HOW TO SAVE MONEY: CLOTHES AND LUXURY BARGAINS
by Amanda Prouten
Everyday scroogery
Freebies »
Social - boozing, schmoozing, clubbing and dining out on the cheap »
Entering Competitions »
Holidays and travel »
Clothes, luxuries and other great stuff »
Banks, building societies, credit and savings »
Utilities »
Mobiles and landlines »
Transport »
Money saving links »
YOU ARE VIEWING: Clothes, Luxuries and other great stuff
- Be an Avon lady and get free cosmetics, toiletries and jewellery.
- Host a products party for girlfriends in your home and earn commission or get free goodies. Try Virgin Vie (0845 300 8022) or Pink Poodle (0870 442 4980).
- If you really must buy something, make sure it's worth having and you get the best deal. Compare prices with www.kelkoo.co.uk or www.pricebeater.co.uk.
- Buy online through cash back sites. The idea is that you register with the online cash back club and, when you want to buy something, click the link from the cash back site to the retail site in their scheme. You can get up to 4% cash back credited to your cash back club account, which comes in very handy for your Christmas present budget at the end of the year. Try www.greasypalm.co.uk and www.rpoints.com.
- Use loyalty cards to get points in stores. Make sure you redeem them as well. If some stores give credit vouchers (Homebase for example), make sure you use them by the 'valid until' date.
- Become a catalogue agent for your mates and get free clothes and home stuff. Find out more at www.catalogue-connection.co.uk.
- Limit your spending to the following shops only: charity shops, TK Maxx, Primark, Matalan and similar priced bargain palaces. Snip the trashy labels off and pass for designer chic.
- Never buy books unless from charity shops, second hand shops or Amazon. Better still, use the local library.
- Borrow DVDs from the library as well. Or plunder the DVD collections of friends.
- Download your CDs from the internet - it's much cheaper than buying from record stores. Better still, borrow and burn from friends and the library.
- Download free music to play on your computer or ipod in the form of podcasts from www.bbc.co.uk/radio/downloadtrial.
- Amuse yourself for hours for free by mixing your own tunes on www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onemusic/studio. Impress all your mates by emailing the sound files to them (and to yourself).
- Get your hair cut and coloured for nothing by letting hairdressing students use you as a guinea pig. Find out where your nearest hair academy is and give them a ring. You can get up to 50% discount off their normal price.
