BLENDING SPONGES - REVIEW / COMPARISON

Just recently I have experimented with different methods of application for foundation,

I have tried several different sponges and I thought I'd share with you what I've learned so far.

At the point that I took these photos I had tried all of these sponges with the exception of the Real Techniques one. The first impressions of that sponge were really positive. Keep reading to see how i got on with each of these. 

1. This sponge cost me £1.50 and was purchased from Primark, it's quite hard and not very flexible. I feel that the best application with this sponge is through dabbing, if you try to sweep you do end up fairly streaky. This washes OK and as you can see hasn't really stained too badly.

2. The middle sponge is the 'Beauty Blender',this cost me £16 and it is a popular blogger and youtuber favourite. It can be purchased with free delivery on www.beautyblender.co.uk here along with a load of other interesting products.

3. This sponge was purchased from Dealz and retails for £1 in the UK, the shape is different from the other two and I must say this is more awkward to use because of this. In addition it is very stiff and not very flexible. Again, like the one from primark it does tend to only work when bouncing the foundation in rather than smoothing it onto the skin.

REAL TECHNIQUES MIRACLE COMPLEXION SPONGE

And for the piece de resistance, coming in at just £5.99 from boots, this is soft but not as soft as the beauty blender. For me this is just the right consistency, it doesn't suck up all of your foundation and it works with a variety of different textured foundations and concealers. I can achieve such a light layer of foundation with this, yet it still gives flawless and full coverage. This is by far the best value sponge I have tried and I use it everyday.  This washes really well and a couple of months in it still feels like new. I will definitely be repurchasing this sponge, whats more you can get it even better value, 2 sponges for £9.99 here

WHAT NEXT?

OK, so I am loving this sponge, but I am still open to trying others, see below images taken from the boots website.

The first one I would like to try because it is so refined in shape and looks like it would be great for getting under the eyes and getting into any awkward little places. 

The second one is another really interesting one, it's not a shape I have seen before in beauty blenders and for this reason alone I would like to see what it can do. I think this is perhaps just for fiddly areas as it's a little small for larger areas.

And the final one I would like to try is cheaper than the 'Beauty Blender', however it's by the brand Dior. So in the case of this sponge I would like to know if it's Dior quality or if it's just a cheap blending sponge with Dior branding. 

Have you tried any of these sponges? Let me know what you thought, also if there's any sponges I haven't mentioned let me know and I will give them a try!

Cookie x

Craft Projects for 2016 | Pinterest

For the past 2 years I have been pinning ideas to boards on Pinterest, however I haven't taken things any further.  

This year I want to give some of the projects that I have pinned a try, why bother pinning them unless I am going to do something with it. I am so happy to go on Pinterest and pin and pin and pin, so for a change I want to take a break from that and try some of these fab ideas out.

So I am going to try the below, I think one thing that might help me to commit to doing these is to assign a day/time, for instance each Sunday I will complete one of the projects.

The above looks so simple and appears to use minimal materials, and made in mass could be really beautiful decoration on fabrics and crafty projects.More details on this project can be found here

Again the above looks to be fairly simple, hopefully it doesn't just look easy, but I wont know until I try it. Instructions are found here, yes they aren't in English but the photos look quite explanatory. 

Yet another fabric embellishment, I have chosen these to ease me into some small crafty projects as I think I will be more likely to stick with it and commit the time to it if I think its going to be a quick win, For more information see here

I love these cute little button decorations and the use of crochet is great, I think these are a nice quick project. Again the instructions aren't in english, however the web page is easily translated, and I am familiar with crochet so with this one I can see just from looking at them how to do them. For more info see here 

So this one is a little different, I'm sure most of us have an old light bulb somewhere or will soon be in possession of on. See here for instructions, in Hungarian, however these can easily be translated.

I hope to have tried at least one of these little projects by the end of the first quarter.

I'd love to hear if you have any projects in the pipeline or if you have tried any of the above.

Cookie x

Frugal gift inspiration | Cactus |

Sometimes the best gifts are the ones you make yourself, they are usually that little bit unique and the thought and effort definitely outweighs the expenditure for me.

