A Time of Magic

We’ve been keeping more of an eye on our spending than we normally would of late and it’s interesting to observe just how many changes to prices there have been in the shops lately.

Whilst I couldn’t claim to remember all the prices of everything there are a number of things that I’ve noticed moving in peculiar directions as the weeks have went by. Lucozade for instance has a seemingly endless series of different offers with six packs starting off at £2.99, going down to £2 in some places then back up to £2.99 and then to “2 for £5″ (ie £2.50 each). Obviously a case of the shop or supplier experimenting with the price to try and find what will make the most money for them but the problem is that it’s showing clearly that the higher prices are bringing in a profit so canny shoppers just wait ’til the price goes down.

Even more confusing is one of the milk drinks that the kids like. This comes in two places in the shop in bottles that are identical apart from a single word being added to the bottles in the fridges which seemingly is enough to add 30% to the price even though the contents of the other bottle are identical.

Leaving thoughts about Christmas presents ’til you’re into December is a recipe for disaster or at least one for rather naff and inappropriate presents.

If you start now though you’ve the time to browse through things like redenvelope christmas gifts and the various speciality shops where you’ve a much better chance of getting a present that’s appropriate for the person you’re giving it to. Leaving things to the last minute greatly reduces the chances of you getting that the person would even remotely like.

We’ve all three makes in our household and you’d think that it would be easy enough to switch between them, at least at the level of a compact camera but it isn’t.

Whilst I don’t have any problems changing between the Canon camera and the Nikons, when I try to take a photo on the Fujis it just never seems to turn out quite as I was expecting it to. Oh, the menus are different for sure but the cameras are basically set up for point and shoot so you’d think that would work quite well. Still, at least it makes Wendy’s camera hers and mine, mine