How to save money on...cupcakes and cake pops

A lot of women in the world like to bake cakes, cook and make a nice meal. The latest trend is to make cute, lovely cupcakes. In this post we will give you some tips to save money when you are making cupcakes and talk about the latest trend in this area: Cake Pops!












Making cupcakes isn't an cheap hobby, so we have some tips for you how you can make cupcakes with not much money.

Tip #1  Make cupcakes with friends
You can save a lot of money when you make cupcakes together with a good friend. Make appointments who buys what so that you don't have things double. If you are planning to make cupcakes for more than one time, you can buy the equipment together.

Tip #2 Don't buy everything, find equipment at home
There is a lot of equipment for making cupcakes available on the internet. Don't buy everything but first take a look in your kitchen drawer. You can use for example a potato peeler instead of an expensive modelling tool.

Tip #3 Save your fondant carefully
A good tip is to save your fondant carefully in a hermetic box, because when you don't do this your fondant becomes hard and is not usable anymore.

The latest trend: Cake Pops
Making Cake Pops is the newest trend from America which is slightly moving to Europe at the moment. It is very easy and fun to do! 

Shopping list

Cakemix
Candy melts
Lollipop sticks
Glaze




How to make the Cake Pops?
1. Make a cake, you can choose a taste whichever you like.
2. Crumble the cake and mix the crumbles with some glaze. Make little balls out of this mixture.
3. Place the balls on a baking plate and put them for a couple of hours in the fridge. TIP: if you haven't enough time, put the balls for a quarter in the freezer.
4. Melt the candy melts in the microwave. Take the lollipop sticks, stick them first in the coating (the melted candy melts) and then in the little balls.
5. Dip the balls in the coating and put them in the styrofoam to dry.

And now the fun part: decorating!
You can put everything you like on the Cake Pops. Think of jellybeans, nuts, fondant, coconut grater and m&m's. If you fill in 'Cake Pops' on Google you can find a lot of lovely examples.

Thank you for reading this blog, we hope that you like it.
Have fun and share the trend!

AND THE WINNER IS...

Last week we organized a contest to win a H&M gift card. To win this card we asked you to fill in the following question:

I should win the H&M gift card because..

We had quite good submissions!! In the meantime we have chosen a winner and we will announce you the winner of this contest now!

The winner of the H&M gift card contest is.....

RALSTON FELICIA

Congratulations!!

How to save money with...free stuff

A lot of people share nice tips for free stuff, giveaways and good money saving tips on the internet. In this post we will give you a few examples of a couple of websites which give you several tips.

The Mombot | The money-saving, dinner-cooking, fashion-loving mom machine.

This website gives several money-saving tips and has also a special part about freebies. The woman behind this website is a busy mom who works as a freelance graphic designer & blogger. A lovely website!

Money Saving Mom | Helping you be a better home economist

This website contains a lot of links to coupons, freebies and giveaways. Furthermore, a nice thing to mention is the 'earning & managing money' part, where they give for example useful tips how to save money in the supermarket.

Groupon | Collective Buying Power

Every day a new deal in your own city! No need to say more.

Freebies | Online magazine to get something for nothing!
This online magazine gives people information/tips how and where to get free stuff, samples and coupons. 

Free Stuff | Find everything you can get for free.
This website provides you with an overview of available free stuff, free samples, coupons and free gift cards. The website listed all the free stuff by subject, which makes it easy.

Thanks for reading our blog!
Do you know other helpful websites? Feel free to leave a comment and share it with us.

PS: Did you see our H&M Gift Card contest? No? click here and maybe you will win the €10 H&M Gift Card!

How to save money on...your wedding

It will be the most perfect day of your life, but probably also your most expensive day.. Marriage is beautiful but it has to be affordable for the most of the people. So we did some research and found out how you can save money easily on your wedding. Check out the following tips & tricks!

Friends

The first tip we want to give you is to organize the wedding by yourself and not make use of a wedding planner. A wedding planner is useful but very expensive. Most of the time lot of friends are willing to help you organize!

