The Land of Laura

Hello Lovelies,

Welcome back to the new post in mine and Jess' "Lets Talk About" series, this week we'll be discussing all the things they don't tell you about growing up, from periods to drinking, we've got your girls guide to growing up covered, telling you all the little nitty gritty things no-one else ever did.

You can see mine and Jess' advice on four topics on my blog and then another four on her's.

But for now, on my blog we're going to be discussing what they don't tell you about moving out, periods, getting tattoo's and drinking!

Moving Out

Laura - 
From my personal experience, moving out is the exact opposite of everything you expect and plan it to be. Don't get me wrong, it's amazing, but impossible to prepare for! If you're like me you'll tell yourself that you'll start/stop doing a million things when you move out. For example, "i'll start making my bed" or "i'll stop leaving my washing up until the next day". While you will certainly develop your own habits and routine, it'll take time, and it'll never be perfect! I spent so much time in the first few weeks kicking myself because i broke the promises i made to myself, I just eventually had to realise that nobody is perfect and that I was developing my own little way of doing things that works for me. So, i think the main thing people don't tell you about moving out is that it's a long and messy journey of figuring out exactly who you are, and how your life best works for you ! 

Jess-
Something that everyone will face one day and the one thing that I could not wait for. I moved out of my family home into student halls but they were luxurious. I had a fab room with my own en-suite and then a huge kitchen/living area. My halls may have been luxurious but I definitely did not live with luxurious people, one of them was a complete scutter. This is where I get onto what I wish someone would have told me. I turned up to uni with my Nan's old Denby kitchen stuff, so I was very protective of it and get very annoyed if it was being abused by my awful flatmate. I really wish someone would have said actually go to Asda and buy 50p plates and cups as you probably will be lumped with someone who will ruin it. There were many occasions where I would bleach and then wash my plates and cups because they had used them and let them go mouldy and suffering with OCD did not help. So I'm giving you the advice now, if you are moving into shared accommodation don't take nice stuff that will be accessible to anyone as I can guarantee there will be somebody who will, to be frank, take the piss with it and the more you run around and clear up after them so your stuff doesn't get completely ruined the more they will do it.

Periods

Laura - 
Ah yes, periods. That wonderful topic that for some reason, we all act as though it's a taboo. I think one thing I wish someone had told me when i first started my periods is that, in most cases, they get better! With every period you have, you become one step closer to conquering those painful little sods! Everybody has their way of dealing period pain, talk to people, get some ideas, try them all, see what works for you. For me, a heat pack and nap does this trick! However, at 16 I went on the contraceptive pill as it is known to dramatically reduce period pain, and when i was missing 4 days of school every month because i was in so much pain, it was needed! I would recommend trying some home remedies first, because they can work wonders, but if you do get very intense period pain, i strongly suggest talking to your doctor and seeing what they can do - they've heard it all before! Don't fret though, in most cases your period will regulate themselves as you get older, so you can start planning for your unwanted house guests, and you'll nearly always find a way to kick their ass!

Getting Tattoo's

Laura-
I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I'm an expert when it comes to tattoos, mainly because those serial tattooers will laugh at me! But there are a few things I wish i'd known before i got my first tattoo. The first one is THINK, THINK, THINK, whatever you get will be on your body forever so you need to think about three key things; what to get, where to get it, and who's going to do it. All of these are so important as not thoroughly thinking about just one of these things can lead to a botched tattoo that you hate! Luckily, I love mine, and the artist did an amazing job! Another thing I wish I'd known is that getting a tattoo on your ribs hurts like a mother-trucker and the pain can't be described or anticipated. For example, when I was being tattoo'd at the bottom of my ribs, I got a really bad pain in my nipple - weird and unexpected! Finally, if you can't afford to get it done properly, don't do it! It doesn't matter if your friend offers you "mates rates", you know whether they're capable enough of doing the tattoo you want, if they're not, save up your money and go elsewhere!

Jess-
Ever since I was a little kid I had always wanted tattoos! I love the idea of being covered in artwork that everyone can see. For my 18th birthday my parents had promised me faithfully that they would pay for a tattoo for me, I'm 22 this year and still waiting for it to happen, so when I moved to university I decided I would get a tattoo, only something small and cute. Some kids go to uni and do drugs, I got a heart tattooed on my lower left forearm! I'll be completely honest I was absolutely crapping myself about getting it done, I'm petrified of needles and I don't really cope well with pain. So I get to the tattoo shop and am papping myself, trying to talk myself out of it with every excuse under the sun but at the same time psyching myself up and talking myself into it! The tattooist must have thought I was mental. We went into the room and I find out she's got a silent tattoo gun which instantly puts my mind at ease as the noise goes straight through me, she starts doing it and I honestly can hand on heart sit here and say it was one of the least painful, pain driven things I've felt. It's very niggly and irritating but not painful, this could have been because of where I got it as I know it is painful if its on bone but that would make sense! I would recommend getting your first tattoo on a fleshy part of your body so you get a feel for the sensation!

