Marks and Spencer have 20% off school uniforms ending this weekend, reducing some items to as little as £1.60.

• Gear up for the rest of the school year with 20% off

The cost of school uniforms can really mount up over the course of a year, especially if you have a child prone to losing things and kicking off shoes – or wearing through shoes in no time. Of course, there’s the inevitable growth spurt moments after you’ve rekitted the whole lot. Fun times. And expensive.

Marks & Spencer are offering girls school dresses from £8.00 (with a 20% discount applied at checkout, making the dresses start at £6.40) and shoes from only £2.50 – although these aren’t included in the offer.

Sportswear for boys starts at £2.40 , up to £4.80 for football shorts.

There’s free delivery to your local store for all these bits and pieces, and free delivery on orders over £30. Otherwise delivery will cost you £3.50 and takes around 5 days… not counting Sundays. Unwanted local school uniform items can be returned for exchange or full refund provided they are returned within 35 days of purchase with a valid receipt or parcel summary document.

Thanks to andywedge at HUKD

Use this Marks & Spencer promotional code to get £5 off your order when you spend £35 or more on womenswear, menswear, kidswear, lingerie or homeware. The offer can only be used once per customer, and not in conjunction with any other offer that requires a code, apart from free next day delivery. I had discounted items in my shopping bag and it worked just fine.

Click here to use your M&S promotional code

• Discount: £5
• Minimum spend: £35
• Applies to: womenswear, menswear, kidswear, lingerie or homeware
• Promotional code: JANSAVE5
• Expires: 28th January 2012

To use this code you need to go through checkout. There  are two opportunities to enter a promotional code before you confirm your order. Once entered it will appear automatically on your order if it is accepted.

It can be easy to do a big shop at Marks & Spencer. I like the quality and affordability of their clothes. In my shopping bag to test this code I had a a range of thermal underwear, all in the 25% off sale.

The whole lot came to £49.50, with £3.50 for postage. The offer took £5 off that and the discounts took another £12.38. Plus there's free delivery on the site for orders over £30, so the £3.50 was deducted as well.

Thanks to paperclip810 at HUKD!

Use this Marks & Spencer promotional code to get £10 off your order when you spend £70 or more on clothing, lingerie and accessories. The offer can only be used once per customer, and not in conjunction with any other offer that requires a code, apart from free next day delivery. I had discounted items in my shopping bag and it worked just fine.

Click here to use your M&S promotional code

• Discount: £10
• Minimum spend: £70
• Applies to: clothing, lingerie, accessories
• Promotional code: DMPARTY7
• Expires: 26th October 2011

To use this code you need to go through checkout. There  are two opportunities to enter a promotional code before you confirm your order. Once entered it will appear automatically on your order if it is accepted.

It can be easy to do a big shop at Marks & Spencer. I like the quality and affordability of their clothes. In my shopping bag to test this code I had a geometric top (in the 20% off sale), a pair of shapers knickers (well you have to use some help once you've had a pregnancy or two), a child's coat (also on offer - 20% off), a child's thermal top and bottom set, and finally a little silver plated handbag keyring.

The whole lot came to £82.50, with £3.50 for postage. The two 20% offers took another £12.65 off that, and finally this code took it down by £10 to £63.35 including delivery. I think a saving of £22.65 overall is pretty good myself.

Thanks to Arriaga at HUKD!

Use this Marks & Spencer promotional code to get 15% off your order. Although it says that it can't be used with any other offers, I tried it out on a coat reduced in the 20% sale and it took another 15% off.

Click here to use your M&S promotional code

• Discount: 15%
• Promotional code: 15OFFMNS
• Expires: 20th October 2011

To use this code you need to go through checkout. There  are two opportunities to enter a promotional code before you confirm your order. Once entered it will appear automatically on your order if it is accepted.

I tested the coat out on this gorgeous little girl's Autograph Heart Patchwork duffle coat with wool. This had been reduced in the 20% off coats sale from £32 to £25.60. The code took another £4.80 off, and with the delivery of £3.50 the entire total came to £24.30. Not bad especially if you need to buy coats for more than one child.

Thanks to Djmetsandy at HUKD!

