As someone who’s been trawling the sales for longer than I’d care to admit, here are a few things I’ve learned over the years:
Always go early… or late
In other words, venture out on day one, when you’ll have the most choice, or wait until the last day (this is usually the last Saturday in January, but in this climate they stretch into February… and March). Either way, you’ll often find an extra 20% off those final-discount racks. Event sales are worth visiting as early as possible – that’s if you …

Traditions can be great as long as they’re something you enjoy. I love going to see our local high street turn on the Christmas lights every year and I’m always first in the queue when it comes to making the yule log with family – it involves making icing sugar look like snow, who doesn’t want to be involved in THAT? But blow me, the dull traditions can go. I don’t want to watch the Queen yacking away, eating into my precious sliding …

I might as well get this out of the way now: Compers drive me mad.

For those of you not familiar with comping and Compers, it basically involves entering masses of competitions and almost turning winning into another source of income. Beating the competition system, entering prize draw after prize draw and retweeting every single competition on Twitter whether you want the prize or not.

Earlier this year, ASOS offered a wonderful competition to win the contents of your shopping bag up to a certain value (a genius idea on their part …

Ah, the work Christmas party. It’s usually a good evening out, but beforehand there’s always that secret dread somewhere in the back of your mind that it could all go horribly wrong. One embarrassing or slightly inappropriate comment to the boss or a moment of drunken silliness, and you can be certain that’s all everyone at work will remember you for the next year.

Perhaps I’m paranoid, but while the work party is enjoyable I always stick to a few rules to make sure I don’t wake up the next morning hoping the ground …

Last week, fellow bloggers Debbie at Motivating Mum, Kate at Curb Your Consumerism, Miss Thrifty, TotallyMoney contributor A Thrifty Mrs and myself were approached by a journalist to share our thoughts about ‘extreme couponing’.

To the uninitiated, ‘extreme couponing’ is an American phenomenon the Daily Mail would have you believe is rumbling across the Atlantic as we speak. The craze involves snipping coupons out of newspapers, leaflets and magazines to run up some serious discounts on your shopping bills. Doesn’t sound too extreme to you? Look what happens when our American friends get a little …

The TotallyMoney Blog Carnival went live today at The Saved Quarter! We’re currently on the lookout for carnival hosts for next year. If you’re interested in getting involved, please sign up today! If you want to know more about what hosting entails, please visit our information pages.
Editors’ picks this week:
Wealth Informatics takes a look at her end of year financial planning checklist.

One Cent at a Time reveals how to be rich by creating value not money.

Afford Anything dares you to …

Impress friends and family with the fabulousness of your gifts, while saving several quid in the process. Here’s a guide to London sample sales taking place during December:
Mulberry
This biannual Bond Street sale attracts big queues. Entry is invite only, so make sure you register here first.

30 November – 1 December, The Music Rooms, 26 South Molton Street, W1
London Designer Sale
Expect big-name brands such as Jimmy Choo, Dolce & Gabbana, Marc Jacobs and Gucci, with up to 80% off the RRP.

1-4 December, Truman Brewery, 85 Brick Lane, E1
Addict …

Happy Black Friday everyone! I sincerely hope that you haven’t been trampled to smithereens in a Best Buy store and you’re not nursing an empty wallet after a day of crazed sale shopping. My advice to anyone braving the shops this weekend- stay calm, write lists and pop some cotton wool in your ears to block out Mariah Carey warbling along to ‘All I Want for Christmas’.

Oh and don’t act like this:

Via Gawker.
Now back to the best of this week’s blogosphere. First to the carnivals. Compounding Returns featured Penny’s post on avoiding the Christmas spending …

Oh how I love a Loyalty Card. My Tesco Clubcard, Boots Advantage Card and Sainsbury’s Nectar Card are amongst the loyalty cards that shine out from the slots in my purse and they get a real pasting at this time of year. I use them to buy gifts or treat myself to pamper products in the run up to Christmas parties or even to add last minute foodie extras to the Christmas lunch. Stores factor the price of loyalty card points into the price of their product so remember the items you’re buying …

UK banks are currently owed hundreds of billions of euros by the countries currently at the centre of the European debt crisis. France owes British banks €227 billion, while Ireland, Spain, Italy and Portugal owe €104.5 billion, €74.9 billion, €54.7 billion and £18.9 billion respectively, according to data from the Bank for International Settlements. Greece, the leading protagonist in the debacle so far, has borrowed a relatively modest €9.4 billion from UK lenders.

Although the countries involved may seem far removed from the UK and the numbers trotted out almost meaningless by …