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Five Ways to Save Money When Planning a Wedding
We all know that weddings don’t come cheap – experts estimate that the average wedding in the UK now costs between £18,000 and £32,000. Shocking, right? The great news is that there are so many ways to slash that cost, here are my top five tips: Buy as much as possible second hand I have always been a huge advocate of second hand shopping, and when it comes to weddings, I make exception. Rings are a great thing to buy second hand as new rings lose so much value immediately after purchase. In fact they probably depreciate even quicker than new cars, so you can get so much more for…
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Christmas Gift Ideas for 4 Year Olds with Etsy
All links in this post are affiliate links which mean I earn a small percentage of any sales made at no extra cost to you, the reader I have written lots of times in the past about my love for Etsy – in fact, I even have my own shop there. More and more I am making a real effort to shop small. I know myself the thrill whenever someone places an order with me, and I love the idea of giving someone else that thrill too. My daughter is now 4 and I am am trying to move away from buying everything from Amazon. So here are a few…
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10 Ways to Have a Frugal Christmas
The last few months have been very expensive (a new boiler being only one of many huge unexpected expenses) and we have found ourselves in the position where our savings have been depleted and our credit card debt has risen. As such, we are looking to be even more thrifty this year and have a frugal Christmas. Here are some things we will be doing to cut our spending this year compared to previous years: Secret Santa We have agreed with some of our family that we will do Secret Santa gifts for the grown ups, that means that each adult is responsible for buying only one gift, with a…
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Celebrate Baby’s First Christmas… on a Budget
Christmas is such an exciting time, especially when it’s your first one as a parent. When you are looking at how to celebrate baby’s first Christmas, it’s easy to get carried away by the pressure to spend spend spend, especially in this era of social media where sometimes it can feel like everyone apart from you has taken their child to an expensive Breakfast with Santa, put together pricey personalised Christmas Eve boxes or even jetted off to Lapland! If you are as lucky as we are, relatives will love to spoil your child with gifts so I always try as a parent to focus more on making things special,…
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Birthday Pizza Party: Celebrating Lauren’s 4th Birthday
I’m not really sure how Lauren came up with the idea for having a birthday pizza party when her 4th birthday rolled around, but if I had to guess, Peppa Pig, Blaze & The Monster Machines or Paw Patrol must have had something to do with it. We knew it was going to be hard to top Lauren’s 3rd birthday party so we decided to do something totally different this year. We were keen to host it again at home (as we have worked very hard to create a lovely garden to entertain in) but instead of inviting her whole nursery class we asked Lauren to select a few close…
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Gift Ideas for a Four Year Old
My daughter is turning four in a couple of weeks – I can’t believe how quickly time has flown. How has it been a year since her last birthday? I am beginning to get organised when it comes to buying her a few bits and pieces and I thought I would share with you some gift ideas for a four year old just in case they help you out too. I have kept everything well under £25 as I don’t believe that spending big bucks is guaranteed to get a gift they will enjoy and actually play with (quite the opposite as I have found to my dismay!). 24 Piece…
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Saving Money On Your Wedding Day – Why Is It Considered Taboo?
Weddings are beautiful. They are often a spectacle. They are an event, a community happening, a bonding experience for your family. They are also indulgent, and sometimes, quite expensive. Discussing and dividing the responsibility for such expenses can be a worrying and sometimes quite difficult task, as many of us know. In fact, achieving this can often take much debate, especially when it comes to two different families with different financial means and philosophies of how a wedding should be run. But one thing is often pressing under the surface of all this – why should you feel opposed to saving money on your wedding day? Is this such a…
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Mother’s Day Gifts on a Budget
Mother’s Day is coming up soon (the date this year is 31st March 2019 if you are in the UK) so it’s time to start thinking about what to buy for your mum. Here are some ideas if you are looking for Mother’s Day gifts on a budget – all of the below come in at under £15. These Tisserand roller ball essential oils are lovely – just roll them onto your pulse points to give a boost whenever needed. Perfect for mums to carry in their handbag for whenever they need a pick-me-up. Let’s face it, what mum doesn’t need help with stress, sleeping and energy at times? These were…
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If I Was Getting Married Again, Here’s What I’d Do Differently
I am so fortunate to have been happily married to my lovely husband for almost 9 years. We had a lovely church wedding in my home county of Northumberland, followed by a reception in a beautiful venue in Newcastle city centre. I have great memories of the day, but even so, there a few things I might have done differently with the benefit of hindsight. Get the venue sorted first My experience was that almost every thing was reasonably easy to source – a lovely dress, flowers, a band…. but one thing that is in short supply during peak wedding season is wedding venues. I wouldn’t even begin to think…
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Christmas Tag Post
Many thanks to Jo at A Rose Tinted World for tagging me in this (created by Nicole) – finally getting round to filling in my answers! 1. Do you prefer giving or receiving gifts? It’s got to be giving. I love choosing gifts for people (see my gift guides, which I loved compiling: for grandparents, for new parents and eco-friendly gifts) and each year it comes as a surprise to me that I might actually get something myself. Now that I have kids, nothing beats watching them unwrap their presents. 2. Do you make and stick to New Year’s resolutions? No and no. I love setting goals for myself but in…
