Tania Michele

Monday, 29 November 2021

10 Things That Made Me Happy This Month

After the last couple of years where I'm sure we've all struggled, I've had to try hard to find some positives to keep me going. I've tried to find a good moment in each day, or a moment from the month that has made me smile and feel happy. Here are my 10 things from the past month or so that have put a smile on my face!

Putting up the Christmas tree and decorations early
Getting to see my friends
Having a really good meal at a local restaurant
Watching Moana on Disney+
Listening to 'Welcome To The Black Parade' by MCR on full blast in the car on my late night drive home!
Having a lunch day with my Mum
I'm A Celebrity is back on TV!
Having a week off of work
Having a shopping day at Bluewater with Nicola
Making my £1000 target in extra income this year! All from Depop, blog posts, MusicMagpie and other places.

What have been your positives from the past few months? Let me know! Hope you have a great day and keep safe :)

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Friday, 26 November 2021

Protecting Yourself When You Hit the Road*

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There are many ways to travel, yet driving across a beautiful country or two is on the bucket list for most people. Take Route 66, for example. Is there a more iconic destination? However, before you set off on your grand adventure, you should be aware that protecting yourself when you hit the road is perhaps the most crucial part of your vacation. Protection comes in various forms and includes insurance, planning and respecting the weather.

Find the Necessary Insurance

Insurance is a vital part of travel. Anything can happen while on vacation, and you need cover for such things as theft, accidents and healthcare. For instance, you might find the best motorcycle accident attorney in the country useful following a collision. But without insurance, you will have a difficult time defending yourself. Additionally, with the Covid-19 pandemic still active in many nations, you must find cover for the illness. If you don't, you run the risk of expensive medical bills in a foreign country. There might also be legal penalties.

Always Take Supplies

Further to finding the proper legal representation and insurance, you will protect yourself more by taking adequate supplies. Being on the road is fraught with dangers, and anything can happen at any time. For example, you might get a flat tire halfway across an isolated desert road. And it could be twenty miles from the nearest help. Therefore, food, water and a heat source would be highly beneficial. Always try to think of things that can go wrong and what you might need in those scenarios. Just a blanket can mean the difference between life and death.

Be Aware of Local Laws

Depending on where you live, you might be liberalized and able to do pretty much what you please so long as it doesn't affect anyone else. According to your country's laws, you might enjoy the freedom of expression and free speech. Unfortunately, not everyone gets to indulge in such liberties. Some nations are strict about what you can do and say. For example, suppose you feel like a road trip through the Eastern Bloc nations. In that case, you must do your homework about local laws. For example, it is illegal to open a beer in the street in Poland, and food from the US is prohibited in Russia.

Know the Tourist Locations

There's not a single nation on the planet that doesn't have its criminal element. Typically though, most crime occurs in certain areas. And while tourist locations aren't free from corruption, you will be a lot safer if you stick to them. Fortunately, official and travel websites and blogs are excellent for local tourist information. Therefore, it is helpful to plan your journey through as many tourist locations as possible. This is also a great way to get to know a country since resorts, city centres, and family sites are often any nation's most culturally rich areas.

Plan Your Route

Further to know where the safest tourist locations are, it is highly advantageous to plan your holiday before setting off. Planning not only keeps you on track but allows you to take advantage of amenities along the way. For example, you can map out a journey that takes you through historic towns. Or you can plan so you are never more than a few miles away from help should anything happen. Traditional maps are a great way to prepare before you leave. However, modern GPS systems and apps like Google Maps provide specific information live updates.

Keep a Backup Phone

It's probably safe to assume you own a cell phone or smart tv device of some kind. As helpful as your personal phone is, purchasing a cheap but reliable backup phone might be beneficial. Keeping a backup phone will come in handy should something happen. Such things include losing your phone, having it stolen, or, more likely, running out of charge. You can get a cell phone very cheap these days. Just make sure you load it up with some of the apps you might need and fully charge it. Then switch it off and keep it somewhere safe until you need it.

Beware the Weather

As with travelling anywhere, you are beholden to the weather. We don't like to think we are held hostage by local climates, but we are. Fortunately, checking the weather report is easier than ever. With apps, internet connections and local TV and radio stations, you can get live updates concerning the weather wherever you are. However, you should still prepare for a change. For example, a trip through the rolling hills of the UK can change at the drop of a hat. The British weather is notoriously unpredictable, and there are many other places like it.

Thursday, 25 November 2021

Making Money Doesn't Have To Be Complicated*

If you have been thinking about ways to make more money recently, then you might be coming up blank. It’s true to say that when you are working and trying to balance everything else around you, it can get a little bit tough and sometimes you do have those brain freeze moments where you’re not sure what to do next. However, there are some options that you can consider to make everything a little bit easier for you. In this article, that’s what we’re going to be looking at, so keep reading down below if you would like to find out more.

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What You Love

The first thing that you are going to need to do is look at the things that you love. If you have a passion for something, you may well be able to turn this into something that you can make money from. There are people who won’t want to do this as they will be worried about tainting their passion in some way by involving money, but that’s entirely up to you. You need to think carefully about how you are going to turn the thing that you love into something that makes money though. For example, you might want to sell some of the art that you have created, or you might want to start a blog.

Think carefully about all of your options before you commit to one. For example, if you have a passion for gaming, then you might want to look into something on this side of things. Keep in mind that someone out there started the first high-performance Ark server hosting service, so why can’t you start something new?

Side Hustle

Of course, you can look into a side hustle to bring in some extra cash each month aside from your day to day job. The great thing about a side hustle is that they are entirely flexible, meaning that you don’t have to panic or stress about things overlapping. You get to choose when you work, and you get to choose what you charge. It works out well for everyone once you decide what you are going to do. A couple of examples of typical side hustles are dog walking, child minding, blogging and yard work.

Make sure that you are advertising your service so that people know who you are and what you are providing for people. Use social media to put the word out and you can even print flyers if you want to.

Extra Hours At Work

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There is the option of asking your boss for extra hours, but there is no way to know if there is going to be any available at any given time. You would be rolling the dice here on whether or not you are going to get any, but if you know there is generally a lot of overtime available at the business you work for, this shouldn’t be an issue. Talk to your boss, let them know that you need some extra cash and hopefully they will see what they can do for you.

If nothing happens, go back and have another talk with your boss. We’re sure that there will be a few hours available at the very least.

Sell Old Items

The final thing that we are going to mention is selling your old items. This is a great way to get some extra cash and clear out your home at the same time. Go through the rooms of your home, decide what things you don’t want anymore, put them all together and then you can decide how best to sell them. There are plenty of online platforms that you can use that are pretty simple to grasp. You just take photos, upload them, enter your price and then see who is willing to purchase them. Or, you can head to somewhere like an organized event and sell your items there. It’s entirely up to you.

We hope that you have found this article helpful, and now see some of the things that you can do in order to make money. One of the things that we want you to understand is that it doesn’t have to be as complicated as you are making it out to be in your head. It can be a simple process, you just need to know what you are doing and come up with a plan for success. We wish you the very best of luck.