I am a big fan of all things natural and a lover of tiny plants, so when I saw this little cactus in B&Q for £4 I couldn't resist.

For me what lets this item down is the boring terracotta pot, we are currently in the throws of decorating our lounge so have purchased some tester pots,but they are something we usually have dotted around the house. So what better idea than to paint the pot a more appropriate colour.

This couldn't have been more simple and the cactus isn't actually planted in the decorative pot meaning I was able to remove the plant for painting, making it even easier!

So, here is the finished look, I love it and it took about 10 minutes to complete so all in all this is a really cheap, easy and satisfying project and it makes for a great little gift.

My little cactus now fits in beautifully with my other miniature plants!

Cookie x

A couple of sites to keep an eye on for freebies / coupons

I thought I'd just quickly share with you a couple of sites that you can use in order to get freebies, win items and even find printable coupons.

So here we go, lets get started.

One of my absolute favorites is SuperSavvyMe

1. https://www.supersavvyme.co.uk/

The website is full of fantastic lifestyle ideas and eliminates the need to buy expensive magazines which tend to cover the same topics. This site also has regular competitions, scroll down the home page and there are usually 2 or 3 to choose from,

All you need to do is sign up and then you can enter competitions and giveaways, along with SuperSavvyCircle which is their product testing panel, so far I have been sent free Flash cleaning fluid, Unstoppables laundry beads, Febreze and also an Ambi Pur wall plug in.

I have also received multiple freebies and prize wins from them,

This website is purely about products from the P&G range such as MaxFactor, Olay, Ariel, Pantene and Flash to name a few. As such they also offer some great money saving printable coupons too. Definitely worth a look.

2. https://www.mymail.co.uk/home

Each month this website offers new printable vouchers, sometimes meaning you can pickup a free product, for instance I printed a £1 Covent garden soup voucher and the soup was £1 in Tesco. Win!

3. Tesco Club card

OK so, this isn't a website but you can sign up online here http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/

With this you will receive tailored coupons based on what you buy and also they are known to send god threshold spend coupons, I have just had a £7 of a £50 spend coupon and also one for £7 off Tesco finest meats (I bought a joint costing £7.48), therefore got 1.87kg of pork shoulder for £0.48p

The great thing about the above sites is that they all offer coupons and deals which require little effort unlike the orchard at tesco ad BzzAgent which are great but require a little more effort. Although SuperSavvyMe is similar to BzzAgent, it also offers free coupons, competitions and giveaways that dont require the extra work that a Word of Mouth marketing campaign requires.

Cookie x

Brand V Budget | Food | Natural Yogurt

One basic weekly shop item that I like to save on is yogurt. We have a little tradition of having fruit, yogurt and muesli/granola as a weekend breakfast.

So this is something I currently buy once a week, but depending on my diet at the time I may buy more. For instance if I am being careful I have been known to use this in smoothies, salads (to make the mayo go further calorie wise), and as a 'dessert' alternative (with honey), I've even used it to make white sauce for lasagna and moussaka.

I always used to purchase the Yeo Valley yogurt, and on several occasions it wasn't in stock so I had to use an alternative, usually Tesco's own brand standard version, then I got a little brave and tried the value one, to be perfectly honest I don't know why I didn't do that sooner.

See below for a comparison of the yogurts I have tried and what the annual cost would be. Just to be clear the only ingredient in each of the below yogurts is Milk, as I would hope, watch out however as some of the low fat yogurts on the shelves contain thickeners such as modified maize starch (cornflour I think).

All low fat natural yogurt is fairly runny, all I do, say if I want a thicker consistency is strain it myself. It might sound like a lot of work but it's much cheaper than thick Greek yogurt, and the strained ones are much nicer, but more expensive than those that contain thickening agents. To thicken, I place a non fluffy clean tea towel or piece of muslin cloth in a sieve, I then balance the sieve over a large jug/bowl, add the yogurt into the tea towel and cover, leaving in the fridge over night. In the morning you will have a really thick, creamy yogurt! Truth be told I went through a phase of making my own yogurt, but it's a fairly lengthy process and it's so much easier to just buy it.

