Finding Cheaper Alternatives

Sometimes I write this blog and all I seem to talk about is spending money. With a young child I do inevitably have to buy things but I always look for cheaper alternatives and I always try to live better for less.

My daughter is in the girl guides and I bought her the guide top before Christmas. The guides nowadays are a bit more flexible, as long as they have the top they can mix and match with jeans and other clothes. They do have a hoody type jacket that can be bought as part of their uniform that they wear when they go out/parade etc. The jacket is basically navy with a hood and starts from £19.50. Over Christmas I saw a sale in the Edinburgh Wollen Mill shop. Its clothes are mainly for the mature lady but they do good discounts and you can pick up basic items quite cheaply. We saw this navy fleece in the sale, reduced from £24 to £7.20. This , I thought, will do nicely for the guides. The good thing is ,as it doesn't have any guide logo's on it she can wear it at other times.

When we do go shopping my daughter now likes to look in shops like Primark and New Look. The things are OK and quite cheap but it fast fashion and the quality is not really there. She saw a pair of fashion slip on shoes £13.99. They were made from awful mock suede material and looked as if they would dissolve if they came close to a puddle. I managed to persuade her they wouldn't last long and would be a waste of money. We then came across Clark's and they were having a sale. I spotted these black ( real ) leather pump style shoes for £12.99, originally £29.99. Even my daughter agreed they looked,felt and smelt so much better then the cheap shoes and were actually £1 cheaper ! So we picked them up, they are half a size bigger than her current size but should fit in a few weeks no doubt.