Argos are selling this Ben 10 patio set for £17.99 rather than its usual £39.99.

• Click HERE to take a look at the Ben 10 patio set

I know that kids love to have their own furniture, especially if it features their favourite (for this week anyway) character, but I do think £39.99 is a bit steep and would be unlikely to shell out that kind of cash for something that, in all likelihood, is only going to be used for one or two summers.  However, £17.99?  Well that's much more like it.

This little Ben 10 patio set features a round table with two folding chairs and a Ben 10 parasol to shade youngsters from the sun, as they happily sip lemonade through straws and marvel at the AMAZING summer weather we're having.

Okay, so it'll be us grown-ups doing the sipping of lemonade whilst commenting on the weather, the kids will probably be running riot.

I've checked various postcodes of friends and family addresses - they're all pretty evenly spread around the country - and stock levels are looking good across the board; you need to know this because the Ben 10 patio set if currently out of stock for home delivery (look at it as saving yourself the £5.95 home delivery charge!).

By the way, the legs of the Ben 10 patio set table unscrew, which will make it much more compact to store when summer is done and dusted for another year.

It's looking like it could be a good one - do you remember 2003? That was an epic summer and started off with the same weather we're having now - keep your fingers crossed!

Thanks to clairepinkprincess at HUKD 

I know it is the end of summer and there's snow forecast for this winter. But now is really the best time to be thinking about grabbing some bargains for next year. Tesco has this the Children's Garden Bench FSC for sale, marked down from £52.50 to £17.50. Don't ask me why it is called a Garden Bench when clearly it is a picnic table. That's a question only Tesco can answer!

• Click here for your picnic table at Tesco

My best mate got a children's picnic bench this year and the kids ate nearly all their meals at it, not to mention using it for play. OK so they do live in France but still, it seemed like a really attractive bit of garden furniture to me.

Particularly if you've got, for example, a covered patio. Because it's weatherproof, you can keep the table out there all the time. And then when the weather's warm enough, the kids can simply pop outside to eat or do drawing. But there's advantages to outdoor furniture when the weather gets colder too. As long as they're wrapped up warm enough, kids don't really care how cold it is outside.

This garden bench is good size for kids, so your little ones can, according to the website, "enjoy the sunshine in comfort". It measures 75cm high and 85cm wide. It has a durable wood frame that is fully waterproof and (again this is the website's words) pleasantly comfortable. The children’s garden bench is well suited for eating outdoors, colouring, and playing.

Thanks to shadow1 at HUKD!

If you're prefer a less formal style of garden furniture then this outdoor large slouch beanbag could be just the thing for you; B&Q are now selling them for £10 instead of the original £40.

• Click HERE to slouch over to B&Q

Actually, I wouldn't slouch, I'd get over there pretty sharpish if I were you as large garden beanbags tend to zoom off the shelves pretty quickly.

Kids love them and when you just feel in the mood for slobbing in the garden, rather than sitting nicely in a chair, they're pretty awesome.

If you click and reserve online you don't get to choose your colour, but if you go in-store to buy then you can choose from blue, red or orange.

The fabric is waterproof and wipe clean; there's a carry handle for easy dragging and it could also be used indoors - think uni' student digs or your first ever flat where you're too sensible to go for a 'buy now, we'll rob you later and you'll be paying us back for the rest of your life' DFS three-piece suite deal!

Size-wise, it's 95cm in height, 21cm wide and 33cm deep.

Thanks to choch1969 and shaunmeadows at HUKD

Sainsbury's have massively reduced the price of this Santa Fe Bistro patio set (in orange) - it was originally £49.99 but is now a mere £14.99.

• Click HERE to go over to Sainsburys

If you haven't got any outdoor furniture and just need something small, rather than a huge outdoor dining suite that will seat eight people, then this could be just what you're looking for.

The Santa Fe Bistro patio set comprises of just a table and two chairs.

The table has a tempered glass top, so it's nice and strong, and the two chairs have steel tubular frames with bright orange texteline seats and backs.