Use this M&S promotional code to get £5 off your order when you spend £25 or more. It can only be used on items in the Further Reductions Sale. Which is a fabulous sale. I have bought items in this sale reduced down to a third of their original price. You will have to be fast with this though, I can't see there being anything left on this site by tomorrow.

Click here to use your M&S promotional code

• Discount: £5
• Minimum spend: £25
• Applies to: Kidswear Sale
• Promotional code: KIDSSAVE
• Expires: 24th July 2011

To use this code you need to go through checkout. There  are two opportunities to enter a promotional code before you confirm your order. Once entered it will appear automatically on your order if it is accepted.

I first tried it out with a mix of sale and full price school items. But it didn't work. I was told that my order did not meet the promotion criteria. Just in case it was the schoolwear, I also tried it with a mix of sale and full price kidswear, but got the same result.

The code only worked on the Further Reductions sale items. There's some amazing savings here. I stocked up a bit, buying two t-shirts for example. Well at £2 for a Marks & Spencer t-shirt it seemed to make sense.

The Further Reductions sale ends on Sunday.

Thanks to Daytona955 at HUKD!

This deal is good for today only. Marks & Spencer has this Radio Controlled Helicopter - Gyro Flyer - on 50% discount. When you go to the site it will say £29.50, but at checkout this will be reduced to £14.75.

• Click here to get flying with M&S

You can't use this in conjunction with any other offers, and it is subject to availability. When I tested it though there were more than 30 helicopters available.

The website claims that this is the "easiest-to-fly RC helicopter available anywhere right now." Well, I've tried flying these sorts of remote controlled devices before, and they are pretty damn tricky. However, I can imagine that most older boys, and lots of grown ups too, would be pretty pleased to find this gift in their birthday present or Christmas pile.

That it is easy to fly, apparantly, is down to the "addition of gyroscope to a metal alloy helicopter and the legendary thumbs up three channel control system". I have to quote directly from the website here because frankly this all means diddly squat to me!

Thanks to Jackofheartz at HUKD!

Use this Marks and Spencer promotional code to get £1 off personalised cards. Very handy with Father's Day fast approaching.

Click here to use your Marks and Spencer promotional code

• Discount: £1
• Applies to: Personalised cards
• Promotional code: NO1DAD
• Expires: 15th June 2011

To use this code, you'll first need to create your card. Then go through checkout. You will have to either log in or register on the site. Then when you get to the last page of checkout, enter it in the Voucher Code box and hit the Validate button.

You'll see the price of the card immediately reduce by £1. I tried it out on a standard sized Father's Day card. This cost £1.99 and delivery to my UK mainland address was 49p. Once the discount was applied, the total for the card came to ££2.48.

Which isn't a bad price really considering I got both his dad and my son's photographs on the front of the card. I didn't fill in the inside of the card though, I think that's always nicer to have handwritten. However, there was the option to write three messages, one on the inside flap, and two more on the main side of the card where you'd normally write the To and From bits.

Thanks to grumpygrim at HUKD!

It is Mothering Sunday, increasingly referred to as Mother's Day, on the 3rd of April in the UK. Which is roughly just over three weeks away. So you've got plenty of time to get prepared. But if you're wanting to snap up any bargain gifts, now is the time to go shopping.

Here I've drawn on the collective expertise of the PlayPennies' parents to gather together some fabulous ideas for Mother's Day gifts, priced at a fiver or less.

1 Card And Gift

This is really cute. I love it. The Mother's Day Ask Your Dad Door Hanger Card is a Mother's Day card and a gift all in one. And a gift you can use all year round. On the outside it tells the kids to go find Dad (I am paraphrasing just a tad) and on the inside it says 'have a relaxing day'.

The Ask your dad door hanger card is sold by Marks & Spencer and can be bought for the princely sum of £2.25.

Over at the PaperChase, they have the perfect get-out-of-buying-a-present-altogether card. It's the No Gift Card. But it is better than it sounds. The card actually says 'No Gift To My Mother Can Equal The Gift She Gave Me'. Awww how sweet is that?

2 Chocolate

Thornton's chocolates. Delicious. This little package of I Love Mum Cups simply says I Love Mum. They're milk chocolate truffle cups. The pack contains five chocolates. It costs £2.99.

