Rosie Scribble

How to gain Top Aunty status

Anyone who has presented a gift to a child without those all-important batteries will relate to my experience early this summer when, in an attempt to impress my niece, I did exactly that. My aim of securing my position of Aunty of the Year failed in spectacular fashion when, of course, the game didn’t work.

In fact, I think I actually fell quite substantially in my four-year-old niece’s estimation, so there has been a need to make amends. And I have found the perfect way to do that in the form of a Tinker Bell Light Up Costume , courtesy of Fancy Dress Outfitters – an online fancy dress retailer.

Capital One buys me a pint

Capital One very kindly invited me to a pub in London to join them for a round table discussion recently. One thing I learnt is that all such meetings should be held in a pub and that alcohol is a great conversation starter, even if my pint was nothing more than diet coke.

After an afternoon spent discussing credit, savings and the importance of responsible spending, a sensible person would have taken time to digest this financial knowledge and apply it to their own situation.

But I am not a sensible person so I spent the rest of the day clothes shopping in London.

Obviously I’m not going to travel to a location near Oxford Street and not wander into Selfridges, Mango and Gap. Where’s the fun in that? And it’s nearly autumn, which means a new wardrobe, obviously.

The purpose of the trip, and indeed this post, was to be introduced to their Credit Made Clearer campaign which is designed to offer financial education in the areas of credit cards, holiday travel and shopping online, to name just a few topics. The emphasis is on responsibility and understanding the financial markets. They are not simply telling you to sign up to their credit card here, so all credit to them.

What I took from the meeting, more than anything else, was the fact that Capital One were genuinely interested in our views about how they could promote the campaign and listened carefully to what we had to say. Our ideas were taken seriously and I felt as if all our contributions were valued.

Of course I should draw your attention to the Credit Made Clearer You Tube channel, but whether you bank with Capital One or not, I can state for the record that they were genuinely nice people.

Capital One paid for me to attend the event and covered my travel expenses. I didn't spend it all at once.

The one about the condoms

It’s not every day you see a child waving a pack of Durex under your nose, but thanks to a trip to Boots at the weekend that’s exactly the scene that was played out in front of me, by my own daughter no less.

This was not the result of the aisle we were looking in, let me quickly point out. It was an innocent, family-friendly shopping trip, or at least it was supposed to be. I was standing in the queue waiting to pay and minding my own business when the incident occurred.

The packets of Durex were at my daughter’s eye level, not mine, next to the painkillers and other  last minute ‘essentials’ you may discover you need moments before you pay for your shopping. Or not in our case.

In the ‘olden days’ when I was seven years old, you’d find packets of sweets shouting out for your attention in these aisles. But retailers bowed to public pressure and understood that children would grab the sweets and a difficult situation between parent and child would ensue.

Common sense prevailed, although not enough sense in this case. Now we have a difficult situation of a different kind, which is easily solved, I discovered, by suddenly noticing there are sweets nearby and pointing to them. It proved an excellent way of diverting attention away from adult contraceptives.

Never have I been more relieved to see a tube of Smarties.

But I'd like to suggest Boots re-think their merchandising.

Win a £60 Boden voucher

We have gone a little bit upmarket this half-term -  at least one of us has - after Boden very kindly gave us a £60 voucher to try out their children's spring range. I also have an additional £60 voucher to giveaway - details at the end of this post.

Never one to turn down free clothes IJ browsed through their catalogue, selected half of it, argued with me a little then finally settled for the three pieces above - the stripy boat neck t-shirt which she refuses to take off, the fabulous star canvas pull-ons which have the added bonus of no laces, and the towelling zip-through which is generous enough to wear as a little jacket.

We haven't bought anything from Mini Boden before. The clothes are expensive compared to many brands but we were impressed by the ones we received. The quality is excellent, they are very stylish and they really do look good. We opted for size 7/8 years and had no problems with the fit.

You don't get a lot for £60 and I'm not sure about my seven-year-old daughter having a more up-t0-date wardrobe than me, but I digress...

I have a £60 Boden voucher to giveaway. You can spend it on whatever you like in the catalogue. As well as the girls clothes, there is a range of boys clothes that we haven't browsed through including boys jeans, and a brand new maternity wear section.

Or you could go straight to the women's clothing section and treat yourself to a new bag.

Giveaway

To enter simply leave a comment on this blog, and that's it.

For an additional entry tweet this giveaway (but include my twitter name @RosieScibble so I know to add your entry).

Enter before midnight on Friday 4th March.

One winner will be selected at random and announced here on Saturday 5th March.

The vouchers will be posted by me.

Good luck!

Update: Thanks to everyone who entered. The winner is announced here!

Can money buy happiness?

Can money buy happiness? Of course it can’t, but it can certainly help to address the things that get you down, like a lack of independence in my case, and the freedom, at times, to make my own choices in life.

So if I won £40,000 I’d buy myself a car – nothing fancy, just something to get me out and about, and I’d put a deposit on a house – my house, that I’ve chosen, exactly where I want to live.

So money may not buy happiness, at least not in the long term, but it can certainly help break down a few barriers that might otherwise leave you feeling stuck and more than a little frustrated.

I’d also buy an Apple Mac and an iPad, and possibly several new pairs of shoes, and a handbag, or two, but that distracts from the point I am trying to make, so ignore that bit. Did I mention a Nikon SLR camera?

PayPal have launched a prize draw promotion that gives everyone who enters the chance to Win £40000. Enter now for your chance to win by simply buying something using PayPal. The more times they buy, the more chances they get. Find out more about the competition can be found over on PayPal’s site but remember to read the Terms and Conditions.

Here are a few ideas of the sort of things you could buy to be in with a chance of winning the grand prize: a brand new laptop from Dell, a satnav and some car mats from Halfords (for my new car), a Christmas tree from Woolworths or a dolls house from Toys R Us (or you could just review one!).

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