Tips for Blogging on a Budget!

As a 'broke college student' blogging sometimes has been a really daunting task for me. Right from purchasing products, to spending money on a laptop, and now to maintaining what I have. It all can add up pretty quick and it can be overwhelming to someone who just started a blog to blog. However, there are so many things you can do as new beginner bloggers and as old advanced tried and true bloggers to cut down the costs of running your blog. And there are also ways you can increase your costs. Yes you can make money blogging, I'll get into more of that in due time. But today I'm going to share a ton of easy and useful tips of how any blogger can save money and still have just as good of a blog as the person who spends $1000's on there blogs, tools, products and more. I hope you all find at least one of these tips helpful and be sure to let me know how you save money or spend less money in the comments below. Also don't forget to leave me your suggestions for tips and tricks posts you would like to see in the near future, right here on Little Beauty Bug

~ REUSE & RECYCLE: One of the biggest things that I did when starting out my beauty blog was to review or swatch or make posts on what was already in my collection. And even right now, there are still many products in my collection from a year ago that I never reviewed or even talked about on Little Beauty Bug. Instead of going out and purchasing new products go ahead and shop your own collection, see if you have any dupes, see if you have any favorite products, see if there is something you haven't reviewed. The possibilities of posts are endless with products you already have. You can even do a colour theme and chose green and find all your green related products and talk about those. Its really simple and easy to do. Just pull out that creative brain and start using and loving what you already have.

~ COUPONS: If you are looking to head out to your grocery store or drugstore and you know you will find yourself in the makeup aisle, take some coupons with you. There are great online sites where you can find free Printable Coupons including: HERE, HERE & HERE. Of course, if you live in the USA you can also  use coupons and get extra bucks back and so forth. You can also find Sunday Paper inserts full of amazing coupons and you can visit the drugstore little booths with printable in-store coupons. But if you're a Canadian resident like myself you know we have strict coupon rules, so when using coupons wait for a sale. Waiting for a sale means you already get that discount plus the discount of your coupon and it makes for even better savings. If you want more information about coupon shopping @GlamLifeGuru does some amazing Madness Monday's over on her YouTube Channel, which you can find HERE.

~ SALES & DISCOUNT CODES: You might not be a fan of clicking someone's affiliate link to get 10% off an online order. And maybe you don't want to use there discount code either, for whatever your reasons. But on the online shopping world 10% is a discount and you should ALWAYS take advantage of that. Its also a good idea to wait for some sales, while you might have to wait weeks sometimes its better to be patient and get something $4 off than to have paid full price for it. ELF Cosmetics is a great example, sure I can go on and buy a $3 blush today but in two weeks time they may have a 50% off sale and then I'll be kicking myself for paying the full price for it. Its also a great idea to share sales and discount codes on your blogs or social media accounts, it helps other bloggers who may be in the same financial situation you are or who are just trying to save money.

~ SAVING: But how can we save money Krystal, I have bills...a life! Okay, stop right there. I have all of those things and yet I have 5 digit figures in savings right now and I'm 21 and have worked for only about three years - NO EXCUSES! In life I know that things happen, your car breaks down and needs repairs and so forth. But when it comes to life, you also deserve to treat yourself. Get in the habit of maybe only purchasing products or things on pay day, or maybe even save $30 per pay check to spend on products in the near future. You can even simply save your change in a jar. I also discovered that Facebook is a great platform to sell things like gently used clothing and jewellry. Make the most of what you have and try to earn some cash from the things that you no longer need but someone else could use. Saving money could also be as simple as not purchasing your morning coffee and saving that money for later purchases. Think of practical and creative ways to save and it can be done.

~ DREADED MONTHLY NO BUY: As a blogger the day will come where its time to say I'm not buying another product for this month or for 100 days or whatever it be. I've had my moment and I've done the challenge and its helped and worked. It for sure is not easy and maybe something amazing and limited edition comes out and well you can't buy it. But it sure does feel good at the end of it when you've given some love to things you've already had sitting around and that you've saved some money and stress in doing it. Take one day at a time. My favorite way to do this is to have a monthly view calendar up on your wall (mine is a giant whiteboard) I mark a check-mark for everyday that I didn't purchase any makeup or didn't purchase anything. This allowed me to see the calendar every day I left the house and came home and really kept me motivated to not buy a single thing. Now, if you are a mother or wife and you have bills those things need to get paid. But did you need that lipsticks today, or did you need three coffee's. Again its about thinking rationally and practically and cutting out the things you really don't need.

