Lets talk money...

I am usually a pretty laid back person, not much stresses me out. But if I think about the things that keep me awake at night money worries is always top of the list. I am so bad at managing my money! I have no sense of delayed gratification. If I want something,  I want it now and to hell with the consequences. Savings? Hah I'll worry about that when I'm old. Usually when it come to the end of the month I having to pay for petrol with all my loose change and tap my mum or brother for a loan.

However I am moving into a lovely, new apartment next week so I need to take serious control of finances. I decided the best way to do this was to work out a proper budget but had no idea where to start. A quick Google brought up a whole multitude of different options and I finally decided on this Super Basic Budget spreadsheet.

 I choose this spread sheet as it was really simple to use (duh, clue's in the title!) You simply split your main outgoings into ten categories. Yeah I couldn't think of ten so I choose;

1. Rent
2. Bills
3. Petrol
4. Clothing
5. Make up
6. Toiletries
7. Socialising
8. Home Supplies
9. Emergencies/Misc.

The first three I could work out exactly, I diligently went though my statements and added up all my direct debits to know what I spend on bills, I then added on an extra £50 just in case there was something I overlooked. 

I then estimated what variables I could spend my money like nights out, clothes, make out and added an extra £50 again for anything that might crop up like MOT for my car or a birthday present. Feeling very proud of myself as I felt I underestimated how much I was going to spend I looked at my overall spending...and was £200 over what I actually earn!! How did that happen?!

So begins Sho's Budgeting Project. The belt is officially tightened! I've cancelled getting my hair colour done on Saturday so that's £80 saved. I've also had to say to friends that I just can't go out on Saturday night. Sacrifices are being made!
I am going to start filling in my spreadsheet every night with each purchase I have made that day. I'm hoping I might be shocked at stupid things I spend my money and realise that I really don't need to buy a bar of chocolate every lunch time.

Is anyone else like me and useless with money? Join me in tackling our issues head on and let me know how you do. Or is there anyone who is really good at saving and living within their means? Send me tips, or even better send me some money!

Here's to austerity

S x

Date Night: Face of the Day and Nails of the Day

Got a date this afternoon, to be honest I can't really be annoyed to go but it gives me an excuse to get a bit dolled up. I always like to think less is more when doing make up for a date, especially as we're just going for coffee, so here's what I came up with.

Foundation/ Mac Pro Longwear in NW20

Concealer/ 17 Stay Time in Medium

Blusher and Highlighter/ Marks And Spencer (For more info see this post)

Eyeliner/ 17 Tattoo Me Semi Permanent in Raven Black

Eyebrows/ MUA Ultimate Eyebrow Kit darkest shade

Lips/ Revlon Lip Butter in Candy Apple

Please ignore my gross my man hand and just look at the nails

Nails/ Essie in Thigh High

Party Nail/ Models Own in Disco Inferno

There ya go, a super quick post! I should really be getting dressed can't turn up in my pj's no matter how much I want to

Toodles

S x

Boots Haul; Essie, Revlon and Soap and Glory

The other day I was in a bit of  a funk. You know one of those moods when you can't be bothered leaving the house and you just want to stay to stay in your pajamas all day. To cheer myself up a bit I decide go onto Boots Online to get some Sally Hansen Insta Dry top coat, a saviour if you're like me and have zero patience to wait for your nails to fully dry. I swear to God that was all I intended to get but then I saw it was 3 for 2 on all cosmetics and nail items and it would have just been rude not to get a couple more things. And well yeah, this happened.

Left to right, top to bottom

Essie Sew Psyched, Thigh High, Sally Hansen Insta Dry

Essie Beach Bum Blu, Stylenomics 

Soap And Glory Lid Stuff in Off The Wallflowers

Eevlon Jest Bitten Kissable in Crush Begun (#005)

Revlon Lip Butter in Creme Brulee (#095)

Revlon Lip Butter in Candy Apple (#035)

Sorry for the really bad photo, it's getting dark so early these days that I can never get the light right. It looks like a lot but three of these were free and I paid for two of them with my advantage points. I always collect up a load of points and forget to spend them so decided to just blow them on a couple of new nail varnishes.

