[, Music, ], hello, so firstly Happy New Year. I hope you had a great Christmas and festive season and I hope the start of your 2017 is going really really well. I find a lot of people having that super-motivated first week back according to social media and I’ve been feeling quite reflective, and I thought I’d do a little bit of a different video. I know it’s a bit of a long month. A lot of us are thinking about money: how to spend it, how to save it and any important changes that need to be made. So you may all know that I’m a freelancer running my blog alongside doing other things, and I thought I would share some insight into how I cope on an unstable income in London.
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Now, in my first year of full-time blogging, I had 8,000 pounds, and I know a lot of you may be thinking like how can you live on that in London and I just thought I’d share some tips and tricks that I still use today, even though my Situation has changed, so I think it’s really important to have a sensible attitude to money and just to be a little bit savvy. So this video is going to be a little bit. London centric, but I thought it’d be handy if you ever want to visit London or live in London and then also be lots of transferable advice as well. So I’ll leave links to everything I mentioned in the description box and if you like this video it’d be great, if you could give it a thumbs up and subscribe, it would really make my day so firstly food now my big thing is batch cooking. So I don’t just cook a different meal. Every single night of the week I will cook a big meal and I will eat it for two to four days or I may eat it for a couple of days freezer. You know move on to the next meal, so I actually started doing this by accident at uni.
So I was used to cooking my family meals, so that’s meals were fought like four or five people and then, when I went to uni, I just cook the same amount of food, but then just thought: I’m just gon na keep eating this for the whole week And it means I don’t have to cook every day. I rarely buy ready, meals or takeaways, and I just prefer spending a little bit more time cooking and making something I really love, so I don’t actually mind eating it for a few days now. This may take a bit of getting used to, but with a bit of preparation, you’ll know exactly what’s going into your food you’ll save a bit of time and save some money in the process. So I tend to do a lot of my research on Pinterest. So I’ll take an ingredient that I like, like type it in and just search for the most exciting but straightforward lookin recipe. I built up a list of a few favorites there’s soy, garlic, salmon, Middle Eastern lamb, mushroom risotto, lasagna chicken and rice and peas. Before I do my food shopping, I tend to think of three meals, I’d like to have for the week and I’ll just list out the appropriate ingredients and if I’m buying, you know ginger like fresh ingredients for a particular recipe, I’ll try and find other recipes.
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That will also use those ingredients, so it just means I’m not wasting food if you are a meat-eater. One thing I found is that buying a whole roasted chicken is actually better than just maybe buying a few chicken breasts. So you can have your roast for a few nights, you can, you know, cut the meat off, make a stir fry for another couple of nights, and then you can boil up the bones and the rest of meat and make a really nice soup and there’s plenty Of really good recipes on Pinterest, so this is a cheeky thing you can do, but there are a lot of food-related services out there, which will have an opening offer and if they sign you up to a subscription, you then are able to cancel it. One way I’ve discovered some great new recipes is by trying boxes such as hello, fresh and gusto. So you’ll pick a few different meals. They will send you everything you need in a box, so there’s no excuse for running out of anything or not having a certain ingredient, and I found it was just a really great way to try new cuisines. It really broke the recipes down.
I thought you know if I just buy this in the future. I can make this again. The opening offer was good, but I just found that it wouldn’t be feasible. For me, in the long run as a single woman, you may try it and find that it works out a bit more cost-effective because you’re always eating out and buying ready meals or you may try it and think you know it’s not for me either way. You’Ve got the discount and hopefully discovered a new recipe that you can use again. There are also shopping delivery services which have some good opening offers, so I think there’s filled and flour there’s also Farm drop and one called hubub. So I’m going to leave any useful discount codes below, but just make sure you read the Terms and Conditions really really carefully. I put notes in your calendar if you have to I’ve, got one. That’S like cancel this cancel that cancel everything.
Even after doing all of that food shopping and recipe planning, you may still want to treat yourself to a meal out. So one thing I found particularly useful, especially in London, is soft launches, so when a new restaurant opens or a new branch of a certain chain opens they’ll quite often do 50 % off food, so it may be within certain times of the day. It could be. For an entire week, but it’s just such a great way to try. You know the latest cuisine, so there are some key people to follow. If you want to find out about any soft launches or opening offers. London on the inside is a really great resource and they post everything to Twitter.
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So it’s just well worth checking to see if there are any discounts there there’s also time out Londoners and key foodie instagramers such as Clerkenwell boy and sometimes I’m scrolling through my Instagram know my oh, my god, 50 % off I’m gon na go so it may Also be we’re signing up to newsletters from your favorite restaurants, so I’m signed up to the meat licker newsletter, which is a really great burger restaurant in London. I think they’ve got locations in Leeds Bristol Brighton and they’re actually doing 50 % off food tomorrow. So that’s the 9th of January, so it’s well worth bearing in mind if you’re gon na meet up with a friend, you know just say I know somewhere we can get a cheaper burger. So let’s talk about the gym, so there’s no need to pay for a membership that is practically like paying rent. There are so many active web brands that actually offer free classes in their stores. Sweaty Betty is one of them. I think they’ve got yoga, pilates ballet. It does seem to vary from branch to branch. I think, there’s a running club.