Something simple, sweet and unfussy. Try this chocolate bar from John Lewis. It is the Ambassadors of London 'Happy Mother's Day' Chocolate bar for £4.

Or you could add that personal touch. At Not On The High Street they're selling personalised Best Mum chocolate bars. You can choose from milk or dark chocolate, and add a message to the back of the bar. The site also sells Yummy Mummy chocolate bars (£4.45) and Thanks So Much bars (£4.95).

3 Smellies

In my book it is hard to go wrong with something that smells lovely. Bubbles, salts, soaps. Anything for the bath is good. One of my favourite brands, Lush, sells this lovely A Ring Of Roses soap, which sells for £3.45 per 100g.

According to the website "A Ring of Roses smells of sweet oranges and lemons, as well as genuine Turkish rose absolute. This skin softening, soothing body soap has the same fragrance as Amandopondo, but surrounded in an infusion of larkspur, honeysuckle, marigold and cornflowers, it smells completely different. Use it when you need calm for your skin and your mind."

When I looked on The Body Shop website, I was surprised not to find any specific Mother's Day items. Maybe it is too early? But regardless, there's this little gift set, which is cheaper and more practical than buying actual roses. The Moroccan Rose Small Gift Box (£5) contains a Moroccan Rose Bath & Shower Gel (60 ml), a Moroccan Rose Body Butter (50 ml) and a Bath Lily.

Here's something a little more unusual. Whittard, the tea people, sell Fleur Bathtub Tea (£3.50). This is not actually tea you drink though. It is a soothing and calming infusion for your bath, which you soak in.

According to the Whittard website "four jumbo teabags filled with a calming blend of herbal teas and blossoms, scented with lemon balm and lavender. Sit back and relax with the calming scent of lavender."

4 Practical But Different

You really have to know your recipient before buying something like this. But I think it would be PERFECT for my mother in law. She's the type of person who can pull a mini-screwdriver set out of her handbag at a moment's notice.

I think she'd love this. Actually, so would I. It is really gorgeous. The Kirstie Allsop, she of Location Location Location fame, Mini Measuring Tape, available at Marks & Spencer, is £4. It has a floral design, or vintage chic as it says on the website. The Kirstie Allsop Mini Measuring Tape has a button to hold and release the tape. The site doesn't say how long the tape measure is, which is a bit of an oversight I think. But one of the reviewers on the website said it was quite long. Another said that it was really handy for measuring about the house.

5. Photo Gifts

There's two advantages of photo gifts over other types of presents for mum. First, they're personal. You can make them about you and the family, and that's always a good thing. Second, you can get creative and make the gifts together.

At Snapfish, photo posters start from £3.99. We published a half price and free delivery promotional code for posters from Snapfish as well. To use this click here.

The Kodak Gallery has 20% off all photo books at the moment, but sadly that doesn't put any of them at the sub £5 mark. And at Photobox you get £5 off when you spend £20. Which, although it involves a fiver doesn't technically fit the specfications of this feature.

Photobox do photo fridge magnets for £4.10. I'm not sure exactly what you get for that price though. On the website it says that you can "go for a 6”x4” print presented in a magnetic photo frame, or two mini frames each holding a 3”x2” photo of the same image." But to look into it further you have to upload photos and so forth, so I didn't investigate. Would be well worth checking out though. You could do a fridge magnet for each member of the family.

This offer will give you 25% off toys and games at Marks and Spencer. I've looked through the site and the terms and conditions, and can't find an expiry. On the website it simply says 'Offer of the Week', so I presume it will run through Saturday at least!

Click here to get 25% off M&S toys and games

• Discount: 25%
• Applies to: toys and games
• Expiry: not known

This isn't a voucher code offer as such - the 25% discount is applied on the website. You don't need to enter a code. But it was too good an offer to miss out on! There's also 25% off books.

There are some exclusions unfortunately. It doesn't apply to T40 Top Gear, Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Meccano, Revell and T86 dress up.

I love the Flitter Fairies, which are featured on the site this week. These connect to their human 'friend' via an enchanted hair clip. Lovely! There's 25% off the Dinosaur pincher with sound, which is normally priced at £8. Which is great, but the Natural History Museum also sell the same toy but without sound for £4. As the parent, I always do prefer the toy without the annoying sound, never mind it being cheaper!

