SKINT IN THE CITY

Hey Skint chums,

Hope you’re all doing well, and for those of you in the UK, hope you’re continuing to enjoy this truly amazing weather. Or are you sweltering? It’s a bit churlish to complain about it, but boy it’s hot at night!

And because I’m not buying any new clothes at the moment – waiting till baby Skint is on the outside rather than the inside – I’ve been trying to update the summer clothes that still fit me, by using a little jiggery-pokery. That’s the technical term they’re all using this season in the fashion trade, don’t you know.

So here are Skint’s thoughts on how to breathe new life into old clothes: whether you want to do so to save money, because your shape has changed, or just because it’s just too darned hot to go shopping. I blogged these ideas last week at Penny Thots, a site I contribute to, and thought you guys might like to see them too.

Customising your clothes is all about having fun and expressing your creativity, and it ranges from the ridiculously simple and effective, like changing the buttons on a cardigan, to the slightly more ambitious, such as transforming a pair of jeans into denim shorts. Advanced sewing skills aren’t necessary; when it comes to customising, imagination is your best resource! Here are a few of the easiest ways to make your clothes truly your own:

• Buttons: It’s often the buttons that give away a cheap shirt or blouse – you know, those little clear plastic numbers that populate every school shirt in the land. Sewing gorgeous new buttons onto old clothes zazzes them up in an instant. Many markets have button stalls where you fill a plastic cup to the brim with buttons for $5, and charity shops often sell assorted bag of buttons for about $2.
  

  Carrie Bradshaw, the customiser-extraordinaire, though admittedly not a skint one. Love how she fastens the brooch at her throat, instead of lapel.

• Flowers: Pin fabric flowers to coats, dresses, jackets and cardigans. Very Carrie Bradshaw, very chic – go as big as you dare.

• Brooches: Brooches are sociable little things: they always look happiest when clustered together, four or five at a time, on a plain cashmere jumper. They like to get around too – pinned on hats, scarves, belt loops, the knot of your favourite wrap dress. Cheap as chips in charity shops: it’s as if they were sent from heaven.

• Double Up: A simple way to add interest to your wardrobe – and give you twice as many outfits – is to make your clothes multitask. Try using scarves as belts – they look great threaded through the loops of your jeans – or wear jewelled, elasticated bracelets in your hair instead of hairbands. Clip-on earrings jazz up the neckline of a jersey and also look good clipped through the buttonholes of a cardigan. 

• Ribbon: Add bright ribbon to strapless dresses (for real interest, make the straps on each shoulder different colours), or tie some round the brim of a boring hat. Ribbon is also great for trimming the necklines, cuffs and pockets of cardigans and spring coats. You won’t believe the difference that a band of silky ribbon sewn around the cuffs and belt of a standard-issue beige trench coat can make. And fixing a broad strip of velvet ribbon down the outside seam of your jeans legs is so simple but it will have people thinking that you’ve just discovered some hot new designer brand.

• The long and short of it: Adjusting the length of garments is a great way to ring the changes. Sew a panel of contrasting fabric onto the bottom of a miniskirt, or chop a bit off a skirt that feels too long. Don’t discard the bit you chop though: use it as contrasting material on another garment, such as tied round the handle of your bag or fashioned into a corsage for a sweater. It makes for an interesting, pulled-together outfit when you wear the new item together with its parent.

• Accessories: The lifeblood of the skint girl’s wardrobe. From scarves to necklaces to a new pair of sparkly socks worn with an old pair of heels, skint girls know that accessories let you lead the style pack without breaking the bank. Think creatively about accessories: could those broken pieces of jewellery be threaded onto a pin to make an eye-catching brooch? Could that brooch, together with a few sequins, then jazz up last winter’s beanie hat?

• Be Bold: A coward dies a thousand fashion deaths – probably in a black trouser suit and a pair of court shoes. Don’t be afraid to take a risk: what’s the worst that can happen? And once you start customising you’ll find your desire to shop for new clothes satisfied by a bag of buttons or a fabric flower rather than a cocktail dress or new suit. Result! 