1 pot per week @ £0.45 (52 X 0.45 = £23.40 PER YEAR) 

1 pot per week @ £0.90 (52 X 0.90 = £46.80) 

£23.40 more expensive than Tesco Everyday Value over the course of a year

1 pot per week @ £1.50 (52 X 1.50 = £78) 

£31.20 more expensive than Tesco Own Brand over the course of a year

£54.60 more expensive than Tesco Everyday Value over the course of a year

And, here's the end result, I can afford to spend a little more on a healthy sugar alternative such as date nectar or agave nectar (derived from cacti), and a really delicious granola or muesli.

Now you've read this, is this something you currently save on? If not, is it something you will consider on your next supermarket shop? 

Cookie x

Frugal Cookie | What I do | How to be FRUGAL/Savvy

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick post to recap on some of the things I now do since challenging myself with frugal living.

Firstly a little about why I am doing this, it's not to be cheap, it's to be smart and efficient with my money. I want my money to work harder for me, essentially I love spending and buying new things, however I need to be careful. With adulthood there is responsibilities such as mortgages, bills, rent, etc, basically, enjoy being young! Enjoy living rent free and appreciate the benefits it brings while you can - that would be my advice to you.

Before buying our house I spent most of what I earned without much thought about 'what if?', these days I have to save for things that may or may not happen such as the need to replace a boiler or a detrimental piece of machinery or furniture within my house. It's worth being sensible, redundancy is very common in today's current situation and I've been there before.

Don't get me wrong, I still splash out on things but in order to do this I make sure that I'm saving in other areas.

Here are some of the things that I have done to date, hopefully these may even give you some inspiration too.

1. Streamlining/ getting the best deal

• Swapped from a mobile contract costing £35 per month to a PAYG top up of £20 per month.
• Less visits to the hairdresser, gone back to natural roots and rather than paying £60 every 6 weeks I am now spending £30 - £40 2-3 times per year.
• Less visits to beautician and home waxing saving £25 per month
• Selling lots of clothing, furniture and things that are no longer required on local facebook groups
• I am shopping smarter, I have swapped certain products for cheaper brands and sometimes even a stores own brand, there are some things I wouldn't dream of swapping and other things where I wish I'd done it sooner! I am also using coupons and vouchers wherever I can, take a look  at in store magazines such as that from Boots, Tesco and pets at home as they usually contain some great coupons.
• SUPERSAVVY ME - Frequently has coupons for Proctor and Gamble products such as Pantene, Ariel and many well known brands. They also run a lot of competitions and do several giveaways each month.

• MYMAIL - Printable coupons, sometimes for the amount that the product is on offer for, therefore sometimes FREE.

• CARING EVERYDAY - Printable coupons from Johnson & Johnson brands.

2. Freebies and Prize Wins

There are so many Freebies out there it is unreal! Online there are many freebies, see below for some of the sources that I have used.

• SOPOST - This  is a fantastic freebie tool, businesses use this company to distribute free samples of their products to the general public and potential future consumers. I have received in excess of 10 great beauty and food freebies this way. Some SOPOST are obtainable by entering a persons email, others you will need facebook for and some you will need twitter for, the idea is you send one to a friend and they send one to you. Obviously in order to receive the item you will need to provide your name and address.
• GOOGLE FREEBIES - I googles freebies in UK, you will come across lots of resources which will point you in the right direction of the latest freebies. Here are just some of the websites - http://www.latestfreestuff.co.uk/ , https://www.magicfreebiesuk.co.uk/ , http://www.freestufffinder.co.uk/

3. Review and Campaign freebies | (WOMM) Word of Mouth Marketing Campaigns
 
I have received a considerable amount of free items to review from the below links.
 
With these websites all you need to do is sign up and provide information about yourself and your shopping habits, they will ask you to complete surveys from time to time, usually this is the gage whether you are compatible with a  product and whether they can then offer it to you to test.
 
Once you receive  your free product you then normally have around 60 days to try it and spread the word about your experiences. There is also activities such as sharing on facebook, twitter, submitting photos and videos and more.
 
The more surveys you do and the more active you are the more chance you get for future campaigns, I have found I go for ages without being offered one and then all of a sudden I get 3 invites.
 
