Sweeten a trip to the shops for the kids

Last weekend I was determined to spend less money and I hit upon the perfect solution: a trip to The Oaks, a discount shopping centre on Acton High Street. In addition to the usual Communist-era Polish deli - where one entire wall is given over to giant bags of crisps - it has an Iceland, a Netto, a Poundstretcher, a Savers and a 99p store. The Oaks is like the evil twin brother of Westfield, the £3 billion retail park that opened last autumn in Shepherd's Bush. Westfield embodies the hopes and dreams of a nation pumped up on easy credit; The Oaks is where you go after you've woken up and smelt the coffee.

To my jaundiced eye, the vast array of merchandise on sale in 99p stores looked like so much bric-a-brac - the kind of cheap, plastic tat you see lying by the side of the road in Acton. But to my son and daughter, it was an Aladdin's cave of consumer delights. I gave them each a pound and told them to hunt down the best bargain in the shop, whereupon they set about their task with the dedication of forensic scientists. I felt like Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive: "What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area. Checkpoints go up at 15 miles."

I'm not exaggerating when I say it kept them busy for hours. I left them in the shop, went off and bought a bag of seven Crunchies for £1.49 in Poundstretcher, and by the time I returned they still hadn't progressed beyond the first aisle. Every item was picked up, thoroughly examined, then returned to the shelf or placed in a trolley, depending on whether it qualified for the short list. Needless to say, at the end of this painstaking process, they each opted for the same thing: a huge jar of boiled sweets. It was the bargain of the century. Not only did £2 keep them occupied for the whole afternoon but at the end of the excursion they had enough sweets to last them a year.