Posts Tagged ‘budget’
-
Where can you find an off-the-peg designer wedding dress for under £500 [Part 2]
In our bid to find the ultimate dream gowns for under 500 quid, we stumbled across some truly amazing high street options. Take Coast, for instance. They’ve got an entire section dedicated to weddings and occasion wear, and we spotted some absolutely drop-dead gorgeous styles. Karen Millen is also a great go-to option for frocks that you can wear again on a big night out (ensuring maximum wear-for-cost value).
You may also like to check out You and Your Wedding, which has a comprehensive wedding dress section. Check out the wedding dresses under £750 for more inspiration!
As promised, here are our top six wedding dresses for under £500. We’ve picked dresses that will suit every style of wedding, from traditional church nuptials to more laid-back and casual affairs…
Top row from left to right:
Verona silk organza frill dress, £150, from Coast.
Japanese paper cotton strapless dress, featuring big bouquet origami detail at the front, £500, by Designers Remix from Net-a-porter.
Mancini tulle dress featuring full skirt and corsage of ivory blooms and ribbons in sage, ivory and lemon, £160, from Coast.
Bottom row from left to right:
DAY Birger et Mikkelsen taupe silk gown with bead-embellished neckline, £300, from Net-a-porter.
Thurley silk gown with lace detailing, £555 (OK, a tad over budget but it’s drop-dead stunning!), exclusively available from Net-a-porter.
Angel grecian-style maxi dress £275, from Coast.If you decide to go down the off-the-peg road, it might be a good idea to take your dress to a tailor to get it altered for a better fit. Also, if you need extra support and your dress doesn’t have any in-built corsetry, you may want to consider getting fitted for a corset or basque at a specialist lingerie store like Rigby & Peller, who have in-store experts with an eagle-eye for ultimate fit. Make sure you take along your dress to your appointment so they can ensure you get the right cut and style. And control pants-of-steel are also an excellent wear-again investment, especially if your dress is sleek or bias-cut.
Happy wedding days!
-
Where can you find an off-the-peg designer wedding dress for under £500?
Thanks to Jenbug for sending us this challenge, which initially sounded completely scary considering the average bride in the UK shells out £826 on her dream dress. But once we started looking around we soon discovered thet there are many beautiful budget-friendly options around to choose from.
Firstly, keep in mind that there are many factors that go into the expense of a wedding dress. With a bespoke gown, you’re paying for the hours of work that go into the various stages of getting an exact fit, as well as extensive corsetry and hand-finished details such as beading and embroidery.
But I was genuinely amazed at the quality of some of the designer dresses I found, including the Elizabeth Emanuel range at Bhs, which are all priced at £495 (see pic above). I was equally impressed with the Star by Julian McDonald range at Debenhams (see right, for £200).If I had my time again I may be inclined to splash the 500 quid on a gorgeous cream or white dress by a fabulous designer such as Vivienne Westwood or Philip Lim, which are both available from Selfridges. In fact, Selfridges stocks an excellent range of wedding-worthy frocks under £495 – keep an eye out for designers such as Malene Birger, Milly, Westwood Red Label, Maje, Tibi, Paul & Joe and Haute Hippie. A quick whirl around the shop floor also revealed some gorgeous cream or white options including a Vivienne Westwood Anglomania white cotton corset ribbed dress for £340 and a Marc by Marc Jacobs one-shouldered embroidered dress for £310.
The best thing about a ‘non-traditional’ wedding dress is that you could get more than one wear out of it – not to mention wearing a fabulous designer on your wedding day. Matches is also an excellent source for affordable designer frocks. This divine silk crepe shift by Freda would look ‘60s-style simple and chic for a city wedding – a total steal at £98. And I really like this flirty crochet dress by Diane von Furstenberg.
Then there is this heavenly Roksanda Ilincic silk satin gown (see right) from Net-a-porter.com, which is slightly over budget at £625, but still excellent value for your wedding day.And although it may not be exactly “designer”, there are many stunning vintage wedding dresses that come in well under budget. I love the fabulous fifties wedding gowns from Love Miss Daisy, like this breathtaking ballerina-length dress with delicate ivory French lace for £390.
Tomorrow: our top six wedding dresses under £500.
-
Day trip to Paris for £50 [Part 3]
I’m back from Paris – and despite the fact that I “failed” the challenge by exceeding the £50 budget before setting foot in France, I think I did fairly well by only spending a grand total of €11.20 on the day. I enjoyed a glorious day of the very best that Paris has to offer in terms of sight-seeing, shopping and eating local food. (You could definitely get by on less than €10 a day in Paris, but unfortunately the hot weather got the better of me and I succumbed to the lure a €2.50 strawberry icecream on Ile St Louis.)
I saved money by packing my own bottle of water and preparing a “grazing” box of nuts, dried fruit and bits of chocolate I found in the pantry. This really helped as the pound has taken quite a beating in recent months – for instance, a latte will set you back around €3.80, whilst the asking price from a bistro for a glass of Coke is €5. I could have prepared a packed lunch as well, but part of the challenge was that I actually eat local food, so that was out of the question.
Here’s how my day panned out:
7.15am Departed St Pancras International on Eurostar.
9.30am Arrived at Gare du Nord station in Paris.
9.45am Purchased a single Metro ticket (€1.60) to the Marais.
10am Arrived in the Marais and spent some time window-shopping and picking up a few items for my picnic lunch. I found a bakery, patisserie and fromagerie on rue de Bretagne, and spent a total of €5.50. This was actually a really good, budget-wise move, as I had enough bread and cheese for both lunch and dinner – score!
12 noon. Headed to the Musée Carnavalet, which offers free admission. Spent a couple of hours checking out the extensive collection devoted entirely to the history of Paris. The beautiful manicured hedge garden was also a highlight – like a mini Versailles! – and provided a valuable resting stop in between all the history and art.
2pm. Found the most gorgeous little park just opposite Musee Carnavalet on rue des Francs Bourgeois for my picnic lunch. The cheese and baguette went down a treat – with lots left over for afternoon munchings and dinner! (So much more affordable and thrifty than getting a single take-away Croque Monsieur for €6.50.)
2.30pm. Walked back through the Marais towards the Seine, stopping to look at a few discount and vintage shops. If you’re up for a fashion bargain, you might like to check out these shops:
Free ‘P’ Star Bretonnerie – cheap vintage fashion (see below). Climb the ladder to the little loft area and rummage through the €5 handbags. 8 rue Sainte Croix de la Bretonnerie
La Belle Epoque – vintage fashion. 10 rue du Poitou
Come on Eileen – vintage fashion. 16 rue des Taillandiers
L’Habileur – discounted second-hand designer fashion, including A.P.C. and Vanessa Bruno. 44 rue de Poitou
3pm – Walked across Pont Louis Philippe to Ile St Louis, stopping to admire the Seine in the afternoon sunshine. Joined the queue at Berthillon for a delicious €2.50 fraise glacee (strawberry icecream).
3.15pm – Crossed Pont St Louis and watched street buskers for a bit of free entertainment. Stopped for a rest in the square at the back of Notre Dame, which is also a great place to pass some (free) time in Paris. I made a beeline for the seats under the shady avenue of trees.
3.30pm – Visited Notre Dame, which is free entry (although you have to pay if you want to go up the towers) – and marvelled at the stained glass windows and vaulted arches. Amazing building.
4.30pm – Crossed to the Left Bank and browsed legendary bookshop Shakespeare & Co. (Tip: the upstairs window gives you one of the best (free!) views of Notre Dame. There are also lots of chairs and benches for (free!) reading.
5pm – Wandered around the back streets of the Left Bank, visiting tiny churches and looking in shop windows, before getting another single Metro ticket (€1.60) back to Gare du Nord station to catch the Eurostar back to London.
TOTAL SPENT: £70.20
USUAL COST OF DAY TRIP TO PARIS:
£309 (Fully-flexible standard Eurostar fare)
£15 (Standard bistro lunch for one)
£20 (Standard bistro dinner for one)
£5.80 (One day Mobilis Metro ticket)
––––
£349.70
TOTAL SAVED: £279.60Take a look at the video of my glorious €11.20 day in Paris…
Oola Moola goes to Paris from OolaMoola on Vimeo.Posted in Entertainment, Fashion, Food, Travel, Vintage
-
Day trip to Paris for £50 [Part 2]
So, I’m off on my day-trip to Paris tomorrow. As you may recall, my challenge is go to Paris, see the sights, take in some culture and eat local food – for £50.The biggest hurdle, of course, is actually getting there (and uh, returning home to London) for less than £50. We always knew this was going to be tricky. I’ve been trawling Facebook groups, Ebay and Gumtree.com for the last few weeks, but I couldn’t find any cheaper tickets than Eurostar’s current return offer for £59. So a few weeks ago I bit the bullet and booked myself a return trip – thereby landing myself an automatic FAIL by going £9 over budget. Merde. Oh well, it’s still an exceptionally good deal, but I’m going to have to spend my money very wisely tomorrow to make up for it.
With that in mind, I’ve compiled a list of stuff to do for free in Paris. But actually getting around the free stuff presents another issue. At first I thought I would get a one-day Paris Visite ticket and zip around the city on the Metro, but it’s not exactly cheap at €8.50. And whilst the city’s free bike system is a fabulous cash-free – and green – way to take in the sights, I’m not the world’s most confident cyclist, and I don’t fancy ending up in the back of a baguette van. So I’ve decided to combine walking with two single Metro tickets (at €1.60 each).