Drinking

Laura - 
While this is a serious topic that should not be taken light-heartedly, I'm not going to sit here and preach at you, saying that "drinking is bad" or "you shouldn't do it". The problem with drinking is that it can so easily become a problem, without you realising it. I see this all the time at university! By 'problem' I don't necessarily mean alcoholism (although this is something that can happen to), i'm more referring to the state you get yourself in when drinking. Only once in my life have I been blackout drunk. So drunk i didn't know how i got home or what had happened the night before. Luckily for me, this happened at a party where i was surrounded with friends to take care of me, and not around strangers. Some people aren't so fortunate. All i'll say on this matter is that binge drinking is an incredibly dangerous habit. Having the best night of your life, to then not have those memories in the morning is a horrific feeling. If you choose to drink, do it safely! Drink and be merry, and then stop, drink some water, and get home safe. 

Jess-
I will hold my hands up high now and admit that I'm a bit of a lightweight. Its cheap for me on a night out. I hardly ever go out or drink really though and there were definitely points where my friends thought I was boring because I wouldn't go out clubbing with them. I have never seen the appeal to going out, I'd much rather have my friends round and have a few drinks with them and thats fine. Clubs are way too expensive. My first night out when I moved to Cambridge I spent £10 entry and then probably £30 on drinks. That's extortionate, a bottle of echo falls is £5 from co-op and that keeps me more than happy. It's easy to give in and just go out if you're friends are but it really is about weighing up if its worth it, the sting to your bank account, the hangover the next morning or even those horrible drunk regrets. If these aren't worth it see if your friends would rather come round for a few social drinks, if they don't there is nothing wrong with you staying in having a glass of wine and watching a soppy rom-com by yourself!

Check out the rest of our post over on Jess' blog!

Until Next Time, 

Laura & Jess xoxo

Hello Loves,

Welcome back to 'Moving Out Monday'. Last week (which you can check out here) I went through some of the things you should think about before deciding to move out, this week i'll be going through some of the things you should look at and ask when actually viewing a rental property!

1) WHAT'S INCLUDED?

Something to ask is what exactly is included with the property. If when you're viewing the house the kitchen has a fridge, cooker and washer in it, it's worth asking if any of these things come included so you know exactly what you need to buy.

2) WHAT DO I PAY FOR?

Another thing to ask is what exactly you have to pay for. For example, if the fridge breaks, are you expected to pay for it? These are all things that should be detailed in your contract, but its worth asking all of these things on your first viewing as it will help you make a decision if you're undecided between a couple of properties.

3) BASIC RULES 

Things such as "can i put things on the wall?" or "can i have pets?" are some of the basic things you might want to ask if they effect you. If you've got a dog, for example, this is something you'll definitely want to ask to make sure the house is suited to you and your needs.

4) LOOK FOR MOULD, DAMPNESS AND WATER STAINS

Be wary of a property that has any of these things, not only can mould be dangerous to your health, but it also shows poor maintenance of the property from your landlord, which isn't what you want! Also look out for anywhere that looks like mould may have just been painted over, this is not a fix to the problem!

5) TEST THE WATER PRESSURE

A minor thing, but if you love your showers as much as i do, this is a good thing to test! Moving into a property and finding out that the shower feels like you're being cried on is horrific, so it's worth just switching the shower on and checking it works well if you're able to!

6) ASK ABOUT THE NEIGHBOURS 

If there are currently tenants in the house, ask them about the neighbours, especially if you'll be living in a terrace or semi-detached property! I know first hand what it's like sharing a wall with shitty neighbours and it's not fun! If the current tenants have had loads of trouble with the neighbours, I'd suggest looking elsewhere!

AND FINALLY, 

7) MAKE A LIST OF THE PRO'S AND CON'S

This is ultimately what helped me and Ross decide on our house, its unlikely that you'll find somewhere perfect, so making a pro/con list can really help you settle on somewhere. Ideally, the pros side will be much longer than the cons! Something to be wary of though is the weight that these pros and cons carry. For example, the pros side might be full with things like "nice wall colour", "newly decorated" or "good shower", while all of these things are valid pros if the downsides are that the property is "too small" and "too far from work", they far outweigh the positives of the house. This is why, last week, i told you it was important to decide on what is important to you!


That's all for now folks! What would you like to see next week?

Laura xoxo

Hello Lovelies,

Welcome to the first 'Moving Out Monday' post! Today, i thought id start in the logical place, the beginning of the moving out process. If you're thinking about moving out, these are some things you  might want to consider and some questions you should ask yourself before taking the plunge and moving out for the first time!

