MY FREE ADVENT CALENDAR PROJECT FOR MOM 2018

Long time no see guys! But I'm back! 😊 I'm back with a project that will hopefully take all next year. 

There's a little (well, actually quite a big) scandal going on at the moment about an advent calendar with the name of a big Youtube star on it. I bet you know what I'm talking about, but in case you don't, I'll try to explain in one sentence. Basically what happened, is that one celebrity released her lifestyle advent calendar with 12 doors full of cheap, poor quality crap (confetti, 7 stickers, cookie cutters in 2 doors, pom pom, the tiniest notepad, etc., and ok, there were 2 tiny candles and room spray that half of people did not like the scents of), and charged £50 for it. Now, it made me think about the money we pay for things in the UK and wonder if I could nail and make a good value advent calendar for my Mom for 2018 for £0. Yes, you heard me right, for NOTHING! So that's my project for the next year and please don't tell my Mom 😉.

How I'm going to achieve it? Let me share few ways of doing it. Probably the most common way of getting stuff for free is shopping 3for2 deals. There are always 3for2 deals happening in Boots or Feelunique, so I will definitely get her vitamins and make up bits. Some clothing shops have the same deal on lingerie, accessories or homedecor, which is also handy. 

Another way of getting free stuff is getting retailers loyalty cards and collecting points towards your goal. At the moment I have £10 on my Accessorize rewards card and I am already browsing for nice pair of silver earrings. No luck so far... I also have lots of points on my Boots Club Card, but I don't think I'm gonna use these points for this project. I believe most of the stores have some kind of loyalty program going on, all you need to do is join the club. 

Next thing on my mind is employee benefits. It's something that your employer may offer you or not. I've been using employee benefits for less than a year now and not being a very big shopper I managed to save under seventy pounds. The ways of saving money as an employee benefits member is by purchasing discounted gift cards, vouchers or getting cashback for your online purchases from retailers. I have to say, getting cashback is quite a long process and you don't get much back, but it still puts some cash into your pocket. Every time you purchase a gift card or voucher, put a note down how much you saved, so that you know how much you can spend on a gift.  

Another way of getting free stuff is by making it yourself. Technically it's not gonna be a free free stuff, but you can make little DIY projects from materials you have at home. For example, knit a Christmas tree decoration or take a hole punch and make confetti (I wonder if that Youtube star was punching confetti herself all year, maybe that's why her calendar is so expensive! 😄), or make a macrame bracelet.   

These are all my thoughts about my project so far. If you have any suggestions on how to get free good quality stuff please leave a comment down below. I will keep posted every time I come up with a good deal or two😊.

Welcome back guys! 😊

GIFT GUIDE #2. SOUVENIR GIFTS FOR GIRLS.

This post was not planned at all so it appears here very unexpectedly. I was not prepared for it, therefore, I found only one suitable picture for it. That's a shame cos now I think it could have been useful for some of you. 

Before going on holiday to Lithuania I knew for sure that I would want to spend it in my Mom's homestead with her girlfriends. Yes, HER girlfriends. She has quite a bunch of them, they all have extremely different personalities and I am the only daughter for all of them :D, so I wanted to surprise them, spoil them a bit and pamper. I wanted the souvenir gifts to be unexpected, useful and pleasurable:

So, the list of gifts:

1. Plastic red baskets (Wilko, the link is to another colour).

2. Notebooks "Thoughts of An Absolute Genius" (Wilko). Every bottom of the page of this notebook has pictures of glasses like mine, so I thought this would be kind of personalised gift and would remind a little bit of me.

3. Fridge magnet with views of the region I live in (Waterstones).

4. Soap and Glory body scrub (Boots).

5. My favourite Thorntons chocolates.

6. And, of course, tea for girls Pukka Womankind.    

I wrapped everything in Paperchase tissue paper and secured the package with a sticker. It is a perfect gift for a cousin or grandmother :)

That is my recipe for a souvenir gift for girls :)