If you’ve ever tried to make a Christmas spending budget and stick to it, you’ll know how tough it can be. Here are some tips to help:

Have budgeting goals

One reason we don’t stick to a budget is that there’s no incentive. Saving money is not enough of a reason to keep to our agreed limits. Try to envisage what the money you save will be spent on – do you want a new netbook or the down-payment for a car? If so, keeping the big goal in mind can help you stick to your budget of only spending a certain amount on party clothing over the Christmas season, for example

Don’t apply across the board cuts

Many novice budgeters think that you have to ‘cut all expenses’ but that’s not the case. There are places to cut expenditure: overdrafts, eating out, entertainment, then the  places that you shouldn’t skimp: good shoes, well-fitting clothes, heating etc and finally the places you can make judgements for yourself: posh food or designer clothes? 4 star hotel or budget one?

Be accountable

One reason budgets fail is that you don’t keep track of them. You can do this either with envelopes containing the money you can spend in each category each month. Once an envelope is empty, no more spending in that category until next month. Or by using a simple spreadsheet that connects to your bank account to keep track of what you’re doing.

Have fun

Think about ways you can enjoy your expenditure. Go shopping with friends – even online shopping can be done with friends: order in a pizza and get together to browse an online retailer, placing a bulk order so that you save money on delivery costs by buying in bulk together!

Or almost any other male celebrity who takes your fancy – assuming they are under thirty and dress in clothing that can be replicated through the major online retailers and high street fashion shops.

How? By visiting myCelebrityFashion.co.uk which has launched a men’s section this month, so that the Waynes of this world can keep up with their Coleens and the Davids with their Victorias.

The website reckons to reveal the latest male celebrity trends and where to buy them so ordinary folk can ‘steal the style’ of their favourite celebrities by using a tagging system that shows buyers where to similar, or even identical garments and accessories to those of the starts.

It’s linked to over 400 fashion retailers and generates sales by directing visitors to any items that take their fancy as stocked by those retailers. So it’s not necessarily the most cost effective way to look like a star!

So if you want to find a Steven Jones brown shirt, geek glasses like Matt Cardle, David Beckham’s black beanie and Channing Tatum cargo shorts, go visit the website – but remember to shop around to find clothing bargains that are just as good as those on the mycelebrity site, but may be a lot cheaper.

If you want to make the most of your grant, the last thing you need is to spend any more than necessary on clothes. This year the masculine fashion look is basic macho, which is cheap to buy. Invest in some crew-neck or round-necked T-shirts in military colours: white, charcoal, green and olive.  These are really simple to match with some of the other fashion looks for this year such as a four pocket field coat or a camouflage-coloured jacket.

Under your jacket or fleece you need a thin top – chunky jumpers make you look like the Michelin man, so pick a heather grey long-sleeved T-shirt to look like army combinations, or go for olive sweatshirts for the military fatigues look.

Jeans and trousers are more tapered – super skinny doesn’t suit everyone, but definitely aim for a slimmer look than last year.  Boots are definitely heavy-duty with chunky socks showing above the tongue. Pull-on caps of various kinds are still the headgear of choice, although fur caps with earflaps are appearing in a lot of student digs this year.

As we pack away our flip-flops, thongs, mules, sandals and deck shoes of summer, and get ready for the motorcycle boots, training shoes, hiking boots, Uggs and Doc Martens of winter, it’s time to invest in socks that give us happy feet.

Most people know that sports socks are designed to keep feet cool and odour free but there’s a wide range of specialist sock wear out there (called hosiery in the trade) that can keep your winter feet cosy, safe and sweet-smelling.

Winter shoes tend to be thicker and heavier than summer ones which means feet can get tired more quickly. Support socks give feet special cushioning – they are often called crew socks and while they are designed for builders, soldiers and other people who spend all day on their feet, crew socks suit anybody who likes to have comfortable relaxed feet. Many specialist winter socks also have an antibacterial component to stop feet getting smelly or developing foot diseases.

Heavy winter clothing and fewer opportunities to get exercise mean that our winter bodies are more likely to develop conditions like fungal infections of the feet, head and armpits and good hygiene, wearing cotton next to the skin and regular washing of both bodies and clothes can help keep these nasties at bay. Feet are particularly prone to infections which is where good socks can help, but heads too can get itchy and dandruffy. Wearing a hat in winter is a good idea – choosing one you can wash easily means that you won’t be at risk of headlice. Hoodies can keep your head and ears warm on those days when the weather veers between okay and awful.

