If you have been here a long time, you might remember when I went on ITV Tonight to dispense a masterclass in saving money on energy bills. Energy-saving is one of my favourite money topics, because once you get past the boring bullet-point lists, a whole new world of thrifty nerdery opens up. You know those bullet-point lists. You start spotting them everything at this time of year. They go like this:   How to Save Money on Energy Bills: Beginner Level Don an extra jumper. Insulate your loft. Have a shower, not a bath. Only boil as much water as you need in your kettle. Put off turning ..read more

This is a post about the Rockstar Finance Community Fund – but first of all, an update. I’ve been quiet of late, I know. I’ve been juggling parenthood, my full-time job and Christmas: fortunately, I still adore all three. But I’ve also been doing a lot of flitting, spending time in hospitals. My beloved Frugal Grandad died in November. Frugal Grandad made the occasional appearance here on Miss Thrifty, and I miss him every day. There are some great stories I’d like to share with you – not here, but in future posts – such as the time he insured his underpants. (And claimed on them.) Ah, the 19 ..read more

A reverse advent calendar is easy to make and it’s a great cause. You will need the following items: – An empty cardboard box. – An open wallet: if you are in the UK, around £15 should do – although you can create a reverse advent calendar for as little as £5. See below for details. – An open heart (awww). A reverse advent calendar is the opposite of a normal advent calendar. With a normal advent calendar, you open a door each day to see a picture, take out a chocolate or get some other prize. With a reverse advent calendar, you begin with an empty box. Every day for 24 days, you add one item ..read more

The old one pound coin went out of circulation on 15 October 2017. This has all happened rather suddenly, hasn’t it? It feels like the shiny new one pound coins only came out the other week. However if you have found an old one pound coin lurking in your money box or down the back of the sofa, STOP RIGHT THERE, BUSTER. There are still a number of ways in which you can spend an old one pound coin – and they are all listed below. Before you continue: do note that at the time of writing, certain shops and supermarkets will still accept your old one pound coin. I haven’t included this list in the ..read more

Our guest bedroom didn’t always look like this. When we moved into this house, it became clear that decorating ideas needed to come thick and fast. The guest bedroom walls had chunks out of them and were painted lilac. The thin blue carpet was threadbare in places, and stained with drips and drops of lilac paint. The faded floral curtains were mounted on a wonky, plastic curtain-pole. I bought a double bed, but was startled to discover the prices of brand new headboards and resolved to find one in a charity shop (I never found one). The only other furniture was an wobbly IKEA wardrobe left by ..read more

This time 10 years ago, we were buying a house: our first home, in North Yorkshire. The floors were bare boards, the walls were covered in yellow vinyl wallpaper, and the gas and electricity were on pre-pay meters (on a frozen January night when all the newsagents were closed, I discovered this the hard way). The garden, used by the previous occupants as a landfill site, was devoid of lawn and covered in knee-high brambles. We had saved a 10% mortgage deposit and bought our red-brick terrace at the top of the market, just before the credit crunch came whomping on house prices and eq ..read more

  If there is one thing I love, it is flinging myself head-first into a sale and emerging with an AMAZING bargain. Every year, it’s a challenge. So far this year, I have picked up a kitchen clock from Habitat (reduced by 70%) and some smart work tops from Hobbs, reduced from £££ to less than £20 each. Over the years, I have honed a sales shopping strategy that works well for me. BBC Watchdog recently approached me to share some of my sales-shopping secrets with their views on Watchdog on Three (the online version of the programme, which broadcasts while the BBC1 version is off-air). It w ..read more

A Silvercrest Digital Hot Air Fryer, available from Lidl, landed on my doorstep the other week. It costs £59.99, is available for a very limited time and looks like this: Now, I get lots of emails from PRs asking if I’ll review their clients’ products on the Miss Thrifty Blog. I almost always say no, because the products are too expensive, or they aren’t my thing (although you can’t blame the PR for female incontinence pads for trying). Also, I dislike clutter: if I don’t need an item or it doesn’t spark joy, I have no place for it. Nevertheless, my kitchen seems to be permanently under siege ..read more

It turns out I’m not the only one with pensions on the brain – or am I? A new study has found that almost half the UK population has an “ostrich mentality” when it comes to saving for the future. The Skipton Building Society Retirement Tracker, which monitors the retirement savings behaviours of more than 6,000 people up and down the country, has revealed that 48% of us have our heads in the sand when it comes to the dreaded ‘P’ word (pensions), with retirement savings that are either meagre or non-existent. Skipton Building Society asked me to team up with them to help raise awareness of the ..read more

This is how I wrap my presents every year: I like how it looks, and I also like saving money on Christmas wrapping paper. When you tot up the costs of Christmas gift-buying, it is easy to forget to include the costs of Christmas gift-wrapping. It adds up though, the cost of the shiny sparkly wrapping paper and ribbon and gift tags and so on. In my experience, this additional cost is felt all the more acutely when your £2.99 roll of shiny sparkly stuff turns out to be roughly £2.89 of gift-wrap roll insert, with enough paper to wrap no more than a few gifts. And let’s not mention tha ..read more