Champagne lifestyle on brown ale budget or similar?!

[umiaisha]

Since giving up work 2 years ago to be SAHM achieving this has been my mission. Would love some new ideas from any savvy mumsnetters on how to save ££ without compromising on the finer things in life.

Have listed a few of the things I do below:

• Have you hair cut/coloured/whatever by a trainee. I never pay full price for my hair and actually find that the students are generally more enthusiastic, have better ideas and really look after you. Had a full head of highlights, cut and blow dry this week for £10 + a £10 tip and am very happy with it.

• Shop around for things like gel nails. I have found a shop near me that gives you your third visit half price, which isn't loads but more than any of the others are offering. I also do my own toe nails now as find that a lot easier and just have a pedicure a couple of times a year.

• Get your eyebrows and other threading done in an asian shop. Far cheaper than the usual salons/stores. Was horrified to see that Fenwicks charge £20 for eyebrows!

• If you exchange christmas/birthday lists amongst family give a lot of thought to what goes on it. Amongst other bits I have Topshop vouchers which I can save for when I need something or fancy treating myself and Chanel nail varnish that I can't justify buying for myself! Same principle can be applied to lists for the children.

• Save monthly for holidays and christmas. We have done this for so long that it becomes another bill and we don't really notice it.

• We like to eat out at least once a weekend and have made it a mission to keep the bill under £35 by keeping an eye out for discounts/vouchers etc and often giving dessert a miss.

Over to you..

Welcome grumpy, i have quite a collection now :-)

Is perfume parlour really the same?

Seriously considering perfume parlour. I miss my chanel perfume.

Just been to Sainsburys and they have 25% off most clothing at the moment. I'm not keen on their womens' range but I love their kids clothing, and got my 10 year old DD a lovely shorts and tights set for £8. Similar sets are over double the price in Next!

check stores like Poundland /Poundworld for good brands for a pound, like makeup. Have gotten some CKlein items and Sally Hansen stuff is always there.

I can't believe I forgot to put this tip in my other posts:

Enter competitions! As many as you can!

I enter loads and have won some really lovely things, ranging from a Hugo Boss watch for DH to a £500 clothes spending spree, to nights in hotels.

I love to have my two kids dressed well and have managed to get them Converse high tops on eBay for £4
I just pop them in the washing machine and they are like brand new
Recently got them both the exact same Bluezoo Debenhams jacket - one for 50p plus postage the other for 99p plus postage - u would never know they were second hand and they look so smart in little jackets and converse
I bought an oil burner from £1 shop then buy Yankee wax tarts on eBay for around £1 - love my home to smell great on a budget !
Love the supermarket bargains too ,I also stock up in the seasonal reductions,I currently have in the sideboard a bag of Easter craft kits I got for 10p in supermarket - little chicks ,stickers etc . Will be ideal for Easter crafting 2015!
Will be doing the same this weekend when all the Halloween things get reduced

Some great ideas on here!

We are having a busy but frugal half term with activities including making use of our wacky warehouse monthly pass, cinema with bargain tickets from Group (£20 for 5, think the deal is still on) and smuggled in Poundland goodies. Today we are making halloween cakes and tomorrow going out with my mum to Shepherds Bush market and then lunch in Spaghetti house using a £10 voucher!

Am going to check out perfume parlour later..

I have found that my employee benefits scheme allows me to buy gift cards at a discount, so instead of never buying Starbucks or Nero coffee I now buy one a week for a treat at a 9% discount, so it's worth a look to see if you or OH has a similar scheme - you can get discounts on all sorts of cards so they make good gifts and also save money on essential spend like groceries and electricals.

I have several fave Aldi/lidl products that are are top quality for a great price. I particularly like the Abbott & Broome handwash, just like Molton Brown, dishwasher tabs and washing powder and gin!

The thing I have found most helpful is being able to buy in bulk if you can. It can be hard to stretch a tight budget beyond what you immediately need but if you can buy e.g meat on offer to put in the freezer, beauty products on sale it can be so worthwhile.

Did sainsburys have any jeggings or skinny jeans?

I didn't go to the jeans section, but I've had some lovely skinny jeans from there in the past on a 25% off day for about £10! They're cut really nicely, not too low on the hips etc

Thanks flora

Frugal half term here also but packed with activities - DCs have gone to holiday club whilst I am at work. On my days off we are going to the cinema £4.05 for three tickets and bowling £9.99 for two games for four people (groupon deal). Also packing fir bargain weekend away - treating ourselves to eating out :)

Loving all these ideas and will be using some of them.

There have been some fantastic ideas on here so far, I am looking to you fellow frugal luxuiristas for some ideas please? My dd turns 10 next month and she wants her usual big bash, we have an activity planned for the day and then she would like 4 friends to stay over so they will require lunch and dinner plus breakfast - times are hard at the minute so any clues how I can feed them cheaply? Also she wants an apple gadget which new is £140.00 so you can imagine that along with a cake, the party, the gift plus the family party this is going to be mega money. I would like to do as much as I can on the cheap so if you have any good ideas I would be grateful!

