Anyone fancy joining me in a challenge.. Champagne lifestyle on a lemonade budget

notatvstar

love this thread.

I buy nearly all my kitchen stuff from TeaCake Maximus. The only exception was the bread maker. That was an Amazon job.

Me and the boyf buy our meat from a farm shop (yes - expensive!) but I love cooking with things like oxtail and lamb neck fillet or lamb breast. They make the BEST curries...

I also treat myself to shampoo that costs about 5 quid a bottle, and I wash my hair everyday. The trick is not to use too much. It actually doesn't need to foam up... you just need a tiny bit (my hair is long btw). I use just a dollop about the size of a penny, but when I rub it into my wet hair I leave it to do it's work for a couple of minutes before rinsing it out. In that way - you don't over-clean your scalp AND it's easier to rinse out fully. The same with conditioner.

We use mostly brand name toiletries but we only buy them when they're on offer or from the internet.

... same with Champagne

mineallmine

I'm currently experimenting with different home brought things for lunch. I was spending at least £5 a day and the stuff is ok but I think I can get better quality stuff for that. So that's my little challengette. Only prob is that it's not working with my OH very well. He likes lots of food - but I will adjust and get it right

My favourite thing to do at the moment is to.... dye my jeans! My friend got me onto this. The Dylon packets (look like a large packet of rice) are about £4 ish. And they do velvet black and blue jeans (think they also do a brown in these washing machine based ones). Well my jeans look sooooo much better. My black clothes have been given a new lease of life too. I'm thinking about dying stuff that is a colour I don't like to something else to freshen it up. Apols if this is bleedin obvious but I'm having fun

I think another thing that I hope to do more of when the sun comes out... is to have picnics. If you have an MSE lunch at home at the weekend of a roll & stuff then how much nicer to take that packed up to a park or beach.

:A

Teg-Rem

where do u all live that u can get such discounted prices in Mr T's and S?? plus we don't have any local butchers so have to rely on the supermarkets unfortunately. Our big supermarkets only reduce by about 50p at most never any of the 10-20p bargains etc. that u all quote, I wish!!

Teg-Rem

can anyone on here tell me how u hilite something to write a reply please I tried it but nothing happened, sorry dinosaur in computing.

Penny-Pincher!!

notatvstar wrote: »

love this thread.

I buy nearly all my kitchen stuff from TeaCake Maximus. The only exception was the bread maker. That was an Amazon job.

Me and the boyf buy our meat from a farm shop (yes - expensive!) but I love cooking with things like oxtail and lamb neck fillet or lamb breast. They make the BEST curries...

I also treat myself to shampoo that costs about 5 quid a bottle, and I wash my hair everyday. The trick is not to use too much. It actually doesn't need to foam up... you just need a tiny bit (my hair is long btw). I use just a dollop about the size of a penny, but when I rub it into my wet hair I leave it to do it's work for a couple of minutes before rinsing it out. In that way - you don't over-clean your scalp AND it's easier to rinse out fully. The same with conditioner.

We use mostly brand name toiletries but we only buy them when they're on offer or from the internet.

... same with Champagne

There are certain branded beauty products I buy (Decleor), but I make sure I don't over apply and also buy them on Ebay and get them imported for 60+% cheaper.

Skintslimmer

Hi Champagne lovers! How are things going?

Teg-Rem wrote: »

where do u all live that u can get such discounted prices in Mr T's and S?? plus we don't have any local butchers so have to rely on the supermarkets unfortunately. Our big supermarkets only reduce by about 50p at most never any of the 10-20p bargains etc. that u all quote, I wish!!

I live in a reasonably affluent area. Have you tried shopping at different times of the day (or night)? I go at either 8pm is or 9.30pm ish - decent reductions tend to happen after 7pm ish, and the silly prices about 30 minutes before store closing time. I get quite a lot of silly priced bargains from a 24 hour garage near to me I can pop in on the way home at midnight or so (I work in a pub) and I do have the luxury of quite a few shops that I can pass and stop off at just to check if they have anything interesting, rathet than do one big shop.

