Our Thrifty House Purchases

Since moving 150 miles, myself and my better half have spent a large proportion of our time scouring flea markets, car boot sales and antique fairs looking for the perfect vintage (and cheap) accessories for our home. Here are some of our beautiful finds:

Left to right: a printing block tray £15, an old clarinet case £5, a 'Camp Coffee' box £15, an old trunk from WWII free, 2 bird seed bags £6, a painted fruit box £10 and a glimpse of our new kitchen table £90

Most of these items we already owned, but we bought the  pair of chairs (dating from the 1950's) from eBay for £52

We bought four apple crates for £20 each to use as kitchen shelves to display our favourite items of crockery. We lined them with vintage fabric, courtesy of my mother's fabric trunk!

The colander belonged to my late Gran. But with a broken handle, we up-cycled it to make this Ikea lamp a bit more 'us'

Possibly the best £17 we have spent so far. A beautiful set of vintage kitchen steps. With such high ceilings it is making reaching up for high up items a whole lot easier...

Thrifty Beauty Cheats

Keeping yourself looking your best can be vastly expensive. Beauty is a multi billion pound industry, but with the recession hitting, we can't all afford to spend £52* on a mere tub of moisturiser. Below are my top ten thrifty tips for looking good, for less:

• Buy men's razors. You get more blades for less money.
• Keep an eye out for free beauty products on the front of magazines e.g lip-gloss or nail varnish, it usually works out much cheaper than buying the product out right.
• Buy a slightly darker shade of foundation than you would usually opt for. When applying, mix on the back of your hand with a dollop of moisturiser. Not only will the foundation last longer, but it'll give you a nice healthy glow.
• To prevent puffiness, place sliced up cucumber on your eyes.
• Make your own exfoliator buy mixing honey/olive oil [to keep your skin soft] with sugar. If you have particularly oily skin, replace the sugar with salt. Wash off with warm water.

 

• Add a cup of powdered milk to your bath. It will leave you skin silky soft.
• Wear clear lip-gloss over your lipstick to help the colour last longer.
• Keep an eye out for offers at your local beauty college. Often they need 'customers' to practise on for waxing, tinting and other beauty procedures. Get discounted treatments and still be pampered!
• The scent of your perfume will last longer if the bottle is kept out of direct sunlight. Less sprays = longer lasting.
• Make your own facemasks. My favourite receipes are a) beat together an egg white, a drizzle of honey and a squeeze of lemon. It will leave your skin soft and glowing. b) put half a cucumber and a half a peach in a blender together. It will tighten pores, shrink acne spots and rejuvenate the skin. NB: For both face masks, apply with fingertips. Leave for three or four minutes, and wash off with warm water.

*£52 is just an approximate amount that the Thrift-Queen might [over] pay for a branded beauty product.