It’s festival time!

Spring is in the air!! And of course spring means the beginning of the festival season! In the next few months, we can enjoy the best performances at all kinds of different festivals and parties. Many festivals are expensive but there are some free and some pretty cheap ones to find!

At first, our Dutch and Belgian readers can take a look at the website of Festival Info. This website contains all the free festivals and parties in 2012. The most well-known are Parkpop in The Hague, the Vierdaagsefeesten in Nijmegen, the Gay Pride in Amsterdam and the Free your Mind Festival in Arnhem.

The website of festivals in Europe is Festival Searcher. On this website you can find a variety of festivals. They give information about the well known festivals such as Rock am Ring in Germany and Roskilde in Denmark but they also mention some nice small festivals that are just as much fun and a little bit cheaper.

The atmosphere at festival is so great! Everyone has to experience that. You can just do whatever you want and dress however you like without anyone making fun of you. And we know festivals are expensive but the free and cheap ones are certainly worth the try!

Good luck and have fun girls.

Budget furnishing: second hand

We hope you all got some inspiration from our latest post! Our next tip for furnishing your house on a budget is to make use of second hand furniture. Every country has its own website for second hand furniture, in the Netherlands we have Marktplaats.

Second hand is much cheaper then new furniture and many times you can buy something unique! Sometimes, you have an idea in your mind but you can’t find in the stores, then you have to take a visit to a second hand furniture website. You can’t imagine what people offer for incredible low prices! However, searching on a second hand website can take a lot of time. Every day, thousands of new products are being presented. You need to decide what you are looking for in what color etcetera. If you want something specific you have to take a short look every day. Note that when you find something, call or e-mail the seller instead of making an offer on the website. Offers are often being ignored because sellers don’t know if it’s serious.

Many people buy their stuff on these websites. Sometimes it’s great quality stuff and it can be very unique. Moreover, people won’t even notice you bought second hand furniture if you don’t want people to know! It’s also possible to combine second hand furniture with new furniture.

Take a look and have fun!

Decorating your house on a budget: thrift stores

There’s no place like home. We think every woman can agree on that one. Everyone decorates their house in their own style and we want to achieve one thing: it must feel like your own special place.

Students, starters, divorced people and people with a low income can’t buy expensive furniture. Unfortunately, the most beautiful couches, tables and chairs are often very expensive. The first solution everyone considers is bringing a visit to IKEA. Although IKEA has very nice products and the quality is okay, you will get bored eventually.. If you don’t like IKEA furniture and you want to decorate or re-decorate your house in a different way, we have some nice tips for you!

Take a visit to some thrift stores. The furniture in thrift stores is often a little bit old-fashioned but you can pimp everything with paint. Last year, Kim found a dining table and a coffee table at a thrift store for 20 euros. The tables were very old-fashioned and we all laughed a little bit about her purchase. But she painted the tables white and they are beautiful!! We were shocked about the difference. Are you bored with the color? No problem, just give your furniture a new paint job and you have a new look!
Another nice tip is to buy four or six different dining chairs, look up some pictures on the internet and see for yourself that it looks really nice!


If you’re looking for a new couch but you have a low budget, ask your friends, family and parents if someone wants to get rid of their old couches. Choose a couch which is comfortable and visit a market where they sell fabrics. Some entrepreneurs sell lots of different fabrics so you can choose your perfect color and nature. For about 20 euros, you can buy enough fabric to cover your coach. The result is an awesome couch in your living room!

For our Dutch readers: take a look at gratisoptehalen.nl. If you’re lucky, you can find some nice pieces on this website.

More Tips for Traveling on a Budget

Ladies, as promised in our last column, we will give you more traveling on a budget tips. First we will show you a short video, which gives you five important budget tips.

There are many ways to reach your destination, you can go by plane but most of the time that is expensive. If you have a flexible traveling plan it is easier to book cheap flights, but you will have to be patience and really look for it. For cheap tickets look, for example, at the websites Skyplanner or Fare Compagny. Tuesdays and Thursdays are the best days to book your flight, because not many people choose to travel at those days.

