Bargain Hunter

Well as a father of two hungry little boys to feed and an even hungrier bank account to pay all the bills, I am always on the look out for a good bargain. Last week I managed to pick up what I consider to be three very good bargains for the boys. Some of you have already seen the first bargain which is this rather amazing bouncy castle. Both boys absolutely love it and when weather permits them to play in the garden they are both constantly bundling each other on it and clambering out of the side windows. So what was the cost of this bargain - a big fat zero courtesy of a work colleague who kindly gave it to the boys.

I picked up the second bargain on Friday evening courtesy of e-bay and a kind seller from Maldon. I have been looking around for a scooter or balance bike for the boys and stumbled across this Lightning McQueen one in immaculate condition. Normally retails for around £35, cost on e-bay £7.50! Joshua is convinced it is a skate board like what Norman uses on Fireman Sam and keeps asking for the handle part to be taken off.

The final bargain is the dearest of the 3 but probably the show stopper. Both boys have shown a keen interest in diggers and dumpers from various books to their toy diggers and dumpers. Previous blogs have shown how I have been teaching them how diggers, dumpers, steam rollers etc work using sand and stones in the garden. Well I was hunting around for a cheap sit on digger that they could play with in the garden and won this little beauty off of e-bay for the grand sum of £10.50! It is in immaculate condition, comes complete with builders hat and is fully battery operated with full digger articulation. The intention was for this to be a cheap toy to dump in the garden for the boys to play with, but it is so good that we have decided to keep it indoors. Joshua seems very reluctant to share this one at the moment and currently is taking priority over his beloved Little Tykes Police Car. That might be a good thing for Brandon as he will probably now get more time in the police car.

The only bad thing about this digger is that I kind of shot myself in the foot by showing the boys how diggers pick up stones and sand. Yes you can guess exactly what happens now, the boys pick up all the stones in the garden and bring them in to the house to fill the digger up with. So now I am having to teach them that the stones and dirt stay in the garden and that we fill the digger with little balls or small toys when inside.