If you follow me on Facebook (click here if you aren't and don't want to miss out!) then you'll probably have seen me sharing posts by the wonderful Knickers Model's Own. In memory of her late mother, Caroline is challenging herself to wear a new outfit a day based only on things she can buy in a Cancer Research UK shop. She's doing amazingly well and has also attracted a lot of media attention in doing so. Inspired by her I've been shopping myself in the charity shops of St Albans... ... read more
Have yourself a very thrifty Christmas
Christmas. Let's face it, it's an expensive time of the year. Well, at least it can be, but here are some of my top tips for having a thrifty Christmas in 2014. Save on Christmas presents If I'm honest here, the really serious thrifty folk will have already done the bulk of their Christmas back in the January sales! Don't despair though if you're reading this in December and thinking you don't have a chance of saving money - you do. Firstly consider who you have to get gifts for. Do they really all need a present? If there are a lot of family members then why not suggest doing a ... read more
A Secondhand Christmas
I try to keep out of arguments on social media. Life's simply too short to go wading in every time you see something you disagree with. Last week though I saw an exchange which just left me speechless. Some blogger friends of mine are taking part in a campaign with the Salvation Army to raise the profile of doing your Christmas shopping in charity shops as a way of supporting charities at this time of year. One particular blogger tweeted about the things that she'd found this year for her family's Christmas presents and someone else (who I refuse to give a link to here - don't feed the ... read more
Featured Post: Turning our attentions to savings
If you've been following my thrifty journey through 2014 you'll know that our attempts to have a Year of Thrift hit the buffers somewhat when we came up against the new mortgage affordability rules. The good news is that common sense has prevailed though and our building society has now agree to remortgage us - yippee! There's still a huge amount of paperwork to complete and solicitors need to do whatever solicitors do in these circumstances, but fingers crossed we're nearly there and we might actually be able to start saving again. Such a relief and it's definitely helped re-energise my ... read more
Kids go free with CBeebies Magazine #CBeebiesMagKidsGoFree
There's no denying it any longer - the summer holidays are here and across the country parents are desperately trying to come up with ways to entertain their little ones without blowing the household budget in the process. School holidays are perfect for days out, but it's not a cheap thing to do. Entry ticket prices can seem very high and then you also need to contemplate the costs of getting there, plus refreshments whilst there (unless you're thrifty enough to bring a picnic). Help is at hand though as CBeebies magazine have teamed up with Merlin Entertainments for a summer long campaign ... read more
Half way through the Year of Thrift
January seems like a long time ago right now and I have to be totally honest and say that over the last couple of months my year of thrift has taken a bit of a back seat in my life. There are plenty of thrifty things that I now do without even thinking of them, but the thing that has most put me off track is actually the response we've had whilst trying to save money on our mortgage. In the early part of the year we went to huge lengths to cut down our outgoings. We changed gas and electricity supplier, we changed our mobile phone contracts and we also shopped around loads for groceries to ... read more
Featured Post: When I grow up Mummy…
This seems to be one of Little Miss C's favourite phrases at the moment. "When I grow up Mummy, I'm going to be ... a ballet dancer, an engineer like you, a doctor, a pirate, a racing car driver, a clown, a mummy, a daddy (eh?), a princess, a fairy, a vet or maybe a post lady." Ever since she started at pre-school last year LMC has become more and more fascinated in all the things that she might he when she becomes a grown up. She's only four, but it's lovely to see that already her ambitions are wide ranging, and certainly not limited by any kind of convention or stereotyping. I do ... read more
Morrisons for the weekly shop #MorrisonsMum
If you've read any of my Thrifty Mrs C posts you'll know that I'm a huge fan of a bargain, especially if it involves saving money on the weekly supermarket shop. In my quest to save money I've become a bit of what bargain hunters refer to as a "supermarket flirt", moving around to where the special offers and best prices are. It was therefore perfect timing to be asked by Morrisons to become a #MorrisonsMum in the week that they announced that the prices had been cut on over a thousand items in a permanent move to bring about a new cheaper Morrisons. So, off the family headed to the St Albans ... read more
Magpie Monday – start of the 2014 car boot season
Great excitement here yesterday as Sunday the 6th April seemed to mean the start of the local car boot season. Now I have to say that I am yet to find a really good car boot sale anywhere near St Albans. Ten years of trying and there's still nothing on a par with car boot sales of my youth up in Yorkshire. I keep trying though - determined to discover where Hertfordshire is hiding the good ones! The biggest local one has to be at the Hertfordshire showground and there's generally one there every Sunday throughout the season. Now the first thing I find a bit strange about this car boot ... read more
Two months into my Year of Thrift
Amazingly we're already into March and 2014 seems to be rushing past as quickly as last year did. I had been meaning to write something about the first month of our Year of Thrift, but time's run away somewhat. Two months in though there's a fair amount to say and catch up on. What's actually been the most successful thing, but the hardest to keep up, is writing down everything that I spend. For nearly all of January I managed to do this and it really did make me think about every single purchase and question whether it was absolutely necessary or not. I was also somewhat ... read more