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 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!

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

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.