In September many little ones will enter school for the first time – and their parents are likely to be counting the pennies more than any year of school-age parents for a generation. Here are some tips that can make the first day easier, and less expensive, than you might be expecting:

•    Stationery – being able to reveal a fantastic set of kit: pens and paper, post-its and erasers from the bowels of a good bag can make the difference, on day one between top of the class popularity-wise and not even achieving mini-geek status. Make sure your kids like what you’re providing and that you can tell what’s fashionable – last year’s Harry Potter is not as good as this year’s Hunger Games!
•    Snacking – today many schools are tough about food – find out what high protein snacks you can include in their bag so they can boost their blood sugar if they start to feel a bit exhausted.
•    Clothing – while there is usually a clothing list, try to see what other kids are wearing on the first day: many items can be incredibly expensive if you buy through the school shop, but identical items are often available online. In addition, looking at what’s being worn by more senior years can help you invest in items that your child will need in future. If you can make a guess at what size your little one will be next year, you can often get clothing like socks and underwear, or even shirts, at an excellent price, especially in online sales.

The recent case of a badly sunburnt baby whose parents had kept it on Brighton beach all day in inappropriate clothing just goes to show how dangerous the sun can be.  But we all want to enjoy the good weather and children in particular love to be outside when the sun shines. So how do we keep them safe?

Sunshine and clothing

People of any age, with any skin colour, can develop skin cancers but children are five times more likely to suffer sunburn and it’s sunburn that is often linked to development of melanoma skin cancer in later life. The areas where melanoma is most often seen are the face, head and shoulders: areas that can easily be protected by hats and short or long-sleeved T-shirts.

Prevention is better than cure

Try to keep children out of direct sun between eleven and three – let them sit in the shade or even, although it feels wrong, indoors watching cartoons on TV!

A good UV screening T-shirt is thick enough so that when you put your hand inside, you can’t see your skin through the fabric. Anything thinner than that doesn’t offer adequate protection. Clothing choices for children should work with a good waterproof sunscreen to offer maximum safeguard.

Hats help most

In Australia they’ve run a national campaign to encourage parents to put hats on their children. It’s claimed that a child wearing a baseball cap is 78% less likely to suffer sunstroke.

Babies belong in the shade

The latest government advice is that babies under 6 months should be kept completely out of the sun, and should not have sunscreen applied to their skin. This means that your baby should be indoors, under a parasol or – if you have to expose them to the sun – choose baby clothing that covers the entire body such as a long sleeved T-shirt and leggings with a wide-brimmed hat.

Don’t take the route followed by a crowd of around 2,000 in Brick Lane, London, this spring! Ten police officers were injured during scuffles between the crowd and the police at the American Apparel casual clothing ‘rummage’, during which three people were arrested. To get a bargain without a criminal record:

Explore the online offerings of your favourite shops – you’ll often find links saying  ‘sale’ or ‘special offer‘ or ‘clearance’ all of which can reveal wonderful clothing at anything up to 75% reduced prices.

While you’re there, seek out any additional discounts on offer for online buyers – these will often be headed ‘promotional code’ or ‘discount code’ or ‘coupon’ and will appear at the checkout stage. If you spot such a box, open a new tab and conduct an internet search for the retailer’s name and the phrase used on the retailer’s site – you might get lucky and find a code that reduces the cost even further.

Double up and more by checking the relationship between order number, order cost and delivery cost. You may find that bulk order T-shirts cost only a few pennies more than one alone did, or that by increasing the size of your order until it reaches a few more pounds, you could get free postage – in other words, you might score an entire hoodie or pair of shorts for the same cost as you would have paid for postage.

Use seasonal searches. There are specific times of the year (September for summer wear, for example) that are ideal to seek out bargains. If you’re looking for a winter weight coat, then March or April are great times to be shopping online, while lightweight shirts are often marked down in the autumn and can be bought at bargain prices.

The old rule about ‘if it looks too good to be true, it probably is’ definitely applies in tough economic times, but many people are being caught out by counterfeit goods, especially clothing.