The campaigns can be for anything, to date I have received lots of food items (they will usually send vouchers, especially for fresh food), body and skincare items, I even received a Dyson hoover worth £420 form a campaign, I would recommend doing this if you like to try new things, or even if you just love a freebie! Remember though, if you don't complete any of the campaign activities afterwards it is unlikely that you will receive further items.

• BZZAGENT UK
• ORCHARD AT TESCO
• TESCO HOME PANELS 
• SUPERSAVVY ME 
• TOLUNA
• AMAZON REVIEWS -  For this you just sign up to the website and you will need to have an amazon account. There is some free items and some really discounted items which you can have in exchange for an honest and unbiased review. I have just started doing this and have received a few freebies this way, thanks to Amber for the great idea (check out her blog here)
• BLOGGERS REQUIRED - This is a great resource, this lists blogger projects that you will need to apply to, if you are accepted you will usually be sent an item to review, each project will differ make sure you read the description to see if its definitely something your interested in.
• BRANDBACKER - This works in a similar way to bloggers required, you will need to apply to trial a product, therefore you will need to sell yourself with an effective pitch.

4. Surveys

You can make a few quid completing online surveys, however this can take time so I personally don't do these as I work full time and for the return I would get its not worth giving up my evenings.

•  INBOX POUNDS - Along with paid surveys inbox pounds also does paid emails, they will send an email into your inbox and you can get a penny for clicking on the link - this takes a long time but it does mount up and it's very little effort, I am on nearly £20, yes it's taken me a year but all I have had to do is visit a few websites.
• TOLUNA

5. Reviews for companies

Another way that I have received quite a lot of review items is by approaching companies asking to try products in exchange for a review. I also welcome companies contacting me to ask me to review items, if you would like to send me something to review please feel free to get in touch by email: rebellious_cookie@hotmail.com

6. Be inspired

Finally I haven't being doing this alone, there are so many people who have influenced me along the way from thrifty friends and relatives to YouTubers and bloggers alike. I will be putting up a post soon sharing some of the best frugal/freebies bloggers and YouTubers around, please watch this space.

I hope this post have gone some way toward inspiring you to use your money a little more wisely and perhaps to seek out relevant freebies where possible. As always if you have any questions please feel free to comment below or contact my by email (details on my Contact Me page or above).

Please leave me comment below if you could like me to expand on any of the topics I have mentioned above. I do plan to do some more posts going forward where I go into more detail on certain aspects such as sourcing review items and WOMM campaigns.

Cookie x

Phileas Fogg Snacks - My thoughts

In May I posted telling you all about the Bzz Campaign that I had been given where I got to try Phileas Foggs crisps.

Below are the different types of snacks that Phileas Fogg have on offer, I have written my thoughts in purple below each of the product descriptions.

American Style Bubble Chips

Twice cooked for a satisfyingly light crunch. Louisiana Sweet & Smokey BBQ and Cheese & New York Deli Relish flavours.

I loved the texture of these crisps, they were relatively thin and had a really satisfying crunch but yet a crumbly texture. Both flavours were great, but if I had to choose one it would be the Louisiana Sweet & Smokey flavour.

Mexican Style Taco Rolls

Inspired by the classic tortilla corn snacks of Mexico. Nacho Cheese & Jalapeno and Cool Sour Cream & Onion flavours.

These are a rolled tortilla chip and as such they have a great crunch to them also. They are great for dipping as you can get the dip in the tube. Again I enjoyed both of these flavours but my personal favourite was the Cool Sour Cream & Onion flavour.

Indonesian Style Crackers

Melt in the mouth Indonesian style crackers are irresistible and perfect for dipping. Aromatic Spices & Sweet Chilli flavour.

I am yet to try these, they will probably feature in my next weekly shop. They sound lovely as I adore anything sweet chili flavoured.

Spanish Style Corn Chips

Inspired by the passionate flavours of Spain, but given a unique Phileas Fogg twist. Smokey Chorizo & Red Pepper flavour.

These were a similar texture to a tortilla chip but perhaps just a little softer and flakier. I really liked the strong smokey flavour with the hint of pepper for sweetness.

