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.

ShareThis

Peter’s list: Ten People All Personal Finance Junkies Should Follow On Twitter.

Nittany’s list: 10 Personal Finance Bloggers You Should Follow On Twitter.

ShareThis

Do you use Twitter? If you do, you’ll find me there (follow me at Miss_Thrifty). The more time I spend on Twitter, the more I like: it’s dangerously addictive, but I follow a number of frugal freaks and mommy bloggers, and I’ve picked up lots of money saving tips and pointers. I also get to talk/tweet with some of the people whose blogs I really enjoy, and others who are regular Miss Thrifty readers. Snaps all round!

Anyway, the Twitip blog has asked its readers to submit their “Top Ten must follow lists“, so this got me thinking. I’d find it hard to come up with a “Top Ten must follow list”, but I do have a list of some of my current frugal favourites.

I should add that I’m a total Twitter tart, so this list is in permanent rotation. This lot all tweets/blogs about matters frugal (otherwise @stephenfry would definitely be on the list), and they all meet my following criteria:

• They have been active on Twitter within the past week. There is no point following someone who is never there!
• They don’t fill my Twitter homepage with tedious chatter about inane rubbish. Nope, I don’t want to read blow-by-blow accounts of your visit to the dental hygienist. Thanks all the same.
• Nor are they signed up to advertising programmes such as Magpie, which stream ads onto followers’ homepages. I’m rather particular, so I usually unfollow people who do this.
• Lots of great tips / I find their tweets - at least some of them - useful.
• Other tweets just make me smile…

Here they are:

@bripblap: I only found him on Twitter the other day; where have I been? His goal is financial freedom - and by jove, he’s going to reach it! Bripblap also blogs, here.

@Freegan: Secret Freegan lives in Phoenix and tours supermarket dumpsters, scooping up all the discarded food that is good to eat and distributing it amongst homeless shelters. I am often amazed by the food mountains she collects. I live my dumpster-diving fantasies through Secret Freegan as I haven’t yet worked up the nerve to go routing through the bins at my local Morrisons. It doesn’t help that because I live in a small place, I know half the people who work there.

@freefrombroke: NYC-based freefrombroke also writes a blog of the same name, about exploring ways to be, well, what it says on the tin.

@frugalbabe: The Babe blogs here and fills me with wonder whenever she tweets/writes about making non-disposable nappies for her baby son (pictures of the “Cat in the Hat diaper” and “Wyoming diaper” are here). 

@moneycoach: In her words, Nancy is a Money Coach at night. Citizensbanker by day. Social entrepreneur in the making. and a n00b activist. She blogs here.

@moneymatters: Twitterer and blogger out in Minnesota, who writes about personal finance - with a Christian twist.

@PenelopePince: PP writes for the Pecuniarities blog and has thrifty living down to a fine art.

@MrsMicah: Mrs Micah and her husband are currently paying off $100,000 of student loan debt. She blogs here, and always has lots of good money saving tips.

@squawkfox: One of the first people I followed on Twitter, because I’m a great fan of her no-nonsense, frugal living blog.

@YouCanMakeThis: Yes You Can! This Twitterer runs an online craft shop and brings out my inner domestic goddess.

The thing is, I know there must be tons of other top-notch thrifty types on Twitter - so who have I missed? Are you one of them? Please let me know via the comments: I know this is supposed to be a list of ten, but any good ones I get will be added to the master list. Thanks!

UPDATE: Free From Broke sent me a great list of other Frugal Twitterers (see the comments, below). I have also added a short post on personal finance Twitter users.

And dur! How could I omit @nomorespending? 

ShareThis

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.

ShareThis

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:

3 winners, selected at random, will each receive VIP entry, ensuring that they and one friend are first through the door and first to see the sale’s 40,000+ costumes.

For a chance of winning, just email your name, email address and a contact number to: salecompetition@angels.uk.com

The competition closes on Wednesday 3rd December at 4pm. Winners will be contacted on Thursday 4th Dec.

Angels has also posted a list of rules for buyers-to-be:

CASH ONLY. No other form of payment will be accepted.

Stock will not be replenished during the sale, so please come early to avoid disappointment

No Phones will be allowed in the sale area

No Bags will be allowed in the sale area, there is limited cloak room availability but people will be leaving their bags at their own risk so to avoid any issues please do not bring bags to the sale.

There is no Wheelchair Access to the sale area

Stock will be sold as seen. There will be no refunds or exchanges

No Under 12’s

If you’re going, good luck!

ShareThis

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. 

My yummy mummy pal was able to use all of these when she placed her order. She got the half-price toys, the free toy and the money off her order. She also placed her order in two batches, so that she could take advantage of both discount codes: she had to pay an additional £3.95 in postage, but the £10.00 discount more than compensated for that extra cost.

These discount codes change all the time, so if you do this and the discount codes don’t work, try zg999 or google littlewoods promo codes for the latest ones.

I’ll also add these details to my Christmas Deals Master List.

ShareThis

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…

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.

Note that some of these deals require vouchers, almost all of which you can find here.

27 NOVEMBER

26 NOVEMBER

Tesco - From today, cutting prices by up to 50 per cent on 1,000 lines including bicycles, cameras and digital music players, according to the Daily Mail. The Apple iPod Shuffle is down to £31.97 and many children’s bicycles are now at half-price, as are the malt whiskies.

House of Fraser - From Thursday 27 November, will be reducing “most” items by 20 per cent. Certain items will be reduced by up to 40 per cent.

Selfridges - Discounts of 20 per cent on EVERYTHING this weekend. (Since I no longer live in London, I’m seething with jealousy at this one. Oh Selfridges, what good times we had together!)

Marks & Spencer - Rumoured to be planning another 20 per cent discount day. Watch this space!

Debenhams - Also rumoured to be planning another one-day sale. Watch this space!

Superdrug - Up to 60 per cent off some fragrance lines.

Arcadia Group (which includes BHS, Dorothy Perkins, Burton and Evans) will soon be announcing some slashed prices, according to some media outlets. Again, watch this space!

ShareThis

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.

ShareThis

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!

ShareThis

Heck, even the gas stations were scenic!

ShareThis