THE Prime Minister’s new wife showed how to keep the costs down for their wedding by hiring a dress.
But there are plenty of other everyday items you can rent if you want to avoid forking out full price. Among them are baby clothes, furniture, handbags, electricals and DIY power tools.
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Carrie, 33, wore a lace, hippy-style Christos Costarellos wedding dress worth £2,870 when she married Boris Johnson last month.
But she leased the frock for just £45 from My Wardrobe HQ. Data analytics company GlobalData predicts the growing UK clothing rental market will be worth £2.3BILLION by 2029.
Natasha Harding looks at some other cost-saving leases.
WOMEN’S CLOTHING
SAVE: £1,179
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YOU can rent dresses, skirts, jumpsuits and blouses from sites including Girl Meets Dress, By Rotation and My Wardrobe HQ, where Carrie Johnson hires many of her clothes.
From Girl Meets Dress, you can lease an Amanda Wakeley Niara Scuba gown in black, retailing at £995, for £89 a day.
Or if you fancy Victoria Beckham’s designs, you can get the Stretch-Cady Zip dress, worth £1,200, for just £21 a day.
Membership starts at £99 a month, which entitles you to unlimited hire of dresses. See girlmeetsdress.com.
FURNITURE
SAVE: £625
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SEARCHES for furniture rentals are at an all-time high. Companies include Yes Appliance Rentals, Instant Homes and Room Service By Cort.
You can hire all household items including furniture and appliances and even tech such as PlayStations.
At Room Service By Cort, you can search by the room or item. There is a Samsung 49in Smart TV, RRP £799, for £174 a month or a king-size divan bed for £25.40 a month.
To buy the bed outright would set you back £223.
BABY CLOTHES
SAVE: £192
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THE average new parent spends £40 a month on baby clothes, says NatWest.
Eve Kekeh founded subscription service Bundlee in 2018, and its membership has increased by 350 per cent since.
Prices range from £24 a month for 15 items including babygros, tops, trousers and dungarees. The clothes are insured for accidents and are washed and disinfected before being sent out to renters.
Eve said: “I wanted to create a more sustainable and convenient fashion- forward option. We are proud to provide stylish clothes delivered to the doorstep.”
ENTERTAINMENT
SAVE: £1,177
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SCOOTERS, cameras, drones and DJ equipment can be hired nationwide via Fat Llama.
Highlights include a Xiaomi M365 scooter worth £449 for £28 a day or a Sony a7Rii camera for £22 a day – normally £1,199 to buy.
John Lewis announced a partnership with Fat Llama in 2020, making it possible to rent furniture with the option to buy the item at any time.
Johnathan Marsh, of Home at John Lewis, said: “Renting furniture gives customers access to high-quality furniture, and the flexibility to change it.”
HANDBAGS
SAVE: £3,035
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IT is possible to hire the latest designer handbags from Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton and Jimmy Choo.
BagButler launched in 2019 and says rentals are up 600 per cent in the past year.
You can opt for a one-off rental or a monthly subscription at £99, which includes one handbag and two pieces of jewellery (or other accessories) a month.
My favourite is the hugely popular Chanel Mini Flap bag, which sells for £3,210, but you can lease it for seven days for £175.
TOOLS
SAVE: £263
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RATHER than forking out for tools you rarely use, it could be more cost effective to hire them.
Cordless drills, hedge trimmers, carpet cleaners and even air conditioning units are available from hire shops including HSS, Jewson and B&Q.
From Jewson, it is possible to get a £280 Bosche hammer drill from £17 a day.
For your cleaning needs, a Nilfisk pressure washer costing £254.99 to buy can be rented from £15.50 a day.
TOYS
SAVE: £62.62
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PARENTS spend more than £365 on toys in a baby’s first two years.
At Whirli, you can subscribe to a plan from £9.99 a month that gives you tokens. These are used to manage your personal toy box and each token equals £1 in retail price.
More than 5,000 families use Whirli and the firm has tripled in size since the start of the pandemic.
The toys, which are listed by age and type, can be kept for without time limits or penalties, and there is also an option to buy.
‘Better to rent pricey items you’ll rarely use’
MONEY-SAVING expert Jasmine Birtles, from MoneyMagpie.com, says: “I’m a big fan of renting.
“For too long we’ve believed that we all need to have our own version of everything, our own car, our own power tools, our own posh clothes.
“But for expensive items that we only occasionally use it’s much cheaper just to rent when we need them.
“It’s also better for the planet, as it means fewer things need to be produced and stored while we’re not using them.”
‘HAVING DELIVERIES OF FRESH, CLEAN BABY CLOTHES WAS ONE LESS THING TO THINK ABOUT’
OFFICE worker Marlies Woods, 30, lives in North London with husband Connor, 33, who works in finance.
The couple rent many of one-year-old daughter Isola’s clothing from bundlee.co.uk, which offers a basic and premium subscription service.
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Marlisle said: “Before my daughter was born I was really excited about buying lots of clothes for her.
“However, then the pandemic hit, which meant going to the shops wasn’t so easy.
“I’ve used clothes rental companies for myself and checked out Bundlee for my daughter’s first wardrobe.
“Having bundles of fresh, clean clothes dropped off that all fitted my baby like a dream meant it was one less thing for me to think about.
“I also love knowing that I’m saving space, money and time.”
