You may have found yourself a bargain of a holiday, but the money saving doesn’t need to end there.   Some savvy preparation before your trip abroad and clever advice when you’re there, can prevent you from over-spending unnecessarily.  Read on to discover how to save money while on holiday.

Would you walk the Camino de Santiago? The Camino is a pilgrimage to Santiago, Spain. Read about what it's like and how you can prepare for your journey.

Autumn seems to be settling in quicker than ever this year.  We had a beautifully hot summer which started early in the spring and now autumn seems to be coming quicker than ever.

My mum is certain the seasons are changing and everything is shifting a little earlier through the year!

Though the middle of the days are still warm, the mornings are really quite nippy.  I’ve already got layers on each morning with a hoody or knit to fend off the chill.

As I look out into my garden it’s still very much alive with green, but on the school run this morning we crunched through fallen leaves of a tree that is almost bare and Bella collected conkers from the ground! 

You can’t get more autumn than that!

I feel like autumn is fast settling in and the cold weather will be here before we know it. 

Because of this, here are five ways to get your home autumn ready:

When we purchased our family home and moved in just over four years ago, the bathroom was the first room we focused on.  Within 1-2 weeks of moving in we had a bathroom tiler come and replace the bathroom tiles and fit a new bath.

Whenever it looks like the sun's going to be sticking around for a bit, we all start to wonder how we can make the most of the lovely weather before September rolls around again to ruin it.

Well – what if we were to tell you that you could have the perfect summer celebration without having to leave the comfort of your own home? It just happens that that's exactly what I am telling you – follow these simple party planning tips to fill your garden with friends, food and live music, and you'll have forged yourselves some gloriously summery memories to keep the cold out, come the winter.

I’m back today with my second review of an AuCuTee sound machine product.  Not long ago I was sent a sleep therapy white noise machine which seemed predominantly aimed at adults, but today I have their soothing sounds machine which is aimed at babies and small children. 

Whilst I no longer have a baby, I do have a three year old and six year old.  My six year old daughter, Bella, still soothes herself to sleep with music.  Quite often she is able to fall asleep without aid, but she usually wakes at least once per night and I hear her turn her comforting music on to drift back off again. 

I thought this product could be perfect for her, or even my younger son, so was happy to review.  

AuCuTee Baby Soothing Sounds Machine Review

I’ve been using the soothing sound machine yesterday and today since it arrived to test it out and gather my thoughts and first impressions.  As I sit here typing this, I have it sat on my desk playing lullabies so I can test out the voice activation feature.

It has many great functions that I’ll share with you here:

I was excited today to receive a monthly statement email from Top Cashback which showed I have made over £500 on my personal account in cashback – woohoo!  That’s over £500 back in my wallet instead of in the tills of retailers.  That’s not all we’ve made either.  Oh no...

Giveaway Ended!

The winner has been notified.

When it comes to money, you always want to know that you’re doing well with it and learn methods to make your money work harder.

Although it is common for you to find that you go through tough times with your money, you don’t have to live that way forever.

Maybe right now you’re not doing so well financially and you’re desperate to find a way to turn that around?

Or maybe you’re doing okay, but you still want to make sure that you really change your financial situation for the better?

Well, then it’s time to make the money you do have, work a little bit harder.

Giveaway Ended!

The winner has been notified.

Today (07.07.2018) we were lucky to have a complimentary visit to Diggerland in Devon.  It’s a place I’d somehow never heard of before until I saw a tweet about it just a few weeks ago.  Most people I have told about our visit haven’t heard of it either.  I find that surprising as they have four locations throughout the UK.  As we’re in the south west of England the closest location to us was just over a one and a half hour drive from Gloucestershire to Devon.  To be fair we haven’t yet holidayed in Devon as a family so that could be why we were none the wiser about its existence.  In this blog post I will share my honest review of Diggerland in Devon. 

If you’re organising a hen do but don’t want to go overboard with the spending then I have some budget friendly hen party ideas in this blog post for you.  Whilst the dream may be for everyone to fly to Ibiza and stay in a luxury hotel for a week, the bank balance may simply say no.  Plus it’s a lot of money to expect your friends to pay, especially if you want to invite a large group who will no doubt have wildly different salaries and financial situations.  You can still have tons of fun even on a budget and in your home country. 

Here are some budget friendly hen party ideas to make your cash stretch a little further:

Travel is one of my regrets of my twenties.  Not the fact I did travel, but the fact I didn't travel!  Pre-kids and responsibilities I definitely should have explored the world.  I stupidly got into a lot of debt and spent the first half of my twenties paying it back.  If I could go back in time I’d not be a shopaholic and instead would live more frugally and save as much as possible to travel.  I also never had the travel bug, but now I’m in my thirties it’s definitely appeared.  It’s an itch that I really want to scratch!  I always tell my husband Ben that once the kids have moved out we will then begin to travel the world.

Even though funds are limited right now and we are restricted with extortionate school holiday only prices and two young children, we do plan on exploring the world and the UK as much as possible.  We’ve even recently purchased a Mazda Bongo camper van so we can explore more of the UK in a much more affordable and hopefully fun way. 

But once more funds are saved (or when we’re loaded retirees) we definitely plan on visiting some  more exotic and exquisite far flung destinations.

Just for fun, let’s imagine for a moment that money were no object and we can hire a private jet to escape to any part of the world we want.  Where would we go?  What would be on my bucket list?

What better way to feel more beautiful than to follow a care routine that supports you, as much as it does the environment?

The following tips form part of a careful selection of sustainable products in which you can use to integrate the principles of conscious consumption (like reducing and reusing) to help you attain natural beauty.