Champagne Lifestyle on a Lemonade Budget.

[Deleted User] · 11 November 2018 at 2:47PM

I have a Dobbies card if you have any near you and for £10.00 per year I get two hot drinks either tea or coffee per month The coffees are normally just under three pounds so I can get£72.00 of hot drinks for £10 per year also as you fill in your date of birth they send you a birthday voucher for tea for two with scones jam and cream when its your birthday vary nice to take a friend for a cuppa and a scone
I also have a loyalty card for the Travellers Fayre pub chain and the Beefeater pub chain and they too send you a free main meal voucher on your birthday .One of the pubs locally to me do a 'pensioners' meal dael for two courses for £5.99 and the size of them is very little difference to an ordinary one and two course are extremely filling
I have a stash of 'loyalty ' cards and am loyal to no one .W'rose will give you a free coffee and a paper if you spend over a tenner in there Handy on a Saturday as the saturday paper normally has extra magazines and a TV magazine as well.
I am registered disabled and have a Cinema exhibitors ticket which when i go to the cinema with my friend we split a ticket between us as my 'care' get in for free it costs me £6.00 per year.

Most museums are free and look on your local council websites to see whats on offer as often if you are a pensioner you will get reduced rates for shows ,especially if they are the matinee ones.

Bus passes are invaluable even if you only want to have a long bus ride a cuppa at the end and an explore of the CS in another town and then the bus ride home again.libraries are brilliant places for different things Our local one has a gentle walkers group every monday morning and after a half hours stroll the library lay on tea and biscuits to revive you i also belong to a library book club and knitting group as well. My local U3 A group costs me £15.00 per year and we have 41 different interest groups run by volunteers for things for older folk to go to once a month we have a meeting with free tea and coffee and a speaker We also have a coffee morning once a week (usually held in Dobbies ) so i use my free hot drinks there if I haven't used them up )

There is so much out there and I sometimes get over-committed and I am rarely in during the week at all probably the only day I actually have is maybe a saturday when I don't do a great deal but the housework and cooking then needs doing

:)
I go to a quiz night at the local pub on a Tuesday night and it costs me £2.00 and I get a small meal thrown in with the price so a great night out lots of giggling and food for £2.00 great bargain I think.

lessonlearned · 11 November 2018 at 3:27PM

Wow Jackie.....so many good tips. Alas we don't have a Dobbies or a Waitrose. Those are great deals.

I do like a trawl round a garden centre. Most of ours do loyalty cards as do a lot of our cafes and restaurants. I have loads of them, the only problem is I tend to forget to take them with me. Duh.....

I forgot on Friday. I think I'll have to get better organised and keep a little wallet for all my discount and loyalty cards.

I've just signed up to our local councils email what's on guide. Great tip there, so thanks for that.

I'm sitting here drinking a cup of tea from my Crown Derby cup. One of my little affectations is that I do like tea from nice porcelain. I decided to get rid of all my tatty crockery and start using my nice stuff. What was I keeping it for. For best?? Don't I deserve the best.. :rotfl: I decided no point in having nice things if I don't use them. They are not luxury items if they are stuck in a cupboard. From now on I shall eat off crockery fit for a duchess. :rotfl: bring on that luxury.......

I have just changed my bedlinen. I love the feel of freshly laundered sheets. I do think nice clean sheets are one of life's little luxuries too.

As I said I have recently moved. The bedroom I inherited is a tad "purple"and a bit garish for my liking.......but I always use plain white bed linen and it does help tone it down a bit. The other day I spotted a fake "artic fox" fur throw in Aldi's. It was a snip at £30. I have just put in on the bed and it looks quite lovely against the white linen and the dark purple feature wall. Very boutique hotel chic. Lol.

My next task, probably after the festive season when I have more time, is to go through all my stuff and see if I can free up enough space so that I can get rid of a chest of drawers in that room. It looks a bit cramped and crowded in there.

For me one of my greatest luxuries is space and light. I am hoping to get rid of a lot of furniture over the next few months so I can really open up the rooms, make them look lighter and more spacious. That's the problem with downsizing, a lot of my old furniture is on too large a scale and there is far too much of it.

Less is definitely more.

GooeyBlob · 11 November 2018 at 3:28PM

The cheapest way to get champagne is to make it yourself, you can buy kits in places like Wilko and Boyes. Personally I prefer hedgerow port though, it costs about 20p per bottle to make and beats anything you'll find at a supermarket.

Sea_Shell · 11 November 2018 at 3:39PM

Deleted_User wrote: »

Get your champagne from Aldi, it just as good, and a lot cheaper, mind you their lemonade is only 30p.:D:T:T:rotfl:

30p !! That's their expensive one. They do a 17p one too.

;)

Towser · 11 November 2018 at 4:19PM

OOoh yes....... A girl after my own heart. I could have written this thread. I make my £££'s work really hard for me.

I also go through my budget and challenge myself to find something for free or cheaper in each category. Freecycle is great. Tidy tip is the cheapest charity shop for us. I only buy the very best quality from these places.