Overall I have to say out of the whole range there is one type I haven't tried and all the rest get a thumbs up from me. Perfect for parties, and sharing or for not sharing.. The only suggestion I had to make these a little better was personal, 1 serving sized packets (I believe the large bags contain 5 servings), this would be beneficial for people like myself who sometimes lack self control around delicious savoury snacks.

Cookie x

Chicken burgers using schwartz grill mates & Burger thins

I decided to use 2 of my recent freebies in one meal together and it was something of a success.

 

 

Here are the burger thins, they are exactly the same as the sandwich thinks except they are round as opposed to square. I got this freebie using the cashback app Shopitize.

 

A simple weekday meal of chicken burgers. It was really quick and effective and so so easy!

 

I haven't got an exact recipe but I will share with you how I made these.

 

Ingredients

This weeks freebies

Today through the post I got 2 packets of forthglade cat food. I just wrote to them asking if I could try them, They look like pate, hopefully the cats will give them a try! (sorry the photo quality isn't great.)

 

 

X2 90g packets

 

 

Orchard at Tesco, Summer Berries and Cherries campaign.

 

So for this campaign you get £3 to spend on cherries and berries and 3 X 50p off coupons to give out to your friends. Its a very simple campaign. Taste the berries, rate them, review them,

Thrive Cat Food - Review

I have tried the girls on the Thrive food and treats, here's how it went

 

Overall score 7/10

 

This would have been higher but one cat loves this stuff and the other won't touch the treats and unfortunately wouldn't touch the wet food either - sure you can guess, as usual Millie is a little dustbin and Mollie is not keen. I don't know if Mollie is perhaps just confused by it because it's all fairly natural unlike Felix and cheaper brands that consist of brightly coloured biscuits and unidentifiable 'Meat'.

 

The treats look to be

Diets and free trials!

So about 3 weeks ago I decided to go on a detox and ultimately to engage in a healthier eating plan.

The first week went well, and as you can imagine what happened next is fairly typical.

I got invited to a BzzAgent campaign for Go Ahead biscuits, I had tried some flavours previously and I really like them, however my diet involved me cutting out wheat, dairy and the majority of processed foods. I decided they would be ok as an occasional snack and my other half really likes them also so I have packed him off to work with a few also!

                                        

A few days went by and BzzAgent kindly offered me another campaign, this time it was for Ristorante pizza, I got 2 pizzas free and lots of vouchers to hand out, again not diet food but I did enjoy these with the other half for my weekly 'cheat' meal.

                                                            

So, I'm on a diet and I got all of these delicious campaigns, but this is not the end of it, I then got invited onto the Lindt HELLO chocolate campaign from BzzAgent again (thanks guys!) I received a nice surprise when I arrived home from work the other day, X 5 full size bars of chocolate in a variety of flavours and X 2 half size snack bars. A very good campaign I must say!

                                    

My latest campaign is from Orchard at Tesco and is for Tesco ice cream, I received £3 off ice cream which meant I could have had some free ice cream however there must have been a rush on ice cream at our local Tesco as there wasn't much left other than the finest range. I chose west country fudge ice cream, I didn't manage to get a pic of the product in the tub as it didn't last very long, we finished the pot in the evening on some pie and it was divine.

                                                         

So back to the diet now I think, however if something else comes along I will definitely keep an open mind!

     

For anyone that's thinking of joining BzzAgent or Orchard at Tesco, I would definitely recommend it provided that you have the time to trial the product and complete the product activities, share your experiences with friends and give your honest views and opinions.

Thanks for reading

Cookie x

 

 

 

 

 

Home made bread

Hi guys

Food shopping is what I have always spent a big portion of my earnings on. There are 2 of us in the house and I was spending £100+ a week on groceries which I am trying to reduce.

One of the things that I found I was buying every other day is bread, which for just 2 of us is ridiculous. We were getting a full size loaf, and it wasn't that we were getting through the loaf it never stayed fresh for very long. My partner would also just snack on the bread. Take into account that I do not eat sandwiches very often, 1 person was eating a loaf pretty much to themselves every other day.

