3 Easy, Lazy Money Making Tips!

Hey everyone!

I can never manage to keep track of my money, it always seems to disappear so quickly. Now I've been keeping a spreadsheet to monitor where it all goes, it's been stunning to me just how much goes towards the everyday - tissues and snacks and those kinds of things. So, with university life drawing nearer for me, I've managed to find 3 ways to make money without having to put in almost any effort.

Money Maker #1 - Swagbucks

I feel like everyone's heard of Swagbucks now, but it's probably the easiest site to use to make money online. Essentially, you complete tasks to earn 'SB', which can be converted into gift cards for sites such as Amazon, New Look and PayPal. You can also use your 'SB' to donate to charities!
While there are surveys to complete and games to play, I have two favourite ways to use Swagbucks without having to try: the Search area and the Watch area. With Search, you basically use Swagbucks as your search engine, and it'll earn you SB. And with Watch, you can set a video playlist running in a muted tab while you work on something else, and that'll earn you SB too! It's so easy to passively get the credits you need to get vouchers, so I really recommend you check it out. (Plus if you use this link I'll get a cheeky bonus and you'll get 150 SB to start with!)

Money Maker #2 - Survey Sites

These I use less, as they're a bit more time consuming. But they're great if you've got nothing to do for half an hour. You tend to get emails when new surveys are available, which is really convenient, and the rewards tend to be in money rather than points so you know exactly what you'll be getting when you click something. I can recommend SurveyBods, PopulusLive and OpinionPanel.

Money Maker #3 - Shopmium

This one isn't a money maker as such, more of a money saver. Basically, it has a variety of offers for 'free' food and beverages. You go to the shops (sometimes it specifies a particular supermarket, sometimes not) and purchase the item, scan the product's barcode and take a photo of the receipt. The Shopmium app gives you cashback into either your PayPal or bank account. It encourages you to go out and try products you wouldn't otherwise, and it's great for a treat. It even has offers on alcohol! I think it's a really cool idea. If you want to try it out, you can browse the free Shopmium app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, and if you like the look of the offers then you have the option to make an account. If you do, make sure to use the code 'AMCYAYYV' to get a free box of Cornetto ice cream cones, since summer's finally upon us now.

All of these sites and apps are ones I myself use, and none are paid promotions (I wish they were!); I just think these easy money makers are too good not to share. Do you have any tips or tricks on how to make or save money?

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New Series Idea!

Hi!

The university application process has begun for me, and after tomorrow my transition to adulthood will have properly begun. I had already decided a while ago that after the exams all my 'grown-up learning' would kick off - figuring out stuff like budgeting, driving, getting a job and even just how to work a washing machine! It sounds really simple, but I can be surprisingly clueless about these kinds of things.

So I was thinking I might start a series about this learning curve. Would that be interesting? A sort of 'How To Adult' guide, where I write about what I learn as I go. It'd certainly act as a good source of information for me when I get stuck with things.

Let me know if this seems like something worth doing, I figure since I need teaching this stuff then others will too, but I don't know if it'd seem too obvious. Also, if you have any name ideas for the series if it does go ahead, drop me a comment!

See you! x

(P.S. I'm also on Bloglovin' now! Follow my blog with Bloglovin)

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University Road Trip Playlist

In just over a fortnight, I'll be off on my 'university road trip'.

Since I'm considering six universities to apply to later this year, I'm doing five open days in a row - and they're all over the country. My dad and I are making a road trip out of it and I've been put in charge of the music; since there will be drives lasting around five hours at a time (!) I need to find quite a lot! I've been putting my playlist together on Spotify so that I can use its 'Recommended Songs' feature to find some new music, so I thought I might as well share it in case anyone else is doing something similar (or just fancies listening to a new playlist).

If you have a favourite upbeat, feel-good song, comment it below, I'd love new music recommendations!

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IKEA Mini-Haul

I've now done 6 of my 7 AS exams, and although I'm not completely free yet, study leave has ended and I'm back to school on Monday. My mum suggested a day out to celebrate, but I'm not a lover of big fusses or events so I wasn't sure where to suggest. But then I had a ponder while sat at my cluttered, messy desk in my cluttered, messy room - I decided to go to IKEA.

