Miss Thrifty

South of the Watford Gap?

If you are in or around London at 6:30 pm on Thursday 24 February, stylist Hannah J is running a Make Do and Mend workshop on Brick Lane. The tickets are £25 each, which I thought sounded a bit dear as you can get a whole new outfit from TK Maxx for that price, but as it turns out you get quite a lot of bang for your buck (in addition to plenty of tea and cake). You get lots of tips and advice; also, you take three “tired” garments with you and are helped to transform them during the course of the workshop. Further information is available here. (more…)

Here is one for locals and Yorkshire lovers: 1,000 Leeds hotel rooms are going for £10 apiece. It’s a wheeze organised by Visit Leeds, the city’s tourist body.

Some of the rooms are going for £10 for one night; others are going for £10 for an extra night; others are going for £10 for a third night. The accommodation on offer includes celeb haunt 42 The Calls, and the serviced apartments at Roomzzz Central.

If you aren’t familiar with the city: do check the location of your chosen hotel, as some of the places taking part are quite a way out of the city centre. If you’re coming by car, please note that you will get totally and utterly lost somewhere inside Leeds’ notorious one-way system.

Reasons to visit Leeds, apart from shops and that: (more…)

Kathryn Vercillo is a writer for Promotionalcodes.org.uk, which gives away free discount code deals and also publishes a blog.

Summer is upon us. It’s a great season for spending more time with the family. Many people use this downtime to explore their own towns and to enjoy events in the area that they normally don’t get to visit. Unfortunately, this can lead people to spend more money in the summer than the do during other times of the year.

Follow these tips for reducing summer activity costs:

1. Make a summer activity budget. Knowing how much money you actually can afford to spend will allow you to get the summer off to a good financial start and to keep it that way.
2. Create a calendar of free events. Find out when all of the free events are in your area and build your summer activities around those. This may include music in the park, outdoor movie nights, street festivals, farmers’ markets and free admission days for museums. (more…)

There’s another “win a house” competition on the block: this one (left) is a Grade II* listed cottage in the Cotswolds.

The 350-year-old stone property, located in Broadway village, is located 20 minutes drive from Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon. It comes with three bedrooms, solid oak furniture and a walled garden.

The competition, organised by the cottage’s owners, runs between now and 30 September 2009. The winner will snag a four-week hoiday at the cottage; the holiday can be taken in one go, or spread across multiple visits. (more…)

Ah Paris, Paris, how je t’adore! Even though I speak French like Del Boy.

This competition has been organised by Paris Ile-de-France Tours, and you can enter by visiting the competition page and filling out your details. You also have to answer some questions, but they aren’t very difficult as, erm, every question also contains a link to the correct answer.

The prize draw is only open until Sunday (21 December), so get in there quick!

The winner gets a long weekend in the city, which includes the following: (more…)

SKY Travel is running a competition to win a week’s holiday in “one of the best ski and snowboard destinations in the world”.

The winner and his/her guest gets to stay in the Banff Caribou Lodge and Spa in the Canadian Rockies. The prize also includes return flights to Calgary from London Heathrow, car hire, ski lift passes and equipment rental. 

To enter, fill out this form at the SKY Travel website. To enter, you must be a UK resident aged 18 or over.

The closing date is 20 December 2008.

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!

The Guardian is running a competition to win a week’s skiing holiday in the South Tyrol (the Italian Alps) in February 2009. The prize includes return flights from a UK airport, accommodation in a 4-star “wellness resort” and two six-day lift passes.

UK residents are eligible; the competition page has further details. All you have to do is fill out your name and contact details online. The competition closes on 11 December.

Hey! My post about our forthcoming Thrifty Roadtrip has just made Editor’s Pick at the 35th Money Hacks Carnival!

Thanks to My Two Dollars for organising a great carnival this week, with lots of pictures of steam trains. You can’t go wrong with the Old West.

Also in the carnival: I really enjoyed Lisa at Condo Blues’ post about budget-friendly household cleaners. Lots of white vinegar, baking soda – and crystal clear instructions on cleaning floors, counters and dishes. This tip was new on me:

Vinegar in the Jet Dry container of the dishwasher. Vinegar works to keep spots off the glasses just like Jet Dry, Cascade, or a store brand-sheeting agent. Actually, I think vinegar has better sheeting action and keeps water spots from forming on my glasses. Who knew?

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We’re in the middle of planning our week-long roadtrip (above). We’re getting there, but it’s a squeeze. So many miles, so little time.  I’m excited though; I love driving along a long straight road in the middle of nowhere, in a big ol’ American car. I like all the open space – we don’t have so much of that here in the UK. We’re going to spend a day in at the Arches National Park in Utah; on our way down to Phoenix we’re going to pop into Jerome, a mountainside ghost town turned artists’ colony.

I don’t know how we would have managed in the days before the internet, but this is how we have great roadtrips on limited budgets: (more…)