Xmas Saver 2014: What's your best bargain? Let us know for a Forum Xmas saver badge

debjay

SIRENS wrote: »

I bought 2.5kg of potatoes for 49p and used my 50p off coupon so they actually owed me 1p!:rotfl:

Me too :T. I also got 2 half price turkey crowns on Christmas Eve.

elainemn

My best bargain was the Christmas dinner. The beef, pork and chicken were all woopsied through the year. The carrots, cauli and sprouts were 5p a bag and the potatoes were dug out of the garden and started off as old ones that sproted in the fridge. i cooked for 10 people as well.
The pudding was bought the year before90% off in the sale but still in date. Think in total the dinner for 10 cost less than £20, including the crackers and we ate left overs for several days.

pwllbwdr

Singer sewing machine for Mrs pwllbwdr.



Priced at 179.99, deal at Lidl Southport for £90 but that day's Mirror had a £15 off Lidl voucher so all in just over £75.

bobsa1

So many bargains don't know where to start but 3x Barbour coats from the Barbour outlet bought as presents for dh and two dd for £39.00 each. Each one has a shop value of over £150. Boden socks for dd rrp £28 but reduced to £17 then used £10 voucher so cost £7 for 7 pair. Burberry coat bought from cs for £29.99 worth about £1000 Xmas food shop from marks and Spencer done with vouchers from east coast trains and vouchers bought on bespoke offers and group on and my biggest bargain a brand new peaugeot 108 bought for 3k less than list.

Gem-gem

Christmas Eve I changed my mobile phone provider - monthly charge going from £30.00 down to £8.00 a month. (Had been with Orange for 24 years and thought they were rewarding my loyalty when they chopped my bill from £36 to £30 a couple of months ago but after Reading 30+ Cheap Mobile Tips when researching virgins I realised that this was not so. Thought about getting s new phone but I don't need one yet.
Went shopping Christmas Eve lunchtime and got a whole salmon for £5.50 (cut into 12 portions); runner beans for 9p a pack; 2 pizza bases for 29p; 6 rolls for 9p.
Went online and bought a new pair of slippers in the sale for £12 saved £7.00 ( weekly money saving email).
Gave my friends homemade gifts ( ideas from the Christmas homemade gift forum) ( jams, marmalade and chutneys) secondhand books ( that I had been given) and a small gift that I bought with a voucher ( total spend £1.00). ( will post photo once I have worked out how).
Used Waitrose voucher - spend £40 and get £10 off.
Used our roadkill savings (£94.78 found this year) to take my parents out for a meal. £60.00 we also gave £15.00 of it away to Charity, so that others will benefit.

IMG_4969.jpeg - this is the code that keeps coming through instead of the picture. I am not on Twitter.

vanilla_twist

I think my xmas bargains were buying 2 Denby sets from Tesco direct for £45 each which accepted a code making them £15 each whih I paid for with points.
My other great saving was my sealed pot of £262 part of which I used to buy clubcard vouchers from my mum to double up to buy a hudl for son in law (used a £20 off electrical code as well) and some train tickets for ds2 from redspottedhanky.
Even my daughters Michael Kors bag felt like a bargain buying in the Black Friday deals and paying with money from my sealed pot.
The look on her face when she opened it was priceless and probably spent less than when I buy her makeup and perfume.
I also bought by brother in laws present from buyagift when they had a £10 off a £20 spend code. I gave him the 3 months curry membership which he was delighted with.
In fact I didn't pay full price for anything as always a code if you look hard enough. Even mums last minute xmas Baby reindeer jumper from debenhams sale I still used a code on.
V x

good_advice

Wow! what a December for this MSE savvy shopper.:j
I have used MSE deals for house and content insurance. I chose MSE recommended Legal and General and posted on the Insurance page.:money:

Bought the Homeserve gas central heating cover for £102 as recommended on MSE.:money:

Used Megashopbot for comparing prices of so many gifts = chocolates, slipper boots, toys, baby clothes etc....

The weekly money tips has come in so useful and has been well used.
I have recomended and bought the calendars and £3 photo mugs from snapfish.

I Christmas shop on line a lot and use the cashback site Quidco.

Loved the MSE chat about the Debenhams sale.
I ordered x3 ladies red fleece robes was £25 each, sale price £11.25 each.

I have listened carefully to Martins advice on using Tesco boost points.
I got the baby walker, x3 Christmas wrapping paper and a gift box of Dove with my free boost points.
This is the baby walker. Was about £17.


I cashed in some of my Nector points in Argos and bought more pressants.

Used vouchers from completing surveys as recomended on the freebie boards to buy gifts from Amazon.

Bought face cream as a gift in Boots so could get Boots points.
£5.99 and 20 points.

I have my grocery bill here for the x3 days of Christmas that we went away to a large house. This is the Tesco bill for x4 generations of family not including the meat as we ordered that from the butchers.
I paid £58. Yes! It did include some YS items.
Lots of vegetables, some bread, milk, stufffing, x2 finest puddings. 1 kg of marg. eggs....all sorts.

We had the crackers from the unused from last year.
Home cooking and the usefull tips from "the old style board " helped.

This is my Christmas cake I baked from store cupboard ingreadients. I only had to buy the marzipan and icing.


Let all MSE users be thankful for so many bargins. I am :0)

Happy New Year for 2015.

IrishRose12

I like to buy the children in my class a small gift every Christmas. There are 31 of them this year and are 4 and 5 years old. I usually set a limit of £1 per child for the presents. I had a problem with a purchase I made at Tescos back in October and because I couldn't make it to the store they sent me a £10 money card.
I went into another Tesco store at the start of December and saw they were selling off their Scented Loom Bands at 50p per pack. Lifted 62 of them as they were one colour packs. Got to the till and they were coming up at 8p a pack. This made them £4.96. Paid with the money card which meant they were free. I then went back Lifted the remaining boxes and went to another Cashier had 144 packs came to about £12 so paid with the remainder of the card and only had to put about £2 or so to it. I took 113 packs round to the shopping center where there was a giving tree for sick children and donated them all to that.

Then wrapped up 3 packs each for each child in my class (different colour) and the children were delighted with their gifts.

Also thanks to a link on the Grabbit board here for Sleeping bags I was able to pick up 11 sleeping bags for our local homeless charity for £30 :T

So for 31 Christmas presents, donations of gifts for sick children and Donations to the homeless charity I spent about £33 in total.

Unfortunately I can't post photos of any of them as they are all away now. And for child protection and privacy I can't post the class photo

sweetme

I started newt year's Christmas shopping yesterday. Got Nivea and David Beckham Instinct gift sets all reduced to 81p. On the lookout for Christmas Eve PJ's this weekend

sweaty_betty

I have a number of black-tie dinners to go to during the year and try to wear something different each time as it's the same/similar people there each time (if only I were a man...).

I've decided to buy a nice black dress and style it differently with accessories. I found this dress in the John Lewis sale - £35 down from £120 :money: - I absolutely love it and it fits perfectly. Much money saving throughout the year now