So any chance that I get to shop at Target I do, and let me tell you, Target is killing the game right now in adorable, fashionable pieces that are all under $50. The last time I went shopping I found this adorable floral/ leafy tank top that I’m obsessed with. It’s super easy to dress down for a cute summer look or dress up for the office. What I love the most about this tank is how flowy and effortless it is. I can’t wait to go on a few summer dates with bae in this fit!

Now for my skirt, I actually picked this up at my second favorite store, which is Marshall’s, this time last year. I won’t be able to link to this exact skirt, but I’ll link a few that are similar in style and shape. I love that this skirt is stretchy and gives me a great shape, without making me look 10 lbs heavier than I am. Miniskirts are a hit or miss for my pear, apple-bottom shape so I’m impressed that this one is magic.

Another thing that I love about Target? How inclusive their sizing is. You can find all of their styles in plus sizes, so regardless of your size Target has you covered this summer in chic, effortless fits.

SHOP MY FAVORITE PIECES 

You might also like: Back to School with H&M, Kohl’s Back to School Summer Haul, and Savage X Fenty Haul/ Review

The post Adorable Summer Finds From Target | All Under $50 appeared first on Uniquely Mickie.

Now that I’ve been in the decorating mood, I decided to tell you guys some helpful tips for people who are decorating their first apartment or first home by themselves. The skies are truly the limit for when it comes to how you want to decorate. Just remember that a great layout or great design either takes a lot of time or a lot of money so just be patient with the entire process.

Here are my advice for decorating your first apartment on a budget:

Buy second hand furniture

When you’re first starting out in the world, money can be low or hard to come by, especially for extra pieces. When you’re decorating for your first apartment, go thrifting or check out some yard sales to find great pieces that are second hand. You’ll have some great sturdy pieces that you can customize later to better fit your color scheme or overall look. Paint can do wonders for a quick makeup over or spray paint.

Buy cheap furniture from affordable places

Another option is to check out places, such as IKEA, for cute and basic pieces that are super easy to customize for your apartment. IKEA is one of the best places to buy furniture, especially when you’re just starting out in decorating your own place. They have a bunch of options and furniture types that are also easy to put together by yourself. Just add some paint or some fabric to spice it up and make it look like your own.

Accessorize your apartment with pillows, rugs, door knobs, etc

The best way to really create a welcoming feeling in your apartment is to show your personality with your pieces. I love getting fun rugs, pillows, and adding art work on the walls. Target, HomeGoods or Marshalls all have great décor pieces that won’t break the budget, but carry great quality items all of the time. You can also DIY a lot of projects like printing out some of your favorite artwork online to place in some frames and paint some pillow covers to spice up your coach.

Create a faux headboard or get a real one

I personally love the look of a cute headboard. It just makes the entire room feel more home-y and more put together. I feel like most people have to skip out on some of the stand out pieces, like a headboard, but it’s totally worth it. There are plenty tutorials out on Youtube where people show you how to make your own headboard or you can just go ahead and buy one online.

Create a better light situation

A lot of apartments don’t come with great lightening or barely any lightening. If you can, switch out the lightbulbs for lightbulbs that don’t have a yellow tone to them. White light instantly makes your room look bigger and fancier. Another great tip is to purchase some floor lamps or night stand lamps to add more lightening to your apartment and to fill out the space. 

Here are some extra tips for decorating your apartment on a budget:

• Start with the most pressing needs first, like a bed and kitchen supplies
• Set a budget and stick with it
• Time is on your side. Be patient when it comes to decorating your entire apartment on a budget
• Renovate or spice up boring or old pieces with paint or removable wallpaper
• Envision the final product and work towards it
• Create a statement piece such as a fun wall or a colorful coach

I also wanted to quickly mention some apps that could be helpful for finding great used furniture for cheap in your local area, especially if you don’t like going around your neighborhood looking for yard sales.

Some great yard sale type apps that are online in your area:  

• LetGo
• OfferUp
• 5Miles
• Close5
• VarageSale

I hope that this post helped you when it comes to décor ideas and how to come up with a plan to start decorating your first apartment on a budget. As always if you enjoyed this post, please go ahead and give this post a share on your social media accounts. It really helps me further the success of my blog and it only takes a few seconds of your time.  Thank you guys! Talk to you next time!

The post How to Decorate Your First Apartment on a Budget appeared first on Uniquely Mickie.

Textbooks

Textbooks are one of the biggest waste of money in college, at least in my opinion. For me, I don’t learn from just reading a textbook. I learn by actually listening and doing whatever I need to learn the material. So for me, I spent $600 on textbooks my freshmen year and I only used one of the books, that was required for lab. And that was only because the lab book was a workbook and I had to tear out pages to turn in for a grade. After that sorrow experience, I quickly learned that it is easier and cheaper to either rent textbooks or even better just go to the school library to rent for free. Yes, I said FREE. They have every textbook that is required for any classes offered on campus. It’s a great way to get the information that you need for class without spending any extra money.

Meal Plans

Only recently have I learned the freedom you have once you get out off the university’s meal plans. You can eat whatever you want whenever you want, instead of eating the same greasy food over and over again. With most meal plans, you have to use your meal swipe during a current time of the day and you have a limited amount of money to spend. Basically, it’s cheaper and healthier to buy your own groceries. If you are on a time crunch, you can do what I do, which is cook a big meal on Sundays that will last me four to five days or I use my crockpot during the week.

Coffee

While I am not a big coffee drinker, I love having a cup of hot chocolate on the go. But the problem is that if you spend $5 at Starbucks buying your favorite drink five times a week for a whole year, you are literally spending $1,300 on just coffee. That’s a lot of money that you could be spending elsewhere. For a broke college student, it’s totally worth spending the money to buy a basic coffee machine or a Keurig and k-cups to make your coffee at home. Plus you’ll also be saving the environment by using re-usable cups instead of throwing away paper cups.

