Everyone loves a bargain.

 

RECENTLY, the conversation was kicked off with Susan and I updating the girls on how we got on at our first ever car boot sale.

"How was it then?" asked one of them.

"Did you make a lot of money?" enquired another.

"Well," Susan started to explain, "we packed everything into the car the night before as we had to head off at 6am the next morning.

"We found our pitch and unpacked, however, we had barely gotten organised when Janice decided she needed the toilet," Susan said rolling her eyes.

"She wandered off and, 45 minutes later, came back laden with junk she had bought along the way."

The girls were laughing as clearly Susan had been annoyed.

"I found two cracking plant pots for the garden," I said trying to justify my long absence from our stall.

"I paid £10 each for them. Although, when I got home, as I lifted them out of the car my daughter pointed out that I still had the exact same pots which I had always hated, wedged in the back of the garage.

"So I ended up giving my new pots away for nothing."

"Did you make any money at the sale?" Angela asked.

"Well, I expected to sell everything and make a wee fortune," an exasperate Susan replied. "However, we left resembling Steptoe and Son, thanks to all the rubbish Janice bought.

"All that was missing was Hercules the horse.

"And, as well as the parking fee and the stall fee, we were out for the petrol money ..."

Her voice trailed off in despair.

The girls laughed at the image of us both.

"Apparently a good way to make money is by selling unwanted items on Gumtree," suggested one of the budding entrepreneurs in our company.

Sheepishly, Angela admitted: "I actually sold an old chaise long for £50 on Gumtree."

Brilliant, we were all very impressed.

"Yes, I was really chuffed with that," continued Angela, "until the following week when I saw my 'old' chair back on Gumtree for £100."

Sam who had recently moved into a new flat had decided that eBay was the best place to look for bargains.

"I was told you could get some great bargains and I spotted a few bits and pieces which I decided to bid for."

We were keen to know what bargains Sam had managed to bag herself.

"I bid for a beautiful life-size dressmakers' mannequin which looked amazing," she gushed.

"And to be honest, I couldn't believe how cheap it was.

"The second I saw the picture of it, I could visualise it positioned in the corner of my new bedroom."

"Sounds ideal," we all agreed.

We were all starting to imagine Sam's flat with her new bargains for which she had saved hard to buy.

"I was so excited when the doorbell rang as I knew it would be my new mannequin."

"And, was it worth the money?"

"Not quite," was the solemn reply.

Apparently, Sam's life-size mannequin turned out to be 12 inches high. Perfectly shaped, but doll size.

"It's not even big enough to hang Barbie's clothes on never mind mine," Sam admitted disappointedly.

We laughed as we wondered how Sam could have gotten it so wrong.

That was, until Mae got her tuppence worth in and let us in on her recent purchase from the World Wide Web.

"I know it is something you should never do, but I did some online shopping and bought tablets that were guaranteed to make your boobs grow."

Immediately we all stared at Mae because it was obvious the miracle tablets hadn't worked.

"Really?" was my cheeky response.

"Yep, but I had the runs for two whole weeks," answered Mae.

We were all gobsmacked as Mae continued.

"But on the bright side ..." she continued (and we were all struggling to see how there could be a bright side), "The tablets left me looking so skinny that, as a result, my boobs did look bigger."

I'm sure that somewhere in all of our shopping experiences, there were definitely lessons were to be learned.

So it turned out I wasn't the only one of us who enjoyed buying junk.