Don't dominoes pizza do codes etc on topcashback etc? Argos and tesco have eBay outlets that I see apple stuff on.

OOh my favourite subject!

I eat out loads and socialise a lot but pay next to nowt for it by using itison/5pm/Groupon etc. I've had tickets to the national ballet company for £15 and next week a friend and I are going to a VERY posh restaurant with a deal that lets us have 2 courses for £7.50 each!

Travelwise I always book my summer hol as soon as I get my Christmas bonus so December or January and last year my flight to Majorca in peak season was £90 return! I also book train travel a full three months in advance (as soon as the fares load) and do Glasgow - London for £42 return and Glasgow - Manchester for £32.

I feed myself really well for about £80 a month by using Aldi and checking out yellow stickers a lot. I eat a lot of lovely meat and fish this way!

Sign up for the Money Saving Expert email every week and scan it carefully for things that are relevant to you. Definetely do his budget calculator too. I HALVED my monthly contact lens spend by shopping around.

Loving this thread!

Grumpy - ideas for your daughters party.

Food - pizzas for dinner. Get the girls to make them and add their own toppings as an extra activity. The toppings can be store cupboard ingredients that you may already have like cheese, ham etc.
Lunch could be jacket potatoes. For breakfast, I'd just go for cereal or toast.

I once did an 'ice cream factory' for my nieces birthday which went down well. I bought a tub of ice cream, ice cream sauces and sprinkled and let them make their own pudding. We also added some spray cream and jelly sweets which we already had at home.

With regards to the party, I'd just do an Iceland buffet with crisps, sausage rolls etc. if you know someone with a Costco membership, you can get a huge customised cake for £13.

Great ideas thank you, I will go with the pizzas and ice-cream factory idea as I have sprinkles and sauces in the cupboard and cheap buffet for the family party. I think I will get some croissants and pan au chocolat for the breakfast, cheapo but will feel special and grown up. I am considering not doing the daytime activity due to it being outdoors and if it rains it will be miserable so need to think of something else.
Maybe I can find the Ipod 2nd hand.

I am more interested in the end product than the "experience ", so I don't care if I enjoy having my hair/nails whatever done, just how it looks! I have found that this philosophy has saved me money. I do my own mani- and pedicures, tint my lashes and brows, do my own facials, body scrubs etc. I get my hair highlighted and cut every three months by a stylist since this is something I can't and don't want to do myself.
My gym membership includes free tanning and unlimited classes, so I go to Zumba five times a week. I pay about the same for monthly membership as I would for two individual classes elsewhere.
I read a lot of design blogs to get ideas and visit all the fancy overpriced furniture stores. DH and I have painted most of home ourselves. I have created lots of 'art' using branches, shells, pine cones etc that I've picked up outside. I take photos on my iPhone when I'm out and about that I then edit to black and white, then print and frame. I love Marimekko designs but again they cost more than I want to pay, so I go to Ikea and try to find things that look as similar as possible. I don't believe in paying a lot for candles, so again that's something I get from there. I buy Ikea's roe (poor man's caviar) and serve it with homemade pancakes, sour cream and chopped onions.
If I buy cheap candles in glass jars I pull the horrible stickers off since that's what makes them look cheap.

I have picked up great Girly make up for my nieces (12-13) on a website called cosmetic fairy
I think it's all discontinued make up - prices start at 29p for single eyeshadows etc, little lip glosses . I bought nice floral make up bags in £1 shop and filled them with little make up items , they do free postage if you order £10 or more so I ordered a few eyebrow pencils for myself too.
They take PayPal , so I could pay using my eBay sales money.

Love this thread.

Someone mentioned cheap Haven breaks out of season. If you book early with them they usually offer a price promise, so will refund the difference if you see it cheaper later. So keep an eye out on their website 2 weeks before you are due to depart on your break. Most of their holidays will be discounted so now is the time to ring and cash in on the price promise! We did this, and managed to upgrade to a better grade of caravan too for less than the original price we paid. They count on people not bothering to. Heck the website.

Use local college for hair and beauty. For hair, you can usually opt for an NVQ 3 student who is already qualified to work in a salon, just doing an extr optional year to boost their skills. I get my full head of highlights and a cut done by them for £20. Beauty treatments usually only available from January to July when the students have got enough experience, but are worth it.

We tried perfume parlour, chanel chance for me & creed vetiver for dh & they smell just like the real thing.

I think we will buy the sprays next time though, the roll ons don't project the fragrance very much.

If anyone is interested Glamour Magazine this month has a 20% H & M discount card valid until 5th Dec on a 20.00 minimum spend plus a free Nails Inc nail polish attached to the cover.

Get your dc to send off for Blue Peter badges- saves a ton of money and you wont miss out on otherwise expensive days out.

YY to Mua make-up. I love their lip gloss.

Book flights early/as soon as they come out and shop around for package deals.

Charity shops- so many new clothes with tags still on.

Tastecard, I'm going to apply for the 60 day free trial. When mine expires dh can have a 60 day trial.

It'll give us 2 for 1 at local resturants. Memberships meant to be £80 but lots of people on mse get offered it for £30 after the trial.