Hi Skint pals,

With baby skint almost here, I’ve been thinking of ways to start getting rid of maternity clothes whilst making a bit of cash at the same time. Frankly, I could happily build a bonfire in the garden and burn the lot, but I figure I might as well get something in return for the trauma of wearing elasticated waist garments for months now, so I’m going to sell sell sell!

eBay seems like the obvious place. I know I’ve really undersold stuff on eBay in the past though, so over the last few weeks I’ve been doing a bit of research into how I can make more cash from the stuff I sell there. I’ve come across a few really good tips for how to make money on eBay that I wanted to share with you:

Don’t sell bundles, sell separately - Often maternity clothes (or indeed any clothes) are sold in bundles on eBay for around £30. This would typically include about twelve items that sellers list together because they don’t want the hassle of selling lots of items individually.  I understand completely – sometimes we just want the damned things out of our homes. But selling items in bundles is selling ourselves short. Maternity jeans can typically sell individually for £15, so taking an extra hour to list items  individually can easily snag at least £100 more than selling clothes in a bundle.

Buy ‘lots’, then split them for resale – Related to the tip above, if you’ve bought a bundle of clothes from eBay – or indeed any other collection such as 80s chart singles, back copies of Vogue or whatever floats your boat – try reselling them as separate items. There’s an easy profit to be made in buying bundles and reselling the items separately.

Create an eBay store – If you’re planning on selling quite regularly, this is worth doing as it lets people easily find all your items for sale in the one place. Chances are if someone likes your taste in blouses they might want to snag a couple while they’re online – setting up your own eBay store makes this much easier for them to do.   

Buy and re-list items – Often items are listed poorly on eBay, either without photos, or with inadequate descriptions. By buying these items, and relisting with photos and better sales blurb it’s easy to make an extra 20-30% on top of the price you originally paid.

Time the end of your listings to suit your market – The end time for listings is crucial. The last 30 minutes of selling often sees the sale price rocket as all those watching the item start to bid. Make sure you capitalise on this by timing the end of your listing to suit the schedules of your target market. Weekday evenings around 9pm are ideal for most folks – they’re at home and still awake. If you’ve got a high-fashion item that’s going to appeal to young women steer clear of finishing auctions on Friday and Saturday evenings when they’ll be out strutting their stuff in gorgeous clothes rather than bidding for new ones.

What about you folks? What are your experiences of selling on eBay? Is it an easy way to make money or frankly not worth the hassle? Do you always mean to do it, but never quite get round to selling the stuff that’s sitting in your cupboard? Share your comments with your Skint pals!

Photo courtesy of The Guardian    

Last night I came home to an empty house and a bare cupboard. No leftovers in the fridge, nothing easy to whip up, just a cold house, a sad fridge and a couple of skinny carrots mouldering in the vegetable rack. It was Friday night too, and cold and rainy – all the makings of a takeaway trap were there. Now I love a good takeaway once in a while but I don’t want to do it often. As well as the cost there’s also the fact that takeaway meals tend to be low in nutrients and high high high in fat, but last night, frankly, I couldn’t face chopping onions and so I gave in, ordered baby spit roast chicken and aloo saag from my favourite Indian restaurant and suddenly the night seemed a whole lot warmer. (And there was a Barry Manilow extravaganza on BBC4 as well – heh heh, we all have our guilty pleasures). So, I reckon the money I spent on last night’s takeaway was worth it, but it’s not something I do often. The mark-up on takeaway food is outrageous. When I read this piece on how takeaway outlets snag a 900% profit on pizzas I resolved to try a bit harder to avoid the takeaway trap. (I also resolved to set up a pizza shop!!)

Stop! Before you dial a dish could you save yourself a few quid?

So, in true Skint-style, I’ve been thinking of ways to save money on takeaways whilst still enjoying that chicken. Here’s what I know:

