Meerkovo Village Parade Success

Happy New Year Thrift-Queen Readers!!

This morning I realised I needed pet insurance for my adorable cat, Dizzee. So I decided to CompareTheMarket.com and not only came away with a cracking deal, but also a free Meercat toy. Amazing, thoroughly recommend! Below, is my 'Meerkovo Village Parade Success' for you all to enjoy:

Budget Cath Kidston Wallpaper

 I LOVE all things Cath Kidston, but I find a lot of her products to be quite expensive. But panic not! A British wallpaper company, Eden, make a range of purse friendly wallpapers called Millie which have a charming likeness to some of Cath Kidston's most sought after designs, but for over half the price!

There are several websites that stock these style-savvy designs. One of my favourites, wallpapersandborders.co.uk sell the above featured Red/Cream Rose Millie Flower for an amazingly thrifty £10.99 per roll. It would make a beautiful vintage feature in any room. For fans of the floral look, I've found that Focus DIY sell a variety Millie wallpapers, including Millie Blue, which features small red roses on a sky blue background.

The Thrift-Queen also recommends the website wallpaperdirect, which sell a few varieties of Millie wallpaper. Specifically, they do an exact copy of Cath Kidston's now discontinued blue polka dot wallpaper, Blue Spot for £15.99 per roll. So now there is no excuse not to have beautiful rooms on a budget.

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.

Frighten That Spider Away

Common house spiders are useful for getting rid of annoying insects in the home, and are probably more scared of us than we are of them. I, personally do not have too much of a problem with them. But if you are a bit more on the frightened side then this thrifty tip, recommended by Thrift-Queen reader Jennie, is for you.

My son collected an enormous amount of conkers this autumn, which are now collecting amount of dust in his bedroom. So why not put the conkers to good use? Spiders are terrified of conkers, believed to be something to do with the smell.

Place one conker in each corner of a room and keep spiders at bay. An inexpensive, but effective tactic.

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.

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

Groupon Greatness

Last weekend my big night out was to Ben 10 Monster Trucks with my five year old son. I bought tickets from Groupon at a bargain price of £8 each, a deal not to be sniffed at. The Thrift-Queen recommends Groupon, it was well worth every penny.

Money Saving Website

Just wanted to share with you all this amazing new [to me] website I've found. It's called Cheap Bargains (UK) and is Thrift-Queen heaven with top tips galore on saving money and deals to be had. My recommendation of the moment is to buy the Skullcandy Full Metal Earbud Headphones on play.com for £14.99 (RRP of £79.95) which is a massive saving of £64.96. Perfect for a thrifty Christmas present. Check out other bargains to be had at http://www.cheapbargains.org/

Taste Test

A Thrift-Queen's recommendation. See if you can taste the difference between known brand and own brand products. You might soon save yourself a small fortune.

Vintage Thrift

This photo is taken from a wedding I went to last year. I'm wearing a dress from Vivien Of Holloway, my favourite shop in London. They stock a range of fabulous style savvy clothes and accessories that'd transform anyone into a real vintage starlet.

Their beautiful dresses cost upwards of £59, depending on which style you are after. The red dress I'm wearing, for example, usually sells for £79. However, I bought my dress from the 'seconds' rail and it cost a mere £10. Thrift-Queen heaven! It had a small hole in the back of it, which is barely noticeable once I sewed it up. And I got myself an absolute bargain, saving £69! Highly recommendable for classic items of clothing that'll never go out of fashion. It is, however, worth a visit to the store to be measured as their sizes come up small.