Fraternities/ Sororities

Joining social groups and clubs are a great way to network in your community, meet lifelong friends, and have a social life in college. From keeping up with the fashion trends and being at every event hosted by your group, fraternities and sororities can take away a lot of cash and time. I don’t want to discourage you from joining one if it’s something you really are passionate about. By all means, go for it! But don’t just join because all of your friends are doing it or you want to be popular around campus.

Budget

I have to admit, I am still working on this aspect of saving money. But once you find a method that works, you can end up saving so much that you don’t even realize you’re doing it. I used to use Mint to set a budget. It’s an app on your phone that allows you to set a budget for each category, such as food and bills, and tracks where your money is being spent the most. I also enjoy using Qapital, which is another app, but it’s set up a little differently. You set your goals and rules that help you save money. The rules can be anything, such as save $5 if you want 5,000 steps in a day.

[bctt tweet=”Find a saving method that works for you and stick with it…” username=”uniquelymickie”]

Eating Out

This kind of goes along the lines of getting off the college meal plan, but it takes the idea in a different direction. If you love food and eating out, this might be the hardest item to cut back on. But if you can master the challenge, decreasing the number of times that you eat out once a week or by a certain dollar amount could save you a lot of money over time. I typically make myself only eat out once a week and it has to be less than $10. Another idea to cut back on dining out is to get a larger portion of your meal, cut it in half, and eat it later so you get more bang for your buck.

Coupons/ Discounts

If you know me in person, I love using coupons, discounts, and shopping at discount stores. Why pay full price when you don’t have to? That’s how I view shopping and you should to, if you want to save money without compromising on your favorite brands. For in-store shopping, I usually use the RetailMeNot app. Then for online shopping, I use Ebates.com, which is a website that gives you cash back for shopping online. Bonus! They even have their own coupon codes on the website for even more saving! I also love checking out Groupon for the awesome deals around my city, including events, parties, and concerts.

If you haven’t already signed up for Ebates,com, you can sign up through my referral code. It’ll give you $10, just for signing up and it’s totally free and easy to use! Click the link above if you want-which you know you do.

Cable TV

If you live in off-campus housing and cable isn’t included, I highly recommend forfeiting getting a cable package. It cost more money to have regular TV than to have a subscription to Hulu or Amazon Prime. Let’s be honest anyways, I’m always on Hulu when I have free time, plus I hate waiting for commercials to end. Plus if you get the app, you can watch TV anywhere, including class, but I’m not encouraging anybody to do this now. (:

[bctt tweet=”Save your coins by signing up to Netflix and Hulu for half the cost of cable TV” username=”uniquelymickie”]

Off-Campus Living

Living in a student apartment or renting a house with some friends will save you a lot of money in the long run. Student dorms are using price higher compared to off-campus housing due to the community and the distance to campus. If you live with more than one person, you can split all of your bills and cleaning duties. Enough said on this topic!

Scholarships

Moving along with the easiest way to save money, which is to keep applying for scholarships and anything that’ll earn you free money. Most college students stop or just for forget to keep applying for scholarships as they go through their college careers. Big mistake! The more scholarships money you can get, A) you don’t have to get as many student loans and B) if you have more than you need, the university will send you a refund check. That money can then be used for books, rent, or anything else that you need to excel in college.

Snacks

When I am doing an all-nighter in the library or have a long day of classes, I always carry an array of different snacks with me. This includes candy bars, cheez-it crackers, peanut butter cookies, or my favorite fruit snacks. Bringing your own snacks to class is going to help save you money because you won’t have to hit up the vending machine or pay for the overpriced snacks that every college campus offers.

Transportation

While everyone loves having their own car, cars can be quite expensive. When you think about gas, insurance, and parking passes, it really starts to add up. Now I’m not saying you shouldn’t have a car in college, I would just say to utilize other transportations as a first resort. You can look into carpooling with friends, taking your apartment shuttle bus, or using the university buses that run across campus. Either way, you won’t be stuck and you’ll be saving cash.

Bills

If you have any recurring bills, make sure you pay them all on time to avoid late fees and extra charges. Most companies will also allow you to set up automatic billing so that way you never have to remember nor will you ever forget to pay one. I also highly recommend decreasing any bills that you can. Some areas that you can decrease in are cell phone bills, credit card bills, gym memberships fees, and etc.

Spring Break Trips

So you see all of these pretty Instagram models on their spring breaks in Miami or somewhere tropical, and you want to be just like them! I feel you man, but those trips can get quite expensive for a short amount of time. Most businesses that are located in  those areas will spike up prices, which means you’ll spending more for the same quality of service. Instead of spending thousands of dollars on a week long trip, get a group of friends and head to a local beach or mountain getaway to spend some quality time together and making memories. That’s the main point of going on spring break. It’s to have fun with the people you enjoy without breaking the bank!

Grades

This one is an easy one to keep up with. Make sure to pass all of your classes so you don’t have to retake them and spend even more money on college courses. If you are struggling in a course, don’t be afraid to ask for help from your teacher, the tutoring center on campus, or a former student that has passed the course. Everyone on campus wants you to succeed, but you just have to ask for help.

If you made it this far, hooray for you for sticking with me! I know this post was kind of long, but I hope it was helpful and was able to teach you the different ways to save money in college. If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below or email me.  But before you leave, I want to know what are some of your favorite ways to save money in college? And what are your favorite snacks to bring to class? I’m a curious cat so let me know!

You may also like: How I Saved $2,000 in College, The Ultimate List of Discounts for College Students, and How to Build Credit as a College Student 

The post 15 Secrets on Saving Money in College appeared first on Uniquely Mickie.