When it comes to beauty, sometimes it’s tempting to go DIY crazy in an attempt to save money. This post aims to advise you about when you can have a go yourself, and when you’d save money in the long run by leaving it to the professionals.

When it comes to dying your hair, there’s nothing wrong with an at-home dye job. At-home hair dyes are great these days, with formulas that are easy to use, long lasting, and, most importantly, they can give lovely, muti-tonal results. Just make sure you carry out a patch test to ensure you are not allergic to the ingredients.

A manicure can be a simple way to pamper yourself at home too. Just remove nail varnish, file, buff nails to a shine then paint with your favourite shades. If you are feeling fancy, you could try out some false nails and you’ll still spend much less than you would at a salon.

If it’s the feeling of being away from the stresses of everyday life that you love about your salon visits, just light a relaxing candle and switch off your phone, computer and TV for half an hour; you deserve it.

There are certain occasions when an at-home treatment may not be the way to go. If you are considering a skin peel, high street options may not give you the dramatic results you could get with a professional provider of non-surgical treatments, such as MYA whose page you can visit here. If you go for a peeling product from your local shop, you could end up paying out again if you are unhappy with the results.

The same caution should be practiced when considering a haircut. While you could save money by doing it yourself or asking a friend to, you may end up making an emergency trip to the nearest available hairdresser, potentially paying over-the-odds for them to fix your latest hair-don’t. Best leave this one to the professionals in the first place.

We’ve all seen them; men who look like they could have blown their nose on a fifty pound note this morning and not thought twice about it. The kind of man you don’t need to see get into his top of the range car to just know he’s got one. And while attitude has a lot to do with it, let’s face it; it’s mostly about the clothes.

This breed of bloke can be termed the ‘rich aura man’. He always looks well groomed and, above all, cool. This could be you. And you don’t need to spend a fortune.

First off, think about expensive-looking colours. You want to look on-trend but not as though you are bound by the shackles of what society says you should wear (yes, the rich aura man is a bit of a rebel too). While dressing all in black can be striking, it can also make you look like you are trying to be A, John Travolta in Greece, B, a biker, or in the worst case scenario C, a mime artist. So best to wear a couple of colours to prevent the all-in-one/leotard look.

Light cameo coloured jeans are a more interesting, and more expensive-looking choice to the traditional blue jean. Worn with a fitted white t-shirt – not skin tight but not of proportions to rival a tent – the neutral jean brings a fresh, almost holiday inspired look to a man. Now for the key to looking sharp and successful on a budget: choose a pair of jeans that are well made, thick and that carry a prestigious brand. People check out that little brown leather label on the back of your jeans, and you don’t want yours to let you down.

So you’re prepared to spend a little more on your essential pair of jeans, good call. You’ll get so much use out of them that cost per wear will be miniscule, as they’ll last for ages. But looking this effortlessly upmarket on your lower half sets you free to buy plain t-shirts from the cheapest place you can find. Consider multipacks as they sometimes work out really well. If you buy an unbranded pair of sunglasses no-one will be able to tell how much they’re worth, so your savvy secrets will be safe and you’ll look like you’re preparing for your next luxury business-class trip to Richville.

Even if you are the world’s best super-saver when it comes to making creative meals from leftovers or car sharing to avoid excessive petrol costs, you may be missing a trick. Being savings savvy needn’t mean looking shabby! If you make a few smart moves, you can care for your body and your style without damaging your purse.

First of all, think about your eyewear. Do your glasses cost you a fortune every time you drop them, sit on them, or simply decide you don’t like their style? If you want to stop spending out on glasses or contacts, having laser eye surgery could be the right move for you. If you need a very high prescription, click here.

We all know the importance of eating plenty of fruit and veg for a healthy body, but if you want to save money on your beauty regime, listen up! Anti-aging lotions and potions can only do so much. So why spend a fortune on ‘rehydrating’ this and ‘softening’ that when you could drink your way to a more youthful complexion? Water is a great skin-plumper, while green tea is full of antioxidants so can pack an even more effective punch when it comes to fighting off the years.

Finally, take a look into your wardrobe. Could you re-vamp any existing items to give them a new lease of life? For example, a plain white top could be brought up to the minute with some neon dye, or a plain pair of shoes could become the perfect wedding-guest outfit maker with the simple addition of a few carefully places diamantes.

In this world of borrowing money and spending beyond our means, it is often difficult not to give in to the things we covet. But debts are scary and there’s nothing glamorous about not knowing how you are to afford next month’s rent, even if you are surrounded by the latest fashions.

The key, therefore, is to learn how to budget your money. But how can you muster the determination to do so if the offer of seemingly “free” money is always present?

If you set up a bank account that doesn’t have an overdraft facility, you are forced to face up to the realities of your financial situation. This in itself may sound terrifying, but it can in fact be one of the most empowering choices you could make. You will be able to look at what you have and decide, with a firm grasp of the consequences, whether you can really afford that night on the town or those new shoes.

By managing your money in this way, you could feel more in control of your life. You may need to adjust your social life to curb your spending, which could see you being more imaginative with your free time. Taking up a hobby could help you meet more people, while simply suggesting different, less expensive things to do with your existing friends could get you out of a rut.

If you have the desire to explore somewhere new but money is tight, why not consider a house swap. You could get a holiday with free accommodation and a house sitter for your own home, all in one! Also, if you enjoy the experience of making someone’s stay special, you could consider renting out your property as a holiday home. It could be a great way to earn cash if you own another residence, or if you have somewhere to holiday yourself.