Texteline is uv-proof so you can rest safe in the knowledge that the bright orange colour (which is VERY this season) won't fade away into some sort of off-peach shade within a few weeks.

Some self-assembly is required but it's not going to be much and delivery is just £3.95.

Thanks to MrsA2010 at HUKD

The Outwell competition has ended and two lucky families are walking away with these fabulous prizes. Outwell gave us one set of a Dino Sleeping Bag and Dino Self-Inflating Mattress and one set of Flowies Sleeping Bag and Flowies Self-Inflating Mattress. If you've not been following this competition, see our review here.

So! Who won the awesome Dino set? Well none other than lovely mum Jen. Congratulations Jen! Your set will be posted off on Saturday to reach you during the course of next week. We hope it brings you lots of happy memories.

The winner of the pretty Flowies set is Tara! She'll be receiving her set next week too!

Thanks again to Outwell for letting us have these great products and hosting a rather lovely competition for the festival season.

I Want One Of Those.com (IWOOT) sent PlayPennies a bundle of brilliantly bewildering camping accessories that you just know, because they are from IWOOT, are completely insane. We had these sent along to our old PlayPennies regular, Heidi, who promptly whisked them off on a camping holiday with her husband and two boys...

The Briefcase Barbeque

We all loved this idea. A proper bb that’s compact and portable, and in a briefcase. So what did Heidi think?

“I loved the idea of this. I thought it would be perfect for the beach or camping, but in reality it’s just too small for our needs as a family of four,” she said, “We went camping this weekend with friends and had planned to cook dinner on it, but once we got it out the box we realised there was no way we were going to fit food for four adults and two children on it.”

Heidi did go on to say that there is a bigger version available for the larger camping group of humans but that she couldn’t really recommend the smaller one for a family at all.

“It might work fine for a couple with a baby not yet on solids,” she added, “But then, if you’re camping at that stage of life you’re probably so superhuman you take gourmet meals with you, or have a butler.”

The friends Heidi went camping with also felt that it would be too small for just the two of them and she wasn’t sure it would cook the meat properly. However, they did find the perfect use of it – an impromptu campfire around which they sang songs and made s’mores and toasted marshmallows.

“Maybe they should ditch the bbq bith and market it as a portable campfire complete with the ingredients to make tasty campfire treats,” said Heidi, “Now that I could get excited about.”

She also felt that it was a mission to clean, difficult to locate smaller bags of charcoal for, and nowhere near as convenient as a disposable bbq. Except for the green angle, of course. You wouldn’t be contributing to landfill with the IWOOT one.

“As a gift it’s actually quite inspired,” said Heidi, “And it will probably be the inspiration for some impromptu family fun, as long as we can find some small bags of charcoal.”

The Pocket Towel

“The pocket towel takes a bit of getting used to in terms of the way it soaks up moisture but it's reasonably effective,” said Heidi, “It also scores high points for being portable and taking up minimal space in your luggage.”

Certainly this is an ingenious idea and is something that will definitely come in handy for the camping family. So small it can be secreted away anywhere in the car, easy to use and very useful for camping, this gadget won Heidi over.

“One of the best things about the pocket towel is how quickly it dries,” she said, “None of this having soggy towels at the bottom of your beach bag, or lurking in the corner of your tent. I know a mum who bought one of these for her daughter’s teacher as a thank you gift at the end of the school year.”

“The teacher is going backpacking around Australia during the summer and was reportedly thrilled. And I can see why! This is an inspired gift for festival goers and intrepid explorers.”

Costing £9.99, this seems like a fabulous investment for families that camp.

The Pocket Shower

I have been dying to hear about this particular review. I’ve been quite excited to see if it worked, how it worked, and what happened when you used it. Here is Heidi’s onsite report.

“The idea is that you fill it with ten litres of water, hang it from a tree, and let the sunshine heat up the water within, giving you a seven minute shower,” explains Heidi, “I might be missing a trick but I just don’t get this. You’ve got to go to the lengths of finding ten litres of water, pouring it in to this, hanging it from a tree and waiting for it to warm up – all for the shortest shower of your life.”

