Thread 3 - the one where things get serious

Thanks for the tip to check Boots Advantage offers. I’ve got a £10 off if you spent £25 on selected Liz Earle, which stacks with the current 3 for 2 on Liz Earle.
So I can get x3 100ml cleansers with cloths for £30.
£10 each seems like a pretty good price.

If you missed out on Starfish Project, a couple of other jewellery brands have sales on this weekend

Beautiful Earth have a sample sale with loads of stuff at £10-15
https://uk.beautifulearthboutique.com/collections/sample-sale-september-2026

Atlas of Dreams have 50% off plus buy 2 get one free, plus a free gift (only for first 100 so may have gone by now) plus 10% off with WELCOME 10 and yes they stack. Plus free postage over £30.
https://atlasofdreams.co.uk/

I'm having trouble with Boots too. I have the offer in my account but it won't load to my basket. I've checked the T&C's and reinstalled the app.

@lifelongfrugaleer I don't quite follow you. What's different now?

I’ve not been able to take advantage of the great Boots offer which @Robyn101 alerted us to. It was very tricky to find it and add it to my Advantage card: without that alert I wouldn’t have found it.

Unfortunately, despite buying regularly and frequently from Boots and having held an Advantage card for decades, probably as long as the scheme has been running, I haven’t been able to buy anything. I tried to check out 8 times, and when I got to the very final step every time I was told checkout had failed and to try again. On the ninth time I was told I’d failed internal checks and my basket emptied.

Calling them got me nowhere, except to be told to try again in 72 hours. When I was finally able to speak to Customer Care (= complaints) the person I spoke to said they had no reasons why orders failed validation checks. She said that, although she worked for Boots, she’d once failed validation checks when trying to buy 3 bars of soap plus 2 bars of dog soap.

At least some people here managed to use the offer, which makes me feel a bit better.

I'd bloody love a water butt for Christmas!

This is fabulous thank you...I was also thinking maybe a water butt? Practical but I know he would love?

I’m annoyed at boots. The recycling scheme is now 2 transactions 1 for each voucher. Fine. But you can’t open the second voucher on the same day. Ass hats

I bought a selection of weird coloured veg seeds from Real Seeds a couple of years ago for an avid veg patch gardener and he loved them and said they cropped well. A lovely company that have a project to support unwaged gardeners.

Went to order my son some more Bubble Panda kits (thanks to the person who originally posted!) and spotted this bargain for the starter kit which includes 4 fruit bubble teas, £6.99 ice cube tray and £20 cup and straw for £12.50! Couldn’t get it to work with any other voucher codes though unfortunately. https://bubblepanda.com/products/2025-fruit-starter-kit

I was going to recommend these too, but they do use glucose syrup

I've bought fudge from the Fudge Kitchen before. I've also stood in front of their market stall eating many, many samples as the guy was like Mrs Doyle in that respect insisting I try them all! DH has been defeated by their portions too. I have no idea where they stand on glucose syrup but I am a happy customer.

@Robyn101thank you I need some night cream will stock up

Thank you so much for the Boots offer. I was down to the last smears of moisturiser and have managed to get 2 no7 day creams and a serum (stuff I actually use already) for £24.14 and over 100 points. I could probably have got even more points but was desperate to get the order in before they changed their minds!

My order from Starfish arrived today. It’s beautiful and packaged really nicely, along with a handwritten note from someone the project has helped. I certainly won’t be needing a refund - the difficulty will be giving it away. I want to keep it all!! 🫣😁 If the sale was still on, I’d be going back for more!

I haven’t RTFT so apologies if I’m duplicating, but Lands End has a sale on, I’ve just ordered new winter coats for DD and myself, both £200+ reduced to £70 ish. Seems to generate a new code every time you access the page, which gives an additional 10% off. I ordered a bag and wallet shared on a previous thread, and was pleased with the quality, and they arrived really quickly.

Person earlier who didn’t know what to get for small child who has everything. Similar problem here and I bought a ‘dr’ kit from the cheap shop like home bargains - digital thermometer, bandages, plasters, pen and clipboard, lanyard and real stethoscope from eBay. Was a hit and kept them busy for hours.

Glad I’m not the only one who hasn’t heard from Starfish Project - I realised yesterday I never got a confirmation email so have emailed to check they received my order (I have been charged).

Re Boots advantage offers - I had a voucher for 500 points when spending £55 and 150 points when buying two boots own brand items, which both stacked with the BABYSAVE code, which in itself stacks with certain products already being reduced. I ended up with something like 1200 points on a £100 order!

Must.stop.buying.for.myself.

🫣

Not overly, we have some loose screen time rules so they know what to expect, and tou can put timers on them so it turns off automatically once their alloted time is up. It's run through a parent account with a password so you can control it all.

Code: BABYSAVE at Boots gives 15% off spends of £40+ on selected products.

It works on the LEGO a/cs bringing the cost of two down to £50.98.

Understood

One of the points I was trying to make, though, is that they are breaking the law in saying that - and if it’s on the website then they are publicly doing so.

They send you a small print of the chosen artist so you could copy it, my kids have used it for inspiration. And you get the materials so for example pens, pencils, pastels and the specific paper to use (watercolour, mixed media etc). I think it is value for money at the sale prices because the materials are artist quality and if you bought everything separately it would cost more ( it does depend a bit on the box but for example a watercolour Downey tube can be £6 on its own). As an artist I often buy just to get the materials a bit cheaper.

@Mumbythesea1I live in Europe so have access to European Vinted and seems to be loads of the 2026/2027 Megacracks cards on there New With Tags. I don't know anything about them so not sure if they're a good deal or not but if you want to PM me I can send you some more info. Would be happy to post them to you.

Yes, quite prominently too.

Of course distance selling regulations still apply, so I thought of it more as a clear communication of wishes - a meaning of “please don’t buy a bunch of stuff just to look at intending to return it. We’ll honour the return if we legally have to, but that’s not why we are doing this”.

That’s why I only bought things I was sure of.

@Yalz the whole non-return thing was actually listed on the website when buying. Not saying I agree with it, but the email wasn't the first notification.