House swapping: how it works

First of all you will need to find someone who has a property in a place you would like to visit, and who likes your location, too. Creating an online advertisement could be a good move, unless you can track down a likely candidate though networking. Mention the idea to as many acquaintances as possible; you never know who might have a friend in Spain!

Once you have found a great location and a like-minded house swapper, organise the dates. It is most straight forward to travel on the same dates, so you arrive at the swapper’s house on the same day as he or she arrives at yours. It makes for a more comfortable transition than if you were there to run through the rules.

That brings us to one of the most important parts of the house swap. To avoid any confusion about what is and is not included in your exchange, be clear from the outset. Communicate with your fellow swapper so you are both providing similar things. For example, it is courteous to leave essentials like milk and bread for your guest, but you may want to let them help themselves to your food, shower gel and similar items, in return for you being able to do the same.

We all know that if you feel great about your body, it shows, making your clothes look better and making you appear more attractive to others. So, how do you go about building this body confidence without spending a fortune on a blowout shopping trip, hypnotherapy or plastic surgery?

A few simple tweaks could be all you need to see you feeling like a new, super-confident you:

Start with the basics: Good shapewear lifts you into position, making sure your clothes fit as they should, while making you appear thinner by exposing more of your waist, and younger (leave the sagging bust to the grannies!).

Show off your best features: Do you love your legs? Go on, wear a skirt! Your favourite feature may be less obvious; an elegant neck could be played up with dangly earrings, while slim wrists can be shown off with three-quarter sleeves.

Listen to the voices! Look at yourself in the mirror and tell yourself you are beautiful. You may feel embarrassed at first but accepting yourself will make a huge difference to the way other people perceive you. If you believe you are attractive, you will become more attractive to others; it’s as simple as that.

Bored by your bedroom? Make it fab without spending a fortune; just follow these top tips.

First of all, look around you. Is there anything in your bedroom that stresses you out? Work files? To-do lists? Banish them! Even consider removing the TV from your bedroom? It’s a big step but relaxation is paramount and dodgy late-night horror films won’t help you unwind!

Up your comfort levels by turning your mattress over and around so you have a freshly firm sleeping spot. Just think how much easier and more fun this task would be if you had a super-stylish circular bed!

Now you’re in the lifting spirit, have a shift around. Would your dressing table get more natural light over there? Would you have more floor space if you moved that chest of drawers? Your bedroom could take on a whole new lease of life with just a few changes.

If you are bored with the look of your drawers, wardrobe or bedside cabinet, you can completely change their style with some new handles. There are some great patterned ones out there that will give your room a funky edge, while vintage- style rose handles look beautifully girly.

If you’ve been planning your dream move abroad and have painstakingly researched the area where you want to live, bagged your dream job, chosen a school for the kids and got a great deal on your new home, now’s not the time to take your eye off the ball.  In addition to planning the move of your goods and your family, you’ll need to shift your assets abroad too and pay for those you are taking up overseas. To do this you will need to complete transactions with large sums in foreign currency. In these circumstances many individuals use their bank for these dealings without a second thought. However, with a little time and research they could save up to five per cent on the rates offered by banks by using the services of a specialist like TorFX.

It can be easy to think that to get a transaction out of the way with the minimum of fuss using your usual bank would be the easiest route, but many exchange brokers offer easy online and telephone services.  Small percentages make a huge difference when you are dealing with large numbers too. If you decide to buy an overseas property at a cost of £200,000 or more, five per cent could mean a saving of up to £10,000 – enough money to refurbish your new home.

Running out of storage space is a common problem among laptop users, and opting for a model with a larger hard drive can push up the price considerably. If you have lots of files like movies, photos, music and documents that you don’t always need immediate access to, a great solution is to invest in a good external hard drive, available from computer retailers like Misco.

Portable USB drives are capable of carrying several GB of data and barely affect the portability of your laptop at all as they can easily fit in your pocket. Alternatively, if you need to store away a lot of data, much larger hard drives can be bought. While they are still only around the size of a thick book, these drives go up to 3TB of data and usually plug in separately to the laptop.

Apart from that, they work just like the hard drive on your laptop – you can transfer your files and organise them into folders however you wish. Alternatively, you can copy all your data onto the drive to serve as a backup, which can be a life-saver if your internal hard drive is damaged, stolen or corrupted.

While travel insurance is an extremely important facet of safety when going on holiday – particularly in countries where healthcare comes at an extremely high cost, such as the US – there’s no reason why it should cost you a lot of money. In fact, there are plenty of specialist deals you can broker, depending on the circumstances of your trip, which can save you even more money.

Those aged 65 or over are often seen as a burden to insurance companies across the board, though luckily many companies specialise in policies for older people, such as Castle Cover. Be sure to list the companies that do not offer great deals before you consider looking at what you need – a price comparison service usually does the trick.

Family cover is something that will offer great deductions for families who are travelling together, or even if they’re travelling apart, depending on the provider. While children are often added to the policy as an extra charge, some deals will allow youngsters to be added at no extra cost.

Finally, standard policies often exclude pre-existing medical conditions you may have, though if you need to have a certain issue covered while you’re on holiday – diabetes, for example, or thyroid-related issues, there are specialist organisations who will work with you.