Frugal Friday 6th January 2012

by Rosalind Kent on 06 January 2012  |  1 comment
Tweet

Highlights this week include £105 off a French Connection dress, 70% off at John Lewis, up to 75% off at Amazon, 50% off toys at ELC, Ikea winter sale and up to £400 off your summer holiday booking with Thomas Cook.

Welcome to Frugal Friday 2012! January may be a depressing month but it is also Sale Season, meaning bargains galore for the savvy shopper.

Fashion and homewares

The high street is packed with bargains at this time of year, so whatever you are after you can usually find it at a big discount as shops slash prices to entice you to part with your Christmas money!

• Next: The end of season sale sees all sale items half price or less including clothes and homewares.
• French Connection: up to 75% off, some items with much larger discount such as this beautiful black party dress down from £140 to £35!
• Amazon: January deals on Amazon include a wide variety of items with up to 60% off shoes and bags and 75% off watches, such as this Accurist gents watch down from £200 to £55.26. Use this handy Amazon Discount Finder to hunt down super-bargains.
• John Lewis: Up to 70% off clearance items in-store and online, including homewares, beauty and clothing.
• Debenhams: 70% off selected lines in-store and online with free delivery and returns. 70% off coats and jackets and shoes for half price.
• Gap: Up to 60% off online and in-store – with an extra 15% off when you sign up for their email.
• TM Lewin:  60% off everything, four shirts for £90, men’s suits from £175.20, silk ties four for £90 and women’s shirts at three for £60.  
• Accessorize: 50% off all sale items, including chunky knit slipper boots for £10 down from £20 and long leather gloves down from £45 to £22.50.
• Boots: Christmas gifts sets 50% off in store (online shop currently temporarily closed, re-opens 6th January).
• Body Shop: Lots of items reduced to £3 or under. Gift sets are also reduced with up to 50% off, like this pack of three body butters down from £12 to £6.
• H&M: Reductions on sale items across the store with up 70% off, including homewares. Get a double duvet set in linen down from £49.99 to £24.99. Also get 25% off your most expensive item purchased online by entering the code 9514 at the checkout.
• Office: Up to 50% off in-store and online. Kids UGG boots are down to £50 from £99.99, women’s Camper leather knee high boots are £98 reduced from £140 and for the men pick up a pair of Ralph Lauren hiking boots down from £215 to £90.
• M&S: 50% off selected homewares, 20% off school uniform, 25% off women’s boots, and up 25% off men’s boots.  
• Sportsdirect.com : The Everything Must Go Sale sees huge reductions on everything with men’s Nike trainers down from £79.99 to £40 and ladies’ Nike Air trainers down from £89.99 to £30.

For the kids

 If you haven’t spoilt the kids enough already the Early Learning Centre is doing an incredible 50% off almost everything sale.

The beautiful Rosebud dolls house is currently £100 on the website, but we picked it up in-store for £50 over Christmas, so look out for it to come back on sale. The Rosebud Tree House is still on at half price though - £20 down from £40.

DIY and furniture

If you want to get a bit of DIY done in the New Year, or fancy some new furniture, the January sales are the time to do it. Take a look at Habitat where there is up to 50% off, with an extra 10% off for your first online order and free delivery and returns (when spending over £50)

The Ikea Winter Sale ends on the 15th January and gives up to 50% off across the store.  Why not apply for an Ikea Family card – membership is free - as it entitles you to a range of discounts and benefits, and reductions on prices in store. For example, members get the Hemnes chest of drawers for £130, down from its ordinary price of £179. You also get free tea and coffee on weekdays!  

Go to Homebase for up to 60% off on kitchen units, bathrooms and bedrooms, half price on selected furniture.

If you are super organised stock up on next year’s Christmas decorations at a fantastic 75% off as B&Q clear stock. They did have a 6ft pre-lit Christmas trees down from £60 to £15, but these are now sold out. The 6ft blue tinsel tree is still in stock though down from £35 to £8.75 and Christmas lights are 75% off at only £3!

Health and beauty

Start your January health kick in style with a pampering spa session!

Champneys has day spas around the country, often running their own special offers in-store. My local branch is currently offering 50% off treatments, meaning a full body massage costs only £27.50. This is not advertised on the website, so go into your local branch to check deals. Champneys is also offering 50% off all products bought online until 15th January 2012.

Check out other excellent deals on spa breaks and day spa’s through lastminute.com where you can search for 50% off or two for one deals near you. Spafinder offers a similar service and you can follow them on Twitter to get access to further deals and discounts.