Teg-Rem wrote: »

can anyone on here tell me how u hilite something to write a reply please I tried it but nothing happened, sorry dinosaur in computing.

Do you mean to quote? There is a button at the bottom of each person's post that says quote, or you can hit the speech bubbles one next to it if you want to quote more than one person, then hit reply at the end of the thread.

Penny-Pincher!! wrote: »

There are certain branded beauty products I buy (Decleor), but I make sure I don't over apply and also buy them on Ebay and get them imported for 60+% cheaper.

Oooooooooh!!! I used a voucher my friend had bought me to get a gorgeous Decleor facial scrub last week. It was supposed to be for a spa treatment, but the whole place was SO expensive, even for a good spa, that I wouldn't have paid the difference between my friend's generous gift voucher amount and their prices, let alone full whack! :eek: So I treated meself to that instead. Bliss!

What have I got to report... an approved foods shop (um, 12 jars of pickled eggs, anyone?! :rotfl:), a free lunch (plus brownie points) for helping out at an open day, and I've just polished off a 20p whoopsied money and mustard pasta salad (sorry Teg Rem!) Am now eating a bag of pea shoots which were £1 and are always reduced in my local co-op, this time to 19p. I've been told by my consultant to lose weight this morning, so am eating this bag a bit like a bag of crisps... tis not the same! :rotfl:

I haven't entirely stuck to 1/2 price or less, but what I have bought has still on the whole been reduced or multibuy. Although I feel I do need to say "forgive me Martin for I have sinned" because I bought a bag of jelly babies which are normally £1.84 and were £1, only to hear my consultant's news today and throw them in the bin before I eat them

lessonlearned

Hi Everyone.

Did well on Sunday picked up some whoopsied fillet steak.;)

I have set myself a challenge to revamp my living room with a budget of £100. I want it to look really glamourous and sophisticated so I'm going to have to shop smart and get creative.

The paintwork and walls are fine, they just need touching up, already have the paint. Not replacing any furniture, flooring, rugs and curtains are fine.

Yesterday I bought 4 cushions and two throws. They were 25% off at Sainsbugs and came to £34. I used £10 of nectar points and £17 of shrapnel from my piggy bank which I'm not counting as being part of the budget. So I paid out just £7 of "real" money.

Going to hunt for some artwork for the walls now. I've had a quick look on a couple of websites so will probably order tomorrow.

I love interior design, decorating, up cycling etc so shall really enjoy this.

Can definitely agree with dyeing fabrics - either to refresh them back to their original colour or for a complete colour change.

crafty_squirrel

Hi. I too am reading this thread with interest!!
Can I suggest buying l'oreal shampoo its two for £3.50 at min in s or two for £4 in A (normal price 2.79). But if you sign up to l'oreal insider and choose some favorites you can get 1.50 off coupons l'oreal elvive shampoo. Prints 2 so that makes it 25p each. Its really good shampoo. I recently tried it because it was a bargain & i'm not planning on going back to my previous much more expensive brand now!!

Also you can get various coupons for skincare and other beauty products

little_miss_moneysaver_3

lessonlearned wrote: »

I have set myself a challenge to revamp my living room with a budget of £100. I want it to look really glamourous and sophisticated so I'm going to have to shop smart and get creative.

Going to hunt for some artwork for the walls now. I've had a quick look on a couple of websites so will probably order tomorrow

Hello from a lurker!
I don't know if you have a B&M shop near you? But they've some lovely wall pictures etc and not too expensive. Or if you've time maybe a look in charity shops or car boot sales, a bit hit and miss but you never know!

yelowee

Skintslimmer wrote: »

I'm not too sure how I'm going to do things like buying shampoo for 50% less - I already buy Alberto balsam from £1 shops, but I don't think its RRP is much more .. any suggestions here greatly appreciated!:o

You do realize that this is one of the many products pound shops make their money on, if you look in wilkinson or other places it costs around 78p! Just because it's in a pound shop don't mean its cheap ;o)