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No-Spend November



I can already tell that I'm going to regret this idea. 

But, I'm going to be doing a no spend November. 

My plan is that every week I will write down where I saved money, where I failed and spent money, and have some sort of running total. 

My self-made rules:

  • I CAN spend money on my bills (although I will be cancelling unnecessary subscriptions - looking at you Netflix), rent (my Mum is my landlord, it isn't worth the stress), university-related 'things' - bus tickets, sketchbooks, etc - I will have to draw the line at another packet of pastel highlighters this month. I'm undecided about fuel. I have recently passed my driving test so I want to drive as much as possible to get more confident, but it would save a lot of money. I dunno. 
  • No stationary
  • No food - no eating out, no buying snacks when I'm peckish. Although I will allow myself to buy a bottle of water if I forget to pick one up.
  • Every week I'm going to write a log - I would aim for daily but that's a commitment that I haven't got time for.
  • I, also, want to try and keep track of what I've not bought and how much money I've saved from unnecessary purchases.
  • I will NOT be buying any Christmas presents this month. If I miss out on an amazing present for my brother, he'll have to wait until after Christmas and settle with a card. 
  • I get paid in cash every week, so my other rule is to take the money I need out of my pay and IMMEDIATELY put the rest into the bank. I treat cash like its toy money and spend it for fun. 
  • Why am I punishing myself into a No-Spend November? I just paid my Car Insurance in FULL for the WHOLE YEAR and need to build my savings back up again. 
The blog posts will be going up on the Wednesday's after the week and Sunday's will continue to be my regular blog post day!

- KayleighBickle


Side Note: I recently changed my domain to 'kayleighbickle.blogspot.com', and forgot to change this across Bloglovin' etc.

Bullet Journal Autumn 2017














- kayleighbkl

currently listening to... podcasts (again)


I have quite the list of podcasts and I'm always looking for more. I love listening to them when doing chores or traveling. Although I struggle to listen to them when writing or doing work that involves brain power, I'll just ignore the podcasts and get confused.

Side Note: I listen to all of these Podcasts on the Apple Podcast App, I know there are other alternatives - I'm presuming all of these are available across the different apps. 

The Heart of It with Estée Lalonde

When I originally did a draft of this post, this podcast only had ONE pilot episode out. Now that I'm editing it there are more!! It's different to the normal podcasts that I listen to and involves Estée Lalonde (Youtube, Blogger, Author, etc, etc.). In the pilot, she is talking through her story with protests. She talks about her first protest and most recent. Also, talking to the writer of the 'Nasty Woman' poem, that was the phrase of the 2017 women marches all around the world. 
From what Estée said, she's looking to have each podcast about a 'difficult' subject or something that is coming to light in this present time.


Happy Mum Happy Baby

I'm 100% not the demographic for this podcast. And I have no desire to have children anytime soon, or even be in the same room as children. But I seem always be listening to Giovanna Fletcher's podcast the days they're released.


The Emma Guns Show

Beauty, Fashion, Lifestyle, Bloggers, Celebrities, everything that falls into one of those categories and more. I have only listened to the ones where I know of the guest - there are a LOT of podcasts, so eventually, I'll work through the rest. These are long podcasts, one almost cover my 1.5-ish hour long bus journey. Some of the guests get more than one podcast too!

Some of my favourites:
Sali Hughes
Fleur de Force
Caroline Hirons
Jules Von Hep
Pixiwoo
Michelle Visage - YES YES YES
Jo Elvin

The Debrief Podcast

My current favourite podcast. I was recommended this after my last podcast post (here). And have almost listened to all of them. They're so funny, cover so many different topics, and are just two wonderful humans.

