Anyway, as a student, my budget for all things is never big. As a graduate student, the money situation is worse and I have to be pretty tight, especially towards the end of term. However, there are still ways you can add little personal touches on a budget.
Candles
Candles are an easy way - smell is such a powerful sense so this is a simple method of adding some character to your house. I'm currently using the Enchanted Forest from the House of Fraser brand, Linea.
The set consists of a reed diffuser set and two candles - one that has a sixty hour burn-time and a smaller one that has a fifty hour burn-time. They all share the same fragrance: "cool peppermint with nuances of warm woods" - sounds perfect for this time of year where the nights are long and dark, with Christmas just around the corner.
With regards to the fragrance, I don't really get any of notes of peppermint but the warm woods do come through, albeit a bit subtly. The fragrance is natural and not overpowering and I love how the candle looks when it is burning. However, the only negative I have is that the bottle part of the reed diffuser set is a bit clunky and unsightly. The bottle shape looks a bit too medicinal to me and I much prefer the shape of this one from the Moroccan Rose set.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd2VFW5M2bSEMWW4mLaqzdB6MX9AHjQjaMtGt9Dg-kHLQ8rcCXEY66tnxziS0d8AqxOawqrP8RdiEq0-lV2mnFghyKI42SPURXX4hZindbIeTYbl-hT-8mkEaYkjIuYLVfc7bN6AAIhXk/s1600/IMG_0427.png)
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An Expedit bookshelf means that I can jazz it up at will and on a budget too. The box inserts are a few pound a pop each and instantly brighten up your room if you switch them out on a regular basis. At the moment, I have these floral and pastel green ones in and they add a nice, girly, fresh touch to my room.
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Pinboard and Upcycling!
A pinboard is an essential in my room and always has been, even when I lived out for my first degree. A good way to decorate a boring pinboard is to repaint it - I'm thinking of doing painting the borders white when I get a spare moment. Furthermore, I up-cycled some tissue paper I received from an online clothes order and what could have been a boring corkboard now has a cute pattern to it.
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Washi Tape
Washi tape can be used for almost anything and it can be a cheap way to add your own touch to everyday items if you have a roll or two knocking about. Whilst a roll can be expensive, one roll can last you a while as most come in ten metre lengths.
Another thing I've done is use an Ikea candle holder (on the right) as a pen pot. I know others have used it to store make-up brushes amongst other things so they can be used for almost anything as they are the perfect size to hold things.
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Shoebox Upcycling
Wallpaper samples are free from most warehouse stores such as B&Q and Homebase here in the UK and when we were redecorating the house, we accrued many samples. They were just kicking about and instead of recycling them, I took some and wrapped old shoeboxes in them. We also lined our kitchen cupboards with them. This is, literally, a free way to make your own storage boxes - all you need are some old shoeboxes (clean!) and wallpaper. I don't recommend taking wallpaper samples for the sake of it as there are people who genuinely need/want them but as I was redecorating at the time, it was just something that I had kicking about.
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I think I may have mentioned some of these things before but it's always nice to remind yourself that 'redecorating' on a minor level can be cheap and doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg.
Have you got any tips for adding a personal touch for very few pennies?
I love your blog, it is very cool and has nice things.
ReplyDeletexoxoxox
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