A big thank you to The Student Blogger for contacting me to ask if I wanted to be involved with writing a guest post for their blog. I hope you enjoy it …
Having been through University, I know how tight money can get and how hard it can be to budget, especially when those gorgeous shoes or that perfect lipstick is staring you in the face shouting “buy me buy me!”
So I wanted to share my top tips with you on how to budget for those much wanted/needed beauty and fashion buys. Here goes …
1. Don’t buy unless you have to – much easier said than done! I’ve been known to buy things because they lure me in but I think a really good rule to stick by is that unless the product is empty/broken and needs replacing, you don’t need it!
2. Try and find dupes to your more expensive products. This is more beauty related than fashion, however Primark and H&M tend to dupe some of the items from Topshop, especially in winter with knitwear! I love chubby stick style lip crayons but refuse to pay £17.00 for Clinique’s original chubby sticks. I’ve tried a few different brands that do dupes and have to say I absolutely love MUA’s Power Pout crayons, which are a steal for £3.00!
3. Ask for higher priced items for birthday/Christmas and buy cheaper items with your own money. This way you can still spend some money from time to time but get those higher priced items you’ve been drooling over!
4. Get points cards from Superdrug and Boots and save up your points. Once you’ve saved for 6/12 months then treat yourself to something that you either wouldn’t usually buy or is usually out of your price range. Or save for longer, you never know when new releases are going to hit the shelves!
5. Use voucher code websites. Yes, it’s annoying to sign up to all these websites and receive the endless junk emails they send but surely it’s worth it if you can save some money along the way!
6. When buying clothes or beauty products think before you buy. Do you reallllly need it? Chances are you could probably do without it for the time being. Have a good think about splashing your cash. It’s surprising how not impulse buying makes you think twice about whether you need something and want to part with your money.
7. This tip sort of contradicts the last tip but I’ve found it really useful when deciding whether to buy something or not. But if you’re not 100% convinced about buying it in the first minute or two, you could do without it!
8. Limit your spending each month. By assessing your finances and setting a monthly budget for what you can realistically afford to spend on fashion/beauty you will stop yourself spending ridiculous amounts that mean you then can’t afford the necessities.
9. Shop around and stock up when there are offers or sales. For beauty products you will often find that either Superdrug or Boots will have an offer on, so it is definitely worth shopping around to find the cheapest price. Equally when something is on offer, stock up! Buy 2 and put 1 away for when the other one runs out. This way although you spend more now, you save in the long run. I am always doing this with face wipes – I am always going to need them so only ever buy them when they are on offer!
10. If you want to update your wardrobe, sell your old clothes on eBay to earn a few extra pennies. You can then put the money you earn towards that dress you’ve had your eye on!
Other Useful Budget Tools
One page I’m always checking out for the up to date beauty bargains is the Top 5 on the Superdrug site. They show the top 5 products for each make up category and many are low cost options!
http://www.superdrug.com/make-up/top-5-/icat/top5
Channel 4 has a great section on Fashion and Beauty, ranging from tips to trends and help on ‘how to’. I found this article a while ago and thought it would be perfect to share with you all as it is all about budget fashion tips.
http://www.channel4.com/4beauty/style/budget-fashion/10-budget-fashion-tips
Han x