save or spend #1

So this week is the first of a new feature on my blog - SAVE OR SPEND - where I see how much I have spent over the week in a bid to save money for the summer. 

Monday: £5.90 on travel and then £6.05 on groceries, necessities after not being in my flat for 3 weeks. We're trying to be healthy and instead of buying fruit and veg from Sainsbury's or Tesco, Amelia and I went a shop next to our flat which has fresh fruit and veg outside for reasonable prices - 2 grapefruits for 99p anyone?
Total - £11.95

Tuesday: NOTHING wooo, managed not to spend anything which when living next to Tesco, Superdrug and an amazing worldwide foodstore is harder than you'd think. Amelia and I even ran to the gym so didn;t have to spend money on a locker!
Total - £0

Wednesday: £1.85 on a green tea in Cafe Nero. I have enough stamps on my Nero card to get a free drink but I didn't want to waste it on a tea! I will wait for a cheat day to get a massive chocolate frappe or something.. mmm. 20p on a locker at the gym, I hate that they make us pay 20p everytime we go. Then an after gym snack, 55p Mango and Passion fruit water and an 85p nakd bar from Sainsburys. £1 spent on sweets for other people  'cor aren't I nice ;)
Total - £4.45

Thursday: £1.20 on a coffee in the cafeteria at uni. 20p on the locker at the gym (the fact we don't get the 20p back really annoys me seeing as we already pay a lot for the membership!). £2.55 on 3 Nakd bars in the union shop - 20p cheaper to buy them there than in Sainsbury's and they have tonnes more flavours!
Total - £3.95

Friday: £2.95 in tesco on salad and then 1.48 on healthy snacks in Worldwide after my run. We also went out which was £13 (£10 on drinks and £3 on grimey chicken when I was drunk... don't take money out when you're drunk).
Total - £17.43

Saturday: £12.41 in Sainsbury's on food for the rest of the week  all my money seems to go on food!
Total - £12.41

Sunday: 20p for a locker at the gym and £1 on reduced mini eggs because I will need treats during revision this week and I'm a sucker for mini eggs! 
Total - £1.20

Weekly Total : £51.39 

As a student I'd idealy want to spend no more than £45 a week so this is a little over budget but I went in to town and didn't spend anything which made me happy. It's Amelia's birthday next week so its going ot be expensive but then I am knuckling down with revision and so won't be able to spend a lot after that, hopefully my total spend for the next few weeks will be less! 

10 things #4

10 things that have made me happy this holiday (EASTER EDITION);

disney films in bed - pink bath bombs - a little bit drunk at Harry's - playing with duplo

running in the snow - running in the sun - baking marble muffins - first time in a&e

1. Being home and being back at work.

2. Seeing Charlie a lot and catching up with tea and bed.
3. My bed.
4. Baths, I didn't use to have them before uni but now when I come home it's the first thing I do.
5. Harry's 21st, house parties and girly dinners.
6. Looking after my favourite 2 year old who I treated to McDonalds (most stressful lunch of my life).
7. Having my brother back from Uni to keep me company.
8. Food shopping, a full fridge is something I have missed. Also baking a lot of cake.
9. Driving my little car around the countryside.
10. Going for a runs in all types of weather; snow last week, 21 degrees today!

Something I've been not so happy about - cutting my finger and being stuck on the M25 for 6 hours. 

It's also been a year since I was travelling which makes me upset, this time last year Charlie and I were celebrating Songkran (Thai New Year) in Hua HIn with the boys. Miss that more than anything.

money woes

image found on pintrest

As a student I, like most students, struggle with money. Luckily my fees are paid by the NHS and I get a £1000 bursary from them a year which I am ever so grateful for, but my maintenance allowance is severely cut down and my parents have to pay for the majority of my accommodation as well as my food and living. I have tried getting a job at Uni but every time I have been unsuccessful which is upsetting seeing as I've worked since I was 15 and having a job and earning money is what I am used to. Over Easter I have been lucky enough to scrape a few shifts at my local pub, where I had my first ever job. I love working there and have earned a substantial amount in the last 2 weeks but as my time at home is drawing to a close and I am soon back off to Manchester, I have decided to leave my hard earned cash here and keep it for the summer. 

Not having this money at Uni means I won't spend it and I can use it at Glastonbury and in Turkey instead. I have also decided that I am not allowed to buy a lot of food when I get back to the flat, only basics such as milk, bread and butter, and first have to use up all the food I have. It is going to be hard walking past Tesco everyday and not being able to browse the clearance section (and by that I mean the deserts) or going to the pub for a few drinks but it needs to be done. I need to be more frugal and look after my money, be more like my parents and less like my brother. 

Every week I'll do a spending post, similar to Tabitha's 'Diary of a Spendaholic' posts which I am an avid reader of. 

Hopefully then I'll realise how much crap I buy and stop spending so much! 

10 things #3

10 things that have made me happy this week:

1. HANDING IN EVERYTHING FOR UNI!
2. Cooking brownies and eating them all.
3. Popping corn - cheap and reasonable healthy snack.
4. Getting a lovely fortune with a shit Chinese.

brownies - fortune cookie - popcorn

5. Interpretive dancing to the radio.
6. Getting drunk with the course mates.
7. Once again, Snap Chat. So much fun.
8. Prison Break! Why have I not watched this before...?
9. Cauliflower cheese on Thursday night after choir (& the new conductor, he's hilarious).
10. Being home. It's snowy and warm, the food is lovely and so are the cats.

packing - on the train - tiger todd

On a sad note, I didn't like leaving Manchester.

skin care routine #2

After buying the No. 7 Hot Cloth Cleanser I decided to buy a new moisturiser too. As a massive advocate of Nivea Skincare I bought one of their latest products; Nivea Daily Essentials, Express Hydration Primer. The word 'hydration' stuck out for me massively as it's something that I look for in a moisturiser, I don't want something that's just going to sit on top of my skin looking oily. I also use it as a primer which at first I thought wouldn't work, but boy was I wrong. My skin feels nice and smoothed out and my foundation stays put all day. 

I decided to go for the normal-combination skin moisturiser as although I do have very dry areas under my eyes and on my chin, my nose and T-Zone is still a little oily. 

The consistency is reasonably water and the application is very easy, a very small amount goes a very long way. The packaging is lovely, a small glass container, and you get 50ml of product which is reasonable amount. The product is currently on sale at Superdrug at the moment for £3.99 so if you're thinking of something new they I'd definitely try this!