else and have it emailed to them instead, or you can buy it for yourself.

Here are the 'highlights' of what you'll get for your £12.

• Includes a free £5 Love Your Body™ card, for non-members, which entitles you to further discounts, free gifts and member treats all year round
• Free gift for those spending £10 or more over Groupon value
• Valid across entire store range except gift card purchases

You only have until MIDNIGHT TONIGHT (23 February 2011) to take advantage of this Body Shop discount Groupon deal and your voucher is valid until 23 May 2011 - perhaps you could use this to buy your mum some of her favourite Body Shop products for Mother's Day (which is a little over a month away on 3 April).

It's that time of the year. The end of winter. You've had enough of the cold. You're fed up to the teeth with dark nights. And you're sick of counting the pennies. You're feeling the frugal fatigue.

The penny pinching before Christmas had a point - there was a big, one day financial blow out waiting as a nice reward at the end of it. Then came January where you lurched from coupon to special offer until payday, with all your reserves gone on the holidays and stocking up at the New Year sales.

Now it is February. You're struggling to find the enthusiasm for Valentine's, and you're sick of looking through the discount items for a bit of heart shaped tat. Why not just throw all caution to the wind, just go for it - spend, spend, spend and to heck with the consequences.

So what to do when you find yourself awash with frugal fatigue?

Automate the hard work

There's a lot of mental hard work that goes into making sure you spend as little as possible. I was a bit stunned when a friend told me that she had no idea what the price of things was, so really couldn't tell whether she could get a better deal at another shop or not.

But I do know what it is like when you're working full time, and have a limited amount of time to do the stuff you want at home like housework. Let alone fitting in time with the kids.

And a lot of physical hard work too, shopping around. You can't do it all online unfortunately. There are things that you can do to make it easier for yourself though, and semi-automate the process so you have to carry less information around in your head.

Setting up a budget helps. You can download a number of free spreadsheets from The School Run that will help you automate this. Just go to the Free Downloads section. You will need to register first.

Most supermarket websites will save your last shop and you can use this to automate your shopping list. It is in fact cheaper to do your shopping first online, to build up a shopping list that you can then just adjust each week as needed. But don't buy online. Take the shopping list into the store so you can make the most of special offers that might be available.

Have shopping list, will use it!

So you've got that shopping list set up online, then actively use it - don't just be a passive shopper. Nothing gets old faster than always using the no frills budget washing powder, toothpaste, hand soap etc. This is stuff you always need, so keep that shopping list to hand so you can buy the brands you REALLY like when they're on sale for the same price (or close to) the store band stuff.

Make it special!

So you're sick, for now, of the penny pinching lifestyle - because that's what it is, a lifestyle. Rather like dieting, there's no point in yo-yoing with your budget. You're either in it for the long haul, slowly but steadily saving your money and paying off debts/mortgage, or you're just doing it in spurts in which case, rather like fad diets make you fatter, you'll end up poorer not richer.

Perk yourself up where you can. Drink the Basics coke you bought for 17p out of the cut glass champagne flutes you were given when you got married! Dinner might be a pasta bake, but have a bit of fun by laying out the table properly and even dressing it up a bit with flowers or the good crockery.

Satisfy with small splurges

Still feeling that itch that only retail therapy can scratch? Try soothing it with some small, but immensely pleasurable, splurges. You could go for a cut-price deal on a spa treatment. Groupon often has these deals on offer, although you'll find they come with lots of restrictions and it may be hard to actually book the spa treatment. Worth trying though if you can make a weekday, off peak slot.

My favourite small splurge though is to go to our local independant bookstore and buy a new book. I know I can get it for a third less or more if I buy online. But it feels so good to browse amongst the shelves, to flick through those lush, printed pages as I make my choice.

