Halloween On A Shoe String - Decoration

From fancy dress to decorations, Halloween can end up costing a small fortune. But follow my five decoration top tips and have yourself some thrifty thrills.

1.  A bit of fake cobweb goes a long way....

Hang in your windows or drape around pictures on your walls. This simple decoration costs around £1 per packet, or you can even use cotton wool for a similar effect. To finish the look just add a handful of creepy critters.

2.  Create spooky lighting in your home. Cluster chunky candles together, use jam jars to hold tea lights or place tall candles in wine bottles, leaving the wax to melt down the bottle.

3.  Pumpkins are one of the most iconic images of Halloween. And the good news is, they're really cheap! Get creative carving faces or words. Or why not save on all that mess and try a non-carve pumpkin design? I like kindredspiritmommy's fantastic ideas, including a decoupaged pumpkin. All you need is some Halloween paper and some pva glue. Simple!

4.  One of the easiest ways to add some Halloween horror to your home is with card. Cut out pictures of ghosts or owls and stick to the walls. Try out this free bat garland from brasspaperclip - a beautiful batty addition to your decor.

5. For those who prefer to be a little more chic than freak, stick to a simple colour scheme throughout your home - black and silver or black and purple are popular choices.

Thrifty Weekend

June, for me, is the start of the pre Summer holiday saving. With this in mind, cheap activites are a must. But it's always good to vary days out.

London's Time Out is a fantastic site for ideas of free places to visit and sights to see. The Thrift-Queen's top picks for this weekend in the capital include:

Naked Bike Ride

• London's World Naked Bike Ride - a liberating nine mile cycle past major London landmarks taking place on Saturday 9th June and it's FREE to watch.
• Open Garden Squares - This weekend 200 private gardens are opened for the public to snoop around.With gardens such as Downing Street and HMP Wormwood Scrubs on the list, the £9 ticket price sounds like an absolute snip.
• London Green Fair - Regent's Park opens it's gates to the largest FREE eco fair with exhibitions, music, and fabulous family areas.
• Or why not attend one of the many FREE performances of the Spitalfields Summer Music Festival starting this Friday (8th June).

English Country Garden

Freebies: Free Hugo Boss 3D Glasses

Let's face it, we all love free stuff. It gives you that wonderous feeling of getting an utter bargain, even if you don't really want the item in question in the first place.

I quite often encounter free give-aways, so figure why not make them available to my lovely Thrift-Queen readers. Today, for example, I stumbled across a pair of FREE limited edition Hugo Boss 3D glasses. Handy, if that's what floats your boat.

I have already ordered some, because you never know. Just Click Here to fill in your details on their page. Available as long as stocks last.

Have Yourself A Very Thrifty Christmas: Decorations

Looking to save money this Christmas? Look no further thanks to the Thrift-Queen's thrifty Christmas tips, starting with decorating.

When decorating your house, it's important to remember less is more. It is easy to get caught up in the spirit of Christmas and end up having to live in a glitter-tastic, sparkling frenzied house. But equally, decorating doesn't have to be elaborate or expensive to look fabulous. Some people like to decorate the whole house - inside and out - whilst others decorate one room or only the tree. Whatever your preference, avoid the wrath of the recession and get thrifty. Below are my top three thrifty tips to achieve a beautiful, yet inexpensive, festive home.

• Be Natural: Add some free natural cheer to your home. Use ivy to wind round your banisters or drape over the mantelpiece. Pine cones make excellent Christmas tree decorations. For a more elegant look, they can be sprayed silver or gold. Or why not fill a bowl with them as a simple table centre piece. Tree branches arranged in a tall vase can look stunning as a decoration or as a Christmas tree alternative. Add colour and hang some pretty baubles on them.
• Get Kid Creative: If you have young children in your family, encourage them to help with decorating the house. Make paper-chains, use empty toilet rolls to make fairies and cut snowflakes out of paper. You could even let them loose with a can of fake snow to spray window. Disney's Family Craft website is an excellent source for cheap and easy Christmas decoration ideas. My favourite is Santa's list, with a twist; using a painted thread spool (see below.)

