I’ve always had expensive taste. I blame spending a year living within walking distance of Selfridges on Oxford Street and its far-too-temping Gold Card.
Then I spent over a decade living on one of the most expensive parts of Surrey, and once worked in a store that sold £4000 handbags in its Bond Street branch.
Life is not quite so luxurious now but I will admit that I’d never set foot in the 99p Stores, or any type of bargain store in fact, until yesterday. This isn’t to say I shouldn’t be bargain hunting; my bank manager would actively encourage the idea. It just never really appealed.
So how did I find my first taste of bargain hunting? I absolutely loved it. My eyes have been opened and already I’m hooked.
Without doubt there’s something very addictive about hunting down bargains, and you get a real buzz when you find something you know is more expensive elsewhere.
Armed with a complimentary £50 voucher, we bought enough in the Nottingham branch of the 99p Stores to fill a kitchen table. This is what £50 gets you:
More importantly, I suspect I saved at least that price again if you consider what I would have paid for identical brands elsewhere.
We bought everything from shampoo, soap and pedicure sets to weed killer, children’s toys, pens, diaries and calculators.
Next time we are planning to stock up on cleaning products and kitchenware, which were substantially cheaper than the supermarket prices I normally pay for the same brands.
My favourites included the sports bottles, mugs, storage tubs, luggage scale and ice cream bowls.
IJ really liked the Polly Pocket toys, beach shoes, calculators and toy princess furniture.
Every single item cost 99p. The only real problem we had was carrying it all home.
For someone who never really embraced the idea of discount shopping, I would without doubt visit the 99p Store again. This visit has genuinely changed the way I shop and will no doubt save me a lot of money in the future.
Now for that handbag …
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
What a haul! We haven’t got a 99p store near us but whenever I go shopping at Middlesbrough I visit theirs last and carry my many bags to the train station at the end of the day. Well worth the aching arms when you consider how much money you save.
That’s exactly what we did Nicki! Our nearest branch is 14 miles away so we took the train and carried our bags home. I agree, it was well worth the aching arms!
What fun!
It really was!
I always smile when I see other people enjoy the 99p store like I do! Having moved into my current area less than a year ago I can’t remember the last time I went in one but I know, when I look at my budget sheet (I’m a geek, what can I say?!) I have saved hundreds on things that I paid pennies for! Job done, methinks!
Thanks Debs. I’m impressed with the amount we’ve saved already compared to what I would have paid for many of these items in the supermarket. It’s our first experience of the 99p Stores as we don’t have one in our local town either, but we’d make the journey to Nottingham again. We saved more than the cost of the train fare.
Poundshops are great for art and DIY supplies too. I went to one yesterday after a Twitter tip-off and found they were selling Stila products, I must have looked like a woman possessed rooting through the boxes!
The shop had so much that we didn’t get around everything in the end, and we’d run our of hands to carry things. We managed to fill three very large baskets, but DIY supplies are some of the things we plan to look for on our next visit. Thanks Make do mum.
oh you did well, that’s a good haul. Weirdly, my kids’ favourite 99p shop product has turned out to be the multivitamins – they have a smiley face on them and are raspberry flavoured so I guess they’re a bit like sweeties. I looked them up online and they would normally be about £4 so I bought another box from the 99p store today.
Joanne, that’s quite spooky because I’ve just been talking to my daughter today about multivitamins and I definitely want to buy her some. We were overwhelmed with choice in the end in the 99p Stores, although I do remember noticing the vitamins briefly. Like you, we’ll have to go back. That’s an impressive saving!
I am more of an 11 year old girl than my daughter Tallulah – I love pink, shiny and kitchy – but we both love those 99cent stores, you hit the jackpot!
Thanks Jody. My daughter loved the store. She’s bought some lovely pink furniture to play with with her dolls and has spent the last couple of days engrossed in it!
Pound shops are fab. We love them. x