How I saved £3k to Travel Europe while being a Student!

Hello guys,
 I went to university with the intention to travel as much as I can but I had no savings put aside for travelling. In my first 2 years at university I managed to travel while saving money for it simultaneously. The main cities I went to were Iceland, Mallorca, Tenerife, Brussels, Copenhagen, Malmo, Amsterdam. I also went on various other small city trips with my family etc. that I funded for myself.
So how did I save this money?

Say no to restaurant trips
I remember being really social in my first year at university and I was part of many societies. I would go to them weekly but whenever there was a social which involved going out and eating I wouldn't attend. Same goes for restaurant trips with friends, I avoided them. I'd say that will easily give you about minimum £200 of saved money.

Avoid going home
If you live out, this will be one of your major spendings depending on how far away your home is from the city you live in for uni. Each trip costs me on average £25 minimum so if you were to go home every week that's £100 per month that you're saving.

Get a part time job
I only worked during my half term holidays but it was enough, depending on where you work of course. I was really fortunate with this but depending on how much effort you put into searching you can find some pretty good jobs out there. Or you could get a job at university, most uni jobs take into consideration that you're a student and give you reasonable hours.

Calculate a Weekly Budget
Based on your weekly requirements and costs calculate how much money you need minimum a week to survive. Once you have that amount, add an amount of money you'd like to save and from that obtain a reasonable weekly budget that works for you - which isn't too strict and reasonable so you're less likely to give up. I'm currently on a £30 a week budget and if I stick to it I will be able to save the money that I have calculated to keep.

Plan your journeys
Don't just go to town/high street/city to get the one or two things you need to buy. Make a list and get it all at once, you save time and bus fare money.

Pre-drink enough

If you drink alcohol and want to enjoy yourself on a night out - I'm not saying no to it. Go for it!
But - make sure you pre-drink enough that you won't have to go beyond spending £10 at the club.

Take advantage of your student life
As a student believe it or not you have an unbelievable amount of time, if you're able to work - do it!
You don't have to be super strict and stingy, you can save so easily! You get a student loan but you don't necessarily need to spend it all on online shopping. Your loan is a lovely amount, either way you'll be using it and you'll have to pay it back at least make sure you used it for something that will have a lasting effect on your life and travelling definitely does!

I had a great time as a fresher, I didn't just travel and give up my social life for it, I still had saved enough money for both!

Hope this helped and if you end up using these saving money tips let me know :)

How I felt about my First Event | Becoming a Young Entrepreneur

Hey guys!

As a teenager I always admired celebrities just like everyone else my age but the people I really looked up to were young entrepreneurs. When you're young your 20s sounds like a big age and I have also said to myself one day I want to be able to start up my own small business when I'm in my 20s and here I am. I am 21 now and I have started my own Event Planning and Management business called Beau Chic Events. (@beauchic_events)

It all sounds nice and wonderful, the picture perfect story of a girl who became an entrepreneur at 21. The truth is, you can portray things in any way you want to. On the 21st September I hosted my first ever event in London as part of my company and I must say that project has taught me so much as an entrepreneur. The skills and knowledge I gained from the experience can't be bought. I must say I am very proud of myself looking back at it now. I had to make big and bold decisions and I realised what it is like to be a small start up company and how you will get treated in the world of business. I also learnt a lot about friendships and family. I received a tremendous amount of support. What I learnt the most is that not everyone will be happy for you. Some people will only be there when the grass is green. Those that stuck through all the difficult parts of planning this event have really made me appreciate family and friendship to the extra extent. I was having anxiety attacks, I was nervous and honestly it was heart warming to see how many people actively made the effort to get me through it all.
Everything goes by the statement of "That's how business is". I have a lot to learn but I've started young and I have many years to go. Majority of small start up companies end up failing after their first year and if not they don't survive longer than 3 years. For me this was about experience and gaining skills. I took many risks, had many anxious nights, sleepless days but at the end I just felt happy for myself for who I am now.

I will never stop learning, this is all part of a massive learning curve, I will dare to take many more risks, open to many more positive and negative experiences. The self motivation is there!
I can't wait to continue this journey of my own. I have another goal that I am currently working on but I don't like to jinx my opportunities in life so I'll keep you guys updated on my working progress on that in due time!

Simple changes that transform how you look in a Lengha!

Hey guys!

