28.5.16

Curry's Sale

You would not believe how many sale products are on the vast internet every day. All retailers, be it big or small, are offering daily discounts that most of the deal-hungry online shoppers have no way of knowing about, unless they physically check the product prices every day.

Currys is no different than that – there are dozens of great sale products on Currys website every day, from TVs to digital cameras and smartphones, the Currys sale event is an ever-happening joy-bringing and money-saving event that will help you discover great products at reduced prices from one of the UK’s favourite retailers. If you have the time to browse through their tens of thousands of products, you can visit their sale page and try to find their latest deals. However, this is extremely time consuming. There is a better way of finding Currys discounted products.

You might be wondering about how to find the latest Currys deals. I’ll share a great sale finder resource that will help you discover not only the latest Currys sale items but it also serves as the UK’s universal sale finder tool that scans all major retailers every day and finds all the latest deals. There is a new online tool out there that is powered by Artificial Intelligence driven web spiders. Imagine an army of robots that browse millions of products 24/7 and check the prices of the products every day. Whenever these robots notice that a price had been dropped for a product, they will push it on the front-end of the website so tens of thousands of their users can discover unimaginable deals. The website is called Everyday is Black Friday, and their name is explaining exactly what the service offers – their robots find so many deals every day that it seems like it’s Black Friday every day.
If you happen to visit their Currys Sale page, you will instantly find dozens of sale products that the system has found in the past 2 days. The Currys products displayed there have been meticulously checked every day, and they have been displayed automatically because the robots identified a price drop on the items. Imagine as if you would have a personal assistant who sits all day and writes down every price on the internet, and then he or she alerts you whenever it found a price drop for the relevant products to your needs. This is exactly what Everyday is Black Friday is doing.

Apart from the deal finder functionality, the service also provides a good platform for comparing prices for any product you can think of. This will help you find the best prices in a fraction of a second for any search term. Just try and search “adidas leggings” and you’ll see how the system will bring up dozens of Adidas leggings from all major sports retailers, with prices ranging from £8 to over £30.

I hope I could be helpful by sharing this tip with you, and I hope that next time when you are searching for a Currys product you will use the Currys Sale page from Everyday is Black Friday, to make sure you won’t miss out any deal on the item you wish to purchase.

27.5.16

A Look at What Makes a Home Hosted Event Great

How often do you pop round to a friend’s house for dinner or invite the gang round for canapés and cocktails at yours?
Often, it’s easier to have people over than to plan a trip to a restaurant and have to figure out where you’re going to park or to have to fork out money for expensive wine on top of paying for your meal. While growing evidence suggests we are now dining out more – though spending less per visit when we do – during the downturn dining at home enjoyed a bit of a boom as we Brits tried to stretch the budget that bit further. Figures released by the CGA-Peach Consumer Index in 2013 revealed that those under 40 made an average of 1.44 visits meet ups at friend’s homes each week compared to 1.31 occasions spent drinking or eating out.  
Are you an eager dinner party host or do you prefer to be a guest that brings a bottle rather than spending a day in the kitchen yourself? Today’s post looks at what makes someone a host with the most.


Make your home entertainment ready

While some of the best gatherings that involve food and friends can centre around something as simple as ordering in a few pizzas and sitting back on the sofa to watch a great film, having your home set up ready to host can really make a difference.
Over the years many gadgets have evolved to help dinner parties to host get togethers more efficiently and while a great sound system for playing some background music might be many hosts number one gadget these days in the past the likes of the Lazy Susan made a huge impact on the dinner party landscape.
If you don’t have a lot of space for a dining table you may be a more reluctant host but it shouldn’t necessarily hold you back. A survey by Asda found that barbecues are becoming big news with 76% of people spending up to £80 on an event and 44% saying they put as much effort into outdoor eating events like barbecues as they do dinner parties.
If outdoor eating is more your area of expertise, could your home be set up a little better to make entertaining easier? If you don’t already have a patio dining area with easy access, could you look at installing patio or external bi-fold doors like these from Vufold. A dinner party is as much about conversation, mixing and mingling as it is food and drink, so opening up your space can add the possibility of moving around more freely and perhaps even introducing some dancing into the mix. With the addition of a patio heater or even a fire pit or chiminea ( B&M have some bargains ) you may find that you can extend the al fresco eating season.