•  Make Existing Decor Seasonal: At Christmas I like to make other things in my house look festive. I decorate candles and mirrors with tartan ribbon, and add candy canes to fruit bowls or scatter them on my dressing table. Instead of a table runner, I alternate candles and either pine cones or nuts in a line. It makes the table look festive yet elegant. When I bake, I make Christmas shaped cookies and display them on a cake stand in the kitchen. The key aspect of this thrifty method of decorating is to use what you have and dress it up with either garland, ribbon, pretty beads or some other Christmassy items.

Hot UK Deals

Just a quick Thrift-Queen recommendation: Hot UK Deals is an amazing community website which searches the best money saving deals to be had. They find and share the best deals, promotional codes, special offers and vouchers from on and off the web. A perfect site to visit before embarking on Christmas shopping. Go on, get yourself a bargain.

My favourites deals at the moment?

1. Logitech Wireless Touch Keyboard. £7.99 at Staples.
2. Muddy Fox Hustle Mountain Bike. £25 in store at Tesco.
3. Binatone F350 UK SatNav (with full 12 month warranty). £27.98 at Argos.

It is no secret that I love a bargain, but I love a freebie more. I am happy to report there is even a section for this! Other great deatures include competitions and deals in your local area.

Freebies: Free Race Day for Armed Forces

On Sunday 20th November, 2011, Exeter Racecourse are holding a FREE race day for members of the armed forces. There are 2000 free places available on a first come, first served basis. The event, which is a fundraiser for Help For Heroes, has been named the BAFFTAS (The British Armed Forces Families Thanks & Awareness Sunday). More information on the event is available at The East Midlands Reserve Forces Website.

Families are welcome to accompany members and each free entry will be entitled to bring a guest for just £7.50 (half-price) and children under 17 years will have free entry too. There will be six races to watch and many other activities to participate in.

To reserve free tickets (subject to availability) or take advantage of pre-booking discounts, book online via Exeter Racecourse using promotion code EXEH4HNOV20. Military ID or British Legion Membership will then have to be presented with ticket on arrival to guarantee free entry.

The Thrift-Queen recommends as it's free and for a worthwhile cause.

Freebies: Freecycle: A How To Guide

Following the success of a previous Thrift-Queen post on how to buy on eBay [Thrift-Queen's eBay Buying Tips and Tricks], I had had a request to write a How To guide for Freecycle, which, once you get to get grips with, will become a major asset to your every day life.

Freecycle.org is one of my favourite thriftful websites. It is an eco-friendly, convenient, and money saving site, that allows the user to keep their house junk free. Winner! Freecycle groups work by matching people who have items they want to get rid of with people who can use them. The only catch being you have to collect the item from the person offering it.

Getting started can be a trifle confusing, but follow my simple step by step guide and you'll be Freecycling in no time.

Joining

• Freecycle is a Yahoo Group, so you have to apply to have access to the group. To ease the application process, I'd recommend opening an email account and registering with Yahoo.
  
• Next, visit Yahoo's homepage and click on Groups, which will be listed down the left hand side.
  
• A search bar will open, allowing you to search for the Freecycle group you wish to join. Freecycle groups are divided according to area, the results will show you if there is a more than one choice for your area. There are no restrictions on the number of groups joined.
• Type in "Freecycle" followed by the area, i.e the town you live in, and then click on your chosen result.
• At this point you should click to join group and then a) amend contact info: choose which email address you would like messages to be sent. It doesn't have to be your Yahoo one; and b) select your choice of message delivery. I hate for my inbox to be filled with Freecycle messages so always opt for the web view only option.
• Your request may not get approved right away. Sometimes it has to go through the group mediator first.

Using

All items posted on Freecycle must be legal and free. You can give items away or OFFER, which must be followed up with a TAKEN post (when collected). You can also ask for a specific item by posting a WANTED message. This should be followed up with a RECEIVED post.

Once you are a member of the group you will then be able to see the message postings. You are usually required to offer an item before you can request one, but make sure to read all the rules and requirements.

Your Freecycle group homepage will give you the option of Messages or Post. Click Messages to view what is being offered and click Post to post a message. A specific subject line format is expected when posting messages and messages might be deleted if this is not adhered to. The format is ACTION: Item (Area). For example:

OFFER: Drum kit (Bournemouth)
TAKEN: Drum kit (Bournemouth)

and
   
WANTED: Ear plugs (Whitley Bay)
RECEIVED: Ear plugs (Whitley Bay)

 
The post, or message, should then outline what you have/want, a brief description of the item, where you live and collection time preferences (if any). If you see an offered item that you would like, make sure you respond as quickly as possible as some Freecycle members operate on a first come first served basis. When you post an offered item, it is up to you how much time you allow people to respond. I usually wait 24 hours to make it more fair. It is also up to you to choose who to give your item to, but bear this in mind when responding to another members' offer. A sentence of why you want the item can help your chances of being chosen.