I love IKEA. I know some people hate how never-ending and stressful a trip there can be, scribbling down codes that correspond to endless big boxes in a warehouse of unimaginable size. I get that some people don't enjoy wandering through five hundred mock ups of living rooms only to end up in a maze of beds and office chairs. But I love that feeling of inspiration you get after a visit, where all you want to do is be productive and tidy and decorate. The showroom itself (is it even a room? Is it a show-building? What do you call it?) always has such weird and interesting stuff, and it's great when you find some strange product you just have to take home. We must have been in there for at least 3 hours - although we did stop for meatballs in the restaurant halfway through - and I bought some pretty useful and surprising stuff.

(All products are linked, click their names)

The first thing I picked up was a KUGGIS box with a lid, for £4.50. I got it to replace my cardboard box as a desk bin, and it's the perfect size and shape for that. It's plain white plastic, which matches my room and would probably match the 'office room' in our house too, and the lid works brilliantly as a little tray to hold revision guides or things like my MacBook case, as it's sunken in a little. It'll also be much easier to clean than cardboard!

I also got a couple more DOKUMENT magazine files (2 for £5.00). They aren't particularly decorative or pretty, but they're sturdy and match the other ones I bought last year. I needed some more for next year's revision guides, but since I now have four I've actually reorganised my (KALLAX) bookcase to have a section for each subject, each with it's own magazine file. The leftover one is currently storing my university prospectuses! I'm considering threading some wool through the mesh to make them a little nicer looking, so I'll update you if it works.

Since I got a new mattress recently, I really wanted to get a new duvet cover for when my favourite one is in the wash. I got stuck in a little corner showing the STUNSIG range (which I assume is new) and after much contemplation got the duvet cover with the monkeys. I can't find it on their website, but I really like the art style, and the monkeys with the cameras remind me of trips to safari parks we used to do when we went on holiday. It was a little steep compared to other designs, at £25, but the colours are soft and the pattern is busy, but not too much so. I actually really liked a different design on a cushion cover they were selling, but the corresponding duvet cover seemed too empty since the pattern was only in the middle.

My final purchase was just brilliant, and something I never expected to find. IKEA sell t-shirts now. I know. It was in that same STUNSIG section, and there were maybe ten or so designs hung on the wall. I liked a few of them, but settled on the Sea Foam and GLÖDANDE ones (although the branch one really tempted me). The GLÖDANDE ones aren't on the website but there were 4 different designs; I went for the tiger one because it really reminded me of the Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland. The Sea Foam one should look nice under one of my many flannel shirts, but at the moment the print's a bit stiff and smells quite strong so it's going in the wash. Still, they're only £7, they're 100% cotton, and they're from IKEA - I'm pretty chuffed with them.

What do you think of IKEA? Is it heaven or hell? Either way, I had a great time and got some fun new stuff - and none of it was even furniture.

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Messing Around With GarageBand

Last night I was in a funny mood, a bit down after an exam where I messed up badly on one question, so I was just listening to relaxing music to boost me a bit. I've recently discovered those simpsonwave livestreams on YouTube which run for days at a time, and they can be surprisingly good at chilling you out. So since I needed to engage my brain a bit to pull me out of my bad mood, I tried to make my own track with GarageBand loops.

I'm quite impressed with it to be honest. It's the speaking track that makes it, a free-to-use clip I found online called 'Do All Good People Go To Heaven?'. It gave it the feel I was looking for and kept it from being too monotonous, despite it being comprised almost entirely of 8-beat loops. I've posted it on YouTube here, and just thought I'd share it.

It's a strange genre, but I like it somehow. Maybe I'll make another one.

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Bullet Journalling

I use my bullet journal pretty much every day to help me stay on task and not get distracted or forget things. I started it in February of this year, inspired by the wonderful Megan Rhiannon, and since then I feel so much more productive and in control of my own life. I've always been a list person but I used to do them on whiteboards, and having a tiny book in my pocket wherever I go works much better for me since I can refer to any of my lists at any time. It's convenient, merges together school and home planning, and acts as a log I can store the thoughts that distract me in. It's great.

