Miss Thrifty

If you are like me and you haven’t yet got round to buying your Christmas tree and all the assorted guff, you may be (festively) cheered to hear that Sainsburys has cut its Christmas decorations, tree toppers and fairy lights to half-price. And they were good value to begin with. The little mirror ball baubles (above) have been reduced from £4.00 to £2.00.

If you are planning a trip to the Angels Vintage Sale  (aka The Clothes Sale of my Dreams) on Saturday 6 December, have you seen this?

Angels is running a prize draw to give a small number of vintage fans the opportunity to be the first people through the doors: (more…)

A yummy mummy pal of mine, shopping for Christmas presents for her four-year-old, has just scored £52.00 worth of toys from Littlewoods Direct for £22.00 plus postage.

Here’s how she did it:

1. Littlewoods has launched a 3 for 2 offer, covering more than 2,500 toys, gifts and jewellery items. This offer expires at midnight on 30 November.
2. What’s more, this offer comes on top of a slew of slashed prices. Some of the toys (such as the Fifi dolls, above, selling at £12.00 down from £26.00) have already been reduced to less than half-price.
3. If you click on the link for this promotional codes website, you will also get some great discount codes: one gets you £15.00 off your first order (minimum spend £25.00) and another gets you £10.00 off when you spend £30.00 or more.  (more…)

Hello! I’m your Thrifty Christmas Fairy. Struggling to keep track of all the panic-stricken stores slashing prices ahead of Christmas? Rest assured that this lil’ thrifty blog is at your service!

You’ll find a list of all the current sales below. I’ll be keeping this post on my front page and updating it whenever new information is released.

Have I missed anything? If so, please let me know via the comments and I’ll add it to the Christmas Deals Master List pronto…

UPDATE – find links to all the UK Christmas sales and offers here.

12 DECEMBER

Oasis: 25 per cent off, both in-store and online. Click here for details.

08 DECEMBER

New discount code for Firebox.com

03 DECEMBER

Marks & Spencer – 20 per cent off everything tomorrow. Woohoo! The discount also applies to goods on the M&S website.

Harvey Nichols – 25 per cent off fashion and accessories between now and 7 December. The discount will be applied at the checkout. Mind you, if you are Christmas shopping at Harvey Nichols then you are probably reading the wrong blog…

Dorothy Perkins – 20 per cent off everything on Thursday 4 December and Friday 5 December.

Coast – 30 per cent off until midnight on 9 December.

Laura Ashley – 20 per cent off coats, knitwear and party dresses until 14 December.

Knickerbox – 20 per cent off everything between Friday 5 December and Sunday 7 December.

Burton – 20 per cent off on Thursday 4 December and Friday 5 December.

02 DECEMBER

Debenhams – Oooooh – another three-day sale bonanza is on the cards! The reports say that prices will be slashed by 20 per cent again. The sale begins tomorrow (3 December) and ends on Friday.

29 NOVEMBER

Half-price Christmas decorations at Sainsburys.

28 NOVEMBER

A handy round-up of the latest deals in today’s Times:

Threshers, Wine Rack, Victoria Wine Until Tuesday, 40 per cent off all wine and champagne

Gap Until tomorrow, 30 per cent off everything with voucher

Jaeger Until tomorrow, 30 per cent off men’s and women’s accessories with printout of e-mail in own stores and online, not in concessions

Harvey Nichols 12 Days of Christmas shopping to December 7, 25 per cent off men’s and women’s fashion and accessories

Selfridges Christmas Comes Early voucher today and tomorrow, 20 per cent off with voucher; 10 per cent off fragrance, beauty

Whistles Until Monday, 25 per cent off everything in store and online with voucher

Karen Millen Until Monday, 20 per cent off everything on sale in store and online with voucher

BhS Today, extra 20 per cent off

Woolworths Until tomorrow, 10 per cent off music, DVDs, games hardware and software, phones and accessories, electricals, electronic instruments and sat-navs with voucher; 20 per cent off everything else with voucher

JJB Sports Until December 14, 20 per cent off children’s character clothing with voucher

Adams Kids Until December 7, 20 per cent off on all purchases in store with voucher

Liberty Tuesday to Friday, Liberty cardholders only, 50 per cent off men’s and women’s fashion; 20 per cent off everything else; 10 per cent off beauty and fragrance

Marks & Spencer December 4, (unconfirmed) 20 per cent off most stock except food.

(more…)

So you want to win a car, huh? Well, Citroen is hosting a competition to win one of its new-fangled C5 models. You can enter for free online, by going to this page of Citroen’s website.

