Advice for the Millennial Renter

Although I am now a home owner, I spent most of my twenties renting properties across the country. My first rented accommodation was in a shared student house, both before I met my husband, and after I met him. At the beginning of our relationship, it made more sense to live in a shared house whilst he finished university. Financially it just made a lot more sense. We then moved into a maisonette in a converted school and loved it there. Once we moved away from Wales for my husband to start working we lived in a few interesting places so I think I have learnt quite a bit when it comes to renting. I thought I'd share a few tips that I picked up along the way.

My 2018 Travel Plans and Ultimate Bucket List

When it comes to travelling, there are so many places that I would love to go to. I haven't been too adventurous with my travels in the past, and I've mostly stuck to Europe and a few popular places in America, so I'd like to start venturing to more exotic places. I'm actually taking my first solo trip to America this year, so I thought it would be the perfect time to share my plans for this trip, and other places I would like to go.

Here are my plans for this year, and a few goals for the years to come...

When should a blogger declare themselves as self employed?

As a blogger, working with brands and PR companies is something that I do regularly. I work with brands to promote their products, and sometimes I get paid to host content, or write sponsored posts. That's why it was so important that I researched what I needed to do in terms of declaring any payments that I was receiving. I wasn't too sure about all the rules, and how to go about declaring the money I was making, so I thought I would share my experience with going self employed and filing my first self assessment tax return.

WHEN DID I DECLARE MYSELF AS SELF EMPLOYED?

I set up my blog in January 2017, and in February 2017 I was offered my first piece of paid work. It felt amazing to be doing what I loved and making some money to help fund my new hobby. I was already aware that I needed to declare myself as self employed within 3 months of receiving my first payment, so this is something that I did straight away. As soon as you start receiving payment for your work you need to declare this to HMRC. You can give give them a call to discuss the next steps you need to take...

My Sunday Morning Playlist

Sunday mornings are a time for relaxation. It's the time of the week where you can rest a bit longer in bed, or take a nice relaxing bath and pamper yourself a little bit. Well...back in the day before having children that is! I like to take an hour or so to myself on a Sunday whilst my husband has some time with our daughter. He usually takes her out so that I can have some child free time, and this is when I like to put on a relaxing playlist and have some chill out time. I generally put on a face mask and read for a bit, or listen to some nice calming music. I thought I'd share my favourite songs to relax to with you today. Maybe it will give you a little bit of inspiration!

When I am relaxing by myself, I tend to put on some noise cancelling headphones and submerse myself in my own little world. However, if it is nap time and my husband comes to join me we prefer to play music using either the television or our super old school stereo. It even has a tape deck, so that tells you just how old it is. As we've started enjoying music more and more, we've been looking at newer systems. There are many systems out there, but we have been eyeing up a few from the Panasonic Speaker System range. 

Here are a few of our favourite songs to listen to whilst having a little bit of time to relax: