A savvy woman who saves £500 a year buying her Christmas presents second hand has urged shoppers to skip the festive sales. Iso Neville, a 27-year-old social media manager, committed to second-hand shopping in 2019, saving over £25,000 on designer finds like a £1,500 Burberry trench coat for £100 and a £445 Loeffler Randall bag for £30. She has even furnished her entire apartment second-hand, saving an estimated £10,000, and since 2019, has bought her Christmas presents pre-loved spending around £200 on 15 people this year.
Over the years, she has found gifts such as a £250 DKNY handbag for £20, and this journey has inspired her to launch a preloved clothing business in 2025, aiming to make sustainable fashion more accessible and “mitigate eco-anxiety” for shoppers. Over the festive season, Iso urges others to skip Black Friday and Boxing Day sales, believing these events often fuel unnecessary shopping. Iso told PA Real Life: “I’m seeing a lot more second-hand companies and brands offering an alternative to those sales though.
.. there’s a big movement against those sales because it encourages people to just shop, regardless of whether they need something new or not, it’s just cheaper.
” Iso, who has always loved finding bargains in charity shops, vowed in 2019 to buy all her clothes second-hand in a bid to save money and help the environment. At first, she found it challenging as she was used to envisioning an outfit and easily sourcing the items from .
