lifes little wins #whatsinyourpocket

I've been reading blogs for a very long time now, and Money Supermarket sponsored competitions are always a fantastic read and a great insight into the blogger, such as their 'a grand adventure' one. Therefore, obviously I was very happy to receive an email from the lovely people at Money Supermarket asking if I would like to take part in a new competition of theirs called 'lifes little wins'.

If nothing else, moving out of your parents home and leaving to live alone at Uni, it most definitely teaches you the importance of the pound and you gain much more respect for the money you earn or have. Being brought up with the 'if you can't afford it, you can't have it' and 'only those things you work for are ones you will truely appriciate' theories by my hard working parents, I always knew i wanted to earn my own money and appriciate that each pound was created through blood, sweat and tears. So when Money Supermarket merely handed over £20 to me in order to do this post, I was so humbled and extremely excited.

Money Supermarket conducted an experiment as to how people react to thinking they had a sneaky £20 note hiding in their trouser pocket that they didn't know they had. They set up cameras in a launderette and as each customer returned to collect their clean items, they informed them that they spotted some money in their clothing. This experiment showed how happy and joyful this can make people, and they concocted this into a lovely feel-good video which you can watch here. This video reminded me of a cute little story of when my mum, brother and I all went for a walk along the beach one evening. I all of a sudden spotted a £5 note on the sand and grabbed it with the biggest smile on my face. I was so excited but my brother then insisted we didn't leave until he to found one. Which, he never did!

A twenty pound note, a score, a purple guy, whatever you call it, these days doesn't seem to buy an awful lot. Roughly in 1820, twenty pounds was the equivalent to £1700 nowadays however in this day and age spending £20 for one night on the town is regarded as very successful. But even though twenty pounds isn't as precious as it used to be, spotting one on the floor, realising there's one in your coat pocket that you haven't worn for a while or receiving one in a birthday card is still thoroughly exciting. I decided to have a little look at what twenty pounds can buy you, from the worthy in a mobile phone or toaster, to the quite ridiculous when all it can get you is a make-up brush or a kitchen pinny..

My challenge was to treat myself to something pretty or do whatever i wanted with this pleasant gift. I decided to see exactly how far i can stretch a twenty pound note, and turn it into an investment. Coming from a family where my Grandparents built a business from nothing, i've always been fascinated by creating something amazing from nowhere. Obviously this little investment isn't going to pay my bills but it's all a learning process.

Recently I picked up a new phone case, it's a Cath Kidston style floral base with studding on. I got mine from an ebay seller in China so it obviously was fairly cheap even though being identical to the original Cath Kidston floral prints which cost a ridiculous amount. Phone cases are a great way to show personal style and make a piece of technology, which everyones sporting these days, your own. So i decided to hand make some of these cases and sell them through the internet.

I purchased small pyramid studs, skull shaped studs and floral based phone cases all under £20.

Within my £20 budget I could afford these studs and 9 phone cases. The black phone cases were £2 but the blue ones were in the sale for £1, i picked up 4 black cases and 5 blue. Each phone case once studded, cost me on average £2.22 each. I handcrafted the cases, studding them all differently to create alternative designs for people to choose from.

I retailed each case at £5 each, gaining a profit of £2.78 per case. Therefore after i sold all 9 of my cases, through advertising on my instagram feed, I had made £45. Minus the £20 cost of materials, I earned £25 from my little venture, doubling the money provided by Money Supermarket and driving my passion to create and design more exciting items to eventually have a mini online boutique. So glad that bit of math is over, never my strong point!

Thank you to Money Supermarket for letting me be a part of this and genuinely opening my eyes to the value of £20. Check out some other posts with the twitter hashtag #whatsinyourpocket.

What would you do if you pulled a twenty from your back pocket that you didn't know was there?