Busy Busy Busy and A Trip To Dorothy Perkins!

Hello Folks!

Good weekend?

I seem to go in phases, nothing on for ages and then suddenly everything is on at once.

Friday night, The Chap and I stayed in, but Saturday I was up and out by 8am. I had a dentist appointment at 9.

Three fillings, a deep clean and £23.00 later (I paid the other half of £25 when I had my check up) and they also took xrays. Luckily nothing else to worry about for another 6months. Thank goodness for an NHS dentist. Getting onto to the list was so difficult and involved basically begging. They are 30 mins away from where i live, but they are BRILLIANT!

Adam, my dentist know how pathetically frightened I am and keeps rubbing my cheek with his hand saying things like "Come on, Open your eyes Abigail it will not be so bad if you open your eyes as the system will concentrate on the pictures and not the sensations". He is very kind, and cheap. All a good combination, and after careful consideration, I would gladly give up a couple of minor toes before parting company with the practice....:o)

I was out and completely numb in the mouth at 9.30am, so I popped up the road to see my friend Emma and her 3 kids, she lives about 200 yards from the surgery. I think I gave them a bit of a shock turning up early and a bit tearful, but she let me use her loo and we had a nice chat for half an hour.

By 10, I was back on the road and 15 mins later dropping my car for it's service (6 months late, oops!). The MOT was fine back in September, but I just have not had the £150 required for the service until now. The beautiful little thing only needed a new filter, 3 new spark plugs and a new registration bulb. Those were all included in the price of the service - Brilliant. Thanks Mr Tyre! As a female who knows as much about cars as I do Quantum Physics or Chainsaws, I am always incredible grateful for a garage I can trust. The Chap was asking about oil changes etc. So I nodded and sagely agreed with his advice before doing exactly what I wanted to do initially. The sign of a happy relationship!

Whilst waiting for the car to pass its physical, I tootled off to meet a good friend Lisa for a drink, she had some exciting news, so we had a good catch up that involved copious amounts of tea and chocolate brownies. Yum!

I then went for a bit of a shop. I really needed some new jeans. My current pairs have started fraying at the hem. I like Dorothy Perkins for jeans, as they fit nicely and come in multiple fits, colours and lengths. My lucky day they were doing 2 pairs for £25. I have two pairs of skinny jeans and a denim boot cut pair, so over the weekend I picked up an indigo and a black pair of boot cut jeans. The fit over the bottom is lush!

Of course, we all know it is rude not to then have a wander whilst in store, and I just fell in love with this jacket.

Really Chanel like, and it fitted so beautifully. It is a perfect wardrobe staple that works well with the black jeans I picked up and can also be worn for the office with a black skirt or dress. Cost £45.

I then picked up a little T-shirt to go under and be worn out on the Sunday lunch 40th we had been invited to yesterday.

I am a huge believer that jeans must be tried on, so I stalked my way to the fitting room with about 15 items. Jeans in every variation of length and size and colour and fit, plus 2 sizes in the jacket and tshirt.

The girls in Dotty Perks are always cheerful and helpful, it is a pleasure to shop there. Not bank breaking, but most items are good quality, and affordable.

But the best thing about DPs??? You should never ever pay full price. As high street shops go they are continually recognising the hardships shoppers face. And offering deals and vouchers. If you sign up online for their emails, hardly a week goes by when they do not offer a % off everything.

Whilst in the fitting room I used the Voucher Codes App and managed to bring my bill down by 20% from £80 to £64. That meant a discount of £16, so basically a pair of free jeans plus another £4.

I got an email today from Dorothy Perkins offering me 25% off everything, which would have been more useful, but it is unclear whether that is just for online ordering and you do have to pay a delivery fee for orders under £75.

Anyhoo, a friend at the same event on Sunday said I looked like a Beckham in my new duds.

Check me out guys!!!!

Frugally yours

Abigail

x

Unicorn Poop

I am still feeling absolutely lousy, but I dragged my sorry ass into work today. Really wish that I had not bothered, no thanks and no sympathy. After 14 years with the same company you would think I would learn that my employer expects me to be dead before I take a day sick.

Harrrrumph!

However, now is a really good time to buy stuff.

Normally I would never advocate you buying anything, unless you honest to goodness need it. But if you do honest to goodness need it then buy it now.

I had Friday off to enjoy a long weekend. So off I tootled to my local town centre for a mooch and to visit the bank. As often happens The Chap also asked me to do 101 jobs for him, as he hates anything which could be even vaguely entitled as “shopping”.