Don’t just do dinner

There’s a reason we usually think of inviting others round for an evening meal and it’s not just because we like to legitimately put After Eight mints to use in their proper time slot. ‘Dinner party’ – it’s in the name isn’t it? However, while it’s often more convenient or cost-effective to pop over to your mates for a meal it’s not always practical to do so late or even early evening, particularly if you are parents. If you need to pay for a babysitter the cost of a cheap evening out can soon increase and that of course is if people can find sitters. So, why not arrange a get together over another meal entirely?
According to OnePoll, three quarters of 18-35 year-olds enjoy a late, leisurely brekkie at least once a month – could you host your own brunch party? It’s likely to be easier for other mums and dads to find childcare or activities to entertain kids earlier in the day or you could host while little ones are at nursery. You can still treat the get together as a special event – baking or cooking up some treats for the table, though you may want to stay clear of the wine early in the day!

Make it special

However big your home and whatever your budget for your food and drinks, going the extra mile with added personalised touches can help your event and hosting skills stand out. Could you design and make invitations for your guests rather than relying on text or email? Perhaps you could decorate your dining or outdoor space with a particular theme in mind and make things like place cards for your guests?

Are you a willing host when it comes to dishing out food and drinks or are you less than confident about your at home entertaining skills?

9.5.16

Piccolo Plates

I was a little bit spoiled last week, I didn't have to cook a thing for the kids dinner because we were sampling Piccolo Plates, a brand new London based company that delivers fresh and nutritious meals for children. All their meals are homemade using fresh non processed ingredients with no added sugar or salt.



We sampled the lasagne ( below) the cottage pie, veggie pie, chicken & pesto nuggets and cod & salmon goujons. Mr Jones ended up eating the cottage pie because the kids had already eaten at an earlier playdate and he tells me that it was really good!



Rufio is a huge lover of fish, he adored the fish pie and the cod & salmon goujons. I even caught him stealing one as I was about to take a photo!


Piccolo Plates is a lifeline for working mothers, children can still have nutritious homemade meals at an affordable price too, each dish is £5 and serves 2.  When I was working in an office, I didn't always have time to cook for my children and I would be wracked with (even more) guilt on the days that they ended up eating ready meals. A week's worth of Piccolo Plates would be an awesome gift baby shower gift for a friend with older children so they don't have to worry about shopping and preparing food in those first few days at home with a newborn.



Even though I'm working from home at the moment, I would still use Piccolo Plates for those busy days when I just don't have time to cook. Plus, all their meals can be frozen for up to 3 months which means that you can keep them in the freezer for emergencies.

Piccolo Plates is such a genius idea, I have been telling all the school mummies about them and I will certainly be using them again!






4.5.16

#CityCountryLife Fulham Firestation Open Day

#CityCountryLife is a series run by myself and my friend Lizzie. Living in the heart of London, I write about life with kids in the capital city and Lizzie writes about all the wonderful things that country life has to offer.

Rufio, like most two year old boys, is obsessed with Fireman Sam and Fire engines in general. So many people have told me that if you head over to your local fire station, you can have a tour if they're not in the middle of an emergency. I have yet to try this out but the weekend before last, we discovered that there was an open day at Fulham Firestation, a perfect opportunity to pay them a visit!



There were two fire engines that the kids could climb inside, take a look around and get a photo. In typical London fashion, there was an enormous que, but we all waited patiently for 45 minutes so that Rufio could pretend to drive a fire engine, the smile on his face was worth the wait.
Afterwards there was a a mini fair at the back of the fire station, with rides, and even a petting zoo. These guys even got to try out candy floss for the first time!




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