• Make some of it at home - Last night, I made the rice while waiting for the mains to be delivered. It’s easy to cook rice in the thirty to forty minutes it takes for delivery – £3 saved with no real effort. Same applies to garlic bread when ordering pizza. Spread bread with some butter and a clove or two of crushed garlic then pop it in the oven for twenty minutes while waiting for my Four Seasons is no hassle at all.
• Check for deals before ordering – It’s often assumed that the restaurant deals at sites like moneysavingexpert only apply if you’re eating there. Actually though, many of the deals are available as takeaway, like these ones, currently on offer at big chains such as Pizza Express.
• Check delivery charges before ordering too – These can vary greatly between outlets and they rarely tell what they are, unless you ask.  I find the nationwide justeat site not only handy to learn about new takeaways in my area but it also shows the delivery charges right up front so I know how much extra will be added onto the bill. 
• Put some away for tomorrow - With Indian and Chinese takeaways the portions are often too big for a single meal. By dividing them in two straight away and keeping some for the next day you not only have another way to save on lunches but save yourself from pigging out on the takeaway in one go too.
• Have some tricks up your sleeve – For me, the trigger to phoning for a takeaway is a Mother Hubbard-style bare fridge. That’s why I like this recipe generator from RealSimple. It gives a great range of suggestions on what to do with one egg, a bread ender and an old onion, or your personal equivalent  – and all the recipes are guaranteed to be ready in less than fifteen minutes flat.

Well, it’s official – we’re a nation of bargain snafflers. A new survey out suggests that nearly three quarters of shoppers expect to pay a discounted rate for purchases. The research by online gaming site, Roxy Palace, found that 74% of consumers believed they were entitled to a discount when buying consumer items, regardless of price. Yup, that means not just on the big ticket purchases like sofas, but on the small stuff too (would you ask for a discount when buying cheese?)

Of those polled nearly one in five (19%) said they refused to pay full price for anything, choosing instead to scour the internet for discount offers. Food, clothing, travel and experience days were the most common items which consumers expected to make savings on – with many using discount sites and loyalty schemes to do so.

Interestingly those polled stated that they expected larger discounts online than shopping in store, as they were aware that selling via the internet was cheaper for retailers. But more and more we’re asking for – and getting – discounts in shops too.

I remember the day I learned that you could haggle on new furniture. I had just sold my first flat and the buyer came round, before she’d moved in, to measure up for curtains. She mentioned that she’d bought a suite of bedroom furniture from John Lewis. ‘Wasn’t that expensive?’ I couldn’t help asking. (My bedroom was furnished from charity shop finds). ‘Well,’ she smiled, ‘I was buying a few things so they gave me a great discount.’ When pressed further she revealed that she’d managed to get thirty percent off the ticket price. It was a revelation to me, but one that I immediately squirreled away for the future and since then, any time I’ve bought a large item I’ve always asked if they could better the ticket price. They almost always do, usually by 10%. At the very least they waive the delivery charge.

The survey revealed women to be more discount savvy than men, with 65% admitting to searching for a discount offer before making a purchase, compared to just 41% of men. I’m kinda surprised that both figures aren’t higher – I google for discount shopping codes as a matter of routine now if I know I’m going to make a purchase and it’s amazing how often I find them.

With the UK officially back in recession the discounts are likely to keep coming – and nearly everyone will take advantage. So, are we consumers right to feel unwilling to pay full price – or are we making the economy worse with our penny pinching ways? I read with interest this week about Cash Mobs, basically a group of consumers who come together to bring shoppers into small businesses in their communities. Organized via social media, Cash Mobs target bookstores, coffee bars, gift boutiques and other local, independent shops. Everyone agrees to spend a minimum amount – usually about £15 – in the store, simply to help it stay afloat. It’s as far from haggling for a discount as you can get. Have these kind-hearted folks got the right idea? Or are they missing a trick on the bargain-grabbing front? Should they be marching into stores that are down on their luck and demanding discounts instead?

Cash Mobs do their buying-thing at an independent organic foodstore. No haggling for discounts allowed.

Should we all stop haggling and start paying what we can to help the nation out of recession? Or will discount culture continue to grow as our finances get more and more squeezed? What do you think? I’d love to know.

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Hello, skint pals and sorry it’s been a while since my last post: last week was spent as far out of the city as I could get, on a family holiday on a farm. It was camp fires and sausages most lunchtimes, but this farm had a rather unique selling point – its own beauty salon. Rather random I know, but somehow it worked: it certainly made getting a manicure feel more justifiable when I could tell the beauty therapist that the reason my hands need TLC was that I’d just been hauling wood. (It was small sticks actually, but I fudged the truth a little, out of shame for my neglected nails).