My biggest saving is the heating, cooking, hot water and clothes drying because we have a multi fuel Rayburn which does the lot. I do it for free when I have had wood/logs donated. Do you have one or a log burner worth looking into at the architectural salvage yard and you could save up to £1000 per year. A lot of hard work though sourcing the wood and making a fire. If I am feeling lazy I just use coal. It is a lifestyle commitment.

Do you have a local Technical College? I go there to 'lunch' in their restaurant set up for catering students, hairdressers and beauty college. I think you can even have you car maintained there too. I have noticed a lot of pensioners make use of these facilities. I am not a pensioner but a carer for a disabled child so make the most of my spare time during school hours. Low income too.

Groupon is great for all things luxury on a budget especially if you are after bucket list experiences.

I watch this thread with interest and this is why I am on this site because people come up with the best ideas.

I also get my champagne from Aldi.

lessonlearned · 11 November 2018 at 5:02PM

Hi Towser.

Interesting about the Rayburn.

This new house is very cold......no insulation to speak of and a very inefficient heating system. I am paying a fortune to heat up the street. I'm just resigned to the fact that I will have big fuel bills this first winter. I only moved in in mid September so it takes a while. I have been concentrating on the outside making sure the house is watertight and clearing the jungle of a garden.

Next year I will be ripping out walls etc so will add insulation, and fit a new boiler then.

I have two fireplaces, both with class 1 chimneys. One has an ancient clapped out gas fire set in a very pretty fireplace but it is hopeless. It works but it probably heats up the sky. The other fireplace is is just an ordinary open fireplace. I have bought some logs and some coal and need to teach myself how to build a good fire.

I will look into having multi fuel burners fitted next year when I do the the dirty work, get all the mess over and done with all in one fell swoop. I think those kind of messy building jobs are best done in the summer. I can at least potter in the garden out of the way.

I have visited a couple of fireplace companies to get ideas. Not sure whether to keep one as a gas "log" burner and then one as a multi fuel. I'll pick their brains and see what they advise nearer the time.

Yes I need to look into groupon. Thanks for the reminder.

lessonlearned · 11 November 2018 at 5:18PM

Mmmmm. Hedgerow port sounds interesting. I also like elderflower champagne.

Prinzessilein · 11 November 2018 at 6:53PM

I don't have a huge income...but I DO like to indulge myself on occasion....although I have to say I don't actually like champagne!...I do however love a good cup of coffee, so I will join in here as someone who aspires to Blue Mountain on a budget own label income!

It's not a 'tip' really...but one thing I have done is to make the most of introductory offers...a favourite of mine being Hotel Chocolat (they do delicious high cocoa solid choccie!)...you sign up for the REALLY cheap introductory offer...and then when you get your offer, IMMEDIATELY cancel!...HotelChocolat are brilliant...they have no problem with you taking up an offer, then cancelling on the day your first box arrives....and then re-joining for another cheap box a few months later!....Subscription boxes are available for all sorts now...but you DO need to be prompt at cancelling...I set up a separate eMail address to use just for this sort of thing - as some places seem to pass your eMail onto other companies and my spam box can get rather full!....I have also joined/quit/rejoined Graze snacks on multiple occasions!

With Christmas rapidly approaching I can highly recommend Lidl's Favorina range if you like German Christmas food treats!...Mum makes her own Stollen - but we still buy a few from Lidls! (Having German origins I am something of a connoisseur of Stollen!...and these are not half bad!)...There Spekulatius biscuits are SO good that I had to ban them from my own home (*shame....I have been known to eat a pack and a half in one sitting....NOT good for weight loss!)

Oh...and make the most of Store Cards...my favourite has to be the M&S Sparks card...they really do seem to tailor the offers to your buying history...plus they do extras...on your birthday you get 20% of Clothing and Home Furnishing - which goes on top of your usual Sparks offers - so on my birthday I had 20% off nightwear as my 'normal' offer....PLUS and additional 20% off for my birthday offer...bargain winter pyjamas were bought!....and the card sometimes allows you to have 'extra' sides on the Dine In offers...well worth having!

lessonlearned · 11 November 2018 at 7:06PM

Oh yes. Good coffee is an absolute must......

I have just had dinner and my coffee is now sat in the cafetière.i shall enjoy with just a small square of dark chocolate as my after dinner treat. .

Speculoos biscuits are fab. I too have stopped buying them except for high days and holidays because I just can't resist them......

Actually I do have to watch my blood sugar levels. I am working really hard and they are nearly back down to normal, no drugs just diet. It's hard at times but it will be worth it.

I think one of the greatest luxuries of all is good health. I saw what diabetes did to my mum........I'm not going there. So I am very strict with myself and do limit my intake of both alcohol and sweet stuff.

lessonlearned · 11 November 2018 at 7:10PM

Thanks for the tip about the Sparks card. I was given one I don't think I've even registered it.

How daft is that. Clearly I still have a lot to learn. :rotfl:

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Champagne Lifestyle on a Lemonade Budget.

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