A Magical Christmas with #PayPalMoments
Christmas shopping makes an already busy time of year even more hectic and too often we find ourselves trekking around the shops instead of enjoying all of the festive excitement with our families. It's even worse when you have to drag small children out into the cold to get your shopping done too! PayPal got in touch to see if they could make Christmas shopping a little easier for me this year and, with a very excited two and four year old, and pregnancy symptoms to contend with I was delighted to accept.
PayPal gave me some pennies towards my Christmas shopping and I headed over to their 'Where to Shop' page to see exactly how many different retailers accept PayPal. I'm used to using my PayPal account on eBay and a few other sites and I was really impressed by the vast range of merchants featuring on their site.
My very first port of call wasn't for Christmas presents, however, I've had my eye on these beautiful Katie dungarees from Frugi, I love the festive deer print and I know they will be perfect for LM over the Christmas period and the Winter months.
She looks adorable in them!
I've been quite well organised this year and Bud and LM's presents are sorted, unless I spot a few last minute bargains. I've also been able to sort out gifts for the tiny niece and small nephews. However, this leaves me with around twenty other people to buy for! Eeep. Some of these are just a small token gift and a lot of them are outdoorsy so I headed off to Blacks and Mountain Warehouse to pick up some of those essential gadgets that Scout Leaders can't be with out.
Moving on from there I hit up Lakeland and BHS for men's gifts. A new, very snuggly dressing gown and a home brew kit are heading the way of two of our male relatives this Christmas.
I placed an order with Boots Online and then headed over to eBay for my niece's gift She reads my blog so I can't tell you what it is but, suffice to say, it is one of the more unusual gifts that I've had to purchase! I've also made a Groupon purchase for a lovely day out for a very special lady.
Whenever I shop online I find myself searching for discount codes to reduce the price of my basket and I also use Quidco to see if the merchant offers cashback on purchases. Some even link to your PayPal account and offer an increased rate of cashback when you pay using PayPal. Bonus! Free delivery codes or with a certain spend or the ability to collect in store means that ordering online needn't cost anymore than trekking to the shops yourself, although having a partner who works in the City Centre of Manchester is a benefit for in-store collection.
My list is getting progressively shorter and I only have a few more gifts to select. I think another couple of hours browsing with PayPal and I will be all done. I'm going to check out the PayPal Offers page to see what's on offer. There is currently a £20 off when you spend £50 on your first order at Achica, this is a site I browse all the time but haven't ordered from yet and I'm sure they will have something lovely for a lady or two who I'm yet to buy for.
Over the next couple of weeks I'm going to be sharing our #PayPalMoments with you - the special family time that we've had as PayPal have made our Christmas preparations so much easier. We've just got back from a gorgeous weekend in Snowdonia which we would never have had time for if we'd had to hit the high street for Christmas shopping.
PayPal have a terrific competition running on Facebook at the moment. Tell them about your special Christmas moment for the chance to win an amazing prize - this week it's an iPad! If you are doing your shopping with PayPal then remember to enter their Win Christmas, five lucky people will win the cost of their Christmas shopping back every week (up to the value of £1000), you can enter every time you check out with PayPal. Check out the #PayPalMoments hashtag on Twitter for further chances to win.
Disclosure: I was supplied with PayPal credit in exchange for working with them on the #PayPalMoments campaign.