Well if my love for Lengha's isn't apparent by now it should be to you after reading this post. I absolutely adore them for many reasons:
- easy to wear when you're on the go and changing at events
- no pre-pleating or difficult long wearing process like with sarees
- skirts and tops can be easily mixed and matched with other things
- can be perfectly fitted to your sizing
and you just simply will look cute in them, there's no way it can go wrong. I'm gonna struggle to wear anything else but lenghas when I'm in my 40s and probably too old for them oops.

As beautiful as they're you need to do it right! There's things you need to pay attention to when wearing a lengha.

1. The Fitting

The fitting is so so important with lenghas! As easy as it sounds to just buy it and wear it, you shouldn't! Get it perfectly tailored to your body - I mean perfectly! It makes such a difference to how it actually looks on you. Let me show you.

Left - not tailored to my size, just used the ribbon to wear the skirt
Right - after tailoring

Do you see the huge difference it makes?

These pictures were taken with a day apart so now it's not a weight loss picture.
If you don't get it tailored, to make it cling your waist, you will end up looking much broader than you actually are.

Here's another example! I look very out of it this day and tired so ignore my face it had its reasons but look at the waist! such a lovely lengha skirt but I personally think it didn't sit as well as it should've because I was too busy to go to the tailor!

2. The Flow

If it's not fitted to your waist the skirt will simply not flow. It will hang down like in the picture above and not flow like a princess.

I mean look at this picture. It flows perfectly and all I had to do is get the skirt and top tailored. But I think you get the point now...moving on to the next point.


3. Mix and Match

Just because the blouse comes with it doesn't mean you have to wear it. The blouse that came with the pastel pink skirt above wasn't nice at all. I hated it. It was not nicely fitted, the material was weird compared to the skirt. So I went and bought a ready made saree blouse for £20 and got it tailored which made the outfit look the way it did.

Here I am wearing a simple crop top from Boohoo with a lengha skirt! Sometimes simple can actually look soo nice, I find it nice anyway.

Don't be scared to try new combos! They might work out so nicely!

I hope you enjoyed this post and I will be back with more very soon.

How You Can Lose Weight With Me This Summer

Hey guys!

My uni exam results are coming tomorrow and that got me thinking about the most difficult 2 months I had this year. April and May were 2 terrific months for me, my stress levels were at its peak, I was stress eating, my body started giving up on itself and the stress and my stress related eating habits led to me developing health conditions. Now that I stand in front of the mirror the consequences are visible. Sitting in the library everyday for 12 hours straight with hardly any walking can make you gain some serious weight. At that point it seemed worth it and well tomorrow I'll know. My logic was - weight I can maintain anytime but my grades, I've only got one real shot at it. 

Today I had the courage to get back on the weighing scale and see how much I've actually gained -

6 kilograms! That's dangerously close to my old weight, if you don't know about my previous weight loss transformation you can read about it here.

If I've done it before I can do it again and if any of you would like to lose some weight join me on this journey let's do it together! We'll keep weekly updates via my blog. I will update you on my progress.

Eating Habits 

From last time I know more than exercising your diet is KEY. So what has changed recently for me to gain weight? I've started eating mum's Tamil food on a daily! As delicious as it is I really can't afford to eat like that, Tamil Food can be seriously unhealthy but delicious I must say.

During the exam period I have learnt to drink fizzy drinks and eat packs of sweets which I never did before. Now that I'm back home for the holidays I've started eating dinner at ridiculous times. 

Main Dietary changes: 

1. Only eat Tamil Food 2 times a week 

2. No more fizzy drinks in the home only when I'm out at a restaurant

3. No sweets to be bought 

4. Cut down on the dairy - especially milk

5. Must drink 2 litres of water a day

6. Eat on time - no dinners after 8 pm 

Punishment fees for not following, will be put in my savings account

1. £4 per extra Tamil meal a week

2. £2 per fizzy drink

3. £2 per chocolate bar or sweet pack

4. I'm going to trust myself with the milk and not set a fee

5. £1 for under drinking water - anything below 2 litres

6. £3 for a late dinner 

To make sure I do all of this I'm going to set a fee for each time I lie to myself and act outside the rules. I'm going to take advantage of my stinginess and make sure I charge myself in case I don't follow. At least the money will go to my savings.

Exercise:

As I'm a part-time waitress and I work quite frequently during the summers I count that as quite a bit of exercise. 

In the extra time I find I shall go for morning swims and jogs at the park. 

Swimming is the quickest and most fun way to cardio! I'm also going to buy myself a bike if I don't follow. 