I decided to save some money and to also add variety to my partners diet that I would start making alternatives for us for lunch, so pasta, rice, potato salad and cous cous salads, ok sounds heavy on the carbs, however I weigh everything and I like to make sure that I use a small amount of the carb and bulk it up with vegetables, etc.

The other half does love his sandwiches though, so I have decided to treat him every so often, my rule is that I am not eating bread unless its special, so a nice crusty bread or even better something made by my own fair hands.

Its really simple, I just used a recipe from the packet of strong white flour, 1.5 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, 300ml lukewarm water. (method below)

as follows ; 500g strong white flour, 15ml vegetable oil or butter,

77p for 8 7g packets of fast action dried yeast. 77p/8 = 9

85p for 1.5kg of Tesco strong white flour.(500g = 1 loaf) 85p/3 = 28

1 loaf = approx. 37p (add a few pence for the veg oil, salt and sugar)

Method

put the dry ingredients into a bowl and mix, then add the oil/butter and mix again. Next, add the lukewarm water and combine, either with your hand or a hands free electric mixer with a dough hook (such as a kitchen aid), Once you have combined the mixture into a soft dough you will need to knead for 10 minutes, either by hand or again using the mixer with the dough hook. (I always used to do it by hand, but have just recently tried the mixer method and both work fine.)

Free trials and samples

Over the past couple of weeks I have been wracking my brains thinking of any ideas to save some pennies, whether its on my electric bill or everyday items.

I noticed that growing numbers of websites are listing free product samples - I found these by typing freebies UK into google. I started applying for a few random bits and pieces last week to see if I would receive anything, and to my surprise the first item arrived today. Okay, so its only a small sachet of Sylk natural lubricant. This offer still stands and a sample can be requested on their website http://www.sylk.co.uk/request-free-sample/ you just need to complete a few details. I have heard that some things will charge postage and will ask for card details, to be honest I don't think any of the freebies would really be worth parting with such details and personally that's not something that I will be doing.

In addition to the standard freebies I have noticed a lot of videos on YouTube where people are writing to all sorts of companies asking for things. I agree try before you buy is a great thing, however I will probably be writing to companies who offer products that I actually want to try, for instance I don't have a baby so I wont be emailing or applying for free baby products etc.

I would like to keep things as fair as possible for companies, so I will be giving product reviews on here on the occasion that a company is kind enough to provide me with a sample of their product. If I can pull this off I think it will b a great tool as I am something of a product junkie, I like new things, I like things in shiny new boxes etc. For instance I am always buying different fruit teas, a lot of the time based on the packaging or the flavour and more often that not I'll have 1 or 2 and decide its not for me, then I have 2 thirds of a pack of tea sitting in my cupboard until it expires and that's money down the drain.

So, again I have had my first response to this back today. as of yesterday I had emailed 15 companies with queries and out of those I have had 4 positive responses and 4 apologies. Its a case of don't ask don't get.

The first samples I got were facial skincare products from Elizabeth's Daughter, I am looking forward to trying them, watch this space for a product review.

I am also looking forward to the post over the next week as I should hopefully have a few goodies to try.

Thanks for reading guys

Again as I'm new to saving and scrimping if anyone has any advice, comments or general feedback I'd love to hear from you.

Cookie x

Heres to change

Hi Guys

I have always been interested in saving money where possible but I have never had quite as much motivation. So currently I am paying a Mortgage and have various other reasons for saving. I would ideally like to save £5,000 this year but I suppose I need to be realistic and any saving would be good to be honest.

So here are some cuts I have made this year so far.

£75 per month on hair colouring  - £900.00 saving per year
£34.99 per month on Gym            -£419.88 saving per year
£25 every 6 weeks on waxing       -£216.60 saving per year
£35 per month on mobile contract-£420      saving per year

Total                                               £1,956.48

So the above sounds good to me, obviously I will go to the hairdresser at some point for a cut but I have been colouring my hair myself and am considering just going back to my natural colour.. its been a while!

Ok, as i'm new to this if anyone has any advice or tips or wishes to share any info with my please feel free to comment.

Thanks for reading

Cookie x