What I Wish I'd Known Before Renting My First Flat

Hey Owlets,

In case you missed the news, I recently moved in with my boyfriend. It's actually the first time I've lived anywhere other than my family home so even though I was excited it was incredibly daunting. I am one of those people that will plan myself into oblivion. When we were moving in to our flat I had already calculated my share of the rent each month, allowed way over the top of what I estimated our bills to actually be, researched how much council tax was going to cost, budget for our furniture, busses to different areas of Bristol.... you name it, I'd probably already thought of it and put it in the spread sheet, yet somehow I still felt unprepared. As much as planning ahead can help, you'll never be prepared for absolutely everything and there will always be something that catches you off guard. I thought this could be a good opportunity for my younger readers to learn from some of the mistakes I've made, and if you're a more mature reader I'm hoping you might also be able to set me straight on some things that I've probably still forgotten!!

What Being an Influencer is REALLY Like

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Hey Owlets,

There’s no doubting that starting a blog has changed my life. I’ve written a different post for every anniversary of starting my blog - they normally look back at some of the amazing things I’ve done that year or what I’ve learnt as a blogger, but this year I decided to take a step back and talk about some of the articles that changed my life from my first post to the dream cruise ship press trip. I talked about how I got there, what happened and some of the amazing experiences I’ve had along the way, but what I didn’t mention is what it’s like behind the scenes of being a blogger.

How to Motivate Yourself to Save Money

Hey Owlets,

Since stepping into the world of being a real adult with bills to pay I like to think that I’ve gotten very good at saving money. There’s nothing quite like the sense of impending doom lurking at the end of each month to motivate you into putting every penny you possibly can to one side. However, if you’re not like me and the thought of another month of bills doesn’t fill you with dread, there are some less scarring ways to motivate yourself into saving money!! If you find that your money just isn’t going as far as you’d like, here’s a few ways to help you stay on track.

Working from Home: A Freelancer's Guide

Hey Owlets,

For the last two years I've been lucky to call The Owlet my job - as long as I have a camera, internet connection and laptop I can work anywhere in the world. At times it has it's drawbacks, but as the rest of the world has suddenly been thrown a taste of freelance life (all be-it without the sending shouty emails about not being paid & wondering how you'll pay for the weekly shopping!), we suddenly have the upper hand because we're so used to having to work from home. I know there are a lot of people struggling and I'm getting daily messages from you asking for advice, so whether you're starting a business from home or getting used to remote working, make sure you read to the end to have the most productive day possible.

My Work from Home Morning Routine

Hey Owlets,

Working from home is like Marmite - you either love it or you hate it. I've been self-employed for most of my working life, and while I have days where I'm sick of the same four walls, I love working from home and honestly wouldn't want to do anything else! It's true that there are lots of opportunities to get distracted (especially if you're self-employed as you're not necessarily accountable to anyone else).  Working from home does require a fair amount of self discipline, but through having a routine and building simple daily habits, you'll find staying on track a lot easier. I wanted to share my morning routine with you in the hopes that it'll give you some tips and tricks to make working from home easier and more productive. 

Easy Ways to Save Money for Travelling

Hey Owlets,

One of the first questions I'm always asked when I mention I'm a travel blogger is how I manage to afford to travel so much. Obviously part of my job is visiting different destinations and being paid to share them with you, but I also like to take holidays with my family which requires a lot of willpower and a few sacrifices in order to save as much money as possible.

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Managing Money while Travelling

*This post is in collaboration with CashLady*

Hey Owlets,

One of the biggest struggles with travelling is managing your money - personally I hate talking about money because it’s a huge source of stress for me, but it’s one of those things that needs to be done. 

Whenever I’m not travelling I’m really careful with money because I know it’s going towards something I really want to do, but as soon as you arrive on holiday it’s easy to say “sod it” because this is everything you’ve saved for, and a lot of the times it’s really easy to spend more than you thought. If you’re looking to go away without breaking the bank, here’s a few tips on how to keep your money in check.

How To Travel With (Almost) No Money

Hey Owlets,

I confess, I hate winter, but particularly the first few months in a year - there's nothing to do, no one wants to go out and I'm bored and want to travel yet no one has any money. Considering I've already spent a good hour looking at trips that I can't afford today, I thought it would be a great time to talk about how to make the most out of your hard earned cash!