I was delighted to do so as our road still had an inch of ice on it, TC had picked up 2 bags of rock salt and was going to have a go at clearing it with a spade. Now I would have cleaned a ticklish elephant’s bottom with a soft toothbrush to get out of that job.

One thing I really did need was some moisturiser for my face. As I hurtle towards 40 at break neck speed my face is just getting dryer and dryer or is that drier and drier??. The cheap supermarket pot I picked up for under a £1 was irritating my face a little by causing a slight burning sensation.

I would love to have picked up a Clarins pot, but at £40 I could not bring myself to do so.

However, I did come across a voucher for The Body Shop. I rarely enter The Body Shop as the last time I went in I found it a little too flowery for me.

Plus I thought it expensive.

However, they were offering an excellent deal with this voucher. Spend £40 instore and get £20 off your purchases. That is a 50% discount. So I ended up getting some day cream, night cream, hand cream and aftershave balm for The Chap. Total spend £41.50, price I paid £21.50.

This is not worth doing unless you really need something, but TC was delighted with his aftershave balm and utterly convinced it will make him look devastatingly attractive to women. I told him he did not need the lotion for that.

He still thought my face cream was expensive, and he is probably right, though I absolutely refuse to admit it to him. The situation was speedily resolved by telling him it contained Unicorn poop.

I like the moisturiser and would (so far) buy it again, but probably only if there was another deal. I was wondering if it was worth stocking up for birthdays / Christmas?

I accessed the voucher using my O2 priority moments, but  think you can also get it (or something similar) at vouchercodes  / voucherclouds and a link on the moneysavingexpert website and finally on their own website.

Frugally yours

Abigail

x

Perfect Pins

I am naturally very dark with dark brown hair and eyes. But I have very pale skin.

One of the unfortunate side effects of such colouring is that my hair stands out. A good thing for the hair on my head. A very bad thing for the rest of my body hair.


My daily ablutions included a constant need to shave my legs etc.

I also have slightly sensitive skin, and my legs would only accept shaving if they were soaked in a hot bath prior to applying the razor with a sensitive shaving gel ideally.

This palaver always drove me potty, especially since I still ended up with legs that were covered in tiny red dots - irritated skin around a hair follicle.

Oh, what do?

The answer came pretty easily a few years ago and it also came at a very reasonable price.
I came across the these.


They are common bath salts.

I kept getting them with gift sets in anything from joke test tubes to fancy boxes and beautifully etched bottle.

I do not like bath salt, they for me are not a bathing essential

So, as nicely packaged as they were, the bath salts just gathered dust at the bottom of the bathroom cabinet until it was eventually chucked in those annual clear outs we women have.

Until one evening during a bath I discovered a use. Take roughly one tablespoon of bath salts into the palm of your hand and rub all over a nicely soaked leg. Then shave as usual.

I end up with the smoothest of legs, no nasty irritated skin from the razor and very soft skin. I then, after patting dry, slather a cheap body lotion all over the affected area for added indulgence.

Clarins have a body scrub which is divine but at roughly £30 per pot this is a very frugal alternative. Plus I often find bath salts can be picked up in charity shops for pence.

My legs.

Often on the discount shelves of beauty stores. I have even added a base oil then some drops of rosemary and / or lavenderr oil for exfoliating my hands.

Please note though, I would advise keeping such salts away from open cuts  / grazes and from delicate skin areas. Getting salt in an open cut hurts like hell.

Honestly try it, a few attempts and your pins will be ready for our glorious British summer of BBQs, shorts and Pimms.... um wait oh heck!

Frugally yours
Abigail
x

Been Dyeing To Do This.

At 36, I have noticed that middle age is trying it’s best to creep up on me. One minute I was in black velvet hot pants clubbing until the early hours. I blink and the next thing I know I am happiest whilst perusing soft furnishings on a Saturday afternoon and know everything there is to know about mortgages. How did that happen??

One of the side effects of “growing up” is that the odd grey colourless hair has started to creep through. Not a lot I hasten to add, just the odd one or two. I last had my hair coloured before Christmas at a discount price of £85. I cannot afford that again for a while.

Recently I have noticed that the grey colourless hairs have started covert action again taking up strategic positions ready for a full head on attack. I don’t think so Sunshine!

So yesterday evening I got home from work and opened Avon’s Advanced Techniques Medium Brown Hair Dye after of course a 24 hr test patch. Price £6. I have not dyed my own hair for about 3 years. It is not a job I enjoy or am any good at. My aim is to hide the grey and try not to change my own hair colour too drastically.. oh and to try and keep the bathroom undamaged.

