Okay Guys and girls and everything inbetween. We all know just how expensive the holidays can be, especially Christmas I mean after all it IS the season of giving, but does giving blood, sweat and tears just mean nothing to people?
I mean I work 42.5 hours per week, I got paid money for going away to do a TV show and I am STILL skint. But if there is one thing lower-middle class girls are good at, it's doing our best on a budget, so I'm here to try drop some little nuggets of wisdom to you all. Not only will I begiving you gift tips I'll ALSO be giving tips for yourself that I follow too so that I don't looks like raggedy ann come the whole Christmas period.
Gifts
One Word - Amzon! I'm serious now, I live for Amazon. Normal shopping is great, but where else are you going to find all the little nik naks that you can get for next to nothing quite like amazon? Seriously now,
Cheap smells.com - This little diamond saved me so much money back when I was on the dole, don't give me the side eyes I was 20 and no one would hire me because of the whole "you need experience to work here" "but how can I get experience?" "from working somewhere like this" "but they said they wont hire me either until I get experience" thing, seriously soul destroying! But I remember there was a certain shit for brains I was seeing (on and off for 2 years) at the time who loved this Mont Blanc aftershave and it was so expensive to me then, I mean now I'd be like "Ha! Mont Who? Give me THREE!" I kid, I'm still poor. But I got it for around £20-£25 when usually it would be like £50, which is a huge difference. He thought I'd gone all out, I felt like less of a tramp for getting him a birthday gift (his birthday was December the inconsiderate prick) everyone was happy. So if you shop around or just look on there, honestly it's great.
LoveHoney - So you want to Kink it up, try love honey over ann summers or VS, as much as I love them, love honey is a better bang for your buck quite literally. I wont lie here, just because your purse strings are tight doesn't mean your vagina is! So may be worth baring in mind. Good quality for low price, besides who looks at the names on sex toys, I can guarantee if your S/O IS looking at this then they need kicking out the bedroom and you should be flying solo over the holidays!
Lidl/Aldi - Or any low priced supermarket if I'm hitting on this. If you are making the dinner there is absolutely NO problem, not a single one, with shopping here for any of your ingredients, in fact I whole heartedly encourage it. You're only going to shove stuffing up the birds arse and eat it anyway for what ever reason people do that. Rimming a turkey isn't really on my Christmas bucket list but you do you guys. I need to google who decided stuffing a turkey was a good idea actually. Get me a ouija board because we need to have words! But honestly all jokes a side the meat actually tastes better from there I think. Also you can get next to anything from there, I was walking through 2 nights ago and you know what I saw? EGYPTIAN COTTON BEDSHEETS, okay so they didn't have a thread count on them, but for £8.99 who cares? I can guarantee you could do half your Christmas shopping in one of these stores alone. If you are in America, sorry, errrrm maybe Target or Wallmart?
Experience days - Like psychologists and scientists say, people remember experiences more than posessions so try this one. I have spice tickets for May 2019 and I am so overly excited for this night, give me any gift you want nothing beats the atmosphere! But with the likes of Argos you can do it on the cheap because you can put the experience day on your card and then pay it off over months to come, some of these are going for as little as £60, and I know £60 that's not a small amount of money. But if you were to split this over say 6 months, whats a tenner a month? £2.50? And what is £2.50 a week? 2 cartons of milk? Are you really telling me your loved ones happiness isn't worth 2 cartons of milk? really come on. It's literally cheap as chips (which aren't cheap anymore). Don't believe me have a look and see for yourself.
Wowcher - Amazing! Spa days/weekends for £50. Tea for 2 with a drink £40. Paintballing for 8 £80. Seriously you name it they probably have it, even down to little collagen eye rejouvenating things that look like slices of orange (£2.99 for 10 btw). It's 100% worth a look because you can get so much on there and they even give you the instructions how to redeem stuff unlike some other places who expect you to be from the blood line of Nostradamous and friggin psychic the shit out of knowing your way around a site - I'm a millenial not a f***ing magician mate!
