Miss Thrifty

I hope that you are all having a great Christmas break. Right now I am having a fine ol’ time sitting on my bottom, pushing Turkish Delight into my face and watching telly, so this is just a quick post to show you these:

Homegrown Brussels sprouts! I was very impressed when I saw them. They were grown by my friend, illustrator Erica Read, whose aptitude for crafty things extends to cooking and gardening, so I shouldn’t have been surprised. But I heard that Brussels can be quite tricky to grow. Also, you have to plant them up to 6 months before you can harvest the spouts, so some forward planning is required.

Erica said that she planted the seeds out at the back of her garden a few months ago and promptly forgot all about them. She remembered them in the days before Christmas, went out there, pulled back a big frosty leaf – and there were the sprouts, all lined up on their stalks and ready to be picked and eaten. Simples!

Her timing was perfect, not just because it was Christmas but also because, according to old-timey gardeners, harvest Brussels sprouts the morning after a heavy frost and they will taste especially sweet.

If it’s that easy, I’ll have a go at growing them myself next year…

Thanks to all who entered the How To Look Good Naked…Can Change Your Life book giveaway. Congratulations to the two winners: Emma (commenter #6) and Julie Sutherland (commenter #13)!  The winning numbers were picked out of Photo Matt’s virtual hat.

I have a stash of spanking new books to give away in the New Year, on subjects ranging from frugal cooking to frugal gardening. So if you weren’t a winner this time, please keep heart – and keep your eyes peeled.

Thanks also for all the great tips about looking good and feeling good. It struck me that perhaps in January, when everybody is feeling dumpy and miserable, perhaps I could compile them in a special post for Miss Thrifty readers.

Merry Christmas all. Plenty planned for next year, including a complete site revamp – and I think we’re going to have a ball.

Miss T x

Want to win a 42″ LG LCD Flatscreen TV? There’s a new giveaway over at Coolest Gadgets – and one lucky entrant is going to have a very Happy Christmas. Here is the win a TV competition page. If you want to enter, be quick because it closes tomorrow (Christmas Eve). The competition is open to UK readers (sorry, the rest of yous).

This television, apart from being very big, is less than 3 cm thick. Apparently if you are into gadgets, this sort of information makes you go weak at the knees…

TO ENTER:

You can enter the draw one (or all) of three different ways.

* Become a fan of Coolest Gadgets on Facebook (existing fans will be automatically entered)

* Follow Coolest Gadgets on Twitter and tweet: I’ve entered to win a 42″ LG LCD TV with @GadgetsCoolest http://bit.ly/4ASneD (Retweet to enter)

* Leave a comment on this post on the Coolest Gadgets site, telling them what LG stands for.

Best of luck!

[Coolest Gadgets]

InvisibleHand is a great new tool for online shopping. In a nutshell, it ensures that you get the best possible price for your chosen item. I have been testing it out for the past few days, and I’m pleased with the results.

Two caveats: firstly, it is an add-on for use with Mozilla Firefox. Roughly a third of Miss Thrifty’s visitors use Firefox, so I thought this tool worth mentioning. If you are using Internet Explorer, Safari or Chrome, my apologies. Secondly, InvisibleHand is currently enabled for use in three countries: UK, USA and Germany.

This is how it works. You go here and install The Invisible Hand on your browser. It is free. Next time you are searching online for a specific product – a Flip Ultra HD camera, say, or a packet of soap nuts – InvisibleHand springs into action.

It searches online stores and a small text box pops up at the top of the screen to show you the lowest price and the vendor. You can then click through to purchase the item. In my opinion it is better than Google’s own shopping results, because it searches in real-time (i.e. you get the latest prices) and your results aren’t clogged up by overseas vendors who charge peanuts for the product – but the earth for shipping. I like it.

[InvisibleHand]

A couple of years ago we couldn’t find our trusty box of Christmas decorations. The box was stuffed in a remote corner of our loft, which isn’t boarded and is filled with all kinds of rubbish; trying to retrieve anything is the suburban equivalent of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

So as 25 December rolled towards us and we didn’t have as much a scrawny string of tinsel above the fireplace, I picked up a couple of cutprice bargain bin decorations from Focus DIY. I think this felt hanging decoration was about £1. As you can see, it’s a novelty advent calendar: the little Father Christmases and stockings all have numbers painted on in gold. We’re a bit old for advent calendars, but at least it added a little festive cheer to the sitting room.

Earlier this month I strung up the decoration and didn’t think anything more of it. My husband, however, had other ideas… (more…)

That free needlepoint pattern popped up in the latest Make It From Scratch carnival.

The Financial Blogger featured the post about getting digital prints for free in the Festival of Frugality.

As for those spare parts for kitchen appliances: they popped up in the Carnival of Personal Finance, hosted by Fiscal Geek.

Thanks to all.

Image credit::mrMark:

Here’s another book giveaway – and this time I have two copies to be won! How to Look Good Naked…Can Change Your Life is a glossy hardbacked book, based on the successful UK television series, which is filled with pictures, ideas and advice. It retails at £12.99, or £7.99 on Amazon.

This book would make a great present, either for you or for someone on your list. Everyone loves Gok Wan, don’t they? (Apart from readers outside the UK, who are probably reading this and thinking, “Gok wot?” Trust me, ladies – he is a world away from Carson Kressley!) This competition is open to readers around the world but I am setting a fairly short deadline, so that I can get copies posted out to UK winners in time to meet the Royal Mail’s Christmas posting deadline. (more…)

Hello! I’m your Thrifty Christmas Fairy, 2009 model. Struggling to keep track of all those slashed 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…

08/12/09

Argos: up to 50 per cent off toys.

Very.co.uk: if you are splashing the cash this Christmas (unlikely, if you’re reading this blog – but hey ho), check out  this online department store. It has up to £300 off flatscreen televisions. There is also a very tasty deal on the Nikon S630 digital camera: was £459, now £229. Total saving: £230. (more…)

You can get spare parts for just about everything these days, but Miss Thrifty reader Emily has a wee problem. (Did I just write that? Oh dear, I think I did.) Her question:

Please help Miss Thrifty – moved into a lovely new house a couple of months ago and smashed the cistern lid on the first night. Any bright ideas on where to buy a new lid? Really don’t want to have to replace the whole toilet!!!

Time to reach for the Thrifty Rolodex… I called Steve, the UK’s leading toilet spare parts supplier, to see if he could help.

Steve sighed and said that despite stocking just about every toilet spare part you can imagine, from conical sealing washers to Wirquin Jollyflush outlet valves, he no longer stocked replacement cistern lids. Apparently he’d had to pack them in industrial quantities of bubble wrap and would spend sleepless nights  worrying about smashes and breakages in transit.

However he did provide some excellent advice for Emily: (more…)