~ GIVEAWAYS: So many bloggers out there nowadays just want to give back to the people who follow them. This is your opportunity to take part in those giveaways. Who care's if 7,000 people already entered it could be your name that is chosen. An example I can give is I just took part in the Canadian Beauty Bloggers and Marcelle Cosmetics Twitter Chat, in which they gave away 6 prize packs and a grand prize pack. I was lucky enough to have won the grand prize pack. I know have several products that I will be able to test out and try and review and blog about. So while you may feel negative towards giveaways, if people want to have them and give someone away take the opportunity to go after that.

~ MINIMIZE PRODUCT RELATED CONTENT: Do you know that as a blogger you don't always have to talk about the latest and great beauty product or fashion item. You can always find other ways to do great and exciting posts on your blog without using a single product. Here are some examples: Tag Posts, Day In The Life, Vlog, Weekly Instagram Feed & so many more ideas (I'll do a more detailed blog post on ideas later). But the main idea is, to be thinking outside the box. This also makes your blog different than all the mainstream beauty or fashion blogs out there.

~ REWRITING OLD POSTS: Do you have an old post you wrote two years ago somewhere on your blog. Why not take a look at that post read it over and rewrite it so its up to date and current. However, I think this only works for bloggers who have been blogging for a long period of time. For instance, I have been blogging just over a year and I don't think I would ever take my old posts and rewrite them, I still think they are something that could very well be found and fresh in people's minds. However, if you are a fairly new blogger you could always update people on your older posts. For example, I have done a Naked 2 Palette Review on my blog and I could take this post and do an update on it, I could include new swatches, my progress on the palette and if I'm still enjoying. This gives people a better idea of how the product is when they see real use of it and see you still talking about it. I wouldn't suggest rewriting all your old content though, pick and chose a few and space them out so people don't really notice its happening.

~ EQUIPMENT: This one is just straight forward and simple. You don't need a $1000 camera or computer to blog with when your phone works just as good. Its all about using what you have and not over thinking it. I currently shot my images for my blog with a Canon Digital Camera that cost me $100 about five years ago. About three years ago I went out and purchased a Nikon Coolpix, because it was more professional, I want you to know I barely touch my Nikon. The only may I ever use the Nikon is if I'm taking outdoor images because it captures the light and effects better. But for macro, product photography it sucks. So don't invest, if you don't have to. And if you are a new blogger wait and see if blogging is something you seriously want to do. If you buy a $1000 camera in the first month of blogger and then five month's later you quit blogging then your $1000 wasn't well spent.

~ PR & ADVERTISING: This is a touchy subject with most bloggers and I'll only stay here for a minute. If you are LUCKY enough to be a new blogger or old blogger and get to work with companies and get free product, all the power to you. However, as a new blogger it can be tempting to say yes to every opportunity that comes your way. Be sure to do your research and think of your audience. Why would you promote a $100 beauty product if you're a drugstore related blog? Sure it might be free and sure it might be nice to have, but it will never benefit your blog in the end. Also when it comes to 'sponsorship' always be honest with yourself, the company and your followers. Your followers are the reason your blog is alive, active and popular so don't ever hide anything from them or lie, because you will lose followers and it will do more harm them good.

~ BLOG DESIGN: Last, but certainly not least, is blog design. I'm sure you've went on your favorite blog and thought ' I love there blog layout ' or I want my blog to look like there's. Well it can and in a very cheap way. For example, when you look at my blog (while my layout might not be fabulous or your personal taste) its clean, unique, organized and has some things exactly like your favorite blogger and mine was COMPLETELY FREE! Its so easy nowadays to do your research and find tutorials online for all your blogging needs. For example, maybe you don't know how to add a header image, just Google it and there should be ton's of step by step guides on how to do it. I do warn you thought that Blogger/Blogspot, is a much easier system to customize and add, remove and change things to. The other option you have is to ask someone to make you a design, you could always ask for it for free or do a promotion for them if they do it (chances are you might not get much out of this method though). The other really simple thing to do is search places like Etsy, there are so many people selling Blog Templates on there now for really affordable prices and some of the templates are really great quality.  I know that was a really long post and it had a lot of information in it. So I'm just going to end with this. My motto when it comes to blog design and blogging is "Why would you pay someone money to do something when you can do it yourself for free" or "Why would you go out and purchase more product if you already have something similar or new in your collection?"