So what do we think? It does look a bit patchy in this picture as the sun is shinning only on part of my hair.

£6 is a lot cheaper than £85, plus in Brochure 10 (Fergie, Black Eyed Peas on the front) Page 24 they are selling them for £3.50 each on special offer. (I ordered another for stock today.)

So my hints for dyeing your own hair

1)    Take 2 old towels in with you – 1 to stand on and 1 to have for after the rinse off.

2)    Take a big crocodile clip in with you to the bathroom so longer hair can be put up to stop dye getting your neck during the development period.

3)    Have an extra pair of plastic gloves. You need 1 pair (supplied) for applying the dye and I prefer to have another pair for rinsing my hair after.  TOP TIP I ‘borrow’ gloves from the petrol station forecourt.

4)    Have cotton wool and an astringent cleaner (toner works very well) for after application to remove dye from forehead ear and nape of neck etc.

5)    If safe to do so, do it naked. That way no dye gets on anything that cannot be cleaned.

6)    Oh yes and open a window, the stuff reeks!

Frugally yours

Abigail

X

P.S. 48 Hrs until Pay Day.

Some are born to glamour, others become glamorous, or how even I yearn for the good old days.

I am not glamorous.

I wish I was, but I am not.   

I can do glamour but it only last 30 minutes or there about, after which my foundation is by my knees and my mascara has  created smudges that any Chinese panda would be proud of .

I get up so early to get to work, that now after 15 years I have given up being glamorous during       office hours and opt for clean and neat instead.

But I love make up, if there is a new product about, I know about it, I can talk knowledgably       about cream foundations, compared to mineral powder or whether one's skin would benefit from a serum or a primer getting ready of a morning.

One of the hardest changes to occur since my enforced thriftiness, is not buying expensive make up  brands. I cannot herald this as one of my greatest triumphs.

I am a product of a generation that believes that Christian Dior, Estee lauder, Chanel, Benefit and Clinique provide the best and whilst I am changing my opinion, it so far has been a slow process and one I am not entirely sure that I will completely win.

I love the indulgence of a beautifully packaged lotion, the desirable little cellophane boxes that house the pots of loveliness. I love the click of an expensive lipstick and the little freebies that are often given away as incentives. I am a make up label whore…..

However, nowadays my purchases have dwindled at the beauty counters of the department store and alternatives had to be found in order for me to be able to join polite society and to save the sanity of small children.

I changed my £23 Christian Dior foundation to a Max Factor for £12, and the Clarins slowly departed W Towers to be replaced with Simple. However, my greatest discovery has been Avon. They have some truly eye watering products that are still too expensive for this newly frugal dame. But those only take up a few of the central pages. The alternatives are endless in this little magazine. I am currently using their Solutions day and night cream with extract of amethyst, my skin looks clear and clean and it does the job. It was on offer when I bought it two pots for £11.

Their bathfoam is just delicious and frequently on offer – four bottles for £3 (I think) – the lavender and white lily are my favourite. Infact I often fill up my hand soap dispenser with these bathfoams and it is a simple and frugal way to still indulge yourself.

The fact is, I still want to feel indulged, I want to luxuriate. So here it is...

 the W Towers home Spa…

Ok there are no superior women walking around ready to massage your aches and pains away, but in this room with the door closed and only mood lights and candles to illuminate the walls, I can feel the cares and the stresses of the day melt away. I do not indulge every evening, but once or twice a month, I close the door and shut out the world for an hour. I may not be King of the World, but in my little domain, this is the one area where the world is most certainly not admitted.

Saying all of this, when Santa came chortling his way down my chimney this year, he did bring some truly superb and thoughtful gifts…

 The truth is whatever Avon come up with, and however Simple package their products, these delightful little tubes, pots and compacts raise my spirits and make me realise that maybe in better times some sins can be revisited.

But, for the time being when these run out then I will be returning to my frugal ways with a  whimsical smile and an eye on the ultimate prize…..financial freedom and a debt free existence. Which, in all honesty will last me a lot longer than any lotion or potion.

Frugally yours

Abigail

X

P.S I started writing this when I got home, but then I popped out for  a drink with a friend, on the way home I stopped at Tesco to the buy the milk and teabags I talked about yesterday and found these 6 rolls reduced to 25p. Bargain. Straight in the freezer and since I buy these anyway normally in bags of 12 (Warburtons has had a downloadable voucher for ages on it’s website) I know that 30 seconds in the microwave and they are ready to be used for a quick lunch.