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A £59.99 wedding dress – would you wear it?
Isn’t the average cost of a wedding around £14k today? Thank goodness I got married over 10 years ago.
My wedding outfit cost around £500 in all, but with the cost of weddings, and wedding dresses, soaring a low-cost option will be attractive to many brides to be….or will it?
A wedding dress has to be the most important dress you’ll ever buy or wear, but with the average dress costing hundreds or even thousands, it does seem a lot for just one day.
So could H&M’s first wedding dress – available at the end of March for £59.99 – be the answer? Despite costing a fraction of the price of the average wedding dress (£1,340, according to Brides magazine), it has high aspirations, taking “Hollywood in the 1930s” as its inspiration and promising to …
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My mini Matalan haul of kids clothes
Matalan is a god send for me when it comes to cheap but good quality kidswear. I also love the Falmer Heritage range for women…but that’s for another post.
I nearly always buy the kid’s pyjamas, socks, pants, t-shirts and trousers from there. I find that the styles are great and they wash really well. But most of all, the prices are really competitive.
There aren’t many Matalan stores around. They tend to be large units out of town. They remind me a bit of the big American mega stores. There is a loyalty card that you can get and if you have it, they will send you discount vouchers. Matalan has an online store which is fairly well stocked and when you buy, you can get money off at TopCashBack.
I needed some pyjamas …
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Real leather ankle boots from M&S for £39.50
After my debacle with Clark’s falling apart boots – on the way from a meeting my boot’s heel came off – I needed a new pair of work boots.
Problem is we are now pretty much out of sale season and unless you want obscure stuff, like the £30 snow boots I got from Jones (down from £100) in March last year, most of the ordinary work boots in the sales are gone.
I needed to spend as little as possible, but wanted leather, a mid-height tough heel – not easily scuffable – nothing too plain, and they had to be comfortable, have good reviews and be available in my size.
I found some lovely wedges at Next for £38, but there’s a three week delivery on my size. The rest of their boots were …
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Teeth whitening on a budget
A few years back, I started noticing that my teeth were going a bit yellow. Now my teeth are naturally straight so I was happy about how they looked, but the yellowing was bugging me, so I checked out how to make them look better and this is what I found:
The “natural” and cheapest approach
I saw a really fascinating teeth whitening video recently on YouTube, where a young lady used bicarbonate soda and lemon juice and brushed her teeth with that once a week for lovely white teeth. Now that should come in at around 50 p or less a week, which feels like a real bargain.
The dentist option
I turned to my dentist and he offered me laser or molds and gels. I took the cheaper option, so he made me …
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Men’s and boy’s haircut for £5 – Kings Barbers
I get miffed that haircuts for my boys cost £10.25 at weekends and £8.75 on week days, so today we popped into Kings on the High Street in Solihull.
They are doing all cuts for £5. Of course, it’s an introductory offer, but for boys it goes up to £7 when the offer finishes, so that is still a nice cheap haircut. The barber didn’t know when the £5 offer will finish, but it got me through the door and was half what I would pay normally, so I was happy enough.
There was a family in there with three boys and a dad so that must cost a bit every month, so Kings must be welcome on the high street for them and many others.
The barbers is open and airy with five stations. …
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Low cost yet fashionable shoes – Linzi.com
Now if you’ve been following my Twitter, you’ll see that like most women, I love shoes.
I sometimes buy shoes that I don’t really wear that much. For instance, I needed some new boots and instead of the shops, I headed to my collection and dug out two pairs that had heels and soles that evidenced that they had hardly been worn. And sometimes, I buy shoes because they are just gorgeous.
Anyway, I’ve been hunting around for reasonably priced online shoe shops and found Linzi.com. They have stores in the East End of London and Essex, but hey that’s too far for me to travel. I asked them to help me with 2014 spring shoe trends, so that I can get low cost shoes that are bang on trend. Anyway, the lovely people …
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Ocado deals on winter skincare products
Ocado’s skincare sale starts today. Here are just some of the lovely bargain skincare items you can get at discounted prices.
Olay Anti Wrinkle Eye Gel 15ml – Was £9.99, now £4.99.
Proven to visibly smooth the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles Save £5
Nivea Lip Butter Caramel – Was £2.00, now £1.50
Nivea Pure & Natural Wipes – Was £3.05, now £2.00. Gently cleanses, removing make-up and mascara.
Aveeno Intensive 24H Moisturising Hand Cream with Oatmeal 75ml – Was £5.20, now £1.74. Aveeno Intensive 24H Moisturising Hand Cream with Oatmeal 75ml With naturally active ingredients, moisturises for 24 hours.
Radox Herbal Bath Therapy Moisture Soak with Calendula 500ml – Was £3.80, now £1.80. As a natural conditioner, it helps leave your skin soft and silky Save £2.
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Winter woolies from Primark
I went for a wonder around a big town last week and ended up in Primark.
I bought some Christmas themed cardies, jumpers and also some wool dresses from Primark. They were £14 each apart from the cream dress at £12. My cardigan above is already a firm favourite this winter, and other items are below.
Couldn’t go wrong as this sort of stuff is £30 – £40 each piece in John Lewis, so I got six pieces for the price of two…I’ll be nice and toasty warm over this winter, and if I may be so bold, looking right on trend. Click on the images to see them full size.
I also bought some gorgeous Japanese thermal vests for the kids at £5 each, really feel like silk as so soft, and some single …
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£10 facial, £7 haircut – local colleges offer cheaper beauty and hair than high street salons
Well with party season around the corner…we have our first one on 8 November…eeks, I need to think of ways to look great without spending loads.
My last cut and colour was a staggering £91 (sharp intake of breath!). That has happened once and let’s just say, I have now switched to Casting Creme Gloss from Superdrug at £5 a pop, once a month for colour, but cut I really can’t do at home.
So with my friend Google, I went exploring and discovered that my local college can offer discounted treatments and that is going to be a real godsend. I have booked in my first facial and took a sneak peak at the facilities …they are just like a posh high street salon. Most colleges offer a wide range of services from a …
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Occasion wear for kids at less than £2 per outing
As most of our friends get older, we get invited to less weddings, but we still attend one or two a year and we get invited to family parties and special gatherings quite often.
While a few years ago, it was okay to send the kids in cute but casual clothes, now they need to look slick.
I would recommend BHS and Next as nearly every town has either one of them. BHS seems to have the larger range and last week I managed to get a nice shirt, tie and trousers for my 12 year old for less than £40. That was with a BHS loyalty card which gave me 5% off.
Now that doesn’t sound like a bargain and it was definitely a sharp intake of breathe when I got to the till. …