The Best Apps for Bloggers

Hey Owlets,

These days you seem to be 50/50 bloggers and “normal people”, so apologies to the people who live their lives offline, as this is going to be another blogging related post. However, if you love social media (which I’m assuming you do, as you’re here), have a read and you might find something you love! When you decide to start a blog, no one seems to mention how much hard work it is and you can’t always afford to invest in smaller things like apps right away - but fear not, as there are a huge variety of apps to help you along the way, and today we’re running through my top 10.

Follow Me To: Graduation!

Hey Owlets,

Today I have a particularly special "Follow Me To" post. In case you've not been on any social media in the last two weeks... I'M A GRADUATE!! I am going to be filming a Q&A and I've already had a few questions about applying so I intend to do a completely separate post about that, but for now I just wanted to be able to share my day with you. 

My graduation trip actually started the day before the ceremony. Our ceremony was at 10am and there was absolutely no chance that I was going to get ready and do my makeup ready to leave home at 7am so we stayed in a hotel. We decided to celebrate the night before so went to Cafe Rouge for dinner. We decided to use Tesco Clubcard points to pay for it. In case you didn't know, you can transfer points into vouchers and they're worth 4 times more, so £2.50 in points is £10 in vouchers (not sponsored - I just don't think anyone knows about it!). Anyway, to the point of the story. Dad called because the vouchers hadn't come through, and as per usual he got chatting to the man on the phone, saying that we were in Cardiff for graduation, so he gave us an extra £10 voucher to say congratulations. Not particularly relevant but I thought that was so lovely! The food was great as ever, and they're really good for gluten free food too. We then went back to the hotel, I opened the presents my parents kindly gave me then we all had an early night.

New Bloggers: Now What?

Hey Owlets.

I don't know why this week in particular, but I've been snowed under with DMs asking me questions about starting a blog or being a blogger in general. Don't get me wrong, I'm always happy to answer but a lot of them have been the same questions so I thought I'd write a post with my top tips for you to refer to.  I won't cover how to actually set up your blog here - it's pretty much a case of go to whatever site you want to use and click new blog. But I will answer the questions I've had.

What platform should I use?

I'll be honest (and probably unpopular), I think Wordpress is the most overrated platform out there. I actually tried it for a little while by making a new site, and basically if you want to do anything you have to pay - you also have to pay to host which is like paying twice to have your own domain. It's all down to personal preference - I love blogger because it's so easy to use as well as being free but if you read the terms and conditions,  Google effectively owns your site, meaning they could shut it down any time and you would have no say. I actually download a copy of my blog every month so I always have a backup.

How Do i Build a Website?

There's a whole rabbit hole that I can fall down here, but the honest answer is that it depends what you want your blog to do. If you just want to have a space to document your adventures then you're probably not looking to spend money on your site. If that's the case then there are hundreds of free templates for Blogger and Wordpress on the internet - the platforms actually both offer some free templates in house, but they're not great.

If you're looking to turn your blog into a business, run an online shop or just get your website looking really professional then you might like to consider hiring a professional web design company to create your website for you. I started off using a free Blogger template, but now I'm rebranding and creating new sites I've been considering working with a web design company myself. A few of my blogger friends have actually worked with a web designer to create their sites, and not only do they look stunning but they're ranking much better for it. What I mean by this is that their website is appearing higher in Google. If you're just starting out search engine optimisation can sound really daunting, and as well as giving you a professional looking website, you'll also get a professionally functioning website.

Web designers have always sounded scarily expensive, but thankfully things are starting to get a little more affordable now. The Website Group offer pay monthly websites from as little as £19 per month, which includes hosting, your domain name and a dedicated designer. The higher package includes SEO too so you can be sure that everything is taken care of and your website is going to function exactly as it should. Paying monthly is definitely the way forward for web design and is how I'll be doing things when I redesign my website.

Staying Safe at a Blog Event

Hello!

It's been so long since I last wrote a blog post that I feel out of practice! So forgive me if I ramble and make lots of typos - I'm still on the come down from my uni hand in. If you remember a few weeks ago, I posted about the weirdest event I've ever been to where I got trapped at a conference. After posting that, I had loads of people ask me what they could do to keep safe when going to an event, so I thought I'd make it into a post.

Obviously it's lovely to be invited to a blog event but I think sometimes it can be all to easy to get caught up in the excitement and assume it's fine without doing any research. I'm not saying that I'm an expert but these are a few things that I noticed were odd that should've been red flags.

