Tree-mendous! Mum did all this for a tenner
A THRIFTY mum has decorated her home with a luxury 8ft Christmas tree and extravagant decorations for just a tenner – by raiding charity shops.
Charlotte Harper, from Liversedge, regularly snaps up bargains from brands including Hugo Boss, Jasper Conran and Fiorelli for a fraction of their original price by patiently pawing through secondhand rails.
The bargain-hunting carer, who is mum to five-year-old Acer Irving-Harper, set her sights on decadent decs with a tiny price tag last year - and got it all for ‘less than a takeaway.’
Charlotte managed to snap up a lush 8ft artificial tree for just £2 and decorate it with lights and lavish ornaments she picked up in bulk for £7 – alongside hand-made accessories and hand-me-downs.
Charlotte used to regularly splash her cash on Gucci, Chanel and Vivienne Westwood and would only buy designer clothes without labels so fellow connoisseurs would recognise them. But since becoming a mum and learning of the environmental impact of fast fashion, former label lover Charlotte has reigned in her pricey purchases and exclusively wears charity shop gear.
The 38-year-old former department store make-up artist trainer is now sharing her frugal festive finds to highlight that Christmas doesn’t have to cost the earth.
Charlotte said: “After having my son and not working and seeing all the things you see behind the scenes in retail, something twigged. As soon as I left retail my spirit just went a different way. I’ve gone from going to get designer Gucci glasses at £200 a time to now not even looking at something unless it’s £1 or £2.”
Bargain-hunter Charlotte managed to snap up a whopping 8ft luxury artificial Christmas tree from the British Heart Foundation in Batley for just £2. She said: “The tree is stunning, it looks like it’s come from a department store because it’s got two different types of branches, the bristly branches and the standard branches.
“It’s also got the cones and the berries are already attached, it’s really old traditional looking, I fell in love with it because of all that detail.
“My decorations are either hand-me-downs, I’ve made them myself or come from a charity shop. The Scrabble ones I made about five years ago before it became trendy, and I made the ribbon bows.
“Most of my decorations I’ve dug out of boxes in charity shops that I’ve rummaged through.
“You can get a carrier bag full of decorations for 50p, or if buying individually for 2p or 5p a bauble.”