PRETTY YOUNG THING

We are hoping that in the next 5 years we will own our own house. Right now we rent and we plan on renting for a few more years. We have discussed mortgages but as i'm only working part-time we are better off waiting until I go back to work full time when Amelia starts School. I don't think it makes much sense for me to work full time as we would have to pay for childcare for Amelia and i'd rather spend this time with her. I thought i'd share a few ways in which we intend on saving money. We need to save money to pay for deposits and renting fee's and we currently live in a part furnished apartment so we will need to pay for furniture and other appliances.

First up is making cut backs.  Do I really need to buy that pair of boots? Going out for extravagant
meals. It's good to look at your statement and see how much you really spend on unnecessary purchases for example those £4 coffees twice a week add up, you can buy a whole jar of coffee and put it in your own to-go cup. I was spending £17 a month of a cinema car that I don't use and wasting £30 a month on my gym membership.  I know it's not the same but if you want to save money you have to make these simple changes. By making these little changes like parking a little further away from town or why not walk to the shops instead of driving?

Meal Planning - We waste so much food and it's because we never plan our meals. Plan your meals for the week and write a shopping list. Then go to the supermarket and just buy whats on your list, I find online shopping is a good way to save money too because you don't get tricked into buying those £1 offers at the end of the aisle. Also by doing a weekly shop you use less fuel going back and forth to the shops and you tend to eat what you have in rather than going to get something else for dinner.

Shopping around  - why pay more for something?  You can browse different websites online and find out what stores have the best prices and offers on those products that you need. Going to shops like Home Bargains or Savers for your household goods can save you loads compared to the supermarkets. As I mentioned above we rent a part-furnished apartment so when we move we are going to need to buy everything from a sofa, fridge-freezer, washing machine and tumble dryer. It's good to shop around online and there's websites like latestdeals.co.uk who have loads of really good deals on appliances. Another way to save money is to look for vouchers when shopping as you can save lots of money by looking to see if there is a voucher before you buy, even if it's just a free delivery code.

Buy secondhand - There are so many products that you can buy secondhand, one of my friends bought a secondhand sofa and its lovely. It's a huge grey corner sofa and I would never of guessed it was pre-owned. You can find some really good deals on furniture, I bought our Ikea dressing table second hand and it looked brand new and it cost me about £20 instead of the retail price of £120.

Even after following my money-saving tips we will still need to look at a service like Zippa Loans to buy some of the furniture and to put towards a deposit. This way we can manage the monthly repayments. I think we will buy a new fridge/freezer and then look into getting a second hand sofa and some wardrobes. I think we could bring our washing to our parents for a couple of months and then save up to buy a washing machine instead of paying out loads at the same time.














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With a baby on the way we have had to pull back on our spending and start planning for the future so this means saving! We have a lot of stuff to buy for this baby so will need to save up over the next few months. I thought i'd share a few of my top saving money tips!

1. Budget! By writing lists and sticking to a budget you can save a lot of money! I find planning our meals and writing a shopping list a really effective way to stick to budget! If you go shopping without a list you can end up spending a lot more money than you intended to! I know it's only £1 here and there but they add up! We have now started to use the self scanner at Tesco as you scan as you shop, you can see your total so you know exactly how much you are spending, making it easier to stick to your budget.

2. Use your discount cards / loyalty cards! I work in a shopping center so I have a discount card that gets me extra money of my shopping, coffees etc. I always use my loyalty cards, especially in places like Boots and Tesco. They send you vouchers for money off and personalised discounts so you can easily save money this way.

3. If you need money fast and don't have anyone you could borrow from you may need to get a payday loan. Cash Lady provide a payday loan service so you can borrow money fast. No need to worry if you struggle to get Payday Loans Bad Credit.

4. Cancel those direct debits! Do you really need to pay £50 a month for the latest phone, are you spending £40 a month on a gym membership you don't use. Write down your outgoings and decide if thats a wise way to spend your money. When I found out I was pregnant I cancelled my gym membership and went onto a sim only deal and saved £70 a month.

5. Use money saving apps!! Apps like vouchercloud and sites like Quidcooffer discounts and cashback when you make purchases. If we are going out for food we look on vouchercloud to see what places have offers on so we can save money on eating out! If your going bowling or on a day out its worth checking out their offers. I'm also signed up to get emails from The moneysavingexpert, these emails are great. They tell you all the different deals and ways you can save money. If you shop via Quidco when shopping online or link up your debit card you can earn cashback on your everyday purchases.



