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!

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..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!