Miss Thrifty

Following the steep rises in British Gas prices, Persimmon Homes has come up with an answer. Today the UK housebuilding giant put out a press release telling people to swap their current homes for new-builds.

Home owners looking to reduce this latest impact of the credit crunch on their bank balances should consider a move to a new build property, according to Persimmon Homes. Not only will purchasers save on the ongoing costs of maintenance on an older property but with new homes boasting excellent insulation they could make significant savings on their energy bills.  

Uh, right. The energy bills may be lower but truly, new-builds are not the housing option of choice for thrifty misses. This is because: (more…)

If you haven’t yet identified your cheapest energy supplier, there’s really no excuse for putting this off any longer. My quick and easy guide to doing this ASAP is at the bottom of this post.

As you may have heard British Gas, the country’s largest energy supplier, has today announced that it is raising its gas prices by 35 per cent. This is the largest single price increase in its history, and one that is going to affect an awful lot of people: British Gas supplies gas and/or electricity to nearly half of all households in the UK. Its electricity tariff is going up too, by 9.4 per cent. Since the beginning of the year, most families have seen their gas bills rise by £400 on average.

The new bills will hit pensioners particularly hard, but all customers are going to feel the effects. As The Daily Telegraph notes:

Households are defined as falling into fuel poverty when they are forced to spend 10 per cent of their disposable income on heating and lighting their home.

More than four million households are already estimated to suffer from this predicament. British Gas said it was not increase the amount it charges the 340,000 most vulnerable customers on its “essentials tariff”.

Charities pointed out that it was not just the vulnerable that would be hit, but many middle-class families, already feeling the pinch from soaring food, mortgage and transport costs would be unable to cope.

Like everyone, I was surprised to learn of such steep price increases. However, I was also stunned to discover that (more…)

Do you have houseplants? Don’t bother buying those special leaf cleaning products, such as these £3.99 Leaf Shine Wipes from Betterware.

Just pop all your plants into the bathtub or shower, and spray them from above. It washes dust from leaves, freshens plants up, takes seconds and costs nothing.

Truprint is offering 50 prints for just 50 pence. The prints are sized 6″ x 4″. You can find the voucher at MyVoucherCodes - but the offer expires on 1 August, so don’t hang about.

Morrisons is selling bunches of gorgous gladioli for just 1.49 a pop. Although the bouquets aren’t quite as sumptuous as the one pictured, it’s still a very good price. I love these flowers. I’m growing them in my garden, too.

This post from Nancy Zimmerman’s Money Coach blog gave me the chills.

Although many of her clients are affluent professionals, she has encountered a “sub-set”: women in their fifties with no money to speak of.

She writes:

Often it’s not for the reason you’d think. It’s not so much about the traditional Waiting for the Man who Never Came as this: they have lived lives based on their ideals, and forgot to include the sexiness of including a solid investment portfolio in the package.

They have pursued their dreams, things like travelling the world to do good, working for causes at low pay, or pursuing passions that didn’t pay off.

Erm, check, check and check.

I don’t mind that I’ll be turning 30 in a few months’ time, but it does mean that 50 doesn’t seem as far away as it used to. I used to presume that people got richer as they got older; now, the idea that I could be skint as retirement approaches terrifies me.

I have decided that one of my aims, over the next year, is to smash the likelihood of fiftysomething pauperdom into smithereens.

Over at NET-A-PORTER.COM, Stella McCartney’s adidas range has just been added to the site’s summer sale, with discounts of 25 per cent and 30 per cent. These “wide leg skirt pants” have been reduced to £37.50, and the “tennis tank top” is now £31.50 (it also comes in grey/white, if the fleshy pink isn’t for you).

If you’re willing and able to spend on gymwear, this is as good as it gets. If you like to look good when you’re working out and you’re not an Amazon, that is. It’s pretty and quirky – but not too quirky. You know what those gym fascists are like.

When I walked into our downstairs bathroom yesterday, I found that the walls and tiled floor were crawling with flying ants. It was a very Amityville moment, and I immediately assumed the requisite facial expression, as per Margot Kidder in aforementioned horror flick:

We have ants in the garden, but we haven’t had any indoors for ages. (That basil tip I posted last week works really well in the kitchen.) The flying ants are the sexual ants (yeuch); they swarm once a year, to mate and die as quickly as they possibly can. For some reason our bathroom, in all its sanitary glory, was selected as this year’s venue for their orgiastic ecstasies.  

They thought they were on some ant Club 18-30. Ha ha. No.

This was frickin war, man. (more…)

I’m very impressed by Princess Anne, who dusted off the dress she wore to the Prince of Wales’ wedding in 1981 and donned it again for another royal wedding at the weekend.

I’m also impressed that the white and yellow dress still fits her, 27 years later.

Here’s a snippet from the BBC website:

When asked about her frugality, Princess Anne has said: “A good suit goes on for ever. If it is properly made and has a classic look you can go on wearing it ad infinitum.

“The economy is bred into me. My parents believe that things are not to be wasted.”

Snaps.

Fill an empty perfume bottle halfway with olive oil and shake it. Voila: delicious-smelling bath oil is yours. I think I read this in Reader’s Digest half a lifetime ago. I was wary until I learned (probably from Just Seventeen or Mizz) that in lieu of body lotion, Jerry Hall moisturises by covering herself in olive oil, then wrapping herself up in clingfilm (saran wrap for American readers) and leaving it all on overnight. I have never tried this though – I think it would weird my husband out.

Oh, and if the perfume bottle has a spray nozzle and you can’t get it off, this trick also works with non-empty perfume bottles: spray a few squirts into a little oil, shake and pour.