Wedding dress

Second, you do not have to buy an expensive designer wedding dress to look beautiful. It is possible to borrow a dress or search on websites like Marktplaats for second hand dresses. A lot of women offer their dresses for sale, because you will only wear it once. You can also ask your mother for her wedding dress and modify this dress to your own desire. If you are really creative you can make your own wedding dress. At last, you can search for evening dresses or cocktail dresses, which can be used as a wedding dress.

Wedding day and time

Consider what day and when you want to marry. Most of the time the Fridays and Saturdays are the most expensive days to marry. Also, it is less expensive to marry off-season. Moreover, it is cheaper to marry in the morning because you do not have to take care of an expensive dinner and the guests are less likely to drink during the day.

Invitations

Another budget tip is to send the invitations by e-mail, which is for free. You can also make an invitation by yourself, which is very easy and cheap. Take a look at the following clips and find out how you can make a wedding card by yourself.

Cake

Do not order an expensive wedding cake but respond to the current trend and make cupcakes! Cupcakes are easily to make and less expensive to buy. You can make a cake stand which look like a real wedding cake.

Tips & Tricks

Last but not least some other tips and tricks to keep in mind when you are organizing a wedding on a budget.

• Be careful with the amount of people that you invite, if you keep it small you do not have to spend too much money on food, drinks and the wedding location.
• Make use of a buffet. A buffet is much more cheaper than a three-course menu and you offer the people much choice.
• Do you hair and make-up by yourself or ask a friend or family member and you do not need to hire an expensive hairstylist or make-up stylist.
• Make use of seasonal flowers, which are less expensive.
• Make use of balloons as decorations instead of flowers. Balloons are less expensive and just as celebratory.
• Buy a disposable camera for guests and let them make pictures of the wedding. You do not have to hire an expensive photographer and you will get the funniest pictures.

Thank you for reading our blog and we hope to see you next week! 

How to save money…at home

Home is where the heart is. A lot of people spend to much money on energy, furniture and small jobs in and around their house. In this blog post we give you several tips and tricks about moneysaving in your own home.

Save energy

You probably have heard this tip before but we mention it because it can save you really a lot of money. Pay attention to your use of water, lights and warmth at home. Do not shower longer than 5 minutes, don’t turn on the lights or heater if it is not necessary. Your bills will be a much lower than before.

Need a make over? do it yourself!

Are you or have you a handy man at home? Make your own furniture! If you make for example your own table it will be much cheaper than you will buy a new one. But what if there is no handy man in your house? Look out for sales and do not buy totally new furniture. Useful websites can be Marktplaats, Ebay and Adtrader.

You and you!

Oh no, the washing machine is broken! Don’t call immediately a mechanic but try to fix it by yourself. Do you know nothing about eletricity or machines? Ask friends and family if they know someone who wants to take a look at your broken washing machine. Most of the time those people only ask a friendly price.

Weather strips

Draught is a danger for your energy bills. Make your home draught-free by using weather strips. They are cheap and save a lot of energy at home. Make sure that you check all the rooms where draught can occur. One tip: check the mail box, most of the time this is a lovely place for draught!

ET phone home

Nowadays, almost everyone calls by the mobile phone but they still have a fixed telephone line at home. Stop paying for this fixed line and start using only your mobile phone. Furthermore, it may be also cheaper to call over the internet. Skype is a service to call with another person for free!

Bill

Check your bills every week and try to discover where you can save money on. Do you need to make less use of your telephone or do you need to save money on using the lights in your house?

Tips & Tricks

• Install a water meter
• Install a programmable thermostat
• Shop around for the cheapest insurances
• Claim your tax credits
• Install energy efficiet windows

Do you have more tips to save money at home? Leave a comment on this blog or share them on our Facebook page!

See you next week!

How to save money with...beauty products

Every day you want to look at your best but you don’t want to spend to much money on beauty products. In this blog we give some tips to make you look beautiful with a small budget.

Glitter glamour!

Do you need glitters but you don’t want to buy a special glitter product? We have the solution: buy an orange. When you sweep the orange over your arm you will see that it gives your skin beautiful glitters! An advantage of this method is that you also have a tasty orange to eat. Try this at home!