Let's look at the nail varnishes first, I love Essie and dare I say it prefer their polishes to O.P.I. however they are mightly expensive but I decided a little splurge never hurt anyone. Ended up with four polishes

I realise it looks like a five year old did these nails but it was actually me. I quickly did a colour on each nail before heading out to work so ignore the smudges, 

Because I bought these online some of the colours weren't what I was expecting. I thought Beach Bum Blu was a matte but it actually is quite sparkly and I'm not really that keen on it to be honest. Might be in nice in the summer on my toes

I thought Thigh High was a darker red but it's quite bright on but hopefully with a second coat it might go darker. I do like it though, it's a good winter colour.

You can't tell from the photo but Stylenomics is actually a very, very dark green. It looks almost black on the nail but I quite like it, again great winter colour.

My favourite has to to be Sew Psyched, it's a lovely sage green colour. I haven't seen this colour before and I immediately flel in love with it and put it on all my nails. Each nail varnish was £7.99

Next I decided I want three new lip colours for winter. A nude, a red and a berry colour. I've heard a lot of really good things about Revlon Lip Butters so decided to have a wee look and settled on these. All three were £7.99 each

The top one is a lip crayon from the Revlon Just Bitten Kissable range and I love, love, love it! It's so nourishing, in fact all three of theses are really soft and do not dry out your lips at all. It is a gorgeous dark plum colour and exactly the shade I was looking for. I haven't really worn this properly so I'm not too sure how long lasting it is but I just think it's great.

The next is a glossy light red colour. Quite pleased because all my red lipsticks are quite dark like the Kate Moss for Rimmel 007, so I'm glad to have a red that I can wear during the day with a casual outfit. Again lovely and moisturising and smooth to put on.

Lastly is a lovely, glossy nude. I'm very particular about nude lipstick, too sheer and it just looks like a lip gloss, too pigmented ad it looks like I've just rubbed foundation all over my lips. This lipstick strikes the perfect balance between both, it is quite glossy but the nude colour shines through and it's just nice for a quick natural make up look.

All in all very impressed, highly recommend Revlon lippy's to everyone!

Lastly I bought this Soap and Glory eyeshadow pallette in All in the Wallflowers. Not too sure why...I was thinking that all my eyeshadows are either browns and nudes or blacks and greys. I use my Urban decay Naked pallette to death so thought I should spice things up with some coloured shades. This was £10, I actually thought that was kind of expensive but was in a spending frenzy and got it anyway.

The colours included are Sugar Violet a matte lavender colour, Minky a sparkly champange colour, Dandy Plum a lovely deep mauve and Wild Blue a sparkly teal like colour. To be honest I opened and wasn't too sure where to start. I will attempt to do an eye of the day with the pallette when I get some inspiration. The colours are really nice (apart from Sugar Violet, not too sure about that to be honest) and they are really pigmented so may worth the tenner after all.

Hope you enjoyed this little haul, I'm off to live under a stone for the rest of the month as I am now broke.

Byyyeee
S x

Sunday shopping and outfit of the day

Jumper/Asda

Skirt/Asda

Bag/ Primark

Boots/Asda

(Yeah I really like Asda clothes)

Today me and my friend (and future roomie) Siobhan decided to have a chilled out Sunday at St George's Market. We had to get a birthday present for a friend but I couldn't resist picking up a couple of things for myself

How flipping cute is this brooch?! It's the house from Disney's Up. They had this same design on earrings, bracelets and necklaces. I decided to get the brooch as now it's winter I'm wearing a lot of quite plain jumpers and I thought this would add a bit of colour to them. Also I don't own a single brooch so I thought this would begin my collection. I got this at stall called Hear Hoof Beats, Think Zebras which had an amazing range of geeky inspired jewellery from Harry Potter necklaces to Game of Thrones bracelets to Dr Who rings. I will definitely be paying them another visit soon.

After the market we pottered on over to Marks and Spencers for some gift ideas and I spotted these three beauties.

I been looking for a bronzer that is just the one colour rather then a mixture of highlighter and bronzer for a long time. It was three for two so I got all three for £10 which I thought was a great price. They're a good size and I'm going to attempt to contour with them at some stage and shall post the results.

Sorry about the terrible swatches, it was my first go at ever swatching and the light is awful these days because it's dark so early these days.