If I have missed anything, or not explained myself clearly feel free to leave a comment on this post or send me an email to thrift-queen@hotmail.co.uk and I will try my best to help. Good luck and happy Freecycling!

Freebies: The Sun Newspaper - FREE LEGO!

The Thrift-Queen's top tip for this week: every day The Sun newspaper is giving away a free Lego toy on purchase of the paper. It started on Saturday with a star wars Lego set and suffice to say I had a very happy five year old child. Yes, it meant lowering my standards considerably [in buying The Sun], but free Lego? Yes please!

Top Five Free Hobbies

"Beware the hobby that eats." Benjamin Franklin

About six months ago, it occurred to me that many of my favourite hobbies were generally costing me more than I could afford. Snowboarding, pole dancing classes and theatre trips were leaving me with limited funds, so I set about trying to replace them with free or virtually free new hobbies. My top five thrifty favourites are as follows:

1. Thrifty sports and exercise. Such as hiking, football, walking/running, darts, tennis, skateboarding, basketball and cycling.
2. Music. Re-learn or teach yourself to play an instrument. Attend gigs for 'up-and-coming' bands. Less notoriety = cheaper tickets.
3. Cooking and baking. Challenging, cheap and child-friendly.
4. Blogging. Share your passion and give yourself a voice.
5. Arts and crafts [see previous article Get The Crafting Bug]. Or why not take up knitting, sewing, painting or photography.

Do you have any recommendations for cheap yet fun hobbies I could try? Leave me a comment or email me at thrift-queen@hotmail.co.uk

Library Lovelyness

My five year old son is hobby mad. He currently goes to football twice a week, street dance and swimming (and is anxious to start Beavers, but I'm not sure if we've the time, or quite frankly, the money!) But this afternoon, as a rare treat, we had no after school plans. So I asked him what he wanted to do most of all. His reply? Visit the library.

The thing that I think most people forget is that the library is not just about books. Our local one, for example, has the daily local newspapers/ masses of subscribed magazines to read for free; DVD's and audio CD's which are free if they're on a child's ticket; lots of free information about things to do in your local area; and computers with free internet use. My son particularly loves that they have designated computers for children to play interative games [for free].

So whilst Kindles and e-books might be the latest all-singing all-dancing gadget trying to lure us away from good ol' fashioned paper books, let us not forget about the amazing service of our free local library. I read an interesting article from collegeonline.org which said "Radio lives on despite TV, film is still in high demand despite video, people still talk on the telephone despite email. [Therefore] people who like paper books will continue to read paper books" but I thought y'all could do with a gentle reminder about your lovely local library!

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.

Get The Crafting Bug...

Have you ever looked at a hand-made card and thought to youself "I wish I could do that"? Well, with the Thrift-Queen's top tips now you can, and cheaply.

What I love most about card making, is that anyone can do it. For basic hand-made greeting cards the materials used are items most people have anway, including card, scissors, glue and glitter. However, high street craft shops (I am a massive Hobbycraft fan) stock embellishments, stamps and shape cutters which are very inexpensive. The internet is a useful source for ideas and tips, and online magazines such as Papercrafts http://www.papercraftsmag.com/index.html offer free downloads to enhance your cards. The best bit? It's inexpensive, easy, and has a lovely personal touch.

My son loves to help me make our Christmas cards, and our family and friends love receiving them. Instead of buying generic gifts, I often include recent photos (presented prettily) or write a nice long letter. Why not take up a new hobby and have yourself a very thriftful Christmas!

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.

It's a steal, it's a deal....

Ultimate thriftful-ness! My [lovely] boyfriend bought this Skets tee shirt on Thursday, after we saw them support Capdown at a gig. By Saturday, I had convinced him it actually looked better on me! What do y'all reckon? I do feel a bit bad for spiriting it away, but other halves are a good source of free clothes.