Cut cut

Need a haircut and are you a bit of a daredevil? Walk into the nearest stylist school, they need often people as a model for their exams. Sometimes they have a special assignment, like cut the hair in a nice bob, so if you do this, try to take risks! In a stylist school they might also have an education for beautician, which can be an opportunity to get for example a nice massage.

It is all about the brand

When you are at the chemist’s shop they offer you a lot of beautiful and expensive products. A tip is to look at the same products of the cheaper brands or house brand of the store. Most of the time, the products are made in the same factory and that’s why the house brand is also from a good quality. Don’t led commercials of expensive mislead you that only their product is the best.

Manlicious

Nowadays, there are also a lot of beauty products available for men. For example, Kruidvat has a beauty line for men. This beauty line is not expensive at all!

DIY

Last but not least, make your own beauty products! This video shows you how you can make your own chocolate beauty mask.

YouTube shows you a lot of more video’s about making your own beauty products.

Tips and Tricks

•  Read the leaflets of the chemist’s shops, they often have very good deals for the best beauty products.
•  If you have found a good cheap beauty product, stick to it. Why changing something that is good? (and cheap?)
• Ask friends, family etc. for tips and tricks, maybe they have discovered a very nice product!

Share your own beauty tips on our Facebook page, you might get more tips back from other persons.

Thanks for reading and go treat yourself on the delicious chocolate beauty mask!

How to save money with...a city trip

What is more fun than go to another city and take a break? Only, what to do when you are dealing with a budget? Read it here! Find out how you can manage a cheap city trip.

First of all, when you have decided which city you want to visit you have to arrange the transport. For cities like London, Madrid or Stockholm it is often cheaper to go by plane. There are several low cost airlines that offer cheap flights. You can think about airlines like EasyJet and RyanAir or take a look at the following websites for an overview of the companies with the cheapest flights. These airlines offer cheaper flights when you book your flight early. 

www.lowcostairlines.nl

www.flylowcostairlines.org

www.cheapair.com

www.cheapairlines.com

www.skyscanner.net

www.budgetair.com                                      

                                                                           

Let's take a break for a funny movie with more tips for searching for cheap tickets: 

After flying you obviously need to have a place to stay. Most of the hotels are very expensive, but there are good alternatives! There are a lot of hostels or apartments where you can stay for less money than in a hotel. In addition, there is a special website www.couchsurfing.org where people offer their ‘’couch’’ to other people to spend the night. Also, www.homeforexchange.com is a good manner to stay cheap in different cities. On this website people offer their house for exchange for free to other people. When you still prefer a hotel there are great websites who offer last minute discount or daily offers. Think about websites like www.booking.com who do not calculate reservation fee and offer hotels worldwide.

Then you have booked your flight and stay but then what? How could you discover the city cheap? See the below tips and tricks! 

Tips and tricks

• Avoid the public transport and do as much as possible by foot. Most of the public transport in big cities is very expensive. When it is not possible to do everything by foot then look for tickets that are suitable for more days, like the Oyster card in London. These tickets are often cheaper and useful for different types of public transport in the cities.
• Avoid the expensive city tour buses, which bring you to all the tourist spots, and discover it by your own. In most of the cities you can take every metro, bus or train by one ticket and you can go on and off when you want. You just have to buy a day travel card and a cheap city map!
• When you are a student don’t forget your student card. In many cities you can get a lot of discounts on shopping, museums or other cultural and tourist activities.
• Search for free activities like city walks with a guide or museums.
• Search for public transport tickets before leaving and buy them online. In some countries it is cheaper to buy your ticket in advance and much more expensive if you buy them that day.
• Buy food at the side streets of the tourist attractions and you will probably get your food much cheaper than at the main streets. Also, when you are in a restaurant ask for the dish of the day. These dishes are most of the time very cheap but very nice!

Have a nice city trip!

Don’t miss a thing about how you can save money by subscribing by email and follow us on Twitter and Facebook! 

PS. We have added a new page on our blog: Do It Yourself go and find it out :)