I hope you all a nice Sunday and are well rested for the week ahead

Love

S x

Sights and Sounds: October

I used to do a regular post Music to My Ears where I shared some of the  music I was really into that month but I've decided to give it a little revamp to include any TV shows, movies or books I've particularly enjoyed each month. So even though it's the middle of November now practically I'm going have a little look back at some of my October favourites

Sights

Celeste and Jesse Forever

It's been a long since I've watched a movie and completely fallen in love with it. I think my attention span has gotten a lot worse as I've gotten older so I rarely have the patience to sit through an entire movie these days. There was just something about this movie that I really enjoyed. It's not your typical rom-com, it's very bittersweet and just more adult. Life isn't like the Hollywood romances we see in movies and this film really highlights this. And I love the line 'Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?' I think that's something I need to remind myself of more. Also the soundtrack is delightful. Please note this movie is called Celeste and Jesse Forever not Daphne and Celeste Forever as I keep saying to people (Bonus points to you if you get that!)

American Horror Story: Coven

(Warning: Creepy trailer not for the faint hearted)

I loved the first season of American Horror Story, it was genuinely so scary and creepy that I had to stop watching it late at night because it freaked me out so much. Then I just couldn't really get into the second season so stopped watching about half way through but when I heard this season was going to be focused on a coven of witches I just knew I would love it. Some of my favourite movies feature witches so I couldn't see how I wouldn't like this. It was also features the fabulous trio of Jessica Lange, Angela Basset and Kathy Bate, three supreme actresses who always bring their A game. I don't really want to give too much away about it in case I spoil it for some of you but basically it features a coven of witches at a special school in New Orleans. It has voodoo, black magic, some pretty dark moments but a lot of humour. It's definitely not as scary as the first season but thoroughly enjoyable. I recommend to all!

Sounds

First Aid Kit/ Wolf

This song was on a compilation album I got called Young Folks (Amazing album- get it!) At first I hated it, it was weird and I just didn't like. But the more I played it the more I started to love it, I got a little obsessed and played it over and over again. I haven't actually listened to any other songs by this band but I must go look them up because if they're all like this I think I will enjoy them every much.

Lorde/ Royals

I know, I know everyone is just creaming themselves over Lorde these days but she is very good! I like this song it's catchy and very sing alongable (made up a new word there, spread it round)

So there you go a little insight into my obsessions this month. What are you enjoying this month? Hit up the comments and let me know

Love

S x

Love me Beauty- October Box review

I recently made the decision to sign up for a monthly beauty box. I know, I know very late to the party. Beauty boxes have been around for a few years and remember when I was student I really wanted to sign up the Glossy Boxes but I could barely afford to pay my rent at the time so it wasn't the ideal time to be throwing my money away.
I then just forgot all about beauty boxes until the other day when they randomly just popped into my head. So I did a little research on the different kinds and companies that do them and settled upon Love Me Beauty. The thing that appealed to me about these boxe, as opposed to others, was the fact you get a choice of three boxes and you know what you're going to get. I know some people like the surprise of not knowing but there's a lot of products out there I wouldn't really be interested in so I might as well ensure I'm getting at least one thing in the box I'd actually use. The box offers at least two full size products and three sample sized items. I took out a three month subscription which cost around £30 plus post and packaging. Three days later my first box arrived!

I was a little underwhelmed when it first arrived I thought it would be bigger. And I also kind of thought it would be like gift wrapped or something. I don't know why I just did! But luckily when I opened the box I was more impressed.

It was sooo pretty. I ripped it open and immediately starting smelling everything. Why is it the first thing I do with any new product is smell it? I even had a wee sniff of the eyeliner...I'm a weirdo.

It had a wee menu giving details about all the different products. I was excited I just wanted to run a bath and try them out. So what did I get? I hear you all ask!

Amie Skincare Spring Clean Cooling Clay Mask x 2 RRP £1.50

I slapped this on my face immediately I love a good face mask. The texture was really thick and smooth and one sachet covered my face completely. The smell was amazing, really limey. I love the smell of limes so that's probably why I loved it. I accidently left this on my face for ages because I got distracted while waiting for my bath to fill but when I eventually washed it off my skin was really soft. A day later and it still feels pretty good. I would definitely consider buying this again for £1.50 you can't really go wrong

Balm Balm Balance Bath and Shower RRP £6 (Full size)

This is tiny I have to say. It's only 5ml so I assumed it was a sample but apparently this is full sized! I'm not a big fan of bath oils I prefer a good bubble bath. But it smelled nice enough I suppose but there is no way I would £6 for such a tiny thing that only lasted for two baths.