The low budget options for traveling are for example by bus or train, but for the long distance trips, it is not an option. There are numerous sites where you can book a bus fare. For a train tickets there are many options. You can buy a one or two way ticket, but there are options to buy a ticket which is valet for more traveling days and in different countries. For all the InterRail ticket options look at the NS Hispeed website.

Traveling on a budget

Hello Ladies! Today we would like to give you some inspiration for traveling on a budget.  Our previous column Seize the day can be useful for tips to enjoy yourself on a holiday.

As mentioned in the column Seize the day, you can use the website Vakantieveilingen.nl to bid on different activities. They also offer holiday options, the bidding starts at € 1,- and you can bid as high as your budget allows you to. As one of our readers mentioned in the comments you also have the company Groupon which gives you once a month great deals for holiday options as well.

On the internet you can find a lot of websites where you can find budget travel options. The site we recommend is Transitions Abroad.com. This site gives you many options and an overview of other interesting websites. Traveling cheaply is not just about saving money, it’s about getting the best experiences and a better value of your money. A few tips :

First, eat like the locals which will save you a lot, because food and drinks costs a lot. You can go to a grocery store or the local market  to buy your breakfast, lunch and fruit. For lunch you can try a picnic in the park. It is low budget , it will give you a good view and an opportunity to chat with other travelers or locals who enjoy their lunch break in the park. If you do like to go to a restaurant, have a look at the options given in the Lonely Planet and choose the fixed menu and the house wine. The fixed menu will offer you two or three choices of the local specialties.

The third tip: use the train for long distance traveling. If you travel during the night you can even spend the night on the train. Bring your own meal, drinks and snacks to avoid the high dining car prices. Often there are special sleeper-cars, but if you decide not to book one of those, do not forget to bring an inflatable neck-pillow! It will give you much comfort, but won’t need much space in your baggage.

Looking for more tips? See our next blog at the end of the week.

Second hand Treasures

Earlier this week we posted a column about ‘The clothing party’. A really nice party to clear out and extend your wardrobe. Today we have a second budget tip to extend your wardrobe. This tip is all about ‘Second hand treasures’.


‘Second hand treasures’ asks for some serious shopping. Therefore you probably have to go to the stores you usually not go to. You can buy cheap clothes in second hand (vintage) shops. Also at markets you can shop for second hand clothing. However, it is very hard to find proper second hand clothing that fit your body and are trendy and stylish. But that is no longer a problem. It is a trend to make your own clothing these days. But making your own clothes from scratch is very difficult and takes a lot of practice. This is where the second hand clothes come in. You can update lovely second hand clothes and make them trendy and fashionable. It is much easier to adjust existing clothing then make them from scratch. For inspiration you can look at the TLC show: Dresscue me.

Watch the Dutch promo of Dresscue me:

Starting from scratch
If you do want to make your own clothes from scratch it is important that you start with the basics. Don’t try to make a complicated dress when you sit behind the sewing-machine for the first time. You can find great books which cover the basics of sewing. A budget tip: try to buy your fabrics at the market, they sell cheaper fabrics than the official fabric stores.

The clothing party

We girls love to shop, only our budget doesn’t always allow our desire for shopping. This week we will give you girls some tips on how you can extend your wardrobe without spending a lot of money. Sometimes even without spending money at all. Can you imagine shopping without a budget?! Today’s budget solution is called: ‘The clothing party’! Combining our two favorite things in one evening, that sounds amazing, doesn’t it?

If you look in your closet you can pick out easily a number of pieces you never wear (even worse: have never worn at all). Don’t be ashamed, you are not the only girl who has a closet full of bad bargains. Even better news, your girlfriends most likely also have a closet full of bad bargains. That is why it’s time to organize a clothing party. You plan a date and invite all your girlfriends and they can invite their friends as well, because the more people the better. There is only one condition; everyone has to bring their bad bargains. Let the party begin!
Every girl can pick out the clothing that she likes. Your living room is the fitting room. You can easily ask your girlfriend for their opinion. The clothing party, is really a fun night on a budget. You can ask people to bring food and drinks along, to reduce the costs. At the end of the night everyone goes home with ‘new’ pieces without spending a dime. Your bad bargains are someone else’s treasures!

The clothing that is left at the end of the evening (the real bad bargains ;)) you can donate to a charity. In one night you clean out your closet and fill your closet with amazing new and free pieces!