I hope these tips help and you can save some money! I have always been a savvy shopper and I shop around to get a good deal! We have already signed up to get discounts at all the baby shops like Mothercare and Mamas and Papas.



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Today i'm going to share a few tips on how you can save money and manage your money in the new year! I always say i'm going to cut back and save money and never do so but this year I want to start saving money for a deposit on our own place so we need to cut back somewhere.

The main thing when trying to budget has to be organising! Get yourself a notebook so you can write lists or make a plan of your spending. Just writing things down makes it so much easier for me.

We have a seperate bank account which our rent and bills come out of and we both transfer money into this account on payday. This means when our bills and rent is due that the money is in the account and not in our bank accounts for us to spend, I don't even carry my debit card for the joint account out with me. 

Check your statements, I know this sounds obvious but once I had a payment for a subscription coming out of my paypal account and It wasn't mine and I didn't even know what it was but this was money that was coming out of my account! 

Look at your finances, credit cards and bills and research if you could save money by switching? By Switching bank accounts, sometimes you can save money on fee's by doing a bank transfer and you can save yourself paying crazy fee's or you could get a small loan and pay off your credit card but pay back in easy monthly installments instead. 
You can sometimes save money by switching your energy suppliers or comparing your car insurance online before you just renew for another year! There's so many comparison websites out there now that will compare prices for you which makes it so easy to save money.


Get loyalty cards etc, our Tesco clubcard saves us so much money, we tend to do most of our shopping at tesco and Clint occasionally gets fuel from there so our points add up and we get vouchers in the post, a few weeks ago we got £8 off our shopping and last week they sent out vouchers that give you £3/£4 off for the next 6 weeks if you spend over £30 so we can make great savings on our general food shop.
I also have a boots card which I have over £25 worth of points to spend, I sometimes use this when money is a little tight and I need essentials or need to get my eyebrows done etc.
Also use apps like Vouchercloud and Vouchercodes to find the vouchers, if your shopping or going out for food etc theres tons of vouchers which can save you money! Check out moneysupermarket too for great tips for saving money using vouchers.



We also plan our meals so we know what we are eating that week and stick to a shopping list so your not filling the trolley with stuff you don't need. This way we don't throw away food and it makes it easier because if Clint finishes work he can go home and start dinner because he knows what we are having. We spend less time worrying about what we are having for dinner, we have found we have less take-aways aswell because we know what we are having for dinner so this has saved us money here too!



So whether like us you need to save up for a deposit or to move out or you want to go on that holiday you've been talking about or maybe your just looking at saving for next Christmas then these are a few easy tips that we have found work for us. What are your saving tips and tricks? 










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I'm no expert or lifestyle guru but I thought i'd share a few ways that I budget now that I live in my own place with Clint. Neither of us have lived alone before so it was all very new and we really wasn't sure if we could afford it or not.

The main thing is to be organised when you first move in you have to sort out things like reading meters and phoning the providers, council tv licence people etc so i'd put aside a few hours to sit on the phone or computer to do this. I'd right a list with the telephone numbers and your readings first before you phone up.

Once you've sorted all that out you should have a rough idea of how much your bills are going to cost, if you've been living on your own for a little while you will already know how much your bills are. It's worth writing this figure down and remembering it, so then you know how much you need to have in your bank to cover the bills.

Most of our bills come out on the first of the month which if you get paid at the end of the month like me this makes the most sense. I set up a joint account and used this for all of the bills to come out of. This way we both transfer enough money into this account and have our own bills still in our personal accounts and then any left over money is our own. We tend to take it in turns with food shopping and going out for meals and share the cost of these things.

It's good to plan your month financially so if you know you've got a birthday coming up or your cars due an MOT next month then it's worth putting a little a side for that so I'd recommend saving a month or so in advance that way you've got some money put aside for if you need it and if you don't it's up to you, put it towards your bills and have a little extra money that month or spend it, go on a day out or a nice meal. Any extra money that I put aside i'd save a put towards a holiday.

Saving Money 

There's always ways you can save money, when we moved we both cancelled our gym memberships and Clint got rid of his sky package at his parents house. This saved us about £140 a month! Although I really want to join the gym again I have found ways to work out but without it costing any money, I walk to work now which is a good 20 minutes there then 20 minutes back. I have a few fitness dvds and we got a Kinect for the Xbox which you can work out with. I'm still burning the same amount of calories I did at the gym but it's not costing me £35 a month. I would love to save up and go back but at the moment I can't really afford it.