I’ve used Google maps as a free tool to plan my walking tour, making sure that all the “free attractions” are within walking distance. At this point, I will take the Metro from Gare du Nord station to le Marais district, where I’ll take in the Musée Carnavalet, one of Paris’s free museums. After that, I plan to partake in a bit of lèche-vitrines (literally “window-lick”) around le Marais, which will lead me down to the Seine. I haven’t decided what to do for the rest of the afternoon, but I’m considering visiting Notre Dame, and having a picnic lunch in either Jardin des Plantes or Jardin du Luxembourg.
Here are my favourite resources for free stuff to do in Paris:
http://traveler.nationalgeographic.com/2008/03/free-city/paris-text
http://en.parisinfo.com/guide-paris/money/free-admission-and-good-deals/MuseumLet me know if you have any tips for free stuff to do around the 5th arr. Until then, au revoir!
Posted in Travel
-
Gorgeous lunch for a fiver: Princi
First up in our “Gorgeous lunch for a fiver” series is Princi on Wardour Street in London. This relatively new addition to Soho comes all the way from Milan, and is backed by Alan Yau (of Hakkasan, Yauatcha and Cha Cha Moon).
On my visit, the sleek minimalist space is buzzing with a hungry lunch-time crowd, but service at the long glass counter is quick and easy. As well as an enticing line-up of freshly-baked bread and pastries, there’s also a range of pizza slices, pasta, meat dishes and salad.
I perch on a stool in the front window and watch Wardour Street go by, whilst munching on a generous slab of pizza, which with a can of Coke comes to a total of £5.20. (I would have got it under £5 if I opted for water instead, but I needed the massive caffeine/sugar hit.)
Oh, and while you’re there, make sure you sample some of the gorgeous bread dipped in olive oil, which is offered to customers on top of the counters.
Princi London
135 Wardour Street
London W1F 0UT
Tel: 020 7478 8888Posted in Food
-
Thrifty food: ‘Left-overs’ muesli
Will you just take a moment to admire this superb-looking muesli? It’s actually a totally thrifty home-made recipe masterfully created from left-overs by Sydney-based blogger/chef/foodie/stylish girl about town The Likkle Girl Who Wurves Pwetty Things (hereafter known as Likkle Moola).
In an extremely kind and blush-worthy post, Likkle Moola explains that she was inspired by Oola Moola to clean out her pantry where she discovered “bits of grains, seeds, nuts and dried fruit left over from previous baking projects”. She used all the bits to make herself a huge batch of healthy, crunchy toasted muesli. We applaud her “make do” efforts. (And we also applaud the inclusion of peanut butter in her recipe.) Luckily, she was kind enough to share it with us. Take it away, Likkle Moola …
To make your own, you’ll need:
~ 200g nuts (make up that amount from what’s left in your larder - I used a mix of macadamias, slivered almonds and pepitas)
~ 250g rolled oats
~ 100g bran
~ 50g shredded coconut
~ 150g dried fruit (again, use what you have - I threw in sultanas and dried cranberries)~ 100g vegetable oil
~ 50g peanut butter
~ 150g honey- Preheat oven to 150°C.
- Place all dry ingredients (except dried fruit) into a big bowl.
- Add oil, peanut butter and honey. Mix well.
- Line two large baking trays with greaseproof paper. Divide mix evenly onto trays. Spread mix out as thinly as possible to ensure even cooking.
- Place trays into preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes.
- Pull trays out and give muesli a good stir and spread it out thinly again so all the bits get a chance to brown.
- Place trays back in oven and repeat the stirring and spreading every 10 minutes until the muesli is golden.
- Oh, remember to mix in the dried fruit in the last 10 minutes, when you think the muesli is nearly done as the fruit burns easily.
- Leave to cool completely and store in airtight container.
There, done and can be kept for at least a month, if stored correctly (but I think it’ll be eaten way before that!). What I like most about making my own muesli is I can choose what I want to put in - there’s always at least one ingredient in store-bought ones that I don’t like and have to pick out before eating.
Total spent: AU$0.00 (had everything in the pantry)
Cost of a 1kg bag of our usual macadamia muesli: AU$19.oo
Savings: AU$19.00Thank you Likkle Moola, you’ve done us proud!
Posted in Food
-
Hair cuts on a budget
My best advice for recession hair? Don’t bother getting it cut. Admittedly, this may not be practical for all, but since I got The Worst Budget Hair Cut Ever last year, I’ve decided to grow it out. Ponytails have become my friend, as are headbands, hair clips and hair spray. Eventually I will get a trim, but by then I will have saved up enough to go to a reputable (albeit more expensive) stylist.A good hair cut could ultimately mean less trips to the hairdresser. And that six weeks’ thing they always bang on about could be extended to nine or 12 weeks - if you’re lucky. The best hairdresser-proof style has minimal layers and is fairly uncomplicated. Keep it simple and experiment with headbands and clips instead.
Japanese hairdressers usually offer excellent value for money. I like J Moriyama in London, where you can get an awesome precision fringe trim for a fiver. If you have a specific style in mind, take along good, clear references. Women’s hair cuts starts at £30, which includes a revitalising shoulder and neck massage. Bargain!
If you’re willing to take a risk and put your hair in the hands of a student hairdresser, you could get a very cheap cut. And sometime’s they’re free! Every large city usually has some sort of hair academy - so get in touch and find out if they offer cheap student cuts.If you’re in London, keep an eye on websites like Gumtree.com, where student hairdressers sometimes advertise free haircuts. Time Out London’s Little Black Book (itself a brilliant source for good buys in the capital) has an excellent listing of salons for every budget, as well as a great line-up of the best student haircuts, including:
Toni & Guy Training Academy
71-75 New Oxford Street, WC1
Tel. 7836 0606Vidal Sassoon Creative Academy
56 Davies Mews, W1
Tel. 7318 5205Fish Hairdressing
30 D’Arblay Street, W1Mahogany Academy
22 Dering Street, W1
Images courtesy of Sassoon Academy.Posted in Beauty
-
Posh afternoon tea for two for £10 [Part 2]
My home-made afternoon tea went down a treat – have a look at the results:
Admittedly I came in just over budget at £11.94, but think I did an OK good job with making my own scones and sandwiches. Remember, I’m not the best of cooks, so this was something of a challenge for me. I also have a very tiny kitchen and not a huge range of baking utensils, but I made–do with a few substitutes. For instance, I don’t own any scone cutters, so I used a glass tumbler to cut out the rounds of dough instead. And I also don’t have a pastry brush, so I ‘brushed’ milk on the tops of the scones with my (very clean!) finger tips! Thankfully the scone recipe was super-easy and they came out quite well – and it was lovely eating them warm and straight out of the oven.
Scones before …
… and looking v. golden and gorgeous, after!I picked some flowers out of the garden for my ‘centrepiece’ and dug out all my vintage china to set the table. I got a new cake stand for my birthday, which looked very pretty piled with scones and retro English biscuits. I ended up going for Jammy Dodgers, Party Rings and Fondant Fancies. My friend brought along her own art-deco cup, saucer and plate, and I think we achieved that mis-matched vintage look we were going for.
Despite going over budget, it was a big success and we had a lovely afternoon. Watch the video below and see me making a huge mess in the kitchen. I’m not called the Swedish Chef (from the Muppets) for no reason…
TOTAL SPENT: £11.94
COST OF AFTERNOON TEA FOR TWO AT LONDON’S DORCHESTER HOTEL: £75.36 (not including the discretionary service charge we usually pay)
SAVINGS: £63.42PROS:
• Could relax with friend at home.
• Lovely warm scones straight out of the oven.CONS:
• The shopping, cooking and cleaning-up afterwards.
• Not exactly Dorchester-standard food.
Posted in Food
-
Designer-style walls for £30
I would love to wallpaper one of the walls in my living room. I particularly love the hand-finished garden birds wallpaper by designer Louise Body. The only problem is that her wallpaper starts at £95 a metre.So I was particularly delighted to discover that Louise offers a wallpaper sample service, which really got my thinking about alternative options. You can select up to six different A4-sized samples for a total of £6.50, plus an extra £1 for postage. Well within my £30 budget!
I paid via PayPal and waited for my samples to arrive. In the meantime, I researched some framing options online. IKEA is by far the most affordable in terms of quality and style.
When my samples arrived, I took them along with me to IKEA to choose the frames. The black RIBBA frames were perfect, at £7.43 each for the A4-size. Only thing is that I needed three of them for a good “collective” effect, which would take me slightly over budget. Still, I decided that I would be saving lots of money anyway, so I went ahead and bought three at at a total of £22.29. Read full post
Posted in Decor, Uncategorized
-
The best thrifty investment
Here at Oola Moola we’re always on the hunt for clever thrifty tips, budget buys and easily-digestible money management advice. So we were naturally thrilled to discover that the latest book by author India Knight, The Thrift Book: Live well and spend less, rather brilliantly ticks all the right boxes.India’s known for her exquisite taste and sense of style – after all, she penned a book all about shopping! So she’s quite the expert guide in showing you exactly how to dress on a budget (and still look fab); make your own awesome gifts; travel the world with very little money, and grow your own delicious food.
And more. So much more, in fact, that you’ll just have to run out and buy it. But be warned – you might just surprise yourself and save quite a lot of moolah!
Posted in Beauty, Crafting, Decor, Entertainment, Fashion, Food, Gifts, Health & Fitness, Travel, Vintage
