Bargains at the Argos clearance store on eBay, including the £2.99 ghost costume

Argos, as I have said previously, is, on a Saturday, a wonderful, free theatre of chaos where youngsters act out a game of trying to match the box with the customer in a race against a conveyor belt. I love it.

But perhaps a better aspect of Argos is its clearance outlet on eBay, where it offloads items from out-of-print catalogues and refurbished electronic goods with sometimes huge discounts.

Official Argos Clearance Outlet

My favourite item at the moment has to be this children's ghost costume on sale for a mere £2.99 + £1.99p+p. The nearest equivalent on the main store site is a do-it-yourself nun outfit at £17.59. The choice is yours.

  

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4,000 free tickets to iTunes festival

Free music is great. Even better is when it's one of the world's top acts that you're not paying to see. That's why the iTunes festival is worth a mention.

It runs every night in July at the Roundhouse in Camden, London, and to get tickets all you need is to be a Facebook friend of iTunes or, if that's all a bit too revoltingly corporate wacky, sign up for a free Standard Card from the London Evening Standard newspaper.

Another route if you don't want either of those is to enter this competition.

Personally I'd use this route:

www.standard.co.uk/itunes

You can sign up for your card during the application process. And tickets are made available for different artists every week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LINE UP: Jamie T + The Slow Club, Fightstar + In Case Of Fire, Jack Peñate + Golden Silvers, Flo Rida + Ironik, Snow Patrol (pictured) + Silversun Pickups + Animal Kingdom, Franz Ferdinand + Passion Pit, Mr Hudson & Special guest + Kid British, David Guetta feat. Kelly Rowland, Paolo Nutini + Marina and the Diamonds + Milow, La Roux + Dan Black, Newton Faulkner, Peter Bjorn and John + Raygun, Placebo, Friendly Fires + Magistrates, Simple Minds, Noisettes + Skint & Demoralised, Calvin Harris + Miike Snow, Bat For Lashes + Polly Scattergood, Bloc Party + Delphic + The Invisible, Oasis (pictured) + The Enemy, Kasabian + Twisted Wheel, Graham Coxon (pictured) + Esser, a-ha(pictured) + Reamonn, Madeleine Peyroux + Imelda May, The Saturdays (pictured) + Sophie Ellis-Bextor + Girls Can't Catch, Amadou & Mariam + Charlie Winston, Simian Mobile Disco + Gold Panda, The Hoosiers + Steve Appleton, Mika + Erik Hassle.

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Sub £10 Blu-ray discs at Play.com

The latest attempt to get the viewing public to replace their movie collections, this time with Blu-ray, feels, predictably, like a con. Why the high prices for a Blu-ray disc when DVDs are now retailing for a few quid?

Obviously, the movie business is suffering at the hands of pirates and they have to make a return on their investments.

So make the movies available and affordable! People will then buy them. And you remove much of lure of the black market. But no, the films are being drip-fed on to the market and the prices are laughably high.

It is, however, slowly improving.

I'm delighted to see that Play.com has just announced a sale with its own selection of Blu-ray films (others have similar deals) under a tenner. They're also advertising DVDs from £3. Worth a mention because the prices include delivery.

As ever, check out the useful Find-dvd.co.uk for price comparisons on DVD, Blu-ray, books, CDs and games.

Check out the Play.com summer sale

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Half-price hotels - UK summer sale from Accor group

Not content with cutting prices at its hotel chains across continental Europe (promotion now closed), the Accor group is now slashing prices at Novotels, Mercures, Ibises and Etaps in Britain.

As ever, the 'Up to' monsters are at work so the deals are only up to 50% off. The full discount is pretty limited but if Newcastle Airport for £36 a night is your thing, check it out:

http://www.accorhotels.com/gb/promotion/specials/uk-hotel-summer-sale.shtml

It's for bookings made until 29 June, for stays in July and August.

Premier Inns is also cutting prices, with rooms from £29. But you have to book three weeks in advance.

http://www.premierinn.com/pti/premieroffers.do

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near Newcastle Airport

Get a hobby, save a fortune - don't be a zombie

Anyone who read my book, or heard me on Radio 5 Live's credit crunch special (hello mum), will know that my big money-saving tip is to get a hobby.