Feelunique.com sells top-brand hair and beauty products at discount prices, all with free delivery. Its Winter Sale sees many items with up to 50% off, like the Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream skincare products, worth £54.40, for the bargain price of £18.50!

To stock up on your favourite perfumes and aftershaves go to Fragrance Direct which is having a Winter Sale with up to 80% off top fragrances. For example, Calvin Klein Eternity Moment for women is down from £40 to £16.99, saving you £23.01.

If you can’t take a cheerful keep-fit routine in January, then go it alone and buy a treadmill from Argos. Sale treadmills are up to half price, and all Reebok home gym and fitness equipment is 60% off. The Reebok Pure+ Treadmill is half price at £499.99, down from £999.99.

If you are a fan of Diet Coke and Benefit cosmetics you are in luck. Text the code under your ring pull to 88555 (standard network rate) or enter for free online. This generates a voucher code for you to use on the Benefit website and gives you £5 off when you spend £20.

Books and games

Check out Amazon for books with up to 65% off. Discounted bestsellers this week include: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest (from the brilliant Millenium trilogy by Stieg Larsson) all down from £7.99 to £3.86 or £3 each; Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography (hardback) down from £25 to £11.96; and Jamie’s Great Britain (hardback) reduced from £30 to £12.99.

Get Just Dance 3: Special Edition for Xbox 360 for just £24.99 (free delivery) from Play.com, saving £15 off the RRP. Sticking with a ‘get fit for 2012’ theme, buy Nintendo Wii Fit Plus for only £14.33 (down from £19.99 RRP) from Amazon, again with free delivery.

If all this keep fit is not for you and you just want to kill something, get Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 for PS3 from Tesco Direct for £32.91 (earning some Clubcard points at the same time) and get shooting! Click and collect in store to avoid a standard delivery charge. If you don’t mind second hand, Call of Duty 3 for PS3 can be bought for only £13.95 from the Blockbuster Marketplace, with a six month pre-owned quality guarantee.

Films and box sets

If you didn’t get the box set you were after for Christmas then now is the time to snap it up. Whether you are want to relax in front of the box or get moving with a fitness DVD there are deals all over the place at the moment.

Travel

With gale force winds and constant rain it might be the time to book your holidays!

Thomas Cook is currently offering up to £400 off a summer holiday, while the British Airways Goodbye Winter Sale is on until 24th January, with offers like £376 return to New York, with extra savings if you book your flight to the USA by 6th January.  

Flybe is offering a massive January seat sale, with UK flights starting from £18.99 one way. Beat the winter blues with the lastminute.com sale or jet off to Dubai for some serious sun and shopping with the Emirates Sale. The offer is only on until 9th January, and you must travel between 22nd January and 30th June 2012. If you are an Emirates Skywards member you get an extra 10% off sale prices.

Freebies of the week

Make a fresh start to the New Year and pledge to give up smoking with the help of a free NHS quit kit, available from Sainsbury’s Pharmacies.

Get a permanent reminder of your Christmas and New Year celebrations with 40 free prints from Snapfish.

If you happen to have had a Christmas baby get hold of a free Bounty pack full of free samples, nappies and wipes. Or join the Asda baby and toddler club for a free Huggies starter kit, nappies, wipes and a cotton hat. 

Mobile deal of the week

If you want a new mobile take a look at the HTC Sensation XE (O2) which is currently offering 300 minutes, unlimited texts and 100MB data for 24 months at £24 per month. Access the deal here, or compare other top mobile deals at Recombu.

Competition of the week

To win a standard Merlin Pass for a family of three enter the competition at VisitLondon. The passes give 12 months access to top theme parks like Alton Towers and Chessington and tourist attractions such as the London Eye, Madame Tussauds, Sea Life and the London Dungeon.  It’s a great year’s worth of entertainment, but at full price you would be paying £105.30, so it is not cheap! To be in with a chance of enjoying it for free enter the competition by 19th January 2012.

Eating out

If you haven’t eaten enough over Christmas and fancy a bit of January indulgence you can check out all the latest restaurant bargains in lovemoney.com’s Frugal Food blog. Read more

Eating in

If you’d rather not leave the comfort for your own home, then prepare a fantastic meal on a budget at home instead. Check out the original Frugal Recipes blog for some inspiration! Read more.

Facebook deals

From next week lovemoney.com will be posting all sorts of great deals and discounts exclusively on our Facebook page. So be sure to like us on Facebook to take advantage of frugal deals every single day of the week, not just Friday!

Don’t forget: although all prices and discounts were correct on the day this article was published, offers this good are subject to change and often sell out quickly.