Get loyalty cards etc, our Tesco clubcard saves us so much money, we tend to do most of our shopping at tesco and Clint occasionally gets fuel from there so our points add up and we get vouchers in the post, a few weeks ago we got £8 off our shopping and last week they sent out vouchers that give you £3/£4 off for the next 6 weeks if you spend over £30 so we can make great savings on our general food shop.
I also have a boots card which I have over £25 worth of points to spend, I sometimes use this when money is a little tight and I need essentials or need to get my eyebrows done etc.
Also use apps like Vouchercloud and Vouchercodes to find the vouchers, if your shopping or going out for food etc theres tons of vouchers which can save you money! Check out moneysupermarket too for great tips for saving money using vouchers.

I want to have a good sort out and ebay some things. Ebay or a carboot is a great way to make a little extra cash. If you know there's a new beauty release coming up and you won't be able to afford it you could sell a few things you don't use. I have a wardrobe full of things I don't wear and you can use that money for things you would use. I'd recommend keeping money in your paypal account aswell. I find I save money better when I keep it in my Paypal and then if I do want to buy something I use the money straight from my Paypal so it doesn't come out of my own money in my bank.

Going out? We didn't really go out much before but we did eat out loads, I love staying in and eating home cooked food. We still go out here and there but it's lovely to get home from work, cook dinner and chill. We easily spent £100+ a week on eating out, that pretty much covers our food shopping for two weeks!

Meal planning is a really good way to save money. If your always throwing food out then your basically throwing money away. Sit down for a few hours and plan your week. Now i'm doing slimming world I find I do this anyway but it's great to get an idea of what you need to buy when your shopping , write a list so you don't pick up things you don't need just because they are on offer for a pound! This way you reduce the amount of food you throw away and have more time to chill because you can prep and already know what your eating so no need to spend ages deciding what to have.

I hope you enjoyed this, as I said i'm no money saving guru but we have managed to live on our own for nearly 5 months now and i'm loving it. I never thought i'd be able to afford to live alone but we are and I still have a little bit of money left over each month to take a trip to Primark or go out for a Pizza Express!

The lovely people at Bonprix have come up with these very clever idea 'MoGuards' they are designed for women throughout Movember so we can still kiss the man in our life without getting an itchy face haha. It's also a great way that we can get involved with Movember :)

You can read more about MoGuards here on the Bonprix website and you can donate on their Just Giving page here https://www.justgiving.com/bonprix

It's another amazing way to raise awareness this month and raise lots of money.

I've been using this Soap and Glory Serum on and off for a few months now. I am a big fan of Soap and Glory. First of all i'm a massive fan of their packaging, its so fun and cute and one of the big reasons why I buy their products. I also think they have some really good quality products that really work.

This product is a youth serum that claims to reduce lines and energise the skin.

I love the feel of this product on my skin, its cool and a light formula that sinks into the skin easily. You instantly feel the product work into the skin making it feel cool and energized!

I like to use this as a primer before I apply my make up as I feel it does fill in the lines and create an even base to work onto.

You only need a little bit of product as a little goes a long way. It's a really light formula and it isn't sticky or oily.

I'm a really bit fan of Make Yourself Youthful, I do think £16 is a fair price compared to other serums that are out there.

Money Supermarket are celebrating the 30th anniversary of the £1 coin by giving bloggers the chance to make £30! All you have to do is put together a post with 30 money saving tips and you get £30 from MoneySupermarket.com for more details click here. 

I've tried to make my tips not just fashion and beauty related and i've included everyday tips as well...

1. Invest in a money jar like mine ! Any loose change from your purse or money thats just lying around pop in a money jar and when it's full take it to the bank or to one of those coin star machines.

2. Download voucher apps to your phone like www.vouchercloud.com and O2 moments for money off shopping, eating out and days out!

3. Use comparative websites like Moneysupermarket.com to make sure your getting the best deals on insurance and your shopping.

4. EBAY! Buying things on ebay like clothes will save you money!

5. Take advantage of student discounts. If your not a student then get a friend who is a student to go shopping with you!

