Miss Thrifty

Yes, I know that Bonjela tastes nice, but here’s a cheaper idea from Frugal Grandma. Speaking from personal experience, it works very well. I must warn you though: this is a very British cure that isn’t for the faint-hearted. It is – quite literally – upper lip-stiffening stuff.

Frugal Grandma says: (more…)

Argos is doing a good deal on this Nicky Clarke Dryer & Straightener Gift Box: £24.99, reduced from £69.99.

The straighteners are ceramic-coated and heat to 200 degrees in 30 seconds; the products come in a matching leather-look box. The set has gained the thumbs up in Argos customer reviews, too.

The set isn’t available via mail order, but you can reserve it via the website and pick it up at your nearest store.

I’ve never been a gym person myself. I have tried, in the past, but I can’t get into it. It’s a lot of hard work for a lot of money, to stare at a blank wall (or worse, a flatscreen showing a dippy MTV reality show) while inhaling muscle mens’ vapourised sweat.

Mind you, my plans to take my exercise in the outdoors have come a cropper recently, due to the inclement weather: it’s hard to run or walk on solid ice and snow! My proposed regime may be low-cost, but it is also made more difficult by the pitch black early mornings and Yorkshire’s Arctic winds. If the weather carries on like this, I may reconsider the whole gym thing.

So FruGal’s tips on choosing the right gym have come at just the right time! There are lots of really useful ideas – all borne of experience. If you have made a New Year’s Resolution to lose weight, get fit or both, I’d recommend that you hop on over (you can star jump your way over if you like) and check them out…

I love reading Sharon Rose’s Vintage, Fashion, Me blog. Sharon Rose has an admirable talent for excavating gorgeous clothes from charity and thrift shops: a Marc Jacobs dress for £5, anyone? So I took the opportunity to ask, how does she do it?

The lovely Miss Thrifty has given me the honour of doing a guest post while she is away.

For anyone who is not familiar with my blog, I have a love of modern and vintage designer items, ranging from jackets, dresses, jeans and blouses to handbags, shoes and accessories. I especially enjoy sourcing these from charity shops and boot sales around where I live. I’m very lucky that there is an abundance of charity shops and regular boot sales, so I generally have great chances of picking up good quality items.
Here are my tips for picking out fabulous pieces: (more…)

This hair clipper set from Tesco is only £6.99. It comes with the different sized combs, so that you can select how short you want the hair to be, plus other accoutrements such as scissors and a comb. Not only is a good price – cheaper than a paid-for haircut! – but it saves money in the long run too. Once you have one of these sets, the need to visit the barber flies out the window.

I should add that I don’t cut my own hair with clippers. No no no. I do cut my husband’s hair with one of these sets, and I can honestly say that it is a terrific investment. It takes minutes, and it’s easy to do.

Once upon a time I used to send him out to my own preferred salon in Mayfair, at £55 a pop, to have his follicles tended to by a stylist called Rachel who “understood his hair”. Looking back, I can’t quite believe I insisted on this: not is £55 a very expensive men’s haircut, but my husband and grooming go together like a cat and water. He would have been happier with the clippers all along.

Anyway, this set can be ordered from Tesco’s website and I’d get in quick, as the line is about to be discontinued.

You know how, if you take one simple financial decision out of the ordinary, it can snowball really easily?

Well, a few weeks ago I went and had a haircut. This didn’t turn out quite as I had hoped. I told the hair stylist that I’d be happy as long as he didn’t give me “a mullet or one of those godawful Rachel-From-Friends cuts”. (Hello! the 1990s were over years ago!) Anyway, for reasons best known to himself, the stylist decided to translate this request into a mullety Rachel-From-Friends cut. It looked okay in the salon but after I washed my hair at home, I looked like this: (more…)

YSL’s Touche Eclat is still the best under-eye concealer on the market – but if you’re put off by the £18 price tag, the Lacura range of cosmetics is well worth a look. The products are available from Aldi stores.

The Lacura concealer pen looks like Touche Eclat and the concealer goes on on like Touche Eclat – but at £3.49, it’s a fraction of the price. 

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.