My name is Clair and I am a thirty-three year old bargain loving, money saving and penny pinching enthusiast living in Greater Manchester.

I’ve always been a bit of a savvy shopper and I’ve always had an eye for a bargain. However, during my three years at university I managed to rack up just under £6000 of debt in the form of a student overdraft, credit card and New Look store card.

Stupidly, I also took out an Argos Store card and got a car on finance a few months after graduating which upped my debt even more to around the 10k mark! I was working full time but only earning just under one thousand pounds a month. Dealing with high interest repayments, overdraft fees, as well as paying rent and household bills meant I had very little left at the end of the month!

Still wanting to have a social life, one afternoon in 2011 I sat myself down to look for a solution. After trawling through MoneySavingExpert.com I had a plan! I shifted my debts using a 0% money transfer, claimed back old bank charges then continued to search for ways to reduce my monthly outgoings.

I started using coupons, cashback apps and discount codes. I started shopping smarter and cooking from scratch more. A work colleague told me about a local market research group that I joined and at one point, I even started making and selling little wedding accessories. I basically did anything I could to boost my income and help reduce my debt.

Fast forward ten years and money saving is now a way of life for me. As a result of my thriftiness I became debt free in 2017, I got onto the property ladder in summer 2018 with my partner Shane. After thirteen years together we finally tied the knot in October 2019 – on a budget of course!

Since becoming a Thrifty money saver, I always get asked what my best money saving tip is but I always struggle to answer. That’s because there isn’t just one thing; it takes a combination of lots of little changes in your day to day spending. That’s why I created Thrifty Clair, I want to share my top tips, tricks and thrifty ways to help others start saving.

You can find lots of information in my blog posts and my Instagram is full of my day to day savings and tip. I am always happy to answer any questions you might have so feel free to send me a message!

Happy Thrifting,

Thrifty Clair x

Advertisement