6. Sometimes buying more can save you money so if somethings on a really good offer then stock up.

7.Make a shopping list - Stick to your shopping list and you should only buy what you need.

8. Carboots - With the weather warming up get down to a carboot. They are a great way to make and save money.

9. Walk! Try walking to the train station or to the shop instead of jumping on the bus. Walking is free!

10. You don't need to buy all of your Uni books. Head down to the library and loan them.

11. 2 for 1 Cinema Tickets - don't pay full price. If your not on orange ask a friend if you can borrow their orange wednesday. Text film to 241 to receive your code.

12. Britain has the cleanest tap water in the world so don't bother with bottled water.

13. Charity Shops ! I got a lovely Topshop jumper in my local charity shop for £3 the other day

14. Advantage cards like boots cards and Debenhams beauty card come in handy when your buying your make up and skincare. Make sure you use them and collect points to get free money!

15. Groupon and Wowcher! Are great ways to save money when eating out, getting your hair done and even weekends away!

16. Look for online discounts on Moneysupermarket.com

17. Try samples of a product before you go and buy the full size. You might hate it and won't have forked out trying it first.

18. Trade in your old phone to websites like envirophone.con

19. Buyapowa.com is a great way to save money - They sell products a reduced prices depending on how many people join the co-buy.

20. On Ebay try not to bid until the last hour! This way you won't get into a bidding war meaning the price won't go up.

21. Compare your travel - Returns can work out cheaper than two singles. In birmingham you can get an anytime return which means you can return any time within 30 days.

22. Free delivery - Don't pay £3 or £4 for delivery. Sign up to newsletters to hear about free delivery promotions and websites like asos.com offer free delivery any way.

23. Try cheaper brands when buying food or getting toothpaste and bubble bath! The store brands can be just as good.

24. Check out deals on coaches before you go buying train tickets you could save yourself alot of money. My Boyfriend went to edinburgh on a coach and saved over £100 going on the coach instead of the train.

25. Put your summer or winter clothes away when the weather changes and then when you get them back out again its like having a new wardrobe.

26. Read reviews before spending money on products you could find cheaper alternatives or even find out that its not very good.

27. sign up to newsletters for restaurants to get their latest deals and offers.

28. Bring a flask to work or university. Don't spend money in Starbucks or Costa. You could buy a box of 80 teabags for the price of one tea at costa or a whole jar of nescafe for the price of a coffee.

29. DIY - DO your own hair. You can dye it at home yourself. Home colour kits are so simple and you will save £100's

30! Enter competitions- Online competitions and twitter giveaways are a great way to get free stuff !

I hope you liked my tips ! Go and pop up a post of your tips to get your hands on £30 !

i will most likely be away from the computer over the weekend therefore a quick post tonight for you to read. today's been really nice - If im honest it hasnt been a bad week. at uni i've come up with a good idea for my work - it seems to be going well and my tutors LOVE it (which anyone that does art/graphics/illustration ect) will know it a HUGE task!! spent loads of time with my boyfriend but spent NO MONEY ;D which is something we really need to do more since we've been looking at holidays and flats. we have suddenly realised that we spend SO MUCH MONEY on food! so today we sat in put Xmen 3 on and i made pancakes(FAILED) if you follow me on twitter or are a regular of my blog you will know i recently put a few items on ebay (ive raved on about it for the past 3 days) well it ended today and ive made about £45 :D which is great ^^^ Been looking at bags on ebay tho ¬_¬ i will never learn. hope everyone has a great weekend.

dress: ebay £12.99 shoes: topshop £18 nail polish: £5 each models own

i havent posted for a while just due to not being on my computer alot and im not comfortable blogging on my phone. heres a few items that ive had my eye on. i love velvet dresses. i like this one which at £12.99 is a bargain, i might just buy it later. theres also a red sleeveless one on topshop that i like too... its £30.

Im going to thee clothes show in birmingham on saturday so im really excited. i dont actually have any money which is gutting. ive put abit aside incase i see anything tho. ive been the past 3 years and its okay even if you have no money. im really interested in what models own will be doing as they have been posting on facebook about special cosmetic bags with free stuff in so looking forward to that :D i might pick up the beetle juice collection if they have it too.
i would reccomend the clothes show as you can pick up some bargains and you get little free extras aswell, the magazines are my favourites they give you goodie bags if you buy a magazinee :D

should hopefully be blogging more, just trying to concentrate on university atm,