LIVING A LITTLE...:SOURCING SECOND-hand clothes may not be glam but if it's cheap, who cares? There is a growing number of second-hand shops offering good designer clothes at bargain basement prices as people try to off-load ill-advised purchases bought in the boom and find alternatives for less.
There’s the Swap Shop in Temple Bar which allows you to trade your “immaculate condition, seasonal, and reasonably on trend” clothes for others. Then there is Wear It Again on Baggot Street, which sells a range of high-end clothes for half nothing.
And then there are the swapping parties. It’s a great concept. You go through your wardrobes, put all the stuff you never wear in a bag and take it around to a friend’s house. Everyone involved does likewise, you dump the stuff in the centre of the floor and allow people to rummage. One man’s (okay, woman’s, probably) hilariously revolting gold lamé jacket is another’s coolly ironic fashion statement.
Eating out has never been better value, or so says the Restaurant Association of Ireland. While such claims may have to be taken with a pinch of salt, what is true is that restaurants are fighting harder than ever for our business. According to the website menupages.iethere are 182 restaurants in the Dublin area offering early birds or special offers this week.
Coupons may not be glitzy but they can save you cash. There are directories delivered to more than a million homes each year which contain hundreds of euro worth of vouchers on everything from pizzas and burgers to taxis and tyres. And then there are the online coupons which have become so popular. By using citydeals, livingsocial and (our own) rewardingtimes big savings can be made.
If you rent a lot of DVDs you should consider moving your business from your local store and on to the web. Okay, it takes slightly more organisation but it can work out much, much cheaper.
If you're in the market for free stuff then check out Free Trade ( dublinwaste.ie), the Dublin local authority's online initiative which helps people pass on their unwanted household items for nothing. If you're not in Dublin check out freecycle.orgor jumbletown.ie