One Year of Blogging: What I've Learnt

Hey Owlets,

I can’t believe I’m saying this but a year ago today I published my first post entitled “Welcome To The Owlet”. If you’d have told me what the next year was going to bring, where my blog would take me, and some of the incredible people and opportunities I would get to be involved with I would’ve probably laughed in your face. That being said, blogging does have its ups and downs so I thought it would be a good time to share a few with you as The Owlet turns one.

Photography is Everything

Okay, so throwback to when The Owlet had just hatched - think iPhone photos, grainy Instagram pics and not even a hint of a theme. Over the past year I was envious of these bloggers who had perfect images every time, and started to use a camera more than my phone and think about the images like I do with work or uni projects, and since then my blog has grown massively and I now get excited to share my photos with you.

Christmas Decorations on a Budget

 Hey Owlets,

I can't explain to you how excited I am for Christmas this year. I'm not sure why this year is different to many others, but for some reason I've been ready for the festive season since September. But do you know what wasn't ready? My bank balance. 

So, with that in mind I'm going to show you some ways to get your house super festive when you don't have much money. Just a tip, it involved the pound shop and A LOT of fairy lights.

For this year's decorations the pound shops have been AMAZING. They've really stepped up their game so are a great option when you're short on cash, and if you think about it creatively you can come up with something really unique.

I bought these icicle shapes made out of foam, a pack of warm white fairy lights and the "Santa's Washing Line" bunting from Poundland. I put the icicle foam on first, with the idea of putting the washing line on top, but then decided that it would feel more cosy with the lights underneath instead of on top; I just used sticky tape to attach everything to fireplace. In hindsight, it actually worked better putting the icicles on first as you could see where the fairy lights needed to sit so they stayed invisible.

Total Cost: £3

This year I've really turned my hand to DIY decorations, as it makes it so much cheaper. I saw Merry Christmas bunting at Bath Christmas Market but it was about £8, and although I loved it I couldn't justify spending that much. I bought a pack of felt letters from Poundworld and some ribbon, and then proceeded to stab holes in the felt using Adam's house key (we were in Costa, if you're wondering why I took the barbaric approach), then threaded this onto the ribbon to create my own garland.

Total Cost: £2

In case  you hadn't noticed, I'm absolutely obsessed with owls. Weirdly, despite being such a popular home decor choice, I couldn't find a single owl tree decoration apart from one in John Lewis for £8 that I didn't like the look of, or a simple felt one on Etsy for £4.50. My first thought when I saw it was "I could make that!" so I challenged myself to do just that.

I bought foam from Poundworld as I thought this would be more sturdy. I decided to buy glitter and normal to make it more interesting but if you wanted to keep it super cheap then just buy the normal pack. I didn't have to buy any ribbon as the red ribbon came with gold too. 

I freehanded half the shape of an owl onto a piece of paper, then folded this in half to cut it out, I then completely free handed the wing shape and eyes, but you can just draw a leaf shape and find something small and circular to draw around. For the beak I just cut the corners off of the yellow felt. Once you've got your template you can draw round it onto felt and cut it out. For a more professional look, cut out two lots of the body shape and glue these together leaving an opening at the top. I then slotted a ribbon loop into the gap, and glued the hole to seal it. Glue everything together then you can draw the eyes on with a biro.

Total Cost: £1

General Tips:

1. Think creatively about what you can find - one of my friends buys all her decorations in charity shops, meaning she gets more expensive decorations for very little money. If you go down the route of the pound shops, think about what you could combine to make something prettier.

2. Be prepared to DIY. If there's something you like but it's out of your price range then look at what it's made of. Is it something you could attempt yourself like the owls? Often you're paying for the seller's time, their rent, their household bills etc which is why simple things seem really expensive. While I like to support small businesses, when you're on a tight budget then just do it yourself.

3. Fairy Lights. Fairy Lights Everywhere. If you're useless at DIY and not at all creative then just go to the poundshop, buy as many fairy lights as you can afford (especially this year, as Poundland have a lot of different shapes on sale) and string them up wherever you have a space. Something about fairy lights screams Christmas and is probably the most simple way to make your home festive.

I hope this post has given you some inspiration to make your own homes festive but budget friendly. If you try anything out, I'd love to see photos so tweet me @theowletblog and if you have any ideas of how else I could make the house Christmas ready with no cash, please let me know in the comments below.

Love and (Festive!) Feathers, 

 The Owlet 💜 

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