Christmas shopping magazines and colour supplements etc

The only ones I actually 'get' myself are the free 'glossy' ones from Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose. Full of interesting recipes, tips, best buys and gardening/home ideas.

I use the non glossy ones to light the fire

When I helped out at our local newsagent's, he used to throw any catalogues straight into the bin. The paper boys had enough weight to carry, without all that excess. Sunday papers are also difficult enough to fit through peoples' letterboxes without all that extra rubbish to add to their problems.

There must be some people who buy these 'gifts' as advertising is very expensive and companies must find it worthwhile.

I bought a Christmas edition of a magazine to get me in the mood but started hyperventilating half way through! What to wear, what to cook, how to decorate your house, what if you get unexpected visitors, present ideas for relatives and stocking fillers at prices that stand to be main presents in our family and, oh, that new idea of Christmas Eve boxes. Aaaaagh!!!!

Oh yes - I looked at the 'White Company' Christmas brochure and their reduced socks for ladies were almost £50 and described as 'Stocking fillers'. How we laughed.

No, I bin them, especially after seeing a page of “stocking fillers” where the cheapest item was over £50!

I have the woman and home magazine and the Christmas magazine is doing best buys. One was the co op Christmas pudding, so I bought one will see what it’s like at Christmas ?

I love advertising brochures & catalogues. Even got an Ikea & Argos printed catalogue while waiting for my broadband installation (9 weeks - remind me what century this is please!). Always research online before buying anything but find they are good for ideas. It's kind of like window shopping (let your fingers do the walking?) - and there are very few shops where I live now.

My mother is 98 and spends longer looking at the advertising media than the paper itself. It keeps her happy for hours - wonderful peace and quiet!

Book People leaflet is always worth looking at if you have children or adults who like books. It does give a rough guide to age for children, but depends on the child. My 8 year old GD, skimming through it found The Potion Diaries collection. I did ‘look inside’ for the first book in Amazon, so she could try it and since she liked it I’ve bought the trilogy for £5.99 from the Book People instead of £5.48 for one book on Amazon.

Oh dear, that should have read “ a wise friend “

A week she friend once reminded me that advertising is simply information.
The way we view it is our own take, and how we choose to be influenced.

I look through the adverts to check prices on the things I am contemplating buying, whether presents or foodstuffs.

Here we can go online and state which firms' adverts we want to receive, which cuts down on the waste.

I can't be bothered to read anything like that or magazines in general unless I'm in the hairdressers - I certainly never buy anything advertised in them.

Like you, Pythagorus I found Mumsnet quite alarming. There seems to be so much aggression, the language is pretty lively and the advice is often so drastic that you can begin to fear for society in the future if some of these Mums are bringing up children to feel just the same! There is so much in the way of good humour, good sense and comforting words on here - I would be lost without my daily dose now.

I totally agree with Rosina . I have taken the Good Housekeeping magazine for years and won't be renewing when this subscription runs out. Glossy photos of dresses for £1000's and shoes and bags for £5-600 + who on earth are they aimed at? Not me that's for sure.

I don’t like how every magazine is front to back Christmas: fashion, gifts, decorations and food. It’s quite a lazy way to produce a magazine and I won't buy these editions.

Don’t know if it is true, but I heard recently that as the Royal Mail get less post to deliver these days, they are making up for it by delivering more junk mail.
If we had to pay for collecting our paper rubbish by weight, I should be very annoyed.
(I know we do pay for rubbish collections by way of our rates, but what if they were to increase the cost?)

an item ...is usually cheaper else where..

if you look around you can usually get the iutem a lot cheaper. google what you are looking at.

I have stopped buying magazines, mainly because they are all advertising and as you say, the recommendations are ridiculous. I used to only go for ones with fiction in them, which no one seems to do any more. Essentials sounds good though.

I entered a competition on Gransnet and ever since I have received many letters/magazines from companies I have never dealt with. I thought I had ticked/un-ticked all the boxes. Just shows, no matter how net savvy you are it can go wrong

Straight in the bin here too. Same as all the photo’ keepsake supplements of the Royal family.

I always look through wondering who on earth would buy either tat or fiercely expensive things like candles! this year? Well, I was leafing through and found two excellent presents for theGDs. And I got a 20% discount - am rather pleased...