Spend your nectar points at Argos?

For anybody that has a nectar card and doesn't know how or where they want to spend their points, how about using them up, buying some Christmas Presents at Argos? Yes you heard me correctly, you can spend your points in 500 point lots, just tell the cashier how many you would like to use, each 500 points is equal to £2.50 off your purchase. I must admit I am thrilled with this as have a Laptop to buy when I go shopping on Thursday!

Some great savings for Xmas - a round up of the discounts available

So many special offers going on at the moment, I thought it best to do a round-up of the best deals available.

1. You will know from the past I am a great lover of Orgins Skincare and they often have fantastic freebies with purchases. At the moment the deal is 3 freebies with 2 purchases plus free standard delivery and gift wrap. www.orgins.co.uk



2. www.nectar.com have loads of offers for card holders, double or triple points from retailers such as Argos, Amazon and Play.com to name but a few, don't forget you must enter the retailer via the nectar site. Argos are also offering a free £5 voucher if you spend over £50 and free delivery.

3. Looking for a fab outfit for Xmas day or that office party? Whistles has 25% off for Chiconomise readers enter code WCFF09 at checkout. www.whistles.co.uk

Asos has an offer for free Standard delivery at the moment www.asos.com



There are some great deals in their clearance section, I just bought these fab gold shoes for a skint student who loves to party for £10! There are also some great jewellery pieces for stocking fillers. My friend S is looking for a belt for a friend and I saw this great Fiorelli Disco Hip Belt was £25.00 NOW £9.50! click here to buy it!



You can also get £10 off a £75 spend using this code STEALLATER (courtesey of Chiconomise).

4. Looking for something special? Then Goldsmiths the Jeweller now has an outlet section GoldsmithsOutlet.co.uk where you can get top brands with 50% off such as Tag, Gucci, Armani, DKNY etc and they are also offering free delivery this week, thats a saving of £5.25! I am totally loving the Tag Watches, The Diamonds (of course) and these great Gucci cufflinks Was £ 205.00 Now £ 102.00! A great site to treat that special person in your life!


5. Looking for Sportswear or Trainers? JD sports is offering free delivery on orders over £50. Enter JD Sports via the www.topcashback.co.uk site to recieve 6% cash back on purchases! Thats £3 on a £50 pair of trainers for doing nothing!

6. I have a request for a bottle of Alien perfume by Thierry Mugler. If I buy online via topcashback, I can get 3% cashback with Boots plus 144 points on my advantage card but if I buy from Salonskincare I get 8% cash back for an item costing the same amount of money. It makes sense to buy the gift set at £36 so that you have a body lotion and shower gel aswell, it makes the gift look better and is a great way to "layer" your fragrance. Also if you spend over £50 on Thierry Mugler products with Salonskincare you get a free Angel Fragrance Gift set!



Watch that cash back mount up ready for next Christmas, Topcashback is also adding a Christmas Bonus of an extra percentage, so sign up to a cash back site now!

Free Jemma Kidd Lipgloss worth £10 with Bodyform

On selected packs of Bodyform, you get a free Jemma Kidd lipgloss worth £10. There are two fab colours to collect so hurry whilst stocks last!

Spend £100 instore at Monsoon and get a free scarf worth £35!

So if you have spotted the party dress or new coat you want in Monsoon, buy instore to receive a free scarf worth £35! If you don't want to keep the scarf yourself, it would make a great gift for an Aunt, Sister, Mum etc.. but remember this offer is valid instore only, not online.

Monsoon do have a selection of goods online which are on special offer. I saw a great padded jacket with £20 off, so that is worth a look. www.monsoon.co.uk

Great offers on make-up from Eyes, Lips, Face - the perfect stocking filler!

If you are looking for some fantastic quality cheap make-up for stocking filler pressies, then I recommend you check out Eyes, Lips, Face or ELF for short! I recently read a review by Yummy Mummy who is as pleased with this make-up as she is with her usual buys from Mac and other High End brands, but not only that, with orders over £25 you get a free make-up Palette worth £15 and free delivery on orders over £30!

Recessionista Tips for a well planned & Frugal Xmas

1. Set a realistic budget for each person you are buying a present for and stick to it.

2. Wrap Presents as you buy them. Far easier to wrap one or two, than to spend a whole evening wrapping presents just before Christmas. Make a list of what has been bought and for whom, so that you don't forget what you have bought.

3. Buy a few things each week i.e. biscuits, sweets, wine and nibbles. Buy fresh meat, Chipolatas, sausagemeat and party food a little at a time and freeze until needed. Pork was on offer in Tesco last week and chickens are half price in co-op for those who prefer not to have Turkey. If you go out and buy everything you need in one go, you will spend hundreds that you may not have and you will have to reach for the credit card at the checkout! The only things you should be buying at the last minute are cream (but you can get Long Life now), cheeses, salad stuff, dips, fruit and veg.

4. Check out mysupermarket.com to compare prices on Christmas Goodies.

5. Boots and Superdrug both have 3 for 2 offers on a range of gifts, great if you are buying smelly gift sets for either sex, make-up sets for teenage girls etc. If you are buying 3 gifts at £10 each, instead of costing £30, it will cost you £20! Woolworths is also back, but online only and has 3 for 2 on Toys, Jewellery and Gifts, 30% off of Bikes and half price kidswear.

