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Luxury for Less
 Luxury doesn't have to break the bank
You don’t have to be posh to treat yourself to a taste of luxury now and again. In fact, there are all sorts of ways to get a piece of poshness without paying top dollar for the privilege. Whether you want to buy designer clothes, travel in style or just hang out in the haunts of the rich and famous, the following deals will help you enjoy a bit of extravagance without splashing out as much as you might think. Seen a deal you think should be included? Tell us or tell the world. If you're not already a subscriber, sign up for our free newsletter to get the latest updates on getting luxury for less.
Lastminute luxury destinations for less Travel company Voyages Jules Verne has some very cheap holiday packages for August this week. Whisk away to Lake Como in Italy for seven nights bed and breakfast from just £325pp, including flights and transfers. Cruise along the Nile for a week from just £399pp including flights, transfers and full board. You can even upgrade to 5* accomodation for £100 more. If you'd like a cool dip in the Atlantic, you can go to Madeira, the sub-tropical island off Portugal, from £325pp B&B including flights and transfers. Or if you want a more explosive holiday, jet off to Sicily from £375pp to see Mount Etna and swim in the crystal blue sea. For more details visit the Voyages Jules Verne website and click on their special offers page.
Luxury Pampering for a pinch Fancy a break from the daily grind, or a getaway from our disappointing British summer? Have a look on the Spa Seekers website for their special offers. They've got some fantastic deals and savings on spa packages in locations all across the UK, including luxury full day packages for just £50! There are plenty of different options to choose from, so you can pick which package is best suited to you, and make a saving of about £30 in most cases. Or if your simply too busy for a whole day at the spa, why not practice a little luxury pampering at home? Balaton Spa are offering a free travel bag worth £24.99 when you purchase their now famous face mask which comes highly recommended by style gurus Trinny and Susannah and Gok Wan. Click here to get your hands on these luxury goodies.
Treat yourself to a gorgeous dinner out at a luxurious restaurant with Toptable. Their fantastic summer sale at restaurants and bars all over the UK means you can afford to go even if it's not for a special occasion. On top of their frequent offers, if you book through their site six times and review each of the restaurants you visited for them, you'll get a meal for free!
You can make the most of the summer and still catch all your favourite programmes thanks to the joy of Sky+, and better still, this summer you can do it for half the price! Sky are currently offering some fantastic deals, so if you ever fancied some luxury technology nows the time to get it! You can get the Sky+ box at £75 rather that the usual £150, and you can also save £99 and get a Sky+HD box for £150 instead of the usual £249. In order to qualify for these offers you have to sign up for a particular group of subscriptions starting from £16 a month including access to free broadband, and free evening and weekend calls to UK landline numbers.
Treat yourself to something scentual For 300 years, the exclusive and luxurious perfumer Floris have had their shop at 89 Jermyn Street, London. Now you can experience the history and charm of this traditional perfumery with a tour of their musuem which includes an original letter from Florence Nightingale and have a 30 minute bespoke perfume consultation so you can discover your perfect fragrance! Your personal shopper will take you through the extensive range of perfumes and help you choose the one best suited to you. This fabulous treat costs just £40, which is redeemable against purchases.
Why not bid for some unique and hand-crafted jewellery on this auction site; rocks tv. This pioneering company have started the first website to hold live auctions every evening. There is a real auctioneer and the opportunity for users to interact with each other and the auctioneer in real time during the auction. Check out the website during the day to find out all the information about pieces which will be available that evening, and then log on to bid from 5pm till 11pm. All the items are made from genuine gemstones, and with no reserve or staring bids, you can potentially get these beautiful pieces for free! Our top tip would be to visit the site as soon as possible and take full advantage of the fact that the site is brand new; with fewer people bidding,piceces are being sold at incredibly low prices and you stand an excellent chance of getting yourself a real steal!
The Durrants Hotel in a beautiful Georgian townhouse in the heart of Marylebone, in Central London is the perfect place to spend a few hours escaping the bustle or nearby Oxford and Bond Streets. It offers beautiful surrondings in which to retreat after a morning of serious shopping and sightseeing. Why not relax in their cosy Sitting Room and enjoy a 'champagne afternoon tea' which includes the very traditional fayre of sandwiches, angel cakes, scones, jam and clotted cream and a glass of champagne for just £18 per person.
Great prices for top brand homeware Now you can get luxury in your kitchen too by making some lifetime investments in some top brand kitchenware. Design2Please are currently offering a 20cm professional frying pan made by Swiss Diamond for just £29.99, rather than the usual £60. Swiss Diamond will also guarantee a lifetime of non-stick performance. For more information, click here. As well as this, Amazon currently have massive savings across a range of luxury kitchware from Brabantia kitchen bins, to Denby dinnerware sets and Le Creuset casserole dishes; check it out here. Just Blankets has amazing deals on pure Cashmere blankets. The 180cm x 140cm blanket is trimmed with soft alcantara suede and weighs 650 grams. It is a steal at £169! Especially if you compare it to a very similar blanket available at The White Company going for £595. If you are looking for an even better deal why not pick up one of their Lambswool and Angora blankets which are woven on traditional looms in Scotland using the highest grade lambswool mixed with 25% Angora for extra softness. These blankets are almost as soft as Cashmere, but with a much softer price tag of only £94.00. If you have a friend that is expecting, they have the most adorable cashmere baby blankets that can be embroidered for a personal effect. It makes the perfect gift at £99.
Luxury interior design for less
Dine at the Ritz with Lastminute.com The Ritz has teamed up with Lastminute.com to offer you some deals to eat in their restaurant that aren’t as extravagantly expensive as the decor might suggest. They are offering a menu du jour lunch with three courses for £35. The menu changes daily and has a choice of two starters, mains and desserts, which means if you go with someone else, you can try everything on the menu! You can also get a ticket to the exhibition currently on at the Royal Academy of Arts, for just £10 more. For something a little lighter, you can indulge yourself in an afternoon tea (bizarrely only available at 11.30am and 7:30pm) for £37 per person which includes piles of delicately prepared finger sandwiches, many pots of tea and lashings of cream and scones. You'll take your tea in the Palm Court which is a famous but very secretive venue where no filming is allowed and not only must you be dressed appropriately, but you have to refrain from using your mobile phone. If you prefer an evening meal, there is a deal for a three course pre-theatre menu for £43.
Get a personal shopper - for free If you think that personal shoppers are only for the rich and famous, think again. Topshop has a style advisor service in its bigger stores around the country where you can book an appointment online or by phone. When you turn up for your appointment, you will be shown into the private style advisor shopping suites and you’ll be able to discuss what you want with your advisor. They will then go off into the store to find you lovely things to try, or if you don’t fancy lounging around in the suite, you can go too and get a bit more involved. Then all you have to do is try on the clothes and see if there’s anything you like. The service is free and you have no obligation to buy anything, but if you do want to, you will skip the queue and they’ll wrap all your purchases properly for no extra charge. It’s a great way to get some things that perhaps you wouldn’t have thought of wearing before and it’s certainly not the slog that shopping can sometimes be. But best of all, it’s luxury for less. Click here to book yourself an appointment.
Discount designer clothes sales If you’re a die-for-designer kind of person, but only got the cash for a couple of pieces a year, you could stock up your wardrobe more frequently by checking out Designer Sales UK, a company which organises discount designer sales all year round. It stocks a massive range of top designers, such as Galliano, Stella McCartney, Orla Kiely and Dolce & Gabbana to name just a few. You also can get your hands on one-offs, returned items, showroom samples and even toiles, which are prototypes that never made it into production; all the kinds of things you can’t get in the main stores. All you’ve got to do to get the information about the sales is sign up for their newsletter and it will come winging its way straight to your inbox. Check out when the next sale is here. BrandAlley works with over 140 designer brands and offer their rather nice stuff to you at 30-70% less than the original retail price. They have different labels and types of clothing (lingerie, designer sunglasses etc.) on sale each week, as their sales only last around three or four days. Sign up to get emailed what's being offered when. The site is pretty new and to encourage you to tell your friends about it, they'll give you a £5 voucher to spend for each time one of your recommended friends makes their first purchase. Secret Sales is a free online club which organises exclusive sales - typically between 30% and 80%off - for its members. And it's not just bargain luxury clothes you can get your money-saving mitts on - they also sell home wares, sports equipment, electronics, travel items, jewellery, and children's things. They'll also email you a reminder on the day the sales go live. It might be harder work shifting through the fakes and non-designer stuff, but eBay's always worth a trawl for luxury bargains. You can often get Chloe, Chanel, Jaeger, Miu Miu etc. - second hand and new - for hundreds less than what they'd cost you from the net. For top tips on how to bag a designer bargain there, see Nicky Peckham's new eBay blog.
The Haymarket Hotel just off Piccadilly Circus in London is a gorgeous boutique hotel in the heart of London's West End with 50 bedrooms and suites that have each been uniquely decorated. The rooms can be pretty pricey, but many people don't know about the gorgeous poolside bar in the basement, which is open to the general public and not just residents of the hotel. Anyone can go into the bar during opening hours to sit in the warmth in one of the comfy loungers next to the water and enjoy a cocktail or a cool glass of wine whilst the light installation changes the colours and mood of the room constantly. What's more, because so few people know about it, it's practically deserted during the week, so it's like having your own private swimming pool (although only residents of the hotel are allowed to take a dip). The bar isn't particularly cheap, but definitely worth the gorgeous surroundings. To check opening times and how to get to the hotel, click here.
First-class rail travel on a standard-class ticket You can travel like a first class passenger without buying the ticket on two out of the three main service providers in the UK, all you've got to is buy dinner on the train. But we don't mean a BLT and a pack of crisps. On both National Express East Coast (formerly GNER) and First Great Western, there are luxury dining car services available on certain routes where you can enjoy a gourmet feast in the luxury of the first class carriages. These restaurants are open to all ticket holders (although if the restaurant is busy, first class ticket holders will be given priority) and so you can ditch your tiny seat in standard class, and spread out in the dining car. The only cost is what you pay for the meal, but even if you bought a first class ticket, you wouldn't get the meal for free, so it's like getting the first class service plus a meal for much less than the first class ticket on its own. Main courses on FGW start at £13.95 and on National Express you can get two courses for £24, and three courses for £29. Unfortunately, Virgin doesn't have restaurant cars on its trains. But on the other services, all that's left for you to do is order a bottle of wine and linger over your yummy food until you arrive at your destination. To check which services the restaurants are available on, go to FGW or National Express.
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Jasmine and the Moneymagpie Team
Moneymagpie Moneypedia
11.11.2008