I’m no Jeremy Clarkson – you’ve seen what I drive - so here’s the official blurb:

The new C5 is as dynamic as it is distinctive and this is your chance to win the C5 2.0 HDi Exclusive Saloon. With half leather and heated front seats, alloy wheels, air conditioning, laminated side windows & an acoustic noise filtered cabin this prize will delight one lucky winner.

Here is a review and specs.

The winner’s car will be taxed for six months and – best of all, in my shallow opinion – you can choose your colour. The competition is open to UK residents and the closing date is 19 January 2009.

Like M&S, Debenhams is going big on sales and heavy discounts in the run-up to Christmas. Check out the Debenhams website for the full range of offers.

I’m looking for new luggage at present: it’s horribly expensive and up until now, we’ve been the grateful recipients of our parents’ cast-offs. (Why do parents buy so much luggage?) However, the old case that I dragged off to America decided to divorce its trolley handle en route; hauling the thing around four states was most irksome. Lesson learned…

…So the Debenhams suitcase above, which weighs 3.2 kg and stands 42 cm high, has caught my eye. It has been reduced from £110.00 to an extremely attractive £20.00. Perfect!

Well, I’m still suffering horribly with jetlag but at least I’m unpacked now. I hope to post more about our Thrifty Roadtrip over the coming days; right now I’m still trawling through my crammed RSS reader, and wondering how I’m ever going to edit 500+ photos down to a manageable number. Anyway, I’m delighted to report that we had a fabulous time, and really didn’t want to come home.

Heck, even the gas stations were scenic!

Short notice, I know, but on Thursday Marks & Spencer is holding a one-off, one-day sale with 20 per cent off.

The Times reports:

Tomorrow’s sale at M&S, which starts online at one minute past midnight, is its biggest pre-Christmas promotion for four years and will include all clothing and home lines in addition to wine and Christmas food gifts.

As many as 24 M&S stores will trade until midnight on Thursday, so shoppers can make the most of the discounts. A spokeswoman for Marks & Spencer said: “We are trading competitively in what is a very volatile market. We want to make sure that we get our share of every £1 spent.”

Now, if I hadn’t mainlined all my spondulicks into a Target store in Mesa, Arizona last week – a prolonged afternoon of consumerist ecstasies that cost relatively few British pounds sterling, and necessitated an additional suitcase on the way back home - I would be at M&S on the dot, lungeing for the cashmere rails.

I love M&S cashmere. I don’t bother anymore with the cheap-as-chips cashmere from Tesco, Asda et al: in my experience it’s fine for the first couple of wears, but soon takes on an all-round shabby appearance. Nothing says “cheap cashmere” like moulting sleeves and bobbled armpits! (more…)

I’m back! I’m jetlagged and should be in bed in right now, but instead I’m trolling the net and I just came across this:

 
I love Angels: it’s an amazing theatrical costumier in London. The owner wants to clear some space and has filled a Wembley warehouse with boxes and bags full of vintage clothes from the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, to be sold off at rock-bottom prices at a one-day sale next month.

Style blogger Mademoiselle Robot says:

It will feature items from the 1930s till now and they will not be priced individually but by bag. You will be able to get a medium bag for £10 (able to hold a suit and shirt, or three dresses) or a supersize one for £20 & then fill it with pieces from BIBA, Quorum, YSL, Bus Stop, Jaques Azagury, & Jean Muir or high street labels of the past thirty years like Chelsea Girl, Jaeger, Joseph, French Connection, Stirling Cooper, Artwork Blue & Stefanel.

Period military uniforms and costumes featured on BBC shows will also be for sale. Angels has published full details about its vintage clothing sale here, and here’s the skinny:

Date: 6 December 2008.

Time: 9 am to 5 pm (frankly, I’d get there early).

Venue: 3 Boundary Road, Wembley, HA9 7ND.

Map: voila!

I wouldn’t miss this for the world, but 6 December is also my husband’s birthday so I’m not sure how I’m going to work it…

UPDATE: See this later post about the Angels sale, for details of a prize draw plus their list of rules for would-be buyers.

I asked my Frugal Grandma if she would provide holiday cover while I am away on my Thrifty Roadtrip this week. Frugal Grandma can do anything…

When you make fruit pies put the bottom layer of pastry in the tin, paint with egg and leave to dry. This stops the bottom of the pie from becoming soggy with juice. Use the rest of the egg to paint over the top of the pie before you sprinkle with sugar, and this will make it nice and shiny. Try not to put too much juicy liquid into the pie as it will make its own when it cooks.

When you make a bread and butter pudding, put a smear of marmalade in the bottom of the dish. This greatly improves it.

At Christmas, mince pies are often a bit rich when you have been stuffing yourself. So in our family we always make a lot of little apple pies, which seem to go much faster. Don’t forget to make the tops of the mince and apple a bit different so you know which is which.

- Frugal Grandma