Wednesday, 9 July 2014

How To #13: How to Do Summer (when skint)


How To #13: Things To Do this Summer if You’re Skint

Summer is nothing like it seems in the movies. Shocker. We plan road trips, late night beach parties and a girlie/lads holiday but in reality, it appears summer includes lying in until noon, the sofa and the TV becoming your best friend and an endless supply of Maryland cookies and Doritos. Whilst this may seem like heaven for the first week, there’s only so many old episodes of Friends one can take. And if, rather than central New York or London, you live in a quiet, rural area, where the greatest attraction is a field of cows, it can be difficult to keep yourself entertained. Thus, here are my top tips:

1.       Pass the time with Netflix- How to ruin your life for £5.99 a month. If you are a Netflix newbie, here are my top TV programmes to watch that will keep you entertained for hours:

·         Orange Is The New Black (if you are the only person who hasn’t seen this weirdly addictive comedy drama, you need to)

·         Friday Night Dinner (predictable comedy, but an easy way to pass the time)

·         Gossip Girl (an old favourite, something to do if all other avenues fail)

Visit www.netflix.com for a 30 day free trial

 

2.       It helps to have a friend that drives: if like me, you are licence-less having a friend that drives is brilliant. Just careful they don’t start doubling up as a taxi service as this can cause tension about petrol etc. Instead, offer to chip in to help pay for travel expenses.

 

3.       Take advantage of free festivals: If, also like me, you were too poor to afford Glastonbury this year and every other year before that, there are free festivals available. Although they are few and far between, they are out there. The Notting Hill Carnival is very fun although it can get crazy busy, so make sure you plan ahead.

 

Visit http://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/event/9023471-notting-hill-carnival-2014 for more information on the Notting Hill Carnival 2014 in London

 

 

4.       Get Creative- ugh, effort! It can however, be rewarding and you could even stumble across a masterpiece.  Some of the best inventions and creations were made when their creators were bored, apparently. So take advantage of your boredom and write the next Harry Potter or something.

 

5.       Get Fit: Go out for a run in the mornings, get ripped abs or body builder biceps. Why not get a bikini body even if you’re not even going on holiday, let alone wearing a bikini. Great fun, right?

 

 

6.       Fake It: So you’re skint and thus not going on holiday, but who else needs to know that? Get down to your nearest beach on a sunny day, snap some pictures to put up on Facebook and just pretend that you spent two weeks away in Barbados. Might need to get the fake tan on to make it look convincing though. No one has ever got a golden sun kissed tan from sitting on Brighton Beach.

 

7.       Bake!- Baking is fun and also takes up a lot of your time. It also gives you an excuse to stuff your face with the old, “well, it would be a shame to let it go to waste…”

 

Check out the food blogs on my Must Read Blog List or scour www.allrecipes.co.uk for all the best ideas and recipes.

 

8.       Explore the great outdoors- no one’s asking you to make your garden resemble something from the Chelsea Flower Show, just go out for a walk or a bike ride. You can forget how nice the area you live in is. Or, if you live in a not so nice area, just plug your headphones in and pretend you can’t hear the sirens and people yelling abuse at each other from across the street.

WHAT NOT TO DO:

1.       DON’T procrastinate on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking sites: then you just see all the fun things that everyone else is up to, only making you feel more depressed about your disappointing summer

2.       DON’T constantly tweet about how bored you are. No one cares.

3.       DON’T constantly ask your friends if they want to do something. If they haven’t got the message by the third text, they never will.

Have a lovely summer!

Georgia x

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