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 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 :)

How to save money with..budget shopping

You want to wear the latest fashion but everything is too expensive to buy? Do you recognize this? Then you are at the right place! This week we will give you tips to look fabulous without spending too much money.

Sale

The first tip we want you to give is to go shopping when it is sale. Most of the time the sale starts in July and January. Shopping in time of sale could save you a lot of money. The sale starts most of the time with a discount of 30%, but if you wait a week or two than the sale is mostly increased to 70%, which could save you even more money.

                                                                                                    

Basic items

Create a fashionable outfit each day with just a couple of basic items. For example, ensure a good pair of jeans and basic shirts and combine them with a new piece of clothing and/or a lot of accessories. You only bought a new item and do not have to buy a whole new outfit, but it will look like new every time if you combine them with different things.

          

Online shopping

Tip three is to shop online and find the right shopping sites. A lot of websites like Ebay offer clothing with a lot of discount or from other people who want to sale their clothing. Besides, there are also different websites who collect and share special offers from stores, so if you follow these websites you can’t miss any deals!

Search for the right shops

To save money for clothing you could buy a lot of trendy clothes in vintage stores. Most of the people don’t know there are a lot of these shops, which offer clothes and accessories for a very low cost. Besides, most of the clothes are unique, which could be an advantage because you know for sure no one will wear the same as you. In addition, buy your clothes in less expensive stores like H&M, Primark, New Look, Dorothy Perkins or find the closest outlet store for cheaper branded clothing.

  

Clothing exchange/ Swap party

Finally, what is more fun than meet your friends and get some nice new pieces of clothing? Organize a meeting with friends and ask them to bring some clothes with them they don’t want to wear anymore. While enjoying a drink you can look at each other clothes and swap them around. After a evening with your friends you could come home with a whole new wardrobe!

We hope you liked our tips about budget shopping and we are looking forward to see you next week!

PS. Let us know if you know more tips to save money!

How to save money with...Apps

Last week, we were sitting in a train and heard a baby laugh and it sounded really like a ringtone. Our first reaction was: “is this an App?” In this modern world has practically everyone a smart phone and is for almost everything an App available. Today, we will show you a few Apps which can help you to save money in different ways.

Money Lover – Expense Manager
Free App – available for Android and IOS
Do you have problems to keep track of your incomes and expenses and spent always too much money in a month? The Money Lover App helps you to keep an eye on your financial status. You can add your incomes and expenses in it and it automatically calculates your monthly finances. Moreover, you can add an financial calendar which tells you when you need to make transactions and in this way you will never forget financial appointments. The App contains 12 languages and a lot more currencies.

Home remedies
Free App – available for Android
Why go to a doctor and spent too much money if you also can treat pains at home? This App is a guideline with a lot of solutions for common ailments. If you have for example acne, this App gives you several opportunities to solve the problem. We say try this first at home and if it still doesn’t work then go to a doctor!

DIY reader
Free App – available for Android
Nowadays a lot of things in the stores are very expensive. This App contains 13 blogs which all write about things you can “do-it-yourself”. Become creative and make use of this App and you will be stunned how much money you can save by doing some things by yourself at home instead of go out and shopping!

Everyday energy tips
Paid app, € 0.79 – available for Android and IOS

Who has not to do with it? Each year the energy bill returns and turns out to be higher than last year. This app can help you to save money on your utility bills through simple tips for your household.

Last but not least some tips to find the right App: search for free Apps with a good review. Furthermore, if you are not sure if it is a good App for you, just try it, you can always delete it quickly from your smart phone!

We hope you have enjoyed our tips for Apps to save money in an easy way. Thank you for reading our blog, next week we will tell you everything about budget shopping.

See you next week and remember…saving money is fun!

How to save money on...Valentine's Day

It is almost the loveliest day of the year: Valentine's Day! This week's blog will focus on this special day, which will take place next Tuesday. What are fun ideas and gifts for your Valentine, and especially, what is possible with a small budget?

At first, let us give you some ideas for original and cheap gifts for your loved one.


Handmade Valentines card
This video shows you how you can make your own valentines card in a couple of minutes. A handmade Valentines card is always more personal than a card that you can buy in a store and most of all, it isn’t expensive at all!

100 Lovely Little Notes
Surprise your loved one with a bottle of glass with little lovely notes about why and how much you love him/her. Each day it is possible for your lover to take out one note. In addition, fill the bottle with any matching sweets for this Valentine’s Day, for example, sweets in the shape of a heart and it will look great!


Valentines Vouchers

Do you have not much money to spend but you would like to do a lot of different things with your partner? Give him or her a small booklet with 20 vouchers. Your partner only can use the voucher once. Examples of vouchers are: a one 5-minute massage, 100 kisses wherever you like or a breakfast in bed. Believe me; your partner will absolutely love this gift!


Treasure hunt

In addition, it will be more fun if your partner first has to do some things before he or she will get his/her Valentines gift. Your partner will get a text message of you that he/she must take a look at the mailbox, because there will be the first envelope with the first clue. One clue leads to another, it may for example say: go to the bathroom or go to the room were we sleep. The last clue leads to the room where you are with the real Valentines gift of your own choice.

Tips en tricks

Today in our weekly returning part ‘trips and tricks’ a short movie how to have a happy Valentine’s Day on a budget, enjoy!

Have you ever received a very nice Valentine's gift or do you know fun things to do on this day with your partner? Share it with us! Your nice gifts and experiences will give people more ideas to surprise their Valentine. 


Extra tips and tricks will be posted on Facebook and Twitter, so follow us!

See you next week, and then we will talk about a couple of Apps that could help you to save money in different ways!

How to save money with…budget cooking

Nowadays, the trend is to keep the costs in mind. Especially in the field of cooking you can save a lot of money with right recipes, tips and tricks. Today we are going to give you a delicious budget meal and some tips and tricks.

Spinach Sensation

Shopping list (4 persons)
400g macaroni  €0,99
750g frozen spinach €0,65
500g minced meat €1,75
1 sachet sprinkle cheese €1,15
total: € 4,54

1. Heat the oven on 200˚C
2. Cook the macaroni by following the instructions on the package.
3. Fry the minced meat loose.
4. Cook de spinach al dente.
5. Grease the baking dish and put the minced meat in it, after this lay the spinach on top of it. Then put the macaroni in the baking dish and last but not least sprinkle the cheese over the macaroni.
6. Place the baking dish for 35 minutes in the oven.
7. Ping! Ready to eat. Have a nice meal!

Tips and tricks

• Do not throw the leftovers away but freeze them in and you can use them another time.
• Go shopping after your meal because then you are not hungry anymore and then you will buy less.
• Do you groceries in the evening and you will probably get discount on things like bread.
• Keep an eye on the promotions of the supermarkets every week and you will be suprised how much you can save.

We hope you can use our tips to save money when you are cooking at home.

See you next week and than we are going to talk about how to save money on Valentine’s Day!

PS. Follow us on twitter (@itisaboutsaving) and find out more budget recipes.