Four tips to do Las Vegas on a budget

When we went to Las Vegas earlier on in the year I was shocked by how expensive it was. I knew it was going to be pricey but it was SO pricey. That's coming from a girl who spends most of her life in London where being expensive is a way of life. After being there a day we quickly realised we were going to spend a lot of money BUT as the days went on we realised that maybe we didn't have to take out a second mortgage in order to have a good time. Here are some four tips to help you see Vegas on a budget...

Make the most of the hotels
To be honest one of the best things about Vegas is wandering from hotel to hotel, with each one being even more bonkers than the last. It's completely free to soak up the atmosphere and people watch in the craziest place on earth. For sheer opulence The Venetian was a sight to behold, you'll find yourself wandering around with your mouth open. For retro vibes, head to the Flamingo with real flamingos hanging out in the pool area. For Willy Wonka-style grandness the Wynn has some absolutely incredible floral displays that are crying out for an Instagram snap. The Ballagio has cool old-school vibes and really sums up what Las Vegas is all about.

Take advantage of the fast food joints
I've been lucky enough to visit a few cities in America and Vegas is probably the worst foodie choice. I may not have eaten at the right places but I did my research and everything still fell a little flat. The city seemed to go for quantity over quality. But one thing America does do well is a fast food joint! Shake Shack in particular tastes an million times nicer out there than it does in London. We tended to opt for fast food for lunches and then splash out a little for dinner to help keep costs down.

Avoid the taxis and download Uber
The strip is absolutely huge and after a few times, the novelty tends to wear off walking up and down. It takes such a long time as the crowds really do slow you down. I recommend to download the Uber app to get around cheaply. We got a hell of a lot of Ubers over the week and we spent around £38 each which was unbelievably cheap. I'd fully expected it to be at least £100. Someone told us there are a staggering 30,000 uber drivers in Vegas so you never have to wait longer than a minute for one.

Stick to the slot machines in casinos
If you make it to Vegas you have to have a little flutter at some point. But it can be easy to blow loads of money before you know it. Keep an eye out for the slot machines which are 25 cents a go. That means you have four tries on the one armed-bandits for a dollar. When you start using dollar machines it can soon add it and cut into your budget a lot.

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Four ways to budget your weekly food shop

When you're looking to save money, one of the easiest ways to cut back is on your shopping list. But cutting back doesn't mean you have to cut back on the quality of food you eat. You just have to be savvy! I've become obsessed with trying to lower the price of my food shop each week. Anyone else play that game at the checkout where you try to guess the final total? No? Just us weirdos then! We do treat ourselves to an Abel & Cole box delivered every fortnight which works out around $6.60 each week on top of our food bill. When we buy meet every so often we try to make sure to go to the local butchers to ensure it's free range. We buy cheap cuts of meat like chicken thighs but often find they're the most flavoursome. Here are my four money-saving tips that I swear by when I'm scanning the aisles of Aldi each week...

1. Shop around
It's so convenient to go to one supermarket and get all your shopping completely done in one go. But the supermarkets you visit might not always be the cheapest. We've discovered that Aldi for the bulk of our shop, Home Bargains for cleaning/washing products and specialist cuisine shops for our spices, herbs and ingredients a little out of the ordinary works out to be the cheapest for us. It can be a bit of pain having to go to three different shops but I like to think of it as a little adventure!

2. Go veggie during the week
Since January we've been trying to make a conscious decision to become 'mid-week' vegetarians. Part of it was because I'm trying to do my bit to be more sustainable and the other was because we are trying to cut down on our weekly food bill. We average on around £30 for a veggie food shop compared to around £50 for a food shop including meat. We buy a lots of pulses in the form of tinned beans and lentils to help keep our protein up. Meat is kept for the odd day at the weekend where we'll go to the butchers or a treat if we have dinner out. I haven't really found myself missing it and I'm loving how much more adventurous its making me with my cooking. It's so easy to fall into the trap of always cooking meat and veg without giving it too much thought. I'm determined to create meals where meat isn't missed and think I'm succeeding 75% of the time.

3. Meal plan
The day before we do our shop I'll go through our larder, grab my cookbooks and meal plan for the upcoming week. I tend to choose dinners for four people so I can cook enough for us to have lunch the following day. I only do five days as we always have one day where we're both out and another where we're home alone - that night it is toast of some sort. My favourite comfort food! I don't always cook the meal on the day planned but it will be cooked sometime that week. I find this stops me panic buying and spending unnecessary money. I try to only buy produce that I will use that week to minimise food waste.

4. Stock your cupboard with tins
I love tins. In fact I can't rave about tinned food enough! It's amazing how versatile they are. And cheap! I always make sure I have tinned tomatoes, fish and different types of beans to ensure that even when the cupboards feel bare there is always something to be able to made into a meal. You can easily put off shopping for a few days if you have a well stocked cupboard.

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An honest opinion of a vegetable subscription service

I'd been interested in subscribing to a veg box since I moved it but it seemed a bit frivolous. But now after living in our house for two years, money isn't as tight as it once was so I took the plunge and signed up to see if they were really worth the money. I opted for Abel & Cole because I loved the idea of their British veg box priced at £12.50. I've been trying really hard this year to make more ethical food choices to try and help the environment. One of those is only eating vegetables that are season to help cut down on the transportation.

Consisting of six different varieties of vegetables, everything in the box is organic. It changes each week but you'll find you'll sometimes get a lot of the same things due to the fact the U.K is limited in what type of veg it can grown. That darn British weather! Sadly you can't ask for replacements like you can for the other boxes so if you don't like something that's included then that's tough. You'll find the contents of the box for the next two weeks on the website so you can decided whether you would like it delivered. In the particular week pictured we got free tofu included in the box and I added some wild garlic after being influenced on Instagram! Occasionally we will add other stuff, this week I added some bread and salted butter.

We decided to get it delivered fortnightly as £12.50 each week did seem a bit expensive and a waste of money. As there are only two of us in this house I've found this works out perfectly. I don't know if it's because its organic but it really does last a long time so we barely finish eating it before the next box gets delivered. I plan my meals around what we will receive in the box so it's so helpful to see the contents online in advance. The packaging is all recyclable, even the plastic. I love the fact you can leave the box outside, and all the other packaging if you wish, and they will collect it to reuse it again for another box.

So is it worth the money? In a short answer yes! I love having it delivered every week and the produce is always so delicious. In particular the tomatoes are incredible. They actually taste like tomatoes which is more than what you can say for the ones in the supermarket...  Having the box makes me much more adventurous with my cooking as I'm using ingredients I never would have thought to use. As we're making more of an effort to go veggie, it's making it a lot easier to get more of our daily allowance. It's so easy to bulk up dinners with potatoes but this is making sure I get my five a day. We are sometimes still buying a couple of veggies in our weekly shop but that's mostly if I'm cooking for other people than our household of two. I even don't mind that the veg is a little grubby when it arrives - Sophie a year ago would have hated this! - as this means that it really is organic. Nothing a little rinse under the tap can't sort! We've been enjoying the box for two months now and I can't imagine we'll be stopping anytime soon.

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