THE ONE WITH CHRISTMAS!

[Reastie]

I'm taking a punt here that we won't need another thread before Christmas, but feel free to prove me wrong!

Greetings and welcome one and all to a friendly and joyful corner of mn - the Christmas bargain thread. Here, we share Christmas present purchases, ideas, links and discount codes, with the aim to spread the Christmas magic and joy and reduce the financial stress.

It's a very busy thread, so see the tips below for helping everything run smoothly and avoiding repetitions of Cookiegate etc al. It's a lovely, friendly bunch and I'm so grateful to each and every one of you for building such a warm, fuzzy and generous spot on mn. I know I've save so much over the years and am so grateful to all of you for sharing.

Pull up a sleigh and relax with a mulled wine and mince pie, for Christmas has nearly arrived!

@ me if you need anything or you want to let me know anything - the thread moves so fast I can't always keep up so this really helps

A few pointers to make everyone’s life easier and the thread be as useful as possible:

• It’s handy to put in bold the bargains so they’re easy to spot
• No affiliate links
• No need to place mark or post messages of hello or thanks at the start of a new thread - use the ‘watch thread’ button
• Be nice or leave

If you have any voucher codes to share (or want to check for any) then have a look https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/christmas/5212144-sharing-voucher-codes

The current referral thread for sharing referral codes here . Please use this rather than this page to share referral links to make the sharing fair.

To make clicks links, you set it up like this only without any spaces apart from between the website and the word(s) you’re writing: www.bargainsahoyeveryonecomehere.co.uk

Thanks @RainbowZebraWarrior for the instructions below.
To make something bold, put this star * either side of the word you want to bold (with no spaces in between)

So starhellostar would look like this.

hello

Obviously use the * not the word star

Some of the below is copied and pasted from previous years, so do @ me if the links don't work

Stock informer is a handy site http://www.stockinformer.co.uk/default.aspx?fullsite=1

Camelcamelcamel is a great amazon price tracking tool http://uk.camelcamelcamel.com

The following links compare price products including postage
www.find-book.co.uk
www.find-cd.co.uk
www.find-dvd.co.uk
www.find-game.co.uk (as in PS4/xbox etc)

I got a Terrys email too. No choc. Wish they’d have had a better back end to that competition. Not great to collect everyone’s details like that for no reason.

@SugarIsHardtoAvoid especially as they didn't mention anywhere it was a competition. I think they got overwhelemd and changed it for their own gain

I feel a bit mistrustful of Terrys now. Weirdly written email arriving days after the event, confirmation email issued ‘in error’ etc. On any customer offer if you need to cap the numbers, you should also cap the opportunity for people to keep applying.

Who was the Terry's email from? I didnt get the orange and I dont think a cancellation email either...

I haven’t heard anything from Terry’s since the original email me and DH got saying it was on its way.

Sounds very odd behaviour to me.

They should have set limits and failing that, sent everyone a £1 off voucher. Most people would have been happy with that and many wouldn’t even have bothered to redeem it!

As it is, their brand reputation has been tarnished!

Btw: It’s a good idea to sign up for loyalty programmes to get the birthday rewards, (obviously, when it’s your birthday!)

This week I have had:

Free doughnut from Lidl
Free cake from Costa
Free lip gloss and primer from Estee Lauder, (but I did have to make a purchase)
Free hand soap retailing at £14.90 from Rituals. I did have to buy something but I just bought something in store that was reduced in the sale and that I liked the look of anyway
£5 reward from SpaceNK - no minimum spend- I used this in store
£5 reward from LF (probably won’t use this as don’t want to pay delivery/spend too much)
Double points for the whole month in Boots. (Of course, I forgot and bought loads of stuff from there in November 🙈)

I absolutely love getting birthday freebies.

Great list @IlovePond and Happy Birthday!! 🥳 🎂

I find it advantageous to shift my birthday into November to make use of the freebies for stocking fillers. TBH in my actual birthday month I find I’m too distracted to make use of the offers (it’s usually a busy time at work).

Sign up for HotDiamonds too if you haven’t already. £15 off with no minimum spend.

And someone previously pointed out
-Hobbycraft for a £5 voucher.
-Hotel Chocolat for a £5 voucher.

Thanks @fishfingersandchipsagain - I think I deleted my Hobbycraft a/c - should rejoin!

If anyone wants an idea for something silly for a stocking. The biggest hit with my 12 and 4 year old was the popping tubes that you expand and condense. I may get more next year as I think these ones maybe worn out by next Christmas 😂

@raindancer411 do you know what they were called? They sound fun, but i dont know how to google them?

Thanks

@Hohohopeful

possibly these?

@beetr00 thank you!

Are those the ones?

My 1&4 year old loved their stretchy tubes in their stockings also!

I don't think there has been a 90% off sale in Boots for a number of years. After about three weeks I think it goes to 75% off in store only but already by then most of the popular gift sets and brands are all OOS. If you want something I would buy it now or risk disappointment later!

Thanks @Yalz &@AlohaRose I might just order the S&G bits whilst they are still in stock now then ☺️

@MamaK19 I've just had a look actually and of the 37 S&G gift sets shown only 2 are actually in stock online so unless you can find something in your local store you may already be out of luck!

I think that would be wise, @MamaK19 .

With regard to @AlohaRose’s post, I didn’t go into Boots last winter so there may not have been a 90% off sale then.
I had just bought something in the 90% off sale that I used for an event in February 2022, so it existed then. I’m not sure whether those prices happened in 2023, I don’t remember.

Of course it may not be the same all over the country. I remember years ago going to an M&S in Oxford when all their end-of-sale stock went down to something like £1 or perhaps even 50p. There were a couple of people literally pushing other shoppers out of the way to grab it all.
At that time my local branch never reduced their stock to one price. For a few years more recently they did the 90% sale, but now it just seems to disappear from the shop floor. Mind you, I’m so old I remember when M&S has sales only twice a year.

Definitely dropped to 90% off last year but was really late - end of feb iirc - and it all goes very quickly. We purchase for school secret shopping room for pta so not so fussy about what is left!

That was re Boots and should have said instore only. I just checked back in my messages - it was 13th Feb last year and really was the dregs. Only 15 or so products and that was in a large store. Nothing in either of the more local ones.

All that to say, if there is something particular you want, buy now! If you want random stocking fillers, teacher gifts, to scratch a bargaining itch... keep checking for further discounts!

Hobbycraft and Hotel Chocolat are the ones I'd be most likely to use - do you have to use them on your actual birthday or are they valid for a while? Not likely to get round the shops on my actual birthday this year

@Turtleoo - my ones were all use within a few days, (except for double points all month at Boots).

Basically, I just collected all my freebies yesterday whilst I was at my local, relatively small shopping centre. The LF code I probably won’t use as I don’t ‘need’ anything. The SpaceNK voucher I did use on my birthday instore towards a birthday present for me.

The EL offer was on any order within my birthday month.

Anyone’s converse order status updated yet? Mine hasn’t 😒 I’ll be calling them today to find out what’s going on so I’ll update here!

@hugsandpugs Nope! I've just emailed so will also update here if I hear anything back.

Thanks, hoping to make use of them this year! Happy birthday 🎂 🎈