Thanks to sneaksdeals at HUKD!

People who know me reasonably well know I’m not a big fan of pushing pre-schoolers onto computers. That said, there is definitely a role for electronics when it comes to helping make learning fun. My best mate’s son has had a few electronic learning toys. The one that she swears is the best is the Leapfrog Leapster console. In fact, he’s now six and it is still a favourite toy. Normally this console is priced around the £35 to £40 mark. But over at HUKD, mum2littleangels has found one for just under £20.

• Leap into store for a console @ Marks & Spencer

The console is also on the M&S website for the same amount. However, at the time we checked it was sold out. This might be the case instore too, but at this price, it is well worth looking out for. The Leapster2 is suitable for children aged 4+. It comes with two pre-loaded games, and there are 15 other learning games available.

M&S are having another sale and it all started today. Although it seems like they’re having a sale every other day, it’s definitely worth ambling on over to the site to take a look. The sale is available both online and instore so you may find different bargains depending on where you look.

• Click here to poke around the M&S sale

So, let’s take a look under the hood of this sale shall we? You’ll uncover lots of lovely lingerie as well as basic essentials with many knickers and socks marked down to as little as £1. Definitely a good time to sort out your lingerie drawer and get rid of those old saggy ones you can’t bear to part with.

You’ll also find baby items like booties and mittens (some down to as little as £2), adult and children’s vests, jewellery, children’s clothes, slippers, stockings, shoes and PJs. Most of the sale prices are sitting around the £2 and £5 mark so you can get quite a bit of stuff for greatly reduced prices.

Thanks to oopslala at HUKD!

Easter is almost upon us and the chocolate eggies are flying off the shelves. This weekend is not for the dieter. It is time to bake and make and eat and lounge about on the sofa watching awesome movies. So these butterfly cookie cutters are a complete winner for our theme for April – Crafty Parents.

• Click here to fly on over to M&S

Yep, in April we’re going to be looking at fabulous products and ideas for you to enjoy over the Easter holidays. Things that will keep little hands and minds occupied so that boredom is not a common complaint.

So, one activity that always wins brownie points is baking. Kids love smooshing stuff, licking the bowl, making crazy shapes and getting high on the sugar of the finished product. These adorable butterfly shaped cookie cutters are just what the Easter bunny ordered.

The set is only £1.50 for three different cutters in different sizes and you can add some great books like Bake with Kids or Cook with Kids to your basket so you’re not short of ideas.

Thanks to JMANDE at HUKD!

I adore Marks and Spencer clothing, I know it isn’t everybody’s cup of tea but I have the ability to lost hours browsing through their clothes. There baby clothes especially. So, for those of you that are looking to stock up on cute and quality baby clothes, this £2 deal should make you smile.

• Click here to check out the deal at M&S

I would recommend that you arrange to collect this item instore as it is probably going to cost you more to have it posted. However, if you are planning on ambling through the rest of their sale items (oh, yes, there is a big sale on) then perhaps it will be worth your while.

The shirt itself is really cute. It is pure cotton with long sleeves and has a little tiger on the front. Matching coloured stripes mark the neckline and hemline making it just adorable. Currently it is only available in sizes from one month to nine months so hurry!

Thanks to andywedge at HUKD!

Ah yes, now this is what I’m talking about! Watch January go out with a bang as the big stores try to outdo one another with massive sales. Marks and Spencer are holding a six day even from today until 26^th Jan with 50 percent off all furniture including free delivery. 

• Click here to settle into this deal at Marks and Spencer  

I know that M&S aren’t exactly bargain furniture to begin with so some of these prices are akin to Was £1million, Now only £500k. Still, I did discover some nice pieces in an affordable range. A stunning antique brass and glass coffee table for only £279, down from £349 is one such deal. 

Another lovely set was the Aveley two seater sofa down to £399 and with a choice of five different fabrics. Some were quite nice, others were slightly terrifying.  You’ll find footstools, dining tables, chairs, sofas, coffee tables, media units and soft furnishings included in the sale. 

To be honest, as I explored the site I did discover that some items were only down by 20 percent or 30 percent so make sure you keep your eye on that as you shop. 

Thanks to ellie71 at HUKD!