Our Pretty Home

Every now and again I tweet (@QueenThrift) a picture of something delicious and wonderful from around our home. I've since received a few requests for more! This is music to my ears, because I love nothing better than spending the day in second-hand shops or car boot sales rummaging for pretty thrifty finds.

Voilà! Ask and you shall receive. Here are some of my favourite pieces from my two favourite rooms in our home. The Family/Living Room and the Reading Room:

THE BASEMENT (our Family/Living Room):

Too nice to keep outside

Our 6 year old's artwork

Big fan of old boxes as storage

We <3 Studio Ghibli

Even the basement door is beautiful!

Monochrome kids dvd shelves (and some art from Cuba)

My fella is a genius! Homemade entertainment unit.

GROUND FLOOR (Reading Room):

I bought Jesus from Angel market. Haggled to £20 as he has no arms!

To think, my folks wanted to throw that telly away!

Upcycled lampshade from a colander.

Totoro's home

I made these cushion from bird seed sacks.

Recent Thrifty Puchases

I spend most Sunday's browsing car boot sales, I check out the charity shops at least once a week and I try as much as possible to peruse flea markets and street markets.

As a result, our house is filling up nicely with quirky pieces, I'm finding many items to upcycle and gift to friends and family, and after summer I shall be launching into a new business venture concerning all things Thrifty. Watch this space....

Some of my recent purchases include:

Pretty plates - £2

Picnic hamper - £5

Old map - £1.50

Gorgeous lace doilies - £4 for 12

Adidas bag - £1

Selection of glassware - £1.80

Wooden cutlery tray - £1

 

Thrifty Inspiration

We recently held my 29th [ahem] birthday party in our new home. Friends seemed [and rightly so!] to be gushing about our house renovation and quirky furniture, decorations and objects about the house. Moreover, I was looking through a close friends' photos of the party and they were mainly of items in the house! More house pictures to follow in later articles.

People constantly ask where I get my unique and thrifty inspiration from, and the answer is from many sources.

The 'make do and mend' mentality comes from my family. During the war, clothes were rationed just like everything else. I remember my Gran telling me about unwanted jumpers which were unravelled and knitted into something else, or just like Julie Andrews in 'The Sound of Music' old curtains were cut up to make skirts and dresses. This obviously past down to my mum because when my brother and I were little she made all our clothes, and has brought me up to make my own soft furnishings, not to buy them.

Maria made clothes out of curtains - very make do and mend!

My love of salvage was probably first inspired by dad who was a dustman in the 1970's. During a house clearance he managed to salvage a pair of beautiful Ercol chairs, that are still to this day, in their kitchen. Later, as elderly relatives died and I inherited old furniture and stunning pieces like cut glass perfume bottles, I really began to favour the old over the new. Something about my things having a bit of history about them, excites me.

My parents salvaged chairs.

Other than that, I've always read a lot of house and interior magazines, I check out other people homes quite a lot on Right Move (maybe I should become an estate agent?) and I spend many a weekend scouring charity shops, car boot sales, flea markets and antique shops looking for the perfect items for our home.

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...

Moving House Doesn't Have To Cost The Earth

It's no secret that we're finally moving house this weekend, so I just wanted to share with you the money saving tips I have learnt along the way.

Cut the Middleman or Barter
Selling your property yourself can take a lot of hard work and energy, but if the price is right and you market it like mad, it will sell. However, if like me, you are not so brave, shop around before choosing an estate agent. Lowest isn't always best, get a couple of quotes to compare. But always barter on fees with a high street agent to save on selling costs.

Money Matters
Let your finances, not property lust, dictate the process of buying a new home. Ensure to remember all the hidden costs including estate agent fees, surveys, mortgage arrangement fees, valuation fees and stamp duty. Make sure you keep some cash aside from your deposit to cover them.

Haggle
Get thrifty and start haggling over everything from your estate agent fees and removal costs to the property price and any extra fixtures and fittings. Don't forget, if the survey finds any major problems you should ask the vendor to either fix it before completion or knock the repair cost off the price.