Unfortunately the pocket shower just didn’t strike a chord with Heidi at all.

“The only place you’re likely to find that much water whilst camping is in a tap, and a tap strikes me as all you’ll need for a wash anyway. Besides, what kind of campsite doesn’t have shower facilities?” she wondered, “Perhaps if you’re camping in the Australian outback but where would  you find ten litres of water in the Bush?”

Ultimately Heidi felt that this was more of a gimmicky gift that may come in handy for an intrepid explorer but that overall it was more for entertaining her kids on a hot day and not really worth the £14.99 price tag.

And Finally

The Pocket Towel was the clear winner in this review, useful and helpful it did what it should and made a big difference to her camping experience. The bbq was a bit too small for her family but should perhaps be judged only on that level as she never got a chance to cook on it. If this appeals to you, get the bigger version just in case.

I am torn. When I see a sale like this one it tears me right down the middle. On one hand I am delighted because it means I can sort out my camping kit and get some bits and pieces I couldn’t afford before. On the other hand it means that they’re getting rid of summer stock because winter is on the way. Booo hooo.

• Click here to see what’s happening in the sale at B&Q

Firmly ignoring the sobbing summer bunny in my head, I shall bravely move on and talk about the deals we have going here at B&Q.  There’s quite a bit of stuff in the sale and I’ll highlight a couple of goodies.

In the picnic and tableware section the Gelert Summer cool bag is down to £2.49, melamine plates and bowls are as little as 99p, a complete picnic set (pictured) is only £4.98 and a rug is only £4.48. You could probably get an entire picnic’s worth of new items for less than £20.

Depending on your budget and the size of your family the tents are quite varied in price. The Gelert Horizon 8 man tent is £224.54, down from £449.98, and the Scafell Rock Eclipse 2 man tent is down to £19.95 from £39.95 (bargain!).  You can even nab a starter set for £49.98.

Thanks to tony_termite at HUKD!

If music be the food of love....then you're going to LOVE this iPod festival chair!

• Click HERE to groove on over to Play.com for this deal

The normal versions of these chairs are fabulous - if you've ever scoffed at people who picnic with them or go to outdoor concerts/events with them slung over their shoulders then you need to think again.

They are lightweight, super portable, dead comfy to sit in AND have two holders for  your drinks - no more putting your plastic pint 'glass' on the grass, getting bits in it or knocking it over!

BUT with this iPod festival chair you get even more, yes MORE I tell you!

Not only is it all, and has all, of the things I've already mentioned, it also has a built in Hi Fi amplifier and speakers so you can plug in your iPod and listen to your music. Now, my first thought was 'what a gimmick! If you've got an iPod why not just listen to it through the headphones instead of inflicting your music on the rest of the world!'

BUT, what if you're in the garden at home, you want to listen to the music on your 'pod but need to keep an ear out of the phone or the kids whilst they're playing? You can either have one ear doofer in and one out or not listen to it at all!

Play.com have reduced these from £34.99 right down to £12.99, they're in stock and there's no delivery to pay either.

Thanks to fishcakenose over at HUKD!

The other day I posted a deal for a full-size picnic bench...well, now it's time for the Lilliput version with a Lilliput price as Tesco have reduced this from £54.99 to £27.49

• Click HERE for this cute kiddie-size picnic bench

Kids - they love having things for their own size, even more so if they look just like our grown-up things and this little wooden picnic table ticks those boxes.

Aside from pandering to little whims, furniture for your little kids is practical, sensible and just more civilised - there'll be no more trying to scrabble up on to a seat that's too high for them, no more trying to eat when your chin barely reaches the table and don't even get me started on trying to reach for drinks etc.

Can you tell I've been here before!  My big kids adored their little picnic table when they were small - it allowed them to sit and eat with the grown-ups without having to ask for help.

Of course, they can sit and do other things at their little bench too, we used ours for sitting outside on warm summer days and doing drawings of things we could see in the garden.

You're going to have to get out your tools and put your self-assembly hat on but at least delivery for collection in-store is free and you'll get double clubcard points if you have one!

Thanks to Haylhoo over at HUKD!