Score!

Finally got to Matalan and they had some of the twinkly gold or silver wrapping paper left - very pretty, not necessarily Christmas wrap.  It is decent quality and 3 metres long and was marked at £1 a roll.  It came up at 50p on the till, and I was very happy.  I bought fourteen (14) rolls. 

Gift bags were also on sale.  They had packs of four assorted sizes.  I loathe wrapping awkward shapes so these were incredibly welcome to me at £1 a pack, and to my disappointment they came up at £1 at the till.  I got five, that is twenty assorted bags for £5, decent quality. 

I bought some sticky tape.  I was in two minds as I thought I could perhaps get a better price than the one marked and it was the same stuff I had used before Christmas - nice and sticky but a (expletive deleted) if you lost the end.  Apparently if you hold a roll of sticky tape over the spout of a boiling kettle in the steam then the end comes loose.  I have never been desperate enough to try this, but I came close before Christmas.  I thought it was £1.50 for two rolls, but at the till it was 50p per pack, so six decent sized rolls for £1.50.  I also got two large packs of gift tags, totalling 64 shiny but non-Christmas tags for £2. 

I think my gift wrap requirements are sorted for the next year or so.  Now little bear is involved in the school social whirl I seem to need to wrap a lot more things.  I do hope that the stuff lasts for at least two years, and I have unearthed some actual Christmas wrap while sorting out the junk room, which should cover at least next year (fingers crossed). 

I was disappointed at the selection of stuff for little bear.  I bought next year's winter coat, a fleece lined waxed jacket that looked just the thing, nice and warm, wind and wet proof with a hood.  It was £9 instead of £18.  I bought two pair of pyjamas for him for £4.50 that won't fit him until next year, but the ones he currently has will keep him going for a while.  And I slipped into 'doting mum' mode and bought a sort of shot silk effect maroon shirt and waistcoat for little bear for £6.  He has a grey tie that will match the waistcoat (velcro fastening).  That should come online next summer and keep going for at least a year.  That is, if I can get him away from the red lumberjack shirt that he seems permanently attached to. 

The clothes will hang in little bear's wardrobe until required and the gift wrap stuff all has a home, convenient and accessible.  I did check out a lot of the other stuff, but nothing really called (apart from a £2 t-shirt for me that looks supremely comfy and somehow ended up in the basket).  I could have bought marked down bows and ribbon, but I don't use it, and it would take up space I didn't have.

My next target is BHS.  They do some very nice, nacky gifty type things, and I thought of stashing an emergency selection for those moments when you realise that you haven't a gift and you need one sooner than you thought.  I also want to have a good look around the sales for toys for boys/girls around little bear's age, for that emergency birthday present situation.  This will only work if I have a central location for the stashed gifts so that I can actually find them easily again, and perhaps a spread sheet to keep a record.  The location will be a large plastic box in the walk in cupboard.  That is, if I see things that are actual bargains.  Not everything in a sale is a bargain.