Weleda MILLET Nourishing Shampoo RRP £8.95 (Sample size)

Sorry for the terrible photo, I took the pictures really quickly then rush off to try out all my new products so by the time I realise this photo was awful I'd already used the shampoo. The shampoo was alright. I mean shampoo is shampoo it cleans your hair. I usually just buy whatever they have in Poundland or on offer. I'm usually more fussy about my conditioner than my shampoo. But this shampoo is grand and my hair felt softer afterwards. Porbably wouldn't buy it again though.

Lord and Berry Smudge Proof Eyeliner RRP £7.50 (Full Size)

Got to be honest I haven't used this yet. I've been working loads this week and I never wear make up in work so this has just been sitting on my make up table Right hang on I'll go and stick some on. 

Just put it on, it's a grey colour and did take a couple of layers to make it look good. The colour is #719 Smoke. I don't have a grey eyeliner, in fact all my eyeliners are black so it's good to have a different colour. I'm not overly sure about this product, it didn't go on smoothly they way I like my eyeliners to but maybe once I've used it a couple of times it will blunt a little and be easier to apply.

Anatomicals Body Scrub RRP £3.50 (Full size)

I love a good body scrub, I'm forever trying out new ones and the mean reason I chose this box was because it had a body scrub in it. I quite like this, it smells nice and fresh, like grapefruit. It lathers up well into a good foam and it did left my skin soft. It's quite cheap too which is always a bonus. But wouldn't buy it again, not because it's no good but because I very rarely buy the same scrub twice there's just too many choices out there.

That's the October box and I've already put my order in for the November one. It looks quite good, a couple more make up items which are my favourites!

Hope this was helpful for anyone considering signing up for a beauty box.

Love

S x

Outfit of the day

I don't know why I don't do more outfit of the day posts. They're so easy and I could have a couple scheduled for when I won't have time to do proper posts. I guess it's because it can be quite time consuming getting the the photos, editing them and posting them up. Also I keep forgetting to get someone to take a photo of me when I have a nice outfit. But I have now roped my mum into being my official photographer. So here is the first, of hopefully many, outfit of the day posts.

Shirt/Primark

Jeans/ Primark

Boots/ Asda

Necklace/ Primark

Can you tell I love Primark?

Love 

Sx

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is coming and the goose is getting fat

Would you please put a penny in the old man's hat

If you haven't got a penny

A h'penny will do

If you haven't got a h'penny

God bless you

Aww I used to love Halloween when I was younger, getting dressed up  and free sweeties what wasn't to love?! Even these days I have a wee soft spot for Halloween. The fireworks, the crisp Autumn weather, the feeling that you can be in pajamas, snuggled up on the sofa by 5pm and not feel bad because it's already dark outside. 

In my student days I used to always go to Halloween parties and loved fancy dress. I think my favourite Halloween party was one my friend Maeve had in London. Some friends and I went over to visit her and just had a blast. 

But now I'm getting old. The though of putting on some skimpy outfit I won't feel comfortable in and going to a busy bar surrounded by drunk people does not appeal at all. So this year the momma bear and I decided to have a chilled out Halloween. We went on a Jail of Horror experience at the Crumlin Road Jail in Belfast, a disused prison where you have to walk through the corridors past old cells while actors in scary costumes jumped out at you. I was terrified, at one point I used my mum as a human shield against a mad man welding a chain saw. Before we went in the tour guide had to ask all not to punch any of the actors out of fear, just to remember it wasn't real. Only in Belfast would you get a warning like that!

Crumlin Road Jail

After that we had dinner in the Potted Hen in St Anne's Square. Oh it was scrummy, and only 17.95 for three courses before 6.45. Spot on! After which we treated ourself to a cheese board and some goodies from Asda and are now snuggled up watching the Last Will and Testament of Rosalind Leigh.

Not a lick of facepaint in sight although I did a quick smoky eye I was quite proud of using Urban Decay Gunmetal and Creep.

So whatever you are doing on this fair All Hallow's Eve I hope you are enjoying yourselves.

Stay spooky

S x