Well deserved rest

Good Afternoon Beans,

Well my little Beans, i hope you are well rested after the weekend! I was working! God a 6 day week can be a killer, but at least mums home-cooked meal to come home to cheers me up no end!! My friends forced me to watch Mexican/Spanish horror film KM-13 (which was really just a ghost story that was topped up with Japanese horror staples that fail to scare the shit out of you i.e half dead pale children who laugh like their being tickled by a rapey teddy bear). I did blankly refuse to watch Silent Hill, this is the only version I'd like...

Sorry Jonah

Apart from being bored to sleep by KM-13 I spent the rest of the weekend hanging with the boyfriend, we played Rayman, went on a walk and we were going to go into a lovely town near us called Farnham but we got rained off so ended up making cupcakes instead. I borrowed my mum piping nozzles from when i was a kid and made chrysanthemum flowers. I'll upload the picture later, I do warn they are practise cakes so they wont be perfect, but for my first attempt they were lush! I'm guna get a petal tip next week so then i can make a bouquet of flowers for a friends birthday!

Magic Bean of the day!!

We all know it makes sense to wait to buy those new DVDs until they come down in price. But why don't you make money out of the ones your just plain bored with! Stores like CEX will buy them off you! Check out their website get yourself a quote, if you sell enough you may even have enough store credit to buy that brand new game or box-set you had your eye on!

http://uk.webuy.com/

Happy Bargaining Beans

Don't forget to follow me!

Hannah xxx

Payday Budgets!!!

Well hello Beans,

I trust you are enjoying your day I am! I'VE BEEN PAID! Finally got all the money for my deposit and rent for the house massive weight has jsut lifted off my shoulders! Even better i have a little left over for me too.
Out of my gang of friends back home I'm the only one at university. So with them all in full-time jobs and me with my meesly 8hr part-time work its sometimes difficult to keep up. But my word is it do-able! Difficult but do-able. All you need to do is make sure you've got a really good budget in place

Here are my 5 top ten tips for Payday Budgeting

1. Tommorow, tommorow, i'll do it, tommorow!
No you won't. You know how i know that. Cause i wouldn't. You waon't do it the next day or the one after that and then eventually you'll say 'oh, next month'. Despite my continuing attempts to have procrastination named an olympic sport, budgeting is not the appropriate time to divulge in such an activity.
So get to it. Now!!

2. Honesty is always the best policy
Theres no point lying to yourself about your financees (you'll know). Trying to kidd yourself that you don't have an over draf, or that at the end of the month you'll pay this that and the other off isn't going to help. Be realistic with yourself. Work out your figures and write it down in big letters and put them up. Wheather its your phone bill, your water bill or perhaps how much you spent on booze last month. Be realistic.

3. Get Calculating.
Write down every incoming bit of money you have for month on one side of a coloumn and on the other your outgoings you have to buy. Food, rent, bills, phone bill are just a few examples. Be honest with yourself to, if your a smoker budget your smokling but dont be unrealistic and make sweeping statements like im not guina smoke (cause it probably won't happen). Then you can see what your left with. I like to divide that figures into weeks and then i can see how much i have for the whole week.

3. Every penny counts!
This is something i got my friend whos about to be a fresher to do. once you've work out what you've got coming in every month and out every month get yourself some pennies. 1 p for every pound and fill up a jar. Every time you spend a pound you put a penny into the out goings jar. This emans you have a visual representation of your finances. If your not mathmatically minded it really helps to see your earnings too and see when your budgeting how your money divides up. Sometimes you dont realise how much you've spent on absoulte shit!

5. Work hard. Play Harder
What really makes budgeting worth it to me is not have that paniccy feeling at the end of the month thinking where the hell am i guna find money for food or rent. If you can plan your spending, you'll find the more you budget the niftier ways you'll make your money last longer. This means when you do want a little splurdge your able to do it without that guilt hanging over you

Happy Budgeting Beans

Keep your cool

Dear Boiling Beans,

We've been moaning for weeks that there has been no sunshine for weeks and now we've been overloaded. I've practical turned to God since they've fixed my offices air-con system! If you've not got air-con, don't panic, no need jumping into your neighbours paddling pool just yet. 
Here are my 5 top tips for keeping your cool without baking all your dough (wow, my jokes are worst than my fathers)

1. Pistols at the ready
This is probably my favourite way to keep cool with my mates. Water fight. No planning necessary, not even water guns, regularly i begin mine with a bucket of water to my boyfriends face! You can get 100 water bombs from the pound shop - you'd never guess there a pound - and they sell loads of cheap toys as well. Just remember to be safe, even have some spare old goggles lying around, this will make it easier for you to see and to win as well!! If you have any reluctant members of your group make it a bit of a competition, whether its a water fight for the last cider. Or winner gets to pick their favourite Ice lolly

2. I'll take you to the candy shop...
Yes 50 Cent, lick it like a lollipop. But please i beg of you, don't be buying from the ice-cream vans or stalls! Whatever Ice-lolly you like from calypsosos to crunchie blasts, always buy the the multi-pack. Its simple math! your saving at least 50p an ice ceream, which over a long summer adds up. That goes for ice-cream too; for a scoop of Kelly's Cornish Ice-cream your looking at £1.50, a litre tub at tesco costs £2!! Save your sprinkles and wait till you get home! You'll save a lot of wonga.

3. Its going to be Intents
Tempted to get away for a weekend, maybe book a B&B for the night. Stop right there. A travel lodge will cost you £40-60 for a night, why waste all your pounds on a roof over your head when you can make a whole weekend from £50. I don't mean Girl guide camping or Scouting and i certainly don't mean when your Dad drags you to a nearby forest for a family holiday. I mean BBQ, booze and ghost stories! Me and my friends love road-tripping, bundling into one car with the music really loud to some random destination - just remember to split the petrol cost!!!

4. Cool as a cucumber
This is an absolutely crazy trick that i actually got from a pet book. Cucumber ice-lollies. I used to freeze half sticks of cucumber for my rabbits and my old school friend was dumb enough to try and eat some. After a long time of convincing me i tried it to and was very pleasantly surprised. Its really healthy for you and helps keep you hydrated. This frozen cucumber also makes a great addition into a jug of Pimms.

5. Always use protection
Shes about to nag, run away.... Thought i would offer the obvious tip, use sun cream!!! I burn so easily so I've always got a little travel sized bottle with me. It doesn't need to be anything fancy. Super markets own are normally great, just perhaps have some baby wipes to hand to get any grease off. Don't spend silly money on an after sun either, just as you leave the house in the morning, for the beach or wherever, pop your favourite moisturiser in the fridge. Feels great when it goes on and you've saved a little bit cash for a souvenir post card and keyring.

Happy Baking Beans
Hannah
xxx