Some of my favourites:
Domestic Hacks So You Never Have To 'Get A Man In'
How To Deal With Imposter Syndrome
How To Look After The Environment
How To Poo Properly - I almost died from laughing

Tell me any podcasts you think I would enjoy or you just think of brilliant & everyone should be watching!
- kayleighbkl


September Favourites

01) Bullet Journal
I have used the bullet journal system before, but this time I'm taking it *really* seriously. I have loved using the system throughout September, and into early October, especially being able to start a new one at the start of the academic year. (Although I didn't go back until the last week in September). I've got more blog posts planned; going through my monthly spreads, academic, etc - any requests, send them my way! I'm also loving the grey leuchtturm 1917 (here).

02) Mildliners 
I gave into the hype. I kept seeing them all over bujo blogs and Instagram pages. What finally got me to buy them was watching Rhiannon's video (here) and her linking to an Amazon page where you could get three packs for about £15 (here). I bloody adore them. I use them daily and cannot get enough of the pastel tones. I did not need them, but they're so handy. Especially because they have a felt tip at one end, and a highlighter tip at the other. 

03) Hair Serum
I was trying to think about what new 'things' I had used this month, and I kept going back to this hair serum (here). It was SUPER cheap from Superdrug (own brand, so vegan/vegetarian AND not tested on animals), and it does the job! I use it when I'm going to wave/curl my hair, and it just makes them look sleeker and more defined. I use two pumps in my medium-long length hair (mostly on the ends of my hair) - bringing any excess up to the rest of my hair. This range was on 3 for 2, when I bought it.

04) Autumn
I'm so happy. It's officially autumn. It's gone colder. Halloween is slowly approaching. It fills me with more joy than I can express. Pinterest is one of my go-to places to get into the Autumnal spirit - link to my Autumn & Fall board (here). As well as YouTube videos. Some of my favourite YouTubes for Autumn content are Anastasjia Louise, Neutral Fleur, one of my favourite YouTubes in general: Megan Rhiannon, and Simply Kenna who I've only recently discovered but I went back and watched her past Autumn/Halloween videos!


05) ASDA Home - Bedding 
I went onto ASDA's Home website on a whim, and browsed through their early Autumn/Christmas bedding - just to see what was around - and I found this beautiful bedding for £14.00!! £14 for a king size bedding set (here). You cannot go wrong. It's just the right mix of autumn and cosy, but you could use it all year round. Did I also mention that it is reversible? 

What have you been enjoying this month?

- kayleighbkl

2nd year of uni round-up

The past year has flown by and dragged by in equal parts for me. I moved away from Exeter, back to Cornwall, and started at a new university with no friends.

A year ago, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and knew that it was highly unlikely I could make a career out of photography. Fortunately, I now have a clearer view of what I would like to do and if that turns out I'll be happy, to say the least. 

September 2016; I started at a new university with nowhere to run and no one to run to. 

Originally I was going to be going into the third year, but after consideration, I decided to join the universities second year and retake. Fortunately, I had finished with a first, so I got to carry my first-year grade from Exeter with me. 

My first project was a group set building project, we had four weeks (i think) to build and photograph a photographic set and complete a sketchbook to go alongside. Everything about this project was marked as a group, and we had to use one sketchbook between 8 (possibly more or less) people. [September '16 - October '16]

Then we had a collaborative project, this project involved us working with another creative person and create a collaboration project. They were not allowed to be from the university. I chose to work with local independent businesses where I live, to create advertising booklets. [November '16 - January '17]

Next, was a project of our own choosing. I looked at reduced flowers and the relationship between flowers, consumerism, and commercialism. [February '17 - April '17]

Finally, was a short 'trial' project. We had four weeks to start a project or complete a project. I chose to start looking at 'what makes up a hedgerow', the plants, animals, insects, man-made creations, etc. [May '17]

We had two theory projects. The first involved writing an exhibition review & creating a critical journal. The second involved writing/presenting a group project, creating another critical journal & starting our dissertation project for next year.

Below I'm going to show some images from the past year. When I finish my degree, I plan on doing a large post (if I'm still writing then) about my overall uni experience, changing university, pros, and cons, etc, etc.


- kayleighbkl