Thrifty woman shipped month’s worth of clothing via locker for £2 to avoid Ryanair’s £30 charge

A clever woman saved money on luggage fees while travelling on Ryanair for a business trip in a unique way that was ‘inspired’ by Vinted, a hack which split the internet

A woman swerved the additional charge and squeezed her outfits into a gym bag, wrapped it in a Lidl carrier bag and dropped it off at her local Tesco Express locker.

Laura Poole, 33, shipped her clothes before catching a flight from Bristol to Glasgow on February 22, paying just £57.48 for her return flights. She sent ‘at least’ five outfits for the business trip, all for just £2.59 which saved her £27.41 on the trip.

She dropped off her parcel on the Thursday evening before her Sunday morning flight and it arrived safely in Glasgow just after she arrived. Laura was inspired by Vinted, and while some trolls online have called her ‘stupid’, others have hailed her as a ‘genius.’

Laura, a public speaker and trainer, from Cardiff, Wales, said: “I have better things to spend her money on. I actually did it before, this is the second time I’ve done it. So I knew it worked.

“I got the idea from Vinted because they’re using InPost lockers for that. I was curious and thought ‘I wonder how much it is? If it’s only that much for postage on Vinted it can’t be as much as Royal Mail.

” ‘ve always been really frugal and am part of the FIRE community – financial independence and retire early. Lots of people are super frugal and I have better things to spend my money on than really expensive baggage fees.

“I’m here for a month this time as well and I thought I’m going to need more than a backpack, so I got my gym bag, stuffed it with clothes and wrapped it in a Lidl bag and taped it up. People on Vinted send stuff in anything – I thought ‘that’ll do’.”

Laura also packed enough clothes to last her two to three days in her cabin backpack. She added: “I would not post anything that I loved. For example I’ve got a scarf I’ve had for 10 years and my grandad’s t-shirts – who is not around anymore. That stuff goes in my backpack.

“Obviously I don’t want to lose my clothes and there are lots of clothes in there. It’s insured for up to £50. My thought process is if anything goes wrong, or it doesn’t arrive in time, I’ve got time to buy news clothes.

“I do public speaking so I need to look good. Suit jackets, trousers, all sorts I threw it all in, dresses as well. I must have at least five different outfits and then loungewear and stuff as well”.

Sharing her plans on Facebook, her post went viral. Laura said: “There are always trolls whenever anything goes that big and people are always negative, but overall I’ve never been called a genius so much in my life.”

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