Shed The Weight
Moving house is the ideal time to sort through your belongings and decide what you want/need and what you don't. I try to stick by William Morris' words of wisdom:

"Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful"

Getting rid of excess belongings, whether you donate them to charity or raise some extra pennies by selling them, is the best way to save money. The more things you have, the bigger the removal van you'll need -  professional movers charge by weight and distance. My fella and I found a local indoor car boot sale to flog our unwanted belongings. I can highly recommend!

D.I.Y
Do the removals yourself. Get a group of friends around for a weekend, hire a big van (a very very big van) and pack and move your possessions yourself.

Time Your Move
If opting to use a removals company, timing is everything. It would seem we've accidentally timed our move well. During the winter months removal companies are quieter (everyone wants to move in the summer because of the weather apparently) so you're in a better position to negotiate. Consider a mid-week move because they have much less demand than on the weekends. I found that pushing my move to the beginning of a month saved hundreds, as solicitor's prefer to finish associated paperwork as a month draws to a close. Remember to get a few quotes from different removal companies.

Keep Expensive Items with you
If you are using a removal firm, let them move the big and bulky stuff while you keep all your important documents and expensive items such as laptops, cameras and MP3 players with you.  These items can travel in the car with you where it is more secure.

So Long Summer

The evenings are darker, the kids are back at school and the post-summer holidays blues have kicked in. Sounds like a perfect time to get thriftful.

Sell any summer clothes or accessories that you no longer want on Ebay  or Gumtree, late summer holiday go-ers will snap them up. But don't go crazy for Autumn/Winter clothes just yet. Get style-savvy and save yourself money by updating your favourite summer clothes for the cooler weather. To a pretty summer dress, try adding a pair of leggings and a mac. Or team your favouite shorts with tights and a wool knit jumper. Reinvention is the key to thriftful wardrobe sucess!

If you have children, hit the pre Autumn/Winter sales and buy the next size up clothes for them to wear next summer. Similarily, maybe you could partake in a car boot sale for any outdoor toys your kids no longer play with/ have grown out of. As for their school packed lunches, instead of buying pre packaged single serve items, use tupperware or other reusable containers. It will save money in the long run. My five year old son's favourite lunch time snack is humous and cucumber/carrot sticks. Easy and cheap. But don’t forget, lunch boxes aren’t just for kids. Taking your leftovers to work the next day will also help save money.

The beginning of autumn is a good time to get thriftfully prepared for the change in season. Shop around using a price comparison site to check you're getting the best possible deal on your services, such as gas and electricity. Some companies are introducing fix rate payments over the next couple of years, and with fuel costs predicted to rise it's a good time to be prepared. As for Christmas, now is the perfect time to start shopping for gifts to help spread the cost. Plan for your next trip abroad and invest in a set of portable digital luggage scales. A good quality set will set you back a mere £15 and as http://www.digital-luggage-scales.co.uk/ notes, "for every kilo you are over your bag allowance it could set you back at least £7.50 with some long haul flights even charging £30 per kg extra". Thriftful preparation at it's best.

Car-Bootyness

I love a bargain, and thus am a HUGE fan of car boot sales. Yes, they're fantastic places to sell your unwanted junk, but I love them so much more for the potential of whiffing out a secondhand gem. However, even the most seasoned bargain hunter needs pointing in the right direction from time to time. And thus I would like to share with you the Time Out guide to London's best car boot sales http://www.timeout.com/london/feature/1193/londons-best-car-boot-sales . Their top five are:

1. Wimbledon car boot sale. £2 for early birds, 50p there after.
2. Battersea car boot sale. £3 for early birds, 50p there after.
3. Capital car boot sale (Pimlico). £5 for early birds, £1 there after.
4. Holloway car boot sale. Free.
5. Hounslow West car boot sale. Free

The Thrift-Queen's top tips for buying at car boot sales are: haggle, haggle, and haggle. But more practically, bring lots of plastic bags to carry your new treasures in; arrive early and with lots of cash; and bring an umbrella and/or wellies depending on the weather.