There is nothing that compares to a trip to IKEA. There are currently three stores across London. They are located in Wembly, Edmonton and Croydon. You will notice that a lot of furniture in house shares are bought from IKEA once you visit IKEA. Why are they bought there? Well the furniture and accessories are cheap and modern and you will be suckered into buying at least something when you browse around.

We have only been to the one in Croydon as we live close by but I am pretty sure that they are all alike and it is like no other experience. There are about three of their own café’s scattered around the store. You start off with a design display of living rooms, lounges, studies, bedrooms, bathrooms and even patio furniture. These are complete sets you can touch and sit on. Loved walking around it but be warned that there is a lot of walking involved. You can skip this whole step and take a shortcut to the Market Hall where you can buy all the accessories you need, anything from backpacks, duvets, pots, candles and plants. Everything you will possibly need is under one roof.

You can always take a break half way and store your trolley and have some wonderful Scandinavian lunch in their food court. Quite cheap as well and their breakfast is quite famous. You can buy their breakfast which includes a sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs, hash browns and a tomato for £0.99, not too bad hey!  

Finally you will reach a massive warehouse where you will need to get the stuff you need yourself from the shelves. That is why you needed to walk through the design display to get the codes and product availability from staff members on the floor. It is all quite easy and they have lots of staff members to help you out if you get stuck along the way. I must warn you that you will spend a lot of cash on things you probably do not need because it is so damn cheap!

Since a majority of Londoners are skinned in January we decided that we needed to get out of the house and we needed to do something that wouldn’t cost us a penny to do, so we decided on taking a walk to South Norwood Lake. It is truly a hidden gem in London which most Londoners do not know about.

South Norwood Lake is not as massive as I thought it would be but it still was beautiful and relaxing. A lot of people took their dogs for a walk around the lake, some even went running around the lake and others were feeding the ducks and swans. It was quite windy, would have stayed longer but could not stand another minute in the wind.

You can go fishing at South Norwood Lake but you have to read up on their rules first, certain sizes needs to be thrown back into the lake. They also have a boat club at the lake and you can become a member and rent one of their boats if you do not have your own boat to enjoy on the lake. All in all, it is a great place to visit for free and another thing in London you have to experience, at least once.

Why do we do this to ourselves every year? Spend like crazy in the holiday period even though we told everyone around us that we’re not going to spend a penny and we end up regretting it all in the end! January is a sad time for so many people around the world and if you’re living in London, you’ll feel it a little bit more. My generous employer decided to pay everyone early n December, almost two weeks early which is a big no-no if you ask me and it makes January feel like forever!

Best thing about January is that all the bills decide to come early and they all demand their money early. Trust me, you will forget about that one debit order that will go off before you get paid again causing you to get nailed with a £12 bank fee. Try to avoid everyone else’s mistakes by not falling into that trap, come December. Maybe I should raid the “Premium Bond Challenge” jar, hehe! It is not that bad yet!