Sooo these are the things I will do and you guys are welcome to join me on this! 

Let's connect via instagram drop me a DM at @undercovermathu or email me at undercovermathu@gmail.com! 

Till tomorrow guys! 

Sleepover Time | ♥

Hello lovelies,

I'm in London at the moment chilling with my bestie Lux. As promised I will update you guys everyday about the little things in life.We are watching the Notebook. I've started reading the book in German but I never actually finished it. I'll let you know what I thought about it. This sorta feels like a diary entry...let me know if you guys enjoy these quick update posts. 

Oki dokes, gonna go back to the movie and snacks. Lux paused the movie just for me to write this post and she's patiently waiting for me to finish. 

Good night guysss...

My Prison Visit Experience

Hello loves,

so recently I realised that slowly I've lost the true meaning of blogging. A blog is not supposed to be a website, it's supposed to tell people your story so that they can follow it and enjoy it with you so that's what I'm doing to do. The aim is to update my blog as much as possible even if it's just an entry to update you about what I did that day. Moving on to what this post is really about...

The other day I got approached by a company with an interpreter job! Crazy right? I didn't even apply! I took it of course and at first I found it really scary. I hadn't really signed a non-disclosure agreement before and seeing all the paperwork with small print was a little scary so I got confirmation from my uncle who helped me out. 

My first task was in a prison! Amazing right!! I have always wanted to go inside a prison and to see what it is like without you know actually committing a crime myself. The client needed me to translate what a prisoner was saying and that's all I can disclose about it. However, I can tell you how it was on the inside! It was actually just like I imagined, if not a little scarier actually. I went to the HMP Elmley on the Isle of Sheppey. The security within the prison was crazy and there were so many gated doors! I'm pretty sure we walked through 15 doors at least to get to where I needed to. 

On my arrival I had to sign myself in the staff bit and I had to hand in almost everything - phone, valid trains tickets, deodorants, USB etc. and I gave them my passport.Then I waited for a prison officer to take me through all those doors - he had to open every door with a lock and unlock it! 

While in there I saw a few prisoners in there on the passing. 

It was a very interesting experience and I am so glad that I got the experience. Definitely something I'd like to talk about in an interview if relevant. 

I'm gonna have some dinner while watching an episode of 13 reasons why and then head to bed.

Till tomorrow! :) 

Good night lovelies xo 

How KFC Taught Me About Life!

 Hey guys!

You see how there's always a friend that just needs to be in a relationship and would at most have a 6 month break between each relationship? Well that has been me but with jobs. Since the legal age of work - age 11 - if you're wondering I have always had a job. There has not been a period since then where I've been unemployed. Yes 11 year old children can work on the weekends up to 3 hours each day and I know that because I have always wanted to work and been going through websites to see whether I was eligible. That's when I got my first ever job at the age of 11, I was babysitting my close friend at the time's baby brother. I earned £3 an hour and to be honest for a kid that is an amazing salary. 

From then I have had so many mini jobs and so many jobs at once but only one job has taught me life. This one job changed everything about me and the way I viewed life and I am very glad that I did it. 

KFC! Yeah so I worked at KFC during my A Levels which I deeply regretted when I got my A Level results as I struggled to maintain the high grades that I know I am capable of getting but now that I am almost done with uni and look back at it I have no regrets. There was no better time in life for me to work at KFC. I was a cashier and I went in having never eaten anything from KFC, I really knew  nothing about chicken. While working there I picked up a mop for the first time and really learned what it's like to clean. I've cleaned disgusting toilets and I've dealt with cruel customers on the tills.  While working there some of my classmates would come in and I'd hide and feel humiliated. I shouldn't have! I was making money and stood on my own two feet. 

What really impressed me at the job was that no matter how stressful and tiring the job was the people that worked there were the happiest I've ever met.  I reckon I will sit in an office one day where the people there will be earning twice the salary and work half as hard but are just way more miserable. The people there had been working in KFC for many many years and they had such a positive outlook on life. They work hard and earn little compared to other jobs yet they are so happy. 

The job really taught me a lot about humans - I didn't even know customers could be this difficult!

The moment I stood behind the tills wearing a red staff shirt some customers belittled me and spoke to me as if I had no brain. The assumption that I must be uneducated was all over their faces. The truth is, life could happen to any of us! Any of us could be working in KFC or McDonald's no matter how much we've studied. 

So thank you very much KFC for having me because that job really has shaped me to be the way I am. 

Well looks like I go through with the things I say....