I buy a lot of things online but I also like to be able to send things back if I don't like them. That's where I think La Redoute have the right idea. Although they charge £3.99 post and packing you can do what is called a replacement order. Basically how this works is you receive your parcel, try everything on and then decide what to send back (with me there is always something). Then you decide which other items you want to order to try instead. Once you have the catalogue numbers of the items you want to try, then you give them call. Simply say you want to place a replacement order, let them know what is going back and what you want instead. Then they arrange a courier to pick up the items that are going back and you get a new parcel of goodies to try without having to pay another £3.99 postage. The best part is you can do this as many times as you want, so can quite happily work your way through the catalogue without worrying about being stuck with an item you don't like and can't return. The only way they could improve this service is if they let me do my replacement order online. I wonder whether they might consider adding this option to their website.

I notice that spam seems to come in waves. You seem to get one email followed in the next few days and weeks by thousands of similar ones. The latest wave seems to be these emails that try to convince you there is a parcel waiting for you at customs, such as the email below. I'm currently receiving around a hundred of these every day. I can't help wondering whether anyone actually believes that they do have a parcel to collect and responds to the email.

Dear Sirs,

We have received a parcel for you, sent from France on July 9. Please fill out the customs declaration attached to this message and send it to us by mail or fax. The address and the fax number are at the bottom of the declaration form.

Kind regards,

Your Customs Service

If you have trouble finding a sofa that matches your living room you might want to look at a bespoke option. Sofa specialist John Alan Designs can produce a sofa to match the size, colour and style of your room. They have a catalogue of different fabrics to choose from but can also use fabrics you already have. They can also use wood to match your current furnishings. Its an interesting idea but at a cost of £2,000 per sofa, a little out of my price range. Maybe one day if I win the lottery.

I am used to checking my email and finding an inbox full of spam but it really only occurred to me how many I actually receive when I didn't read my email for a day at the weekend. I was shocked to find that in just that one day I had over 2,000 spam messages. The majority of them had been sent to junk mail folder but I still find I have to wade through in case my spam filter has been overzealous and picked up messages that I do want to read. My main problem at the moment appears to be undeliverable emails that are being returned to my inbox because my email address is listed as the sender. Obviously I didn't send the emails in the first place but because my email address has been entered as the sender by some unscrupulous spammer I get the pleasure of an inbox full of spam. What I would really like to do is track these people down and kill them.

I do my shopping monthly so usually shop online because my ford fiesta is simply too small to take a months worth of groceries. I was surprised that the usually quite reliable Sainsbury's website was down when I tried to place an order on Wednesday. It appears the issue was caused by by a technical problem which meant they couldn't process any orders. What did surprise me was the website was down all of Thursday as well and the issue only appears to have been resolved today. Apparently during those few days more than 30,000 customers have not received their orders, with all deliveries being cancelled on Wednesday, Thursday and today. The good news for people that use the Sainsbury's online service, is it appears to be working correctly now, so fingers crossed the problem is fully resolved by next weekend when I am expecting my delivery.

It was my Dads birthday a few days ago and as I wasn’t able to see him on the day I sent him a gift. I used this website called realbeerbox.com. They carry a range of beers and real ales from some of the smaller, lesser known breweries. My Dad is always keen to try new ales so I ordered a case of mixed bottles. It’s the second time I have used them and I have been impressed both times. They delivered when they said they would and according to my Dad the bottles were wrapped securely in a large box. He seemed very impressed. I will definitely be using them again.

I was on the Virgin Wine website the other day, checking to see when my discovery club case was going to arrive and I discovered wine auctions. Basically they have about ten cases of wine in an auction which usually lasts a couple of hours. The cases start at 99p and have no reserve. However, I haven't seen any cases actually sell for under £30. Anyway I placed a bid, not really thinking I would win and ended up with a case of Merlot, which I will review here shortly. I got the case for just over £30, so it works out to less than £3 a bottle. It looks like I have just found a new way to spend my hard earned cash.

I read this article about a virtual farmers market called localfoodshop.com and thought it was a really good idea. The virtual market is not live yet but is due to launch next month. The site will allow farmers to sell their produce online for a £10 a month subscription fee. The farmers will keep 93% of whatever they make on the website, which is currently much more than they make selling their produce through the supermarket.

The reason I liked the idea, was because I like to try and buy all my produce through local farmers if at all possible, mainly because the quality is better and the food is fresher. However, it isn’t always possible. We do have farmers markets in the area but generally if I need something quickly I find myself having to buy it in Tesco. Customers will be able to search the website by postcode to find suppliers near them. The website will also encourage producers in the same area to combine deliveries, making the service more environmentally friendly. I am waiting for the launch of the site with interest and will certainly be giving it a go, so watch this space for the review.

I read this interesting article about the top 100 travel websites. It lists everything from where to stay, sites that give you inside information, holiday bargins and travel essentials. It's certainly worth checking out some of the websites it mentions.

I usually like to do my research before trying out a new restaurant particularly if we are going into London because the extra expense of the train fare makes for a costly evening, so you don’t want to be disappointed by as bad restaurant. That’s why I look for reviews from people that have already been there. At www.trustedplaces.com you can look up a London restaurant and see opinions of people that have visited it recently. You can also leave your own opinions once you have been there. This site, helps take a lot of the guesswork out of finding a good restaurant and I will definitely be adding it to my favourites to use in the future.

I am always looking for new recipes to try and found BigOven.com Recipe Community which is an interesting recipe swapping website. You can search over 160,000 recipes by ingredient, occasion or cuisine. One thing I particularly liked about the website is that the recipes include a photo of how the finished recipe should look which is always useful. The website also has software to help you to create grocery lists and meal plans, so if you have special diet then it could be really helpful. You can also upload your own recipes, complete with photograph. As an incentive they have a monthly prize of $100 for the best recipe photo submitted. As someone who regularly posts photos of my cooking on my blog I might give this go to see if I can earn a bit of extra cash.

I found this really interesting quiz. It has 10 websites and challenges you to spot which are the real sites and which are the fakes. I got six out of ten.

I have noticed over the last month or so that most of the spam I get seems to contain simply a PDF attachment. I was wondering whether this was a new tactic designed to fool people into opening up a dodgy file. I came across this article today that claim spammers have stopped sending pictures in their emails and instead started attaching PDF’s. It appears that they are doing this to try and get around corporate spam filters. So far, it appears to be getting through my spam filter quite effectively with several hundred of these spam mails with PDF attachments arriving each day. Whilst my daily amount of spam mails continues to rise, I suppose one good thing about this latest trend is I don’t have to read about Viagra or penis enlargement unless I actually open the PDF.

I’m still getting used to my new iPod that my husband brought me for my wedding