Five Affordable & Easy Ways To Upgrade Your Everyday

Affordable & Easy Ways To Upgrade Your Everyday

I am all about the affordable luxuries in life. I truly believe if you buy beautiful, high quality items they last longer and make you happier. My boyfriend often stops me when I buy ‘budget’ versions of every day items as he tells me it’s a false economy, he says ‘Buy cheap, buy twice’ and he has a point. Whilst few of us can afford to buy the best of everything, we should all consider buying the best we can afford and making our daily tasks a little bit sweeter because of them. Here are my five affordable and easy ways to upgrade your every day

A Cute Notebook

This is a big one for me! Like dirty old mugs, I have oodles of scruffy notebooks I have been given as promotional items or token gifts. But quite frankly, I hate the cheap plastic ring binders, the poor quality paper and the small sizes of these kinds of note books. If I’m filling it with my wisdom (lolz) and all my appointments, then surely I need a note book which really fits the bill. For me, it has to look cute, it has to have a good quality of paper inside and it has to be super functional and a good size. A bad planner is a deal breaker and you can miss deadlines, dates and inspiration if you don’t have the right book. Mine is from Collins Debden and it’s so cute, I love opening it to scribble down all my ideas, inspirations and appointments!

Headphones

When I was growing up, the only way I could listen to the indie and alt bands I loved, was to save up for the album. They were often a shot in the dark, where I could only hear one single on the radio and I would splurge my £15 (more if it was a US import by a little known Portland band) and hope for the best. I spent a FORTUNE on music and it was such a treat to be able to buy a new album. Now of course, you can listen to almost anything for free (or for a tiny subscription fee), via Spotify, Amazon Prime or trusty old YouTube. I also spend a great deal of time listening to podcasts and audiobooks, which are again mostly free, aren’t we lucky right?! Anyway, Since I have my headphones plugged into my ears for so many hours a day, I have upgraded my headphones to make sure the audio quality is better and they feel more comfortable in my ears. My rambling point here is two-fold, firstly, enjoy all the amazing music and podcasts which are out there, it makes your commute, gym time and mornings so much better,  and secondly spend a tiny bit more on headphones which look, feel and sound awesome, personally, I love Happy Plugs!

Mug, Cup, Glasswear…

One of the first things we all do when we get up in the morning is have a cup of tea, coffee, juice or water. I swear to god, water tastes gross out of a mug, and tea tastes so much better out of bone china mug. Ditch the dingy thick mug you got given as a joke from a secret santa five years ago and instead buy yourself a super cute one you love. Alternatively, if you NutriBullet or juice fruit and drink it on the way to the office / gym, then buy yourself a take out cup which makes you really happy, mines from Rooi! Literally, go to the cupboard right now and get rid of any mug which is chipped, ugly, dirty or doesn’t make you feel good, do the same with your glassware. It’s just adding eye clutter to your cupboards and the chances are you don’t even use most of them!

Rub-a-dub-dub

There’s nothing quite like a hot power shower and the scent of an uplifting body wash to wake a girl up in the morning! Whilst cheap shower gels are tempting, I often find they are so watered down, you need to use loads of it and you end up replacing them every week as a result. Instead, spend a little more and see if it makes your shower time any better, I can almost guarantee it will! Personally, I love Molton Brown for their rich scents, luxe foam and sensory experience!

Cosy Evenings & A Scented Candle

Finally, now that the evenings are getting chilly, it’s the perfect time to hunker down, watch some so-bad-it’s-good TV and light a scented candle. Whilst Instagram if filled with designer candles which are £50 (and often much more!) a pop, it can be hard finding the spare cash in your budget to indulge in such things. However, I was recently on the Flamingo Candles website and I noticed that they have some great candles on sale for just £6! They are all soy wax, all beautiful fun and fancy fragrances, but most of them are on sale because they are out-of-season designers, like this cute bunny candle was created for easter. Personally, I would use it all year round and for £6, it’s a real steal!

♥

This is a collaborative post with Collins Debden.