I mean I’ve never been to the running club but yeah. They always tend to do like a big push at the start of the year and it’s best to just book early, because everything will obviously get booked up really fast. So Lululemon also do classes and Nike tend to hold events periodically throughout the year. But I just found it was a great way to try new forms of exercise without having to really commit, and it’s I think I tried a burpee for this first time at a Nike Training Club class. I didn’t know what a burpee was and I soon learned – and I was like – oh my god, but then eventually I was like you know I can do this, I’m improving and it was just a great way to challenge myself. So when it comes to all of these different fitness activities, it’s best to just sign up to newsletters, you know create a new email address if you have to with all your vouchers and your discounts like, I won’t judge you if you’re not there, any of these Stores than a lot of these places offer videos on you can try and work out at home. So let’s talk about travel now.
London is one of the most expensive cities for travel and I feel, like you need a degree just to understand affairs and the zones and everything like it’s just over complicated. The main thing with travel is to just keep constantly reviewing your situation. If you’re using a contactless card a lot like if you’re using it everyday, then it may actually be better to get a travel card. If you live in zone 3, but you can actually get a bus into zone 2, it might be worth buying the travel card for zone 2 and saving a little bit of money. I think an important thing to be aware of is fare caps, so there’s a daily cap. So if you’re taking a lot of journeys, it will cap at a certain rate, there’s also a weekly cap, but only on a contactless card. So if we start using the card on a Monday and you’re using it a lot, you will be cat on Sunday at the weekly travel card fare.
However, if you start traveling on a Tuesday, it will not cap it only caps Monday to Sunday, so it may be better to buy a travel card if you’re not starting your travel on a Monday, so just go on the website, keep reading it through. I know it’s confusing, but you know it’s worth just looking into these things, so you’re not overpaying for travel. If you have a young person’s rail card. Sorry, I’m just morning my own persons rail card, but if you have a young person’s rail card, you can actually add that onto your oyster, the cheaper fares, even if you’re down in London, occasionally it’s just worth, making a note of that and saving a bit more Money so let’s talk about uber now everyone’s getting uber everywhere, and I just think you know it can be good. You know if you’re in a sticky situation you late at night, you need to get home, but it’s also important not to rely on it too much and also looking to other options. So if you do need to get a taxi, you know, maybe one of the other apps might be useful.
One app I tend to use. A lot is cabbie, so mainly for airport journeys, and it can be a lot cheaper. So I think the journey from my house to Gatwick is 120 pounds on uber, but it’s about 60, something pounds on cabbie and they offer you points as well. Addison Lee often have offers – and I think the thing to remember is just not go for the obvious app all the time shop around and you know get the tube as well. It’S cheaper. So one of my favorite resources is money-saving expert and it’s always got felcher codes. You know guides to the best credit cards bank accounts everything. I’Ve got a few loyalty cards, obviously on the girths.
I’Ve got boots, Tesco, Holland and Barrett, I think of other ones. The MLS has one Waitrose has one for the free coffee, that’s quite useful, so I also have a credit card that will allow me to gain points when I’m shopping and I can exchange them for vouchers. But again I would look on money. Saving expert. Look at your own situation as well find the card that’s best for you. There might be a different kind of cashback card.
I think it’s just well worth being aware. If you’re spending money on food shopping certain bills, all the time, you could potentially be spending that on a certain card and then getting cash back at the end of the year. I also use their travel money site which tells you where to get foreign currency at the cheapest rate, because the pound is just so rubbish at the moment and it will list everything out. You know from the best to the worst rate, and it just helps if you’re aware of things, because those little amounts of money really do add up. It also tells you the best cards for spending abroad.
So if you tend to go abroad and you just get money out from the cash coin, you know it’s going to charge your feet every time and again it all adds up. So I think I tend to get out money before it might be best to get a prepaid card, but I would just head to the site and weigh up all the options. I know this video makes it seem like I have it all figured out. I do not have it figured out. I am not perfect, there’s always ways in which I can improve that sometimes I’m in denial. I think the start of the year is just a great way to you know, reflect on what we’ve been doing and then just form some new habits. I try to just make really considered purchases, and I always think you know do I need this like do? I really really need this.
Can I wait a little bit? Can I wait until it goes in the sale? Is it gon na go on three for two? I think it’s important to think of yourself as a business, even if you’re, not a freelancer and just be aware of what’s coming in and what’s going out, my house make way strokes. I have a voucher for everything and it’s kind of true not the lie. I will leave any relevant blog posts, websites, discount codes in the description box, and, let me know if you try any of them out again read the Terms and Conditions. I don’t want you to be signing up to something for like a year, but also, let me know if you have any money, saving tips, because I would love to hear them. You know I love a discount code, so I hope this video has been useful. Let me know what you think in the comments. Thank you for watching and I will see you in my next video bye. Then I got to get the rest of my Christmas presents so yeah busy busy day, [ Music, ]
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