Holiday - Holiday Pirates. Now I know I have just been naming things but come on everyone loves a get away right? Especially a surprise one where you don't need to plan anything. Holiday Pirates aren't the best for future hols, but for ones pretty much in the moment they are great! Have a look you can get the likes of 5 days in Athens for something like £150 and boss little deals. If you are looking for something that looks like a grand gesture because your love deserves a city but all you can afford is a globe pencil sharpener and an atlas then why not give this a gadge?
Sproosing yourself up!
Shoes - Want the shoes. You want the Geigers, the Carvelas, the Laboutins, but all without having to become a lady (or man) of the night? Tell you what, if you don't mind looking through pages upon pages to find your size in a pair of shoes that will go great with that perfect little number try:- shoeaholics they have heels for half price, sparkly carvela stilettos for under £40, seriously I'm telling you now this site is nuts! Or if you are more of a sporty shoe wear kind of gal or guy, try get the label. They have trainers down 40%, gym wear for about 38% of the original price, I'm serious, if you don't try these sites then you only have yourselves to blame.
Clothes - If you don't even have the money for any of the usuals like miss guided, AX Paris, chiara fashion, nastygal pink boutique, isawitfirst or even Boohoo (who always have deals on) you could try charity shops, I know people don't usually like this but honestly there are some great things you find in charity shops. My mums friend used to be in there all the time and the Chanel and YSL she used to come out with, untouched, new still with tags on, for like £10 and I'd go in there and be getting launched head first into a pile of knickers with holes in them! Can we not use the saying 'luck of the draw' please, it doesn't quite sit well with me any more.
Or you could try shwop? With this you get points for handing in your old items, they do this to reduce landfill, it's better for the environment, the globe and just everyone in general really I suppose, why don't I do this? Oh yeah, because I'm a lazy cow! Not fair, cows aren't lazy they are cute, like big dogs. But if you wanted to get something new and have some old stuff you don't use and want to toss, shwopping is an actual option here :).
Beauty Treatments - I'm not sure if everyone has searched but some of the best beauticians with deals are on the likes of facebook and instagram whipping out the £10 off deals and 3 treatments for £30, big Christmas booms at low prices. Also on wowcher there are all kinds of strip lashes and semi permanent/russian/mink/hybrid lash deals, look it up by location and by Christmas day you'll have lovely full lashes to flaunt! Spray tan technicians are usually around £20-£40 per go but if you want to do it on the cheap you can get st moriz for £4.00 and it will leave a nice glow, all I will say is get a good tanning mit and exfoliator. You can also get strips or individuals from your local savers/body care. My favourite strips are mythical from the GWA (girls with attitude range) for £2.00 you can have nice fluttery lashes and nails I love GWA in these too because glitter is obviously what life intended for me! If you go to boots they have plain nails for £2.00 with plenty to spare. Just have a mooch around and trust me you'll find them. You don't need to break the bank to look like you own one 😉.
Perfumes etc - like I said cheapsmells.com and fragranceX.com even the perfume shop do some good deals especially if you beat the Christmas rush or hold out for the boxing day sales (if you're brave enough to shop that day and fist fight old women for the last yankee candle). Even small stores like savers, you can get cheap perfume, even B&M do vera wang and chloe for less than most places. You can get a big bottle for under £30, cerruti 1881 for 100ml (one of my work faves) for £19.99 in the perfume shop.
So there you have it people, I hope this helps. And trust me I know more than anyone how far you have to stretch every single penny over christmas and trust me it aint fun!! But you don't need to rock up to Christmas dinner looking like you've just fell out of Briarcliff (american horror story ref 😂), you can show up looking pretty bloody good and smelling deeeeelicious all foe under £50 top to toe the secret is to just shop around.
Hope you all enjoyed this guys and gals.
Have a holly Jolly Christmas and until next time.
Don't be a stranger and stay safe.
x x