1) CAN I AFFORD IT?

When you first start thinking about moving out, this is absolutely the first thing you should figure out. Whether you'll be living alone or moving out with someone else, you need to cost out absolutely everything! Start off by looking at your income after tax, and then deduct any and all bills you have to pay, even the little ones! Bills to consider here are things like council tax, rent, internet, phone bills, Netflix etc. After you've taken off all your bills and commitments, deduct estimated costs for things that aren't fixed, such as fuel and food. Be generous here, if you think your food shop is going to cost you about £150 a month, deduct £200 from your budget, just to be safe. If, after you've deducted everything, your bank account still looks pretty healthy, then congratulations, you can afford to live on your own!

 

2) WHAT IS MY CREDIT SCORE LIKE?

This is something that not many people think about, yet it is so important for renting a house! In nearly all cases, when you apply for a house, the estate agents will credit check you to make sure you're good at keeping on top of your payments. This is where that phone bill you couldn't afford to pay a couple of months ago bites you in the ass. I'm in no way a professional on this, but your credit score is an important consideration to make. There are loads of tips and advice all over the internet that can help you with your credit score!

3) WILL I NEED A GUARANTOR?

In some cases, landlords may require you to have a guarantor. This is someone who says they will pay your rent if you ever can't, so it's a big commitment to make. So, something to consider here is do you know anyone that would be a guarantor for you? (Parents are usually good people to ask). Also, if they are willing to be a your guarantor, do they meet the requirements? Luckily, i didn't have to have a guarantor for my home, but if i did, the requirement was that they had to be earning 3x the annual rent for the house. So, if your yearly rent is £10,000, your guarantor would have to have an income of at least £30,000. Guarantors are usually required for a couple of reasons such as being young, or the landlord worries that your income isn't enough and questions your affordability.

4) WHAT DO I NEED MY PLACE TO HAVE?

Thinking about what you want your place to have is probably the most fun bit of this whole process at this stage. It's important to think about this to help you with your budget. For example, if you want a house with at least 3 bedrooms, you need to make sure there is room in your budget for that, and if not, you need to look at how important having 3 bedrooms is to you. If there are 3 of you moving in together, then having three bedrooms would be something very important to you. Just think about what you need your place to have in order for it to work for you. This also helps you narrow down your search when you begin looking for homes!

5) RESEARCH ESTATE AGENTS

Having a browse online and reading some estate agent reviews is honestly priceless! Nothing makes moving out more stressful that shitty estate agents, so do your research! I was very lucky in that Belvoir we're absolutley fantastic and so incredibly helpful and efficient. They really helped make the whole application process go smoothly, which is exactly what you want when applying to rent your first home as you don't really know what you're doing!

6) THINK ABOUT WHO YOU ARE GOING TO LIVE WITH

If you're choosing to live with someone else then this is crucial, especially if your signing a long rental contract. You and your partner may well be together forever, but i still wouldn't recommend you sign a rental agreement with them after just 3 weeks together. Make sure you're confident in the relationship you have with a person before agreeing to live with them, whether their friend, partner or family. If there's a high chance you'll fall out and want to live together anymore, i'd reconsider, because even if you don't want to live together anymore, you'll still have to pay the rent until the contract expires.

7) DO I HAVE ENOUGH SAVINGS?

Last but by no means least, you need to make sure you have enough savings to move out. Look at all the things you're going to have to buy and how much you have to pay up front to make sure you have enough in your savings to cover these costs. It cost me and Ross £300 to even apply for our home, and then we had first months rent and a deposit to pay on top of that. These costs vary from house to house, but i would say you'd need at least £2000 saved up to make sure you can consider these costs, depending on where you're moving to because places such as London will require a higher deposit.

That's all of my tips on what to think about before renting your first place, hopefully you've found them helpful if you're thinking about moving out! If there is anything you think i've missed, be sure to let me know in the comments!

TTFN,

Laura xoxo

Hello lovelies,

Top 10 Relationship Tips (Not necessarily in the right order)

1) Compromise - I know I said these weren't in the right order, but this is probably my absolute number 1 tip! Compromise is so important in all aspects, whether its fro

Bonus Tip From Ross!

As a little bonus I asked my boyfriend for his number one bit of relationship advice and can't believe I didn't think of it myself! Ross' top tip is to never try to change a person and love them for all their positives and well as their negatives (which i have bags of). I have to say I 100% agree with this one. Love them for who they are, never change them and never let them change who you are!