I've taken a few pictures of the types of pages I do in my journal, and since it's pretty personal I've tried to cover up any information that could identify me or people I know - so sorry for the ugly black lines! I'm also sorry for the state of my nail varnish, oops.

My notebook is a pocket Moleskine, with squared paper. It's not the greatest quality and the supposedly brilliant customer complaints service refused to accept responsibility for the imperfections, but it does the job and I like how tiny it is. The sticker in the top right is a little shiny bee from Paperchase, they're no longer sold but they have this design and I think they're adorable! I put them on loads of my belongings, including the arms of my lab goggles.

On the inside cover I've stuck some interesting images I've found on Pinterest and places like that. Megan has halloween as a special interest so I used that as a starting point, but I just ended up loving these pictures I've found. I also found a ton of weird, creepy Victorian photos that I need to find a place for, which I'm collating on a Pinterest board for now. The skeleton picture is honestly so cute, my sister thinks it's from an anti-discrimination advert and so that makes it even better!

My first page has the all-important key. I colour code the corners of my pages dependent on their content, and the colours on my calendar pages show whether an event is a holiday, school thing or birthday. I also have a key for my 'day by day' pages, which can seem a little cluttered and confusing otherwise. The calendar works in that I circle a date where something is happening (in the appropriate colour), then write about it below. If I want to know what's happening I just have to glance down the page for the date in that specific colour. I do three months at a time, since I never plan much further ahead than that. The crosses and scribbles at the bottom are a monthly habit tracker for whether or not I've done summary notes on that day's schoolwork - I usually do them at the weekends and then cross out the week. I've tried using a habit tracker for things like sleep too, but that never really worked. For me it's more of a tool to see what tasks (or days) I've got left to do.

My next page shows my school timetable and revision schedule. I like to alternate the subjects I do in my free periods, which is what the 'Bio, Ma, Bio, Chem, Chem, Ma' means. I then have a lot of pages of general lists, such as 'Books to Read', which I add to and cross out whenever a new item comes into my head. Any books with an 'R' marks something I want to re-read.

Here's another running list I've been keeping, of things to buy. I also do my school's involvement record in my planner, so that I have an accurate log of the extra-curricular stuff I've done.

The right hand side is the most frequent sort of page in my bullet journal. Every day I'll write the date, and underneath I'll put in tasks, notes or general thoughts. For example, 'SDD' is a note, as is 'PRD 8:10', signifying events or appointments. The arrow next to 'bio holiday packs' shows I've assigned that task to a later date. Tasks with numbers next to them have deadlines, and if I had a random thought I wanted to look up when I had time, I'd put a question mark next to it. Tasks can be added throughout the day or in advance, and they can be as simple as 'shower' or 'text ___' (because I do forget to do those kinds of things sometimes). The page on the left is what I'll do if I feel particularly swamped, a big review of what needs to be done in a couple of days so all information is in one place. I clearly never finished the mindmap - oops!

Some pages are a little more random, documenting useful information I might refer to at a later date. I've got opening times, exam timetables and even a business chart helping me to remember how to tackle large task lists when I'm stressed. I know my bullet journal can get pretty messy and ugly, so I do try and make it seem prettier with little souvenirs from things I do at school or home, but I often forget to stick nice photos in. After all, for me it's more of a functional thing than an aesthetic one.

The final page is a little pocket in which I'll store any letters or things I need to give to people. The photo is one Megan had in her journal, and ever since I saw it in one of her videos I really love it for some reason.

This is just how I organise my life with a bullet journal, it really helps me to not forget important tasks and get thoughts out of my head when they're distracting me from working. If any of this was interesting to you make sure to check out Megan Rhiannon on YouTube, because she's way better at this than me, her journals are beautiful and functional and a brilliant place to start if you want bujo inspiration.

I hope this wasn't too boring! I've got a few post ideas at the moment, so I'd love it if you could vote in the poll on this page to let me know which sounds most interesting to read. Thanks!

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