Martin's 90-second Savers
Free box of Christmas cards, £125 beauty products for £25 via discounted advent calendar, Kurt Geiger shoe styles £29, all Sainsbury’s Tu clothing 25% off and free posh £2 soup trick - these are our Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis’ 90 Second Savers.
Remember, deals can change quickly, even while I’m on the programme. So always double-check the terms and conditions before spending. Plus, while I hope these deals will save you cash, don’t spend if you can’t afford it, don’t need it, or won’t use it.
Free £7 box of Christmas cards
O2 smartphone users can get any free box of Christmas cards (usually up to £6.99) in most main WHSmith stores via the O2 Priority Moments app (download the app on your iPhone, Android phone or Blackberry if you’ve not got it). Simply show the code from the app to staff at the checkout. It's due to last until Wednesday 24 Dec, but could end before if all the codes run out.Annoyingly, O2 wasn't able to tell me how many codes were left, but I featured a similar offer on calendars recently and the codes ran out very quickly, so you'll need to go quick if you want this. O2 did say that each WHSmith store has its own allocation of codes, and the app will show you your nearest participating store.
Not on O2?
There's a sneaky way of getting Priority Moments offers even if you're not usually an O2 customer. It’s worth doing as these tend to be loss leading deals (O2 often fund the deals itself) which are better than the deals elsewhere. Here’s what you need to do:
Order a free Pay & GoSim card from O2. Insert the Sim into your smartphone and activate it free (you need a handset that isn’t locked to a network).
Connect to wi-fi, and download the Priority Moments app (Android, iOS/Blackberry).
Insert the Sim every time you want to check for new deals.
£125 beauty products £25 (via discounted advent calendar)
Over the past few years, the rise of the beauty advent calendar has been rapid. We’ve found they can be great value for money and are often priced less than their individual contents (if bought separately) and include full-size, travel-size and sample-size beauty products. Now we’re a few days into December, they are being discounted – which makes them even better value if you’re after their contents.
Best buys:
Ciate Mini Manor calendar – £24.99 on offer in store at TK Maxx, normally £49 (individual items £124)The Ciate nail polish advent calendar features 23 of its miniature nail polishes (£5 each) and one of its full-size (£9) polishes. If you were to buy these individually through Ciate, I worked out the total cost would be £124 but it’s on sale for £24.99 in store at TK Maxx, saving £99.01 if you bought the items individually.
Tesco beauty advent calendar – £25, was £50 (individual items £125)
Tesco’s beauty advent calendar includes the Denman mini hairbrush (£2.50), Baylis & Harding hand body lotion and shower gel (30ml/£4) and the Little Soap Company soap (£4.50 per bar). While they may not be of quite the same calibre as some of the other calendars available, Tesco says its estimated retail value is about £125. The calendar was originally £50, but has now been reduced to £25, meaning a saving of £100 on the products if bought separately.
Kurt Geiger shoe styles £29
Go online toShoeaholics (Kurt Geiger’s web outlet to shift out-of-season and ex-display stock) by Sunday 7 December and you’ll find men and women’s shoes for £29 or less, some of them down from as much as £160. Delivery’s £5. Stock is decent in terms of the number of styles available, but as this is an outlet, individual sizes for those styles are likely to be limited so go quick if you’re after anything in particular. Shoeaholics says there may be minor wear and tear on the shoes but it’s confirmed to me that nothing’s in poor condition or damaged.
All Sainsbury’s Tu clothing 25% off
Shop at larger Sainsbury’s stores which sell its Tu clothing range and get 25% off all items until Monday 8 December. The sale includes men's, women's and kids' clothing (including already-reduced items), plus school uniforms, nativity dress-up, Christmas jumpers and more while stocks last. The discount means nativity dress-up starts from £6 for a Christmas pudding babygrow and hat set, while Christmas jumpers start at £7.50 for a kids’ reindeer jumper, £12 for a women’s and £13.50 for a men’s patterned jumper. There's also a Peppa Pig pyjama set for £9.
Free posh New Covent Garden soup trick (usually £2ish)
By combining a coupon with cheap soup and cheap in-store deals, you can bag yourself a free or nearly free soup. Go to the New Covent Garden Co website, fill in your details and you’ll get £1 off any New Covent Garden soup coupon which you’ll need to take to supermarket Morrisons where it’s £1 (so you get it free). At Tesco, the soup is on sale for £1.17 so it’d be 17p. There is a chance the supermarket won’t accept the coupon, but it has worked so far when we’ve tried it.