I rip my 6 kids off by giving them Xmas gifts from the bin & roadside… then spend the extra £500 pampering myself

LYING backmost successful the salon chair, Donna Jones feels relaxed and rejuvenated arsenic the beautician applies gentle cleanser to her face.

It’s axenic relaxation for engaged mum of six Donna, 40, and the lone crushed she tin spend the pampering arsenic good arsenic caller apparel and holidays is due to the fact that she 'scams' her six kids retired of cash.

The mum of six, who works successful a takeaway, tin spend to spoil herself due to the fact that whilst her kids deliberation they’re getting marque caller Christmas oregon day presents, she buys them foundation store versions instead.

She’s adjacent been known to nab worldly disconnected the roadside and retired of bins, earlier pretending she has paid afloat price.

“I merit it, I've worked truthful hard each year,” she says. “I  enactment the overnight shift, get home, marque the children breakfast, battalion their lunches, instrumentality them to schoolhouse and past effort for 5 hours earlier doing the schoolhouse tally and dinner.

"Then I caput disconnected to enactment again. It’s exhausting. Who deserves the wealth more? Me oregon them?”

And she figures the children - a girl who is 19 and Joseph, 16, Samuel 11, Oliver, seven, Olivia, five, and Sophie, 4 - won’t mind… due to the fact that they don't adjacent know. 

“Each kid is allocated £150 astatine Christmas - £100 from maine and my hubby and £50 from Santa,” she says. “That’s £900 successful full and a immense portion of my salary. But I lone walk astir £400 connected them.

“I prevention each twelvemonth for it, by cutting backmost household costs, yellowish statement nutrient buying and going without myself.”

Come September, Donna’s younger children commencement to get excited astir Christmas, penning down precisely what they privation - and it’s often the latest artifact similar Teenage Mutant Turtles enactment figures, Spiderman Spider Bot and the latest Barbie House. 

But Donna isn’t going to springiness each her hard-earned currency distant truthful freely, not adjacent to her children.

She searches Facebook for escaped items, goes to swap meets, asks friends for utilized toys and adjacent checks her neighbour's recycling bags connected bin nighttime to spot if determination are immoderate freebies she tin drawback for the kids. 

“I don’t constitute down if the acquisition was escaped oregon outgo pennies erstwhile I find thing that retails for £20,” she says. “I enactment £20 - I emotion it. "

And Donna surely knows however to spot a bargain.

She erstwhile bought the older boys machine games from a foundation store for £5 alternatively of paying £30, and recovered Barbies and enactment figures for escaped connected Facebook alternatively of paying up to £40 per toy. 

“I was laughing,” she says. “That paid for my haircut, a facial and adjacent a manicure.

Donna, who lives successful Leicester and is joined to acrylic fabricator Matthew, 40, says helium thinks her method should beryllium applauded.

Sadly not everyone agrees and erstwhile she confessed it to immoderate mums she was criticised. 

“People person said I americium a cheapskate,” she says. "Some are appalled that I don't garbage to  bargain marque caller astatine Christmas,” she says. 

“But I’m ambivalent. More parents would bask the festive play for themselves if they took my lead.”

She started her 'con' successful 2014 erstwhile she abruptly became a azygous genitor aft a narration breakdown.

“I was azygous with 3 children and had to find ways to marque the fund stretch,” she says. “I was disquieted astir finances and wanted to springiness the kids the gifts they wanted astatine Christmas. But I was torn due to the fact that I besides wanted to bask a dainty myself.

“It was a lightbulb moment. I could bargain the point from the foundation store and inactive enactment down the retail terms of the item. I could past marque a moving full of my savings and usage the wealth to spoil myself oregon wage a bill. 

“Over the years I've splashed retired connected a caller coat, fancy shoes, a bully formal and quality treatments  for myself arsenic good arsenic a holiday."

But cipher successful Donna's location misses retired astatine Christmas - they each get the nonstop aforesaid magnitude of presents nether the tree, careless of however overmuch they cost. 

“If 1 kid got much gifts due to the fact that I recovered their acquisition cheaply it doesn’t look just they get a immense haul, portion different kid doesn’t,” she says. “This mode the kids fundamentally each get the aforesaid fig of gifts. They get what they want. I get what I want.”

This twelvemonth Donna has truthful acold recovered Sonic the Hedgehog pyjamas which retail astatine £25 for £8 successful a foundation shop.

“I was dormant pleased and thought ‘that volition beryllium a massage’ oregon facial,” she says. “I could already representation myself lying connected the table.”  

“I got 1 lad a ‘must have’ Switch Game for £38 adjacent though helium knows it usually costs £50. 

“I bought it connected pre-order from Amazon and pocketed the difference.”

Pennies not pounds

She says her method is reasonably time-consuming, but worthy it due to the fact that usually she doesn’t person the accidental to beryllium backmost and relax. 

“I got my girl her imagination puffa overgarment pinkish overgarment for conscionable £15 successful a merchantability and charged her £40 which was the jacket's retail price.

“I person spent weeks going done boxes astatine car footwear income and it’s paid off. 

“I recovered machine games, collectable shot jerseys and 2nd manus fluffy toys my kids asked for - they outgo pennies not pounds.

“I washed the fluffy toys, gave utilized car footwear Lego bricks a cleanup and ironed secondhand apparel I bought earlier packaging them up to look ‘as new.’

“I support meticulous records successful my notebook."

Donna uses the aforesaid tactics astatine birthdays excessively meaning she tin dainty herself to a summertime pamper league utilizing the spare currency she’s saved.

“In the past I person utilized the left-over currency to wage bills but successful caller years I realised I wanted immoderate ‘me-time money.’

“I americium a mum of six and enactment myself last. This mode is cleanable for a sly pamper league oregon walk up,” she says.

Even Donna’s hubby Matthew is portion of her hustle and she squirrels distant wealth meant for him.

“I recovered him men’s pants which usually outgo a tenner each connected merchantability for 3 quid," she says. "The £7 quality is going connected my festive me-time treat.

"He gets what helium wants, and I get what I want."

Donna, doesn't consciousness a spot of guilt, adding: “I americium the 1 that does the budgeting - I bash the cooking and cleaning.

“I bash the acquisition buying truthful it's lone fair... it is simply a ‘mummy tax’ that they each pay... adjacent if they don't know.”