Hi Guys,

Welcome to the first official post in my new series "Lets Talk About:"! To see what this series is all about check out my previous post (although, its fairly self explanatory). To kick things off I wanted to talk about something that I've wanted to do a post on for ages - university! I kept putting off writing about university because I wanted to wait until I was close to my graduation (which I now am, go me!), so that I could truly impart some proper wisdom, rather than just saying "jaegerbombs are grim after the second one", which is truly the only advice I could have offered as a fresher. I've broken it down into categories and given you my top 3 pieces of advice for each topic, although not necessarily in the right order! I decided to focus on advice for when you're actually at University, if you'd like a post offering advice on the application process and choosing where to go, let me know!  So here it is....

Books
 - don't go nuts buying loads, they cost a bomb and you most likely won't need half of them ! Try taking them out of the library and see which ones are worth getting first !
- for books you do need to buy, try getting second hand ones, university forums and social media pages are great for this, there is bound to be people in the year above you that don't need their anymore.
- for books you need from the library, get in there early! The library will only have a limited number of books and if it's a core text book for the course, they will run out !

Accommodation
- stay in halls in your first year (if possible), it's a great way to meet new people and make friends. Be careful about what accommodation you use though, look at what you can realistically afford. For example, my student loan wouldn't cover me having an en suite room, so take this into consideration!
- if you choose to move into a student house, NEVER GET 12 MONTH CONTRACTS. They seem great at first because you don't have to move all your stuff home at summer, but if your in my position (I.e you get basically the minimum loan) you won't be able to afford rent over the summer. Look at the cost of renting and see if you can afford it, but realistically, most people don't stay at uni over the summer, so it becomes a waste of money anyway.
- If you do live in a student house there will sometimes be a downstairs bedroom, if this is the case, avoid it like the plague! You'll be woken up constantly!

Work
- get a part time job (even if you don't need one), it looks great on your CV and it's a good way to meet new people.
- get into a habit of starting your uni work early. Getting into a good habit with this will make your life much easier later on ( I didn't do this, and boy do I wish I had)
- any extra things you can do such as volunteering will look all go on your academic record and look great on your CV, anything extra you can do makes you more employable when you graduate.

Social
- be yourself, literally anything goes at uni and you're pretty much guaranteed to find someone who likes the same stuff you do, so there is no need to pretend to be into stuff you're not.
- depending on where you go, there is a pretty big 'drinking culture' at University and it is ABSOLUTELY FINE to not be in it. If your not a big drinker (or you don't drink at all) do not feel pressured, you can still go on nights out if you want to and people will like you just as much!
- Join a society. Societies are massive at university and they range from the academic (such as the medical society) to the down right wacky (my university has a Quiddich Society!). There's bound to be something for you and they're a fantastic way to meet people and escape from work every now and again.

Graduating
- If you're not graduating until June, start applying for graduate job before Christmas, since this is when a lot of the application deadlines are for graduate schemes.
- Even if a company isn't advertising a job, drop them an email and your CV anyway, it shows passion and initiative - I got an interview from doing this!
- Don't promise loads of people that they can come to your graduation, there is normally a two person ticket limit!

Money
- Live within your means. It may be nice to have an en-suite bathroom but if you cant afford it you will begin to resent that bathroom more than anything. Nothing stresses you out more than not being able to afford your rent - shared bathrooms honestly aren't that bad! (depending on how many people you're sharing with).
- Food shopping is extortionate. Make a rough meal plan and a list before you go shopping, try to buy things that can be used for a lot meals (chicken breasts for example) and buy things that can easily be frozen. Its horrible spending a fortune on food and having to throw it away because it's gone out of date.
- When choosing where to bank, don't be drawn in my by the massive overdraft limits and freebies. I went with Santander for the big overdraft and free railcard. BIGGEST. REGRET. EVER. Setting up their online banking is a nightmare and their mobile app is shit. Mobile/Online banking is fantastic at uni for when you inevitably have to pay your housemate for your share of the Dominoes.



There is probably a million things I've missed but these were all the main things I wanted to cover! I hope if you're thinking of going to University or are at University already you found at least some of these useful! I had a fun time writing this, laughing to myself about all the stories that inspired each piece of advise. I'll be back on Sunday with another post and next Thursday  with another "Lets Talk About:". What would you like me to cover next?! Leave a comment or tweet me @LauraCharlotteG!

Until next time loves,

Laura xoxo

Hey Guys!

Just a quick post to tell you about my new blog series called "Let's talk about:..." where every week I talk about about a new topic - some serious, some not so serious, just a variety of things I feel I could offer insight, advice, or opinion on. First post coming to you Thursday!

As well as writing about things I want to talk about it, i also want to address topics proposed by you guys ! I'd love you hear your ideas ! To have your topic featured on "Let's Talk About:" simply comment or tweet me; @LauraCharlotteG.

I'm so excited to start this!

Back Thursday,

Laura xoxo