Salon beauty treatments are something I never normally bother with. By and large I consider them a waste of money, but having allowed myself a couple down on the farm I might just become a convert. I didn’t realise what a difference a proper pedicure would make, but if I’m going to start splashing the cash on beauty treatments I’ll need to find a way to rein in some other expenses. We’ve all got money eaters – things we regularly shell out on without thinking about how much benefit we’re getting in return. And as my bank balance is feeling that post-holiday pinch right now, I’ve just been taking a look at my biggest cash-guzzlers to see where I might make some savings. This is something I talked about a while back, but I’ve still got way more work to do if I want to shave off some of my superfluous spending. Here are some of my spending habits whose days in power are numbered:

Newspapers – I don’t know if these should be culled or not, because I enjoy them so much, but I am a total newspaper junkie. A day without buying a newspaper is almost inconceivable to me and I will often buy four on a Sunday. Yes, four. I love them, you see – the main sections, the supplements, the lot. But still that’s more than £8 a go some Sundays and a quid or two most other days, so we’re looking at £15 a week, easy. That’s £60 a month!!!! Oh Lord, I had no idea. Clearly something must be done.

Here’s a genius way to get a manicure and my newspaper fix in one. One of the quirkiest BOGOFs I’ve seen.

Office lunches – As I outlined here, this was a big money eater (literally) for me, but it’s one I’ve gone some way to curbing. Still more to be done though – as with so many expenses, lack of time is the enemy and at 7am I don’t always feel like making sarnies.

Illness/injury insurance- I pay out £35 a month for this policy, which covers my mortgage payments should I be struck down with any of several scary illnesses. At the time of taking out the mortgage it seemed like a good idea. I’m relatively risk-averse and was suitably scared by the advisor’s imaginary scenario of juggling mortgage payments with a life-threatening illness. Seven years and £3000 later, I’m not sure I need it; after all, I get sick pay for a decent time period via my employer. I’ve often thought about cancelling it, then chickened out for fear that two days later I’d be diagnosed with something horrendous.

On the other hand, I spend very little on stuff that others go a bundle on. Since I really don’t give a damn about motors I’ve had the same car for ten years. The jalopy still drives and that’s all I want. And because the idea of spending a weekend or longer looking round garages for a new car strikes me as about as pleasant as root canal treatment, I just keep putting it off, (yep, for ten years).

Maybe it’s all about choices – my newspaper habit gives me far more pleasure than a new car could, but still I got a shock when I totted up the monthly cost. When I came across this article on the best budgeting apps I thought it was pretty interesting – see what you think. I might try one to keep track of spending for a month or so.

What are your biggest regular money eaters? Or don’t you regret any of your spending habits? C’mon, let me know! x

Photo courtesy of Passion Nail Art.

Without wanting to sound scrooge-like I’ve become increasingly resistant recently to paying more than I need to be at work. By that I mean shelling out for parking, posh lunches and all the other things that I wouldn’t be doing if I weren’t at the office. Things came to a head a few months ago when I got a parking ticket for £75 right outside myworkplace. Having parked there cos I didn’t want to be late , it was a lesson in how being conscientious doesn’t always pay off. (Oh, and a lesson to be on time in future too!) Anyway, that bill prompted me to start looking at my other work-related expenses, and it didn’t take long to see that a massive money eater for me was lunches and coffees.

Though I’m only in the office three days, my canteen bills were steep. So I seized the chance to get all nerd-like, logging what I spent at the café over the course of three days and the damage read like this:

Wed – coffee £1.80; soup £2; yohgurt 80p

Thurs – coffee £1.80; banana 60p; baked potato with tuna £3

Fri – Tea £1; soup £2; chocolate 60p

Total = So, £13.60 for three days. On Mondays and Tuesdays when I’m at home I also go out for lunch to get a break, and probably spend about another £8 a week on that. Let’s round it right down to £20 a week (to make me feel better); that’s still £80 a month, and I’m not hugely enjoying any of these snacks or lunches. I could easily boil up some pasta in the evening for lunch the next day and I’d be happier taking in my own coffee actually, making it stronger and less milky than the work stuff. Or I’d rather make my own food four days a week and go out for a proper restaurant lunch with colleagues once a week – I still reckon that would come in cheaper than £80 a month.