The other way I indulge myself is to buy a small bag of freshly ground speciality coffee from our local delicatessen. I love the whole process - the warmth and smell of the shop, the friendly chatter. Watching them grind up the beans. It costs three times as much as the bog standard stuff from the supermarket, but it tastes so so so very much nicer. I have a special coffee break every other day, and it lasts a while. It almost feels like my birthday when I can combine it with my new book, and a slice of freshly baked banana bread.

So what do you do? When it all gets too much and you just want a break from the coupon clipping and bargain hunting, how do you unwind? Or have you spectacularly fallen off the budget wagon due to frugal fatigue and have some cautionary tales of warning to tell us? Please share your experiences here!

Personalised calendars are a wonderful way to remember your favourite memories every day of the year. For far off family and friends, they're also a very touching gift to start the new year with. Photobox and Groupon currently have a voucher which brings the cost of your calendar down to £6.50 – 68% off the original price.

• Click here to get organised with Photobox and Groupon

So the way it works is that you have to buy a £20 voucher from Groupon for £6.50 at the link above.

You can buy this voucher until midnight tomorrow, 27 December 2010. The voucher will then be emailed to you after the deal ends and you will have two months until the 28^th of February 2011 to use the voucher before it expires.

Photobox calenders are great. You can add individual pictures to each month's page, or collages of pictures. You can also add small pictures to individual days such as birthdays, anniversaries, or just important to remember days.

So whether your calendar is of your bone china collection,favourite scenes from your travels, or family snaps, there's no limit to the creativity and options for your calender.

There's only one voucher per person, but you can buy multiples if you want to share the love.

If you've ever fancied having a go at printing and framing your own canvas prints, now you can and for £5 instead of £20 - that's a 75% discount for the mathematically minded among you.

• Click HERE to buy this cool canvas deal

There are three stages to this process, and they are really very simple.

ONE

Click the link above and pay £5 instead of £20 (through Groupon) for a you-frame.com do-it-yourself canvas print kit, and you will be emailed your personal purchase code that you can use from tomorrow (Tuesday 21 December 2010)

TWO

From 2pm onwards on Tuesday 21 December you have two months, before your code expires, to go to you-frame.com, create an account, add a do-it-yourself canvas print kit to your basket and enter the codes you were sent from Groupon (you'll have to pay for delivery, which is £3.95).

THREE

When your do-it-yourself canvas printing kit arrives, from you-frame.com, follow all the instructions - there are video tutorials on their site too - and you'll be able to print three of your own canvasses using your ordinary inkjet printer, and frame them to!

I think this would make a lovely pressie for kids who like to get involved and be a bit more hands on with their art work, or for yourself if you like this sort of thing too.

This deal is time sensitive - you have until MIDNIGHT TONIGHT to pay £5 instead of £20 for a do-it-yourself canvas print kit from you-frame.com

Everyone needs a little 'me time', and every relationship – love or friendship – needs a little 'us time' every now and then. Unfortunately in the world of especially the new parent, that's an MOT that falls far down the list sometimes, yet is essential to keep everything running smoothly. Hopefully this dinner and movie deal from Groupon for just £11.00 will help you rev those engines.

• Race on over to Groupon to catch this deal while it's live

Okay, that's the end of the trusty vehicle analogies, I promise!

This is a deal especially for the London-based readers, or for those who want an affordable night out in the Big Smog.

The offer includes a movie at the Watermans cinema in Brentford (across the river from Kew Gardens). Watermans is a community arts centre that has been providing both independent cinematic experience and blockbusters for 25 years.

Of course, a good night out should really include a dinner, so this offer includes a choice of three curries from the waterfront Guru Tandoori Restaurant, as well as a glass of wine, beer or a soft drink.

One voucher is valid for two people, and you can buy as many vouchers as you like, since they are valid for six month, seven days a week.

So, call in a few favours, or swap childcare with friends, and that's date night sorted for a few weeks!

P.S. You'll have to sign up to buy this voucher, but you don't have to receive the newsletters, and they regularly have pretty great offers, so it's worth it!

Thanks to amibees at HUKD