Miss Thrifty

If you are on Twitter, you are based in the UK and you are on the lookout for bargains and discounts, have you come across the HotUKDeals feed?

I hadn’t until the other day, but I’m really pleased to have stumbled across this feed’s path. It does what it says on the tin, and is the Twitter version of hotukdeals.com: a website and forum devoted to hot-off-the-presses deals and offers. On Twitter, HotUKDeals tweets the bargains throughout the day; put it this way, right now there are plenty of them to get your teeth into. (more…)

Christmas was a dizzying whirl of visits to relatives and friends in various parts of the South East, and I’m still disorientated. Seriously; I spent this afternoon working while feeling ever so virtuous for beavering away on a Saturday. It was only at 9 pm that I found out it was only Friday (to much chortling from my husband). Hey ho; at least I get to have two “Saturdays” in one week! But it’s time to come back down to Earth again, isn’t it?

It also means that another edition of Friday Bargains is due. And I must admit, I’m enamoured with the sudden rash of £1 deals. They’re everywhere! (more…)

Despite my avowed intention to keep up with all the UK Christmas bargains, sales, deals and discounts, I’ll admit that it has been hard going. Right now is there any store that is still selling its wares at full price? Woolies has gone under - who’d have thunk it? - and even newspapers such as The Daily Telegraph have taken a break from running the usual glut of diamond-studded, designed-labeled gift guides to publish lists of coupons and codes.

Traffic to the coupon codes sites has boomed, although I find the sites themselves to be a mixed bag: they feature lots of good offers but also plenty of expired ones, which can be irksome.

So I’m quite taken with this UK Christmas Sale website. It isn’t fancy, but it does the job. The site lists all of the sales that are on right now, with links to the stores’ websites.

A sister site lists details of all the post-Christmas and New Years sales.

I’m thinking about trying out Furoshiki gift wrapping this year. It’s simple (well, the finished results look simple), pretty and the wrapping can be recycled.  You use squares of fabric, rather than spangly paper and ribbons. Check it out:

Furoshiki gift wrapping from RecycleNow on Vimeo. 

Japan’s Ministry of the Environment has kindly provided a Furoshiki instruction sheet, with wrapping instructions for a variety of different-shaped gifts.

If my efforts come up trumps, I’ll post the photos. If I end up with pouchy knapsnack-style confections, let us never speak of this again…

My Frugal Grandma has been cleaning up recently! Her top frugal recipe is featured in the 42nd Money Hacks Carnival at the Financial Wellness Project. And her old school tips popped up in the 41st Money Hacks Carnival, at Ask Mr Credit Card.

In other news, my hotlist of Favourite Frugal Twitterers was featured in the 155th Festival of Frugality, at Greener Pastures.

I’ll be hosting the Festival of Frugality later this month, on 23 December, so if you aren’t yet familiar with it you’re in for a (lengthy) treat…

My family tease me horribly about my 23-year-old Thriftymobile. Comments range from “OMG, it’s still running?” to “But is it safe?” and “Wouldn’t you rather have a nice car like mine?”

So here is the automobile latest:

Brother’s Fancy Renault: at the scrapyard, after failing its MOT on multiple counts.

Mother’s Spendy Hyundai: at the menders, following a cataclysmic tussle with the kerb. (Pah! How feeble.)

Father’s Vauxhall: currently fit for “super-local trips” only, after various parts of its engine and chassis disintegrated.

Thriftymobile:  running like a dream!

HA! Guess who’s going to be chauffeuring everyone around, come Christmas?

One of my newest followers on Twitter, Jenn Davis of CheapTweet, found the Miss Thrifty blog via my Favourite Frugal Twitterers post and dropped me an e-mail with some info about the new CheapTweet site.

CheapTweet - http://cheaptweet.com - is a website that mines Twitter for posts about deals, coupon codes and sales. Tweets about deals are ranked based on user votes and how many times a deal is mentioned on Twitter.

With the holiday shopping season upon us, everyone is looking for the best shopping deals they can find—and online merchants are trying to get hip by posting exclusive deals and discounts to Twitter followers. Still, consumers don’t want to clutter their Twitter feeds with several tweets a day from each merchant, so CheapTweet was created to cut out the mess and aggregate just the best deals for shoppers. It’s easy to peruse deals by category or do specific searches.

Just like Twitter democratizes communication, we’re democratizing deals. We’ve got Dell coupon codes, special offers from Whole Foods and free shipping from the smallest Etsy shops selling handmade crafts.

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Don’t write off UK Woolworths just because it has gone into administration. I was in there today, kicking off my Christmas shopping. Although there are no big SALE signs up, there are plenty of good deals to be had. There are lots of reduced items across the store, including electronics, books and toys. The place was practically deserted; don’t miss out on the bargains!

I ended up buying half-a-dozen amaryllis kits: the pot, bulb and compost, all boxed up and ready to go. They were reduced to £3.50 apiece and had also been put on a 3-for-2 offer, so I got six boxes for £14. I like amaryllis plants: they grow so tall and the flowers are enormous. I bought a couple of hardback books for my mum and aunt, and some more gardening stuff for my Frugal Grandma. All of these will make good openers on Christmas Day. (more…)

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: (more…)

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…

UPDATE - find links to all the UK Christmas sales and offers here.

12 DECEMBER

Oasis: 25 per cent off, both in-store and online. Click here for details.

08 DECEMBER

New discount code for Firebox.com

03 DECEMBER

Marks & Spencer - 20 per cent off everything tomorrow. Woohoo! The discount also applies to goods on the M&S website.

Harvey Nichols - 25 per cent off fashion and accessories between now and 7 December. The discount will be applied at the checkout. Mind you, if you are Christmas shopping at Harvey Nichols then you are probably reading the wrong blog…

Dorothy Perkins - 20 per cent off everything on Thursday 4 December and Friday 5 December.

Coast - 30 per cent off until midnight on 9 December.

Laura Ashley - 20 per cent off coats, knitwear and party dresses until 14 December.

Knickerbox - 20 per cent off everything between Friday 5 December and Sunday 7 December.

Burton - 20 per cent off on Thursday 4 December and Friday 5 December.

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.

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