And by taking your own lunch you get to dangle this from your arm every morning too!

After doing these sums I screwed on my sensible head and got to work coming up with ways to slash my weekly spend on work-related costs. After all, we’re meant to be at work to make money, not spend it, right? On some of those big lunch and parking ticket days I was coming home with less than I’d set out with that morning. Not smart.

When I thought about why I was wasting money on something that I could so easily do at home, the answer came down, as it so often does, to time. At 7am it’s hard enough hauling myself out of bed, never mind thinking ahead to lunch. But with just a teensy bit of planning I could easily be saving money on work lunches; enough to buy something fabulous every month or, even better, putting the cash saved straight into my holiday fund.

The thing is, as well as taking time to organise, packed lunches can be a tad uninspiring, can’t they? I can still clearly picture lunchtime tomato sandwiches at school, how I’d lift them out of the Tupperware box and be confronted with a sodden mess of wet red bread. So I’ve turned to a couple of sites to help me out with some more creative lunch ideas and thought I share them. Firstly the magnificent lovefoodhatewaste, is a site worth checking out not just for its lunchtime ideas, but also its thoughts on how to cut down on the food waste that currently costs UK householders £12bn a year (£5.5 bn of that is lunch, my friends).

The BBC Good Food site is full of interesting lunchbox ideas too, so now instead of boring sandwiches I’m stocking up on pittas, wraps, oatcakes and ricecakes. And with fillings like hummus, guacamole and feta now stashed in my fridge I’m ditching Coronation chicken for good.

Or this one! I might just splash some of my savings on a couple.

I’m trying to get into the habit of cooking extra pasta the night before too, then mixing it with whatever’s to hand: cherry tomatoes, sliced red peppers, pesto or tuna. And whilst I used to throw out leftover main meals I now box them and take them for lunch. Aside from the cost and health benefits I’ve found another unexpected bonus to taking my own food. By avoiding the queue for the sandwich shop I’ve discovered that my entire lunchtime is now my own to read a book, take a walk or go window shopping. And the difference to my bank balance at the end of the month is really noticeable.

How do you keep on top of your office lunchtime spending habits? Or don’t you? Are you happy to spend £100 a month on lunches? I’d love to hear your thoughts and tips – go on, share your smarts by leaving a comment below.

Skint Tip: If you’re a real rushbaby and already know you’ll never have time to make morning sandwiches, prepare sandwiches at the weekend and freeze them in clingfilm, then just take what you need out of the freezer before leaving the house each morning. By lunchtime they’ll be ready to eat.

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Hey skint girls! This morning’s post comes with a warning to you to watch your pennies at the beauty counter today. See, Friday is traditionally the day where most cash is splashed spent on make-up. You know how it is: you’ve worked hard all week and want to treat yourself to a little something, but don’t have the time to schlep around clothes stores pulling stuff off and on. A new lipstick or nail varnish isn’t just the easiest way to brighten up your weekend look, it’s also cheaper than a new outfit and so relatively guilt-free.

Economists even refer to the Lipstick Index, which sees lipstick sales rocket every time the economy declines; the reason being that whilst women pull back on buying clothes and larger luxuries they still view lipstick as a permissible, not-too-expensive, treat. Perhaps soon the Lipstick Index will soon be renamed though, for it looks as if nail varnish has overtaken it for the first time, during this current spell of financial gloom.

Remember girls, a bargain

So, before dashing out to bag yourself some face and nail candy today, take a look at Skint’s list of where to save and where to splurge when it comes to cosmetics. And here are a few more ways I’ve found to make make-up go further:

• Put eye and lip pencils in the fridge before sharpening. It will stop them breaking, meaning they’ll last longer.
• I don’t bother buying separate eyeliner: I just apply dark eyeshadow with a thin, damp brush.
• Lipbrushes let you reach down to the bottom of near-empty tubes, giving you dozens more applications than you’d get otherwise. Lipbrushes also reduce the need to blot – and therefore waste – lipstick. They give a great finish too.
• Remove fake tanning mistakes fast by rubbing whitening toothpaste onto the offending orange area. Takes away the whiff too!
• Got a little perfume left in a bottle? Add water and use as a light body spray.
• Painting your nails in a hurry? Wait a few moments after applying the top coat then put your hands in a sinkful of cold water. It sets the polish faster.
• Turn lipstick into lipgloss by slicking Vaseline over the top
• Consider going barefaced. Hey, I don’t mean to a night out, but do we really need to waste make-up on a trip to buy the Saturday morning newspaper? Your skin will thank you for the breather. In turn, with your skin looking better, you’ll need less make-up all in all. It’s a virtuous circle.

