How I saved 37% on the cost of my garden makeover with hotukdeals

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A few years ago now, back when I lived in Bristol, I had a boyfriend who was obsessed with hotukdeals.

I don’t just mean that he would check the site for offers before he bought something significant, I mean that he loved browsing, scrolling through the listings, just for fun. ‘Someone’s just found a half price patio set in an Asda in Doncaster!’ he would shout out, excitedly. It makes you wonder really how engaging I was as a girlfriend, but let’s brush over that.

He actually saved us a lot of money over the few years we lived together – or should I say hotukdeals did, because the beauty of the site is that you don’t actually do any of the research yourself, you just wait for other people to find the bargains, post about them, and then you swoop. Hotukdeals is a place for real consumers to share their stories, deals, vouchers. and tips. The purpose of the site is to encourage honest advice from genuine consumers, getting insight from other real people about hot deals and products.

There’s also an app, which is totally free and allows for on the go bargain hunting. You can also use the app to set keyword alerts, so if, for example, you’re after some LEGO for Christmas presents, you can get a notification as soon as a LEGO offer gets posted. I actually did a little project with them a couple of years ago, where I saved £527 on my Christmas shopping, so coupled with my obsessive boyfriend history I consider myself something of an expert.

When hotukdeals asked me then if I fancied using the site to discover some bargains for a garden makeover, I was PRIMED, ready to strike while the deal was hot. (Or, as it turned out in my case, while the half price barbecue was hot.) They’ve also given me two £50 vouchers to give away, so read on for more info on how to win those too.

My garden is one of my favourite bits of the house because it’s the area where I have made the most difference. The rest of the house was already redecorated and ready to go, but the garden was like a prison yard. I did a whole garden makeover post, complete with kitten in a wheelbarrow, if you want to check it out, and I’ve added a lot of plants along the way too. (It’s worth noting too that the plants from that second post are doing really well a year on – I’ve been really impressed with them.)

So I set about searching the garden section of hotukdeals for some garden bargains that would add to the tropical paradiseness of my garden.*

The obvious place to start was seating. Since the original landscaping, I’ve only ever had this one garden bench, which although perfectly nice, doesn’t give a lot of options for lounging, or for enjoying an early morning al fresco brunch. I don’t know why I’ve not gotten around to furnishing the garden properly, but never mind – all the more opportunity for me to save some cash.

I decided that there were two elements – something for dining, and something for lying in the sun reading a book and drinking pina coladas. The first thing to jump out at me was this offer from Argos on their printed sun loungers. Nothing says tropical paradise like a ‘rainforest garden lounger’ now does it?

Two of those went in my trolley – £17 saved.

When they arrived I was even more happy with them. The print is gorgeous and definitely adds a tropical vibe, plus they took me back to being small and going to stay at my Gran and Grandad’s house. They had two sun loungers a bit like these – one an orangey red colour, and the other one maybe blue? The times I was allowed to get them out and play with them were exciting times indeed.

Their loungers did used to pull up from both ends, so you could make a triangular den to sit in, and although I was disappointed at first that these don’t do that, I remembered that I’m not six years old any more and so probably wouldn’t fit anyway.

For the dining element, I found this cute wooden table and two chairs from Wilko with a third off. This was perfect as I wanted something small – partly to fit in the little corner patio I have under my pink pergola and partly because I never have guests.

To go along with the dining theme I also found a sweet little retro looking barbecue from Waitrose, perfect for taking camping or for whipping up a quick lamb burger in the garden. Normally £40 – a bargain at half price!

A total of £40 saved – boom.

I was really pleased with the wooden furniture. It’s absolutely perfect for my little corner and I’ve used it quite a bit already for working outside. Belle was even inspired to bring me out a cup of tea one afternoon, which pretty much never happens.

And finally, so that I would have something pretty to look at while I lounged about eating kebabs, I found a wooden lattice planter from Argos that had a third off. I still have some unfilled corners in my garden, and loved the idea of these.

I got two, so over £16 saved altogether.

My sweetpea plant is producing lots of seed pods this summer, so I’m thinking I might collect them and plant them into these next year? In the meantime, I’ve planted them up with some patio roses so that I can make my own perfume obviously.

When you add everything up, here’s what I saved on my garden makeover by using hotukdeals:

• Two loungers – £50 down to £32.98
• Barbecue – £40 down to £20
• Table and chairs – £60 down to £40
• Two planters – £50 down to £33.32

In total then I spent just £126.30 instead of £200 – a saving of 37%, over a third off the original price. Not too shoddy.

What’s even better is that now, with a few bits of garden furniture and accessories, I finally feel like my garden has everything it needs. I’ve spent relatively little money, but it has added such a lot of value to the garden in terms of how I can now use it. I’ve already spent a good amount of time on a lounger – book in one hand, glass of wine in the other.

I’ve also spent quite a bit of time with the book resting on my knees, browsing the app for travel offers and wondering if I could justify a mini break to Pisa, or perhaps a last minute week long Spanish beach holiday, but that’s a whole other blog post.

Win a £50 voucher to spend on home and garden bargains

If you visit me on Instagram I have TWO £50 vouchers to give away, to spend either at Argos, Homebase or B&Q. If you’ve been inspired by my bargain hunting then pop over and enter now for the chance to give your own house or garden a discounted sprucing.

Check out all the latest offers at hotukdeals and see how much you could save.

*I’m afraid I can’t vouch for any of these particular offers being current by the time you read this as the world of bargain hunting moves quickly. There are always plenty of new discounts though, so just get scrolling.