There are a handful of things in my life that I consider big-win game changers. They’re largely very silly but have had long-lasting results and improvements. Some have saved me time, some have saved me money and some have even changed the way I cook – dramatic but accurate! I thought I’d share this silly list with you in case you’re looking for a few game changers too! I am unbelievably Type-A so many of these ideas will support my strong organisation preference. If you’re a more loose’y goosey type perfect – I honestly don’t know how you live. And I wish you all the best. Maybe try some of these things anyway?
Travel big tips
– Rail cards
Gang, we know I am the number one member of the Rail card fan club. I wrote an entire blog post on it here. Short story – it’ll probably save you a ton of money and open up a world of UK train travel.
– Only packing hand luggage
Following the Covid-19 pandemic the sneaky cheap flights don’t seem to have come back. Flights from London into Europe are around £200-£350. It honestly makes me sick to be paying that much money for a quick hop over to Europe. There are still deals to be had but they’re like 4am on a Wednesday from Stanstead. It’s just not realistic. Adding checked luggage makes prices even worse – you can easily add £100 to the cost of your flight. Embracing the hand luggage only life is a skill and takes a bit of trial and error but if you can get your head around this you’ll save money every flight.
Outside of the financial savings side of this, there are many more benefits that for me outweigh the savings. These include: easier mobility with less luggage to carry, not lugging giant bags up stairs (because Europe, no elevators) or over cobblestones (because Europe), smaller and cheaper rental car options, quicker getting ready time with limited choices, quicker packing as you’re not packing tons of options and easier to find your bits and bobs on the go. If you’re looking for a little help, I have a blog post on my don’t forget me packing list.
– Only packing under-seat backpacks!!
This is for the real experts only. Budget airlines charge for the small wheelie bags and it can turn a cheapie flight into a more expensive adventure. Last year we tried out our first baby backpack-only trip to Oslo with friends and it actually worked out so well for all four of us! I had enough space for our three nights away with different evening options too. I would say, for me, this is a three to four night away trip option only. Make sure you get a backpack that maximises the space available and that you travel in your heaviest shoes and clothes. I have this exact backpack but anything similar is just as good. Go on, try it! You might surprise yourself!
– Engaging with the Avios points infrastructure
This likely needs an entire blog post on its own. And honestly, I feel like I should be charging for the information based on how much time and effort I have spent getting my head around it all. The brief summary is, there are some options if you are South African based but it is pretty limited. If you’re UK based and not doing this – you’re a fool. Urgh, I need to do a blog post on this. But essentially, get an amex credit card, get well acquainted with the bashopping site and read this article.
– Using Tripit to plan /co-ordinate your holidays
TripIt is a travel planning app that you can share with multiple travellers. You email your flight confirmations, hotel bookings, tour and restaurant bookings through to the app and it builds out your itinerary. I find it super helpful to keep all our information in one place especially as we both book different things. It’s also great for spotting if you’ve mucked up any accommodation bookings as you’ll spot a gap in your itinerary!
Cooking focused hacks
– Making rice in the microwave
When I tell you this is the best cooking thing anyone ever taught me you will think I am mad. But I went from someone who couldn’t cook rice and never ever served it at home – as in – I would serve chicken curry with mashed potato. I know. My family are Irish, it’s fine. To now making basmati rice at least once a week. If you can count to three – you can make rice!
Here’s the hack: 1 cup of rice rinsed well (I go with basmati) and 2 cups of water into a big glass bowl. Ten minutes in the microwave. Fluff. 3 minutes in the microwave. Fluff and serve.
Yes, I threw a ten in there – you’ll be fine. You can now make rice! Try it! Report back!
– Soft boiling eggs in the air fryer
Soft boiled eggs are a healthy, affordable filling staple. I love them in an egg mayo sandwich. Quartered as part of a snack plate. Broken into chunks through a loaded salad. They’re just good things. But the thought of boiling water to soft boil eggs feels exhausting. Enter my mate the air fryer.
Here’s the hack: Airfryer to 135 degrees. Once at temp, pop your eggs in the basket with a little space between each egg. I like to do six at a time but you could do two just as easily. For soft boiled eggs, cook for 9-11 minutes, jammy eggs at 12-13 minutes and hard boiled eggs for 13-15 minutes. Once they’re done pop them in a cold bowl of water either a prepared ice bath set up or the easy lazy “keep the tap running until the water stays cool” method that I deploy.
– Making sushi rice in the instant pot
I tried to make sushi rice in a pot once. It didn’t go well. If I recall correctly the entire pot + sushi rice went directly into the bin. Sorry, no. I then read I could make sushi rice in my instant pot and I have NEVER looked back. I make the full sushi rice set up for poke bowls with tuna, salmon, avo, or cooked prawns in whatever combination brings you joy. I also regularly make sushi rice but stop before the rice vinegar step to serve it with Asian style beef short rib, deep fried chicken or stir fried glazed aubergines.
Here’s the hack: Splash of oil in your instant pot – just enough to cover the base. Add two cups of rinsed rice and two and a 1/2 cups of water. In this specific order – oil, rice, water. Set to 10 minutes on