There’s a nice selection of cosmetics deals available this week too if you fancy bagging some Bourjois stuff on a bread-and-water budget. Martin Lewis – God bless him – has a good round up here.

You’re looking great today, by the way! x

It struck me today that in addition to the usual, more practical advice I write on this blog about saving money, there’s one other thing I think is crucial when it comes to living for less – and that’s having some guts.

I’ve been thinking about how so much money is spent and wasted because of a fear of what other people think – or from a desire to impress them, which is basically the same thing. Whether it’s buying the latest fashions, trading in car every couple of years or coveting our friends’ new kitchens, Keeping Up With The Joneses wastes a hell of a lot of our money, energy and headspace.

Years ago I worked in quite a swish PR company where, for some reason, it was frowned upon to bring your own lunch to work. The thinking – though it was never put quite as baldly as this – was that if you were bringing your own lunch you were struggling in some way. It meant that you couldn’t afford to go out and buy sandwiches, that you weren’t doing as well as you should be, and in that competitive culture where everyone wanted to look as if they were climbing the ladder, it wasn’t the done thing to be seen struggling. And so everyone went out and bought their lunch from expensive delis every day, even if they’d secretly have preferred to heat up the previous night’s leftovers in the office microwave.

In this workplace too, as in many streets all over the country, a LOT of money was spent on cars. They were a public display of wealth to colleagues and clients and I know that several people there were paying significantly more for their car every month than for their mortgage/rent, because they wanted to be seen as successful even if they were actually on a starter’s salary. It would have taken a lot of guts for someone to buck that trend and drive up in an old banger.

One good thing that might have come out of this recession is that it’s more okay than it used to be to admit to being skint, to buy secondhand and to embrace thrift. And it’s somehow less embarrassing to be made redundant or be out of work or to admit that times are tight. The proliferation of blogs and books embracing thrift, frugality and money-savviness is also a great thing in my view – signs that we’re becoming a bit less hung up on status, or at least allowing some other ideas in. But still it takes guts to ask for a discount in a posh shop, to pull up next to swanky cars in your old jalopy, to refuse to buy your lunch in the posh deli every day and instead bring your own sandwiches and coffee to work.

Saying no to the Joneses gets easier with practice though, till one day they’re just a couple of comical little flies buzzing round your head, trying to boast about how green their grass is, and you don’t care any more cos you’re out at a party with your real pals, drinking cheap, delicious cocktails and laughing about the bargains you just bagged.

If you’ve got any tips on how to avoid the fear of keeping up with the Joneses I’d love to hear them. Have a good weekend, x

Hi folks,

Hope this finds you well. I’m happy, because after weeks under siege, the scaffolding finally came off of our house today, and boy is it a relief. Not just because it heralds an end to the building work that’s been going on for what feels like an age, but because I didn’t sleep so easy whilst the outside of the house was covered in metal. Whilst logically I know that if someone wants to break into my home they needn’t scale scaffolding to do it – we’ve got ground floor windows after all – I did feel

Well, Skint gals and guys, today I want to share a bit of exciting news with you. Introducing the cover of Skint in the City – the ebook!

You may recall me mentioning this before. It’s been a while in the making, and along the way I’ve learnt more about coding and other IT-related stuff than I ever thought I’d need, but finally the ebook is nearly ready for publication – after a few more IT bits and bobs. And today I want to share the lovely cover with you, designed by the very talented and helpful J T Lindroos. Ta-dah!

Whaddya think? Would love to know. Seriously. All suggestions for tweaks and improvements gladly listened to and taken on board. You know Skint better than anyone, except me. Would this cover tempt you to take a little look inside? Let me know . . .

(and meantime, enjoy the sun!)