6. If you need to raise some money to fund Xmas, set aside a day where you can have a sort out, photograph items and get them on ebay. You need to do this as soon as possible to allow for payment and the withdrawal of funds in time for Christmas.

7. Do you have Nectar points or American Express points you can use for buying gifts? Check out FruGals surprise purchases with her Amex points here.

What will you be doing to save money and do you have any tips for getting organised at Christmas? please share with us!

Online Christmas Shopping Part Two

I have just started asking Family and Friends what they would like for Christmas as I really need to get started if I am going to have everything bought and wrapped by 1st December! Amongst the "I haven't really thought about it" and "I haven't got a clue" (honestly if they haven't got a clue, how the hell am I supposed to know?) I was happily greeted by a rather enthusiastic teenager who said "a pink leopard print hairdryer I have seen in the boots catalogue, some shoes for clubbing and a new mascara". Thrilled to get an answer, I wasted no time in ordering this young lady some of her goodies, online today! I wouldn't have wanted to go out shopping in this disgusting rain anyway, so an online shopping experience using all the tools I mentioned in a previous post, was the order of the day!


1. Boots currently have 1/2 price on selected electrical goods from the likes of Mark Hill, Lee Stafford, Remington etc so knowing this I didn't need to use a Shopbot to compare prices of the Hairdryer, it is reduced from £54.99.
2. Boots gives 3.5% cashback on all of the cashback sites I checked, so I logged into topcashback and proceeded to the Boots site via the cashback site.
3. I ordered the hairdryer and a dior mascara and both items totalled £47.49.
4. Before proceeding to checkout I added my Boots advantage card number and this transaction earned me 188 points.
5. I selected free standard delivery, as at this time of year there is no rush to receive this parcel and delivery is scheduled for next Thursday.

To sum up:
1. I have saved the hassle of going shopping and the expense of bus, train fare or petrol. My local Boots is very small and stock is limited, I know they wouldn't have had this item and I would have had to travel some distance to buy it.
2. I have earnt 188 advantage card points by buying these items at Boots which is the equivalent of £1.80 to spend instore.
3. I have earnt 3.5% cashback which equates to £1.67 to leave on the cashback site until I wish to withdraw it.

Recessionista Tips:
1. If you can't get free delivery on the items you wish to purchase online, you will need to weigh up if it is still worth buying online for the amount of cashback that particular retailer may offer.
2. Always check back to your cashback site approx 1 week later to ensure your cashback has been added to your account.

Check out the first Xmas pressies I bought here.

Free Crabtree & Evelyn Hand Cream

Buy Decembers edition of Marie Claire to recieve a free Crabtree and Evelyn La Source Hand Therapy hand cream worth approx £6.25 (100ml tube on their website is £12.50). Magazine Costs £3.40 but you get pages and pages of party fashion if you need inspiration, as well as your freebie gift!

The Art of Online Shopping

With so many people doing their Christmas shopping online this year, I was reminded whilst watching GMTV this morning, about a few things that I have mentioned on this blog in the past, but which are so easy to forget.

1. Firstly, compare prices on the items you wish to buy. You can do this by using a comparison site or Shopbot as they are called. Here is a link to a page on moneysavingexpert which lists various shopbots, but do remember to check more than one as they do not cover all retailers.

2. Secondly, once you have found the site which offers the item you wish to buy, use a cashbackwebsite. Cash Back websites are listed on this blog, scroll down the right hand panel. The most popular ones are Quidco and Cashbackking but again, check all of them and see which one offers a cashback deal for the retailer you are wishing to purchase your item from. Cashback can range from 1% to 10% and last year a friend of mine had earnt £98 in cashback for online purchases over the period of a year, which she withdraw for Christmas Shopping expenditure, so taking a little bit of time can really be worthwhile, you don't make or save money by not being bothered, it all takes time and effort. Always remember to check all the cashback sites as often a certain retailer many offer different percentages as cashback on different sites, whereas other retailers will offer the same percentage across all sites. Also remember you must enter the retailers site via the cashback site to get your cashback.
3. Voucher codes are a great way to save money even if you only get free delivery as this can save £3 - £5 alone, so check those sites out aswell, again there are voucher codes sites listed on this blog.
Happy Shopping

20% off at Reiss

Grab Decembers edition of Elle magazine which contains a 20% off giftcard for Reiss which will come in really handy if you have seen something to wear to the Christmas Party or maybe something nice for your Man to open on Xmas Day!

Trade in old Monsoon clothes for New!

I totally love the fact that you can take your old Marks and Spencer clothes in to any branch of Oxfam and recieve a £5 M&S voucher, so you can imagine how thrilled I was to find out that Monsoon are now offering £5 off any purchases over £30 when you take in any old Monsoon garments! Great for us Mums who buy their clothes in there but also the kids stuff too! get all the details here.

Don't forget that both of these offers will come in handy for Christmas. You can give your M&S voucher as a present or use it towards a purchase and your £5 off in Monsoon can go towards a wicked party dress or a Christmas Day outfit for the kiddies!