Miss Thrifty

Now, you may think that I have been as quiet as a dormouse this week, but I humbly refute such an allegation. It has been one of those rollercoaster weeks, filled with Stuff and Happenings.

It began relatively inconspicuously, when my mother – like a harbinger of Personal Finance Eventing – telephoned to complain that I had blogged about my DIY wedding cake without crediting her own role in this most protracted of patisserie sagas. I explained that I am planning to write about this at greater length at some point. I also promised that the instalment that takes place the day before the wedding, in which she pitches up at my flat, discovers that I have made a terrible mess of the fondant icing, and calmly sets to work with the icing bag and fluted nozzles (while I dissolve into a teary, syrupy blob in a corner of the galley kitchen), will be prominent.

My mother only found out about this blog relatively recently but, complaints aside, she is a useful reader to have on board. Every time a link breaks, she is on it like a hawk; if the server goes down, she’s on the blower immediately.  It is like having my very own Blog Inspector. (more…)

Ah, I remember when I picked up a Ballantyne cashmere top and a fitted, 1970s velvet jacket for mere pennies. I even bought my 1920s wedding dress from eBay, for around £25. The influx of buyers means that those salad days are long gone, but the increased traffic to eBay has had another, wholly delightful result.

There aren’t just more buyers; there are lots more sellers too. It means that if you press the right buttons (quite literally, in this case), you can dig out some super-spesh bargains in seconds. And this is what I do:

When I’m searching for items these days, I rarely search using brand names. Honourable exceptions, as detailed in a previous post about buying fashion on eBay, are a few labels including Tristan Webber, Boudicca, Elspeth Gibson and Ben de Lisi.

The rest of the time, this box is my friend: (more…)

UPDATE: If you are visiting from MSN Smart Spending, welcome to Miss Thrifty! My passion for fashion knows no bounds, but neither does my craving for saving…  Bargains ahoy!  Please have a look around; if you like what you see, subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for stopping by  - Miss T.

Apparently these wedding cakes are taking off in the USA – especially with the economy on its downward swoop. These towering confections are as mouthwatering as they are ornate. But here’s the rub: they aren’t real!

That’s real icing; but the “cakes” within are made from foam. A couple can rent out a cake such as this one for their big day, then return it to the cake rental company when their wedding is done and dusted. I’m not sure if the wedding guests are supposed to know when the cake is fake: it seems kinda cheap to broadcast the fact, but wouldn’t you feel a little uncomfortable if the cake was on a stand or table, with people cooing over it, if you were keeping schtum about it not being real? Maybe that’s just me – but I take my cakes very seriously, I’ll have you know.

So, are you wondering what happens when the “cutting the cake” ceremony rolls around? Well, these cakes all come with one bona fide slice of wedding cake, slotted into a triangle-shaped slot in the polystyrene. So you can cut into your cake with all of the pomp that the occasion calls for – and if you so choose, your guests are none the wiser! The cake is whisked away; backstage another (cheaper) cake is cut into squares that are then brought forth, for your guests to take away with them. Neat, huh? (more…)