Not only do you save money by not dragging your inner zombie around shopping centres to buy imported goods you don't need, but you build important real-life social networks, vital if you're job hunting, and, heavens, you might even have fun.

Still not convinced?

Check out findmyhobby.com - it's an American directory of hobby sites worth a look. It will throw up gems such as the site for radio controlled planes addicts, or one for pets' right enthusiasts.

Still not interested?

OK, get a credit card, go shopping. Discuss zombies. What do I care?

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Now for some pictures of zombies shopping...

£45,000 to work for a charity overseas

Had enough of last place on the grid in the rat race of life? Then check this out. The Vodafone Foundation is looking for eight people to 'give something back to society' by working abroad for a UK-based charity for a year. Salary and expenses could be up to £45,000.

You need to offer passion, drive and commitment so just being fed up with your current lot is not a suitable qualification but it's being billed as a once in a lifetime opportunity.

To apply (by 30 July) and find out more visit...

Vodafone Foundation World of Difference

See videos about the project on YouTube 

A message from Lewis Hamilton...

£5 theatre tickets from lastminute.com

These theatres must be struggling if the price of tickets is anything to go by.

Check out lastminute.com from 10am today for details and to book tickets for a fiver.

Theatre offer

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Save £5 (10%) on the inflatable HandiRack roof rack

If you needed evidence that we truly are in the 21st century then check this out: the inflatable roof rack. Nope, it's not a joke. It is, we think, a stroke of geniuis. You can keep it in the boot, whip it out and strap on your boat, your wardrobe or your surfboard. It's Australian. It fits all cars with doors. And until 1 July it's on offer at £50, down from £55.

Find out more about HandiRack

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Free: listen to the Sex Pistols final concert

All right, so this is of pretty niche interest but for aficionados, the farewell gig of the founders of UK punk is worth bunging the headphones on this lunchtime for. And as money-saving goes, it's free. So go on spend a session in the presence of John, Sid, Paul and Steve: the Sex Pistols. It's 'obnoxious and stirring', it says here, 'from one of the most influential bands in the history of rock music'. Enjoy:

The Sex Pistols Concert, Winterland San Francisco
14 Jan 1978

If that's not your thing there's plenty of other musical diversions on the site to while away an hour or so. But you do need to register first.

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Oz, New Zealand flights sale: from £357 return

This is getting ridiculous. Fly to Australia and New Zealand from September to December for less than £400 with Singapore Airlines.  Understandably there aren't many dates left. But worth a look nonetheless.

http://www.netflights.com/airlineoffers/singapore-airlines/?srcid=C_1

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£50 Boots voucher if you book your holiday on Expedia

Says Expedia.co.uk: "Book Any Holiday for travel between the 20th July 2009 and 31st October 2009 for 4 Nights or more to receive a £50 Boots Gift Card, Hurry this offer is only available until the 22nd June 2009"

http://www.expedia.co.uk/daily/voucher/tc_travelhook2_uk.aspx

Details of the offer will show up once you've selected a trip.

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Save 17.5% on this beast of a shredder - £33, down from £40

Odd isn't it, that before technology took over our lives we had a whole lot less paperwork to worrry about? Time was you kept it until needed then burned it.

Now we have to destroy all evidence that we have bank accounts, buy stuff, use the phone or the cash machine but fire is an unacceptable means to destruction. No, we have to turn each sheet into 4mm strips of pet cage padding. We have to shred.

For those in the know, there's a double irony here in the form of Fred The Shred, the now multi-millionaire pensioner who oversaw the shredding of RBS.

But the rest of us can't just walk away from our responsibilities. We have to buy a machine capable of turning everything to do with our bank into rubbish.

And here's one that's looking like a decent deal.

The Fellowes Cross Cut P-48C shredder is on offer at Ryman for £32.99 (was £39.99) + delivery.

It's big and it's robust. Rather like RBS before it made the biggest loss in our banking history.

You can read some glowing reviews on Amazon (£40) with free delivery. But the advantage of Ryman is you can pick it up in store for the same discounted price.* You just need to carry it. It's a bit of a beast.

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>> Read more articles like this in the book

(*And the Ryman website isn't working.)

New car rental comparison service

Another site to add to our ever growing armoury of sites to check out before doing stuff is mercifully probably one worth checking out.

It's a car rental comparing tool from the people at the flights comparison service, Skyscanner. 

Here you go:

http://www.skyscanner.net/car-hire/

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Does anyone have a razor blade sharpener?

Following on from our story and blogon the cost of razor heads, we have been contacted by Mankind - that's a shop rather than everyone - urging us to try the RazorPit blade sharpener.

With a price tag of £20 it's not something to throw money at without some kind of reassurance of its efficacy.

This one, and it's not the same, gets a resounding thumbs down from American razor sharpener reviewers.

So if anyone has beard tested the RazorPit, drop a comment on this post. We need to know.

http://www.mankind.co.uk/RazorPit-Razor-Blade-Sharpener-PRODRPPS1/

 

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Free return journeys with Virgin Trains

You need to buy the Mirror newspaper for the daily PIN but this is worth checking out:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/virgintrains

Buy green stuff - it's gradually getting cheaper

Is it just me or are environmentally friendly but ultimately pointless gift items merely the real world equivalent of that stuff physicists dream of: anti matter?

What exactly is the green benefit in making something no one wants whatever it's made of?

OK, maybe it is just me, but bowls made of old vinyl records  is a kind of sacrilege in my world. Especially when you can make them yourself in the grill. Recipe: take old record, heat up, wrap round bowl to form shape. Blah. Why not just play them as they were intended?

That said, there are some interesting items available on the revamped Big Green Switch site. Check out:

http://www.biggreenswitch.co.uk/ 

and visit the shop, where many items are now discounted or available for bulk buying.

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More French holiday discounts

Continuing this little series of Nobody Wants To Go To France Any More Because it's Too Damn Expensive But It Seems They've Cottoned On And Are Dropping Prices, I bring you another holiday sale.

This time from PV-Holidays, where discounts of between 20% and 40% are available for the summer holidays. PV run usually upmarket holiday villages for families.  

The offer includes the brands Pierre & Vacances, Maeva, Latitudes Hotels, Residences MGM. Adagio City Aparthotels are not included in this offer. The discount is available on bookings made for stays of minimum 2 nights between 7 May 2009 and 15 November 2009.

http://www.pv-holidays.com/

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Festivals that don't cost the earth and aren't sold out or in fields (and feature Amy Macdonald)

Amy Macdonald: she came, she had a number one album and then she went. Except she didn't. She's massive on continental Europe - and with the value of the pound against the euro creeping back up (a bit), you can catch her in concert in Arras in July. 

I mention this because festival season is about to get underway for another year and with the likes of T in the Park already sold out at £72.50 a day ticket, it may be time to look across the water for alternatives.

The Main Square Festival is not only more accessible for many people than T in the Glaswegian Park, it's cheaper and the venue is an attractive one, set among the city centre's striking 19th century architecture. The line up over four days is pretty impressive:

>> Lily Allen
>> Birdy Nam Nam
>> Bloc Party
>> Crookers
>> Coldplay
>> Duffy
>> Expatriate
>> Michael Franti
>> Franz Ferdinand
>> Ghinzu
>> Gossip
>> Kaiser Chiefs
>> Lenny Kravitz
>> M Ward
>> Amy Macdonald
>> Moby
>> Justin Nozuka
>> Katy Perry
>> Phoenix
>> Placebo
>> Sébastien Tellier
>> The Ting Tings
>> Kanye West

And the best thing is tickets are still available and cost 55 and 60 euros, a saving of more than 10% over parity at current rates. 

Check out the festival website, in English, here

Ticket information here - in French.

More ticket information - in English

Yeah I know you need to cross the Channel but Seafrance has some interesting fares from £29 each way. And an overnight return on Eurotunnel is around the same. There are also special rail fares and extra trains.

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Flybe flights sale extended

Only until the end of today, but there are some interesting offers available through to the end of August.

http://www.flybe.com/

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