Until recently, counterfeiting wasn’t as prevalent in casual clothing as in high-end designer and fashion garments, but the global recession means that almost every brand and clothing line is being targeted by unscrupulous cheats, many of whom chose to sell their knock-off clothing online.

You can protect yourself against fake clothing vendors by following a few simple rules:

1.    Buying clothing online can be a fantastic way to save money – but make sure you buy through a reputable online retailer. Counterfeiters choose to sell this way because it allows them to stay anonymous and the set-up costs of business online are low, so look for a company with a long history in retail and a good range of the kind of clothing you want to buy. While some retailers specialise in a single brand – especially of more expensive garments such as high quality jackets, shoes and trainers – and are perfectly genuine, an online store selling only one brand can also be a sign that a counterfeiter is using that website to offload fake goods, so be doubly careful.
2.    Look at the details – detailing can often separate real goods from fake ones. On brand T-shirts, for example, look at what the company in question describes as its ‘signature’ or ‘classic’ styling, such as where brand labels are located, stitching styles and cut. Often, even online, you can see where a picture of the goods doesn’t match up to the company’s signature style, such as a garment looking skinny when the cut is supposed to relaxed or roomy, or a label being slightly different in colour, size or shape. Counterfeiters can produce garments that are almost identical to the real thing, but most are just trying to sell similar looking garments as quickly as possible and don’t pay as much attention to detail so you can catch them out by examining photographs carefully.
3.    Ask for references – all good online shops have references and testimonials, but counterfeiters have become good at faking those too! Try googling the company and seeing what comes up: disappointed buyers often vent their fury on consumer sites or in online forums, while satisfied customers of online shops will also tend to enthuse about the good quality of their clothing, the excellence of the service and the speedy delivery. Use these online clues to help you decide where it’s safe to buy.

If you’ve had to buy new school uniform items this year, you may be dreading the arrival of the spring and the demanded for new PE kit becuase it’s getting to be an expensive business!

Uniform is good for children’s sense of community and for ensuring equality between those who have a lot of disposable income and fashion sense, and those who lack one or the other, or both. But it’s not a cheap option, whether you’re buying in a high street store, via the school’s own shop, or even shopping online. And if you have a child who is already in adult sizes, as many thirteen year olds and up are, these days, you also end up paying VAT on their ‘children’s’ clothing.

There are some ways to save money if you’re canny:

1.    Ask the school to consider wholesalers who can produce small orders (say under fifty items) of essential uniform clothing in larger sizes – this might be embroidered polo shirts or logo-printed sweatshirts, which can then be sold to parents whose children are classed as ‘outsize’ by other suppliers.

2.    Consider swap shops for outgrown clothing – often a PTA committee can be organised to set up exchanges of informal jackets worn for school events held in public or specialist clothing like cricket togs, which are swiftly outgrown and yet still wearable by a smaller student, perhaps in a lower year.

3.    Request that essential items such as white T-shirts worn for PE and sporting activities be non-branded – this means you can buy the cheapest available, or even persuade the school shop to bulk buy them for you. The school logo could be kept for items like kitbags that are not going to be outgrown, and still give a sense of uniform when children are taking part in outdoor events.

Most people have a limited budget for clothing these days, and it helps if you know how to be a smart shopper, whether you are buying in a shop or online.

A good way to start is to browse some magazines or watch some of the TV programmes that feature fashion. This gives you an idea what’s currently stylish. Then you can visit the websites of the clothing stores you can also see in the high street, or browse the pages of online retailers to check out what sale items they have on offer. Online clothing retailers often provide real bargains this way and if you’ve got a good idea what clothing you’re looking for, you can save a fortune.

Buying online, for a  novice, is often easier when choosing casual clothing as it requires less attention to fit. It’s easy to buy a classic sweatshirt online than to choose the right fitted jacket, for example.

Be sure you know your clothing size and how different manufacturers ‘scale’ their clothing because each company has a slightly different cut and style so you might find that a Hanes ‘Beefy’ T-shirt in medium fits you the same as a Fruit of the Loom T-shirt in large … trying clothes on in shops before you buy online can save you disappointment and the need to return garments to get them in a different size.

One area where online retailers really score highly for bargain buying is that they tend to have really good offers on purchases of multiple items, so if you find a work shirt you like, and need to six or a dozen to get you through a week or two of work, you’ll often find you get a discount for a bulk buy, which saves you money.