GardenBargains is an online gardening club. Just the sort of thing I need to help me grow food for the family! This discount code gives you half price membership, plus £20 of seeds.

Click here to seed your garden with the help of GardenBargains

• Discount: 50% plus free seed collection worth £20
• Applies to: Club Membership
• Discount Code: Click on link above
• Expires: 15/08/2010

With rising food prices I’m increasingly tempted to grow my own. There’s also something really appealing about being able to pull your own food out of the ground. I’d also quite like to fill my garden with some lovely flowers too. Always nice to see a bit of colour when you look out the window!

The problem for me and for a lot of people I suspect is that, quite simply, I don’t even know where to start. While GardenBargains sells seeds, plants, tools and so forth, it also provides advice and help on gardening from experts.

Annual membership costs £20, but at the moment you can get that for £10 a year. Click through using the link above, and then click on the Buy Now button at the bottom of the page. When you look in your basket you’ll see that a £10 discount has been automatically discounted from your bill, and the Club Seed Collection added at no extra cost.

Members receive a 10% discount, an online magazine, gardening help and advice, and special member only offers.

Thanks to hotscot at HUKD!

GardenBargains Discount Code: 50% Off Membership Plus £20 Free Seeds is a post from: PlayPennies UK

• Click here to sniff the deal at Amazon

I am intrigued by this new trend in scented toys. First (well, that I heard of) is the almost impossible to find, and extremely expensive, Lotso Bear from Toy Story 3. Apparently that bear smells of strawberries. The thing is, I love the idea but how long will the smell realistically last?

In our house toys need a jolly good wash or a wipe every month (at the very least – the popular ones are weekly) so won’t any form of cleaning remove the yummy smell and therefore the entire reason you spent nearly £50 on a stuffed toy? This is my question of the week.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, yes, the Lamaze Octotunes. So this toy is for 0-2 years old and is designed to stimulate baby’s imagination and senses. Each tentacle makes a different note and you can play lines from some of your favourite nursery rhymes.

Thanks to millarcat at HUKD!

Lamaze Octotunes £11.59 @ Amazon is a post from: PlayPennies UK

It’s the penultimate batch of competitions before we wrap the week up on Sunday, so get your entry heads on and I hope you’re one of the lucky winners.

I wonder if the guys and gals who came up the name ‘Wii’ for a games console staggered out of the boardroom late one night, after a few sherberts, giggling because they managed to get the nod for calling it that…? If you don’t have a Nintendo Wii,  here’s your chance to win one! Just answer this question and fill in your details: In real life, what is a gargoyle?

[Expires - TOMORROW, 31 July 2010. Answer - An ugly stone carving found on the roofs of old buildings]

Staying with Nintendo, Nintendo DSs are a great way to keep kids amused when you’re on the move or away from home – they’re also great for grown-ups when you confiscate them from the Teenagers, I’m getting quite good at Brain Training! To win your own Nintendo DS just fill in your details.

[Expires - Sunday 1 August - WOW it's nearly August already!]

Have you ever watched ‘Who Do You Think You Are?‘ and fancied having a bash at tracing your own family tree? So far mine’s been tracked back to the early 1600s – see how far back you can go with this Family Tree Maker software. Just answer the question and hand over your details: What overall star rating did we give Family Tree Maker 2010 Platinum Edition when we reviewed it?

[Expires - Sunday 1 August 2010. Answer - 4 stars]

A PlayPennies competition post wouldn’t be a PlayPennies competition post without the obligatory HD LCD TV and Blu-ray DVD player to win! So if you’d like to throw your name in to the hat for this one, register with your details, log in and answer this question: In The Crazies, the town’s residents are infected through the…

[Expires - Monday 2 August 2010. Answer - the water supply]

GOOD LUCK everyone; see you for more competition fun on Sunday!

Thanks to BlueMg, Ashrid, FrankSkorpio and Painkiller over at HUKD!

Free Competitions: Win A Nintendo Wii is a post from: PlayPennies UK

Toy Story fever has literally gripped this nation by the throat and shaken it. I went to the movies the other day with my daughter. It was her birthday treat and, silly me, I thought we could just show up and buy tickets. How wrong could I have been! Well, this duvet set should stop the nagging to see the movie “one more time” and it costs £7.99 including free delivery.

• Fly on over to Play.com

The duvet cover is a hard wearing and colourful Toy Story 3 rotary printed single with a pillowcase included. It is machine washable at 40 degrees (although try and save the planet with using only 30 degrees!) and is also tumble dryer friendly.

The new movie is all about how Woody and the gang find themselves in a room full off unnamed tots who can’t wait to get their hands on the new toys. The movie has been given superb star ratings by critics and fans, and I am finally off to watch it today.

Thanks to ednamaya78 at HUKD!

Toy Story 3 Duvet Covers £7.99 @ Play.com is a post from: PlayPennies UK

Yesterday I was the luckiest chocaholic in town. I got to go and see what Thorntons are planning for their Christmas chocolate range this year, and I can tell you that we are in for some seriously yummy stuff. They even had a chocolatier come and talk to us about the different kinds of chocolate and we tasted them while he talked so we could understand more about the flavours.

I was, I admit, amused by the fact that the man who makes chocolate and tastes chocolate was thin. How is that fair?

So, at the launch he told us about how normally white chocolate is deodorised so it doesn’t smell as strong. The white chocolate that they are using for the yummy new white chocolate, coconut and lime bars (see above!) hasn’t been deodorised and so smells and tastes incredible. It is, honestly, the best white chocolate I’ve ever tasted.

Other delights in store for you include: personalisable chocolate Christmas trees, personalisable chocolate advent calendars, gorgeous Santa chocolates (actually you can personalise most of this lovely stuff), gigantic adult sized bars of chocolate (and I mean GIGANTIC), and more.

There were two things that I really liked. The first was the new dipping set (picture to the right), that has yummy dippers like marshmallows, and chocolate pots that you can heat up in the microwave. How perfect are those for winter?

And the last thing that I really liked was the advent calendar. You can personalise a little mini-slab of chocolate so everybody knows who’s calendar is whose. In a big family, that’s a real winner. As a parting shot I have to tell you a funny story that one of the lovely Thorntons’ people told me…

“If you are really careful, you can ease the advent calendar out of the box, steal the chocolates, and ease it back in without anybody knowing,” he said, “In our offices we take turns opening a day and so we all snuck one lady’s chocolate out so when she opened it up, there was nothing in there!”

I don’t know about you, but I found that really funny.

Thorntons’ Christmas in July is a post from: PlayPennies UK

• Click HERE to claim your free QV Skincare sample pack

Unless you’ve been to Australia it’s not likely that you’ll have heard of QV Skincare for babies.  It’s the Aussie’s favourite moisturiser and is often recommended by dermatologists there and is being launched here.

It’s was developed to help treat skin issues and maintain its health and let’s face it, if it can do the job under the fierce glare of the Aussie sun and their climate then it’s going to have no trouble with our UK skin!

They product range includes bath oil – which is great stuff in general, if you’ve never used it before then definitely try some if it’s included in the free samples!

There’s also cream in a tube, or cream in a tub, skin lotion and body wash if you really don’t like the idea of the bath oil.

I have no idea whether you’ll get a sample of everything or just some of the QV products but I’m pretty sure that they’re going to be up to the job of looking after and nourishing scrumptious delicate baby skin.

Thanks to pinkmelonsmr2 over at HUKD!

Baby Freebie: QV Skincare Samples is a post from: PlayPennies UK

• Click HERE to take a look with me over at Zavvi

I remember when CDs cost a fortune, when DVDs cost even more and MP3s weren’t even part of our vocabulary! Well times have changed and prices for all these things are almost at rock bottom, especially if you buy them from Zavvi.

The other day my daughter asked me if I’d seen any of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies. I’m not sure she was glad she asked in the end because what followed was a very animated explanation which kicked off with, “YEAH! They were DEAD scary! People were too scared to shut their eyes and go to sleep! It was MAD!”

And they were/ARE scary! Zavvi have the Nightmare on Elm Street DVD box set with all seven movies on offer for £9.95, reduced from £39.29, and on the one hand I’m very tempted but on the other…I’ve got used to sleeping at night again! Not only that, if the Teenagers watched them and said they weren’t as scary as I’d said, I’d be a bit miffed!

I bought Michael Jackson’s ‘This Is It’ a couple of months ago for £13 and thought I’d bagged a bargain, Zavvi have it for £4.94.  Note to self – ALWAYS check Zavvi first!

There are LOTS of bargains to be had at Zavvi and even the releases which are ‘Coming SOON!’ (you have to say that in the style of the movie voice-over guy) are nicely priced.

There’s no delivery to pay on orders within the UK either.  HURRAH!

Zavvi.com – New Stuff, Cheaper Prices! is a post from: PlayPennies UK

• Click HERE for this hot deal

So, this is a bit of a step in to the unknown for me. I’m a VERY loyal GHD straighteners fan. I love them!

WITH them, I’m a glossy straight-haired goddess, WITHOUT them…I’m more like the Wild Woman of Borneo!

I spend a fair bit of time in various places overseas and, until my straighteners start earning airmiles too, it’s easier to leave a pair behind in each place so I don’t have to pack them every time I go away.

BUT much as I adore my GHDs I REFUSE to buy another two sets that I won’t be using every other day, SO I’m going to give these Fake Bake hair straighteners a bash (perhaps I’ll write a mini review about them and let you know how they compared!).

They come in two colours – gold and pink, I’m torn here – gold isn’t really my ‘thing’…neither is hot pink! But for £12.99, instead of £30, and with free delivery from Half Price Perfumes, does it really matter?!

Apparently they aren’t just another ceramic straightener, oh no! They use, and I quote, ‘Tourmaline to generate negative ions and infrared heat to manage and control hair. Where traditional stylers use aggressive heat to force hair to conform, these stylers are a breath of fresh air for you hair!’

Well it all sounds good to me and for £12.99 as long as they banish the Wild Woman of Borneo then it’s all good.

To get free delivery on these Fake Bake hair straighteners, just enter FUNKME at the checkout (be careful writing that!) and this would be a good time to pick up any other bits and pieces you’ve been looking at to take advantage of the free delivery code.

I’ve decided on the gold ones, I think…

Fake Bake Hair Straighteners £12.99 @ HalfPricePerfumes is a post from: PlayPennies UK

It all started out innocently enough. I got off the train, I bought a coffee, and I ambled up to the entrance of the Underground. In my half asleep state I didn’t really click that the reason the man was walking in front of me (causing me to keep on moving to the right) was because he was closing the gates. Victoria was shut. Sorry for me.

Cue some breathless pounding of pavements as I galloped around the area in search of a bus that would take me to work. Eventually, after navigating an angry granny (not at me, fortunately), a deranged teenager, and some roadworks, I found a bus. Then it was running to work, running up the stairs and running about all morning.

At lunch PlayPennies was invited to the Thorntons Christmas in July. I walked all the way there in my FitFlops and it was about 30 minutes of hard exercise as I only had an hour to spare. The event was fantastic, by the way, so check out my mini-deal announcement at 3pm today.

The room was dripping delectable chocolate from every pore. How could I not have Thorntons for lunch? They also gave me some samples to try out which I rapidly enjoyed in case someone at work wanted me to share. Yes, I am a bad person but this is chocolate for heaven’s sake! Now there was a lot of pressure on my FitFlops to somehow burn those naughty calories down to the ground. I’ve put some pics of the treats here for you to enjoy.

So I hiked the 30 minutes back to the office, did some more bustling about and galloped home on the tube and train. Now it is time to reveal whether or not a week of FitFlop marathoning has changed my measurements…

Week One Measurements:

Thighs: 21.5 inches (RESULT! I lost half an inch)

Calves: 14.5  inches (Sadness! I gained half an inch!)

Hips: 37.5 inches (OOOH! That’s another half an inch lost)

Conclusion: Perhaps the saying should go, “A minute on the lips, an inch on the calves” because that is the only place I gained in size.

Stay tuned next week for the final stretch when hopefully I will have managed to lose even more inches off my frame.

I also have to say a big thank you to Fitness Footwear, who gave me my yummy chocolate leather FitFlops for the challenge.

The FitFlop Challenge Day 4 is a post from: PlayPennies UK

At the beginning of the month, I attended the launch of Method Natural Laundry detergent. While I was there, I discovered that there was a whole range of Method eco cleaning products, some of which are shown here sparkly and new, in my kitchen ready to leap into action.

I’m always interested in finding new eco cleaning products. The thing is, I’m invariably disappointed by them. Detergents that don’t clean, window cleaners that require a lot of elbow grease, and spray cleaners that won’t shift the grime without, yes you guessed it, lots more elbow grease. Ecover’s floor soap is the exception to this rule – it is superior to ANY floor cleaner I’ve found so far.

Method Laundry Detergent (£5.99); I really wanted to like this. Just four squirts, so easy and mess free! And, unlike other eco detergents I’ve tried, it worked. But it did not get out food stains unless applied directly to the stain. Otherwise it leaves greasy marks behind (you can see the result on my son’s school shirt here).

It does behave beautifully as a stain remover when applied directly though. But it will still leave behind residue from any bits you miss. As I found when I tried to use it as a stain remover on a white Sportacus t-shirt my son smothered in chocolate. I missed a few spots, and they were still there when it came out of the machine. All the spots I’d treated with the detergent were gone though.

So, mixed feelings. If only eco products will do then yay, at last an eco friendly stain remover. Personally though I can’t afford to use that much of this detergent for that purpose.

I am utterly in love with the Method Best in Glass cleaner (£4.28). This is the easiest to use, smear-free glass cleaner I have ever come across, natural or otherwise, and required only a squirt per pane. I’ve used natural products for glass since my son was born, as there’s something about glass that attracts little fingers, and tongues! It is going on my shopping list.

But it won’t be accompanied by the Method Tub & Tile bathroom spray (£3) I’m afraid. I loved the smell of this, but it required a lot more scrubbing than simple white vinegar and lemon juice to achieve the same result.

Feel free to share your experiences with Method and other eco friendly cleaning products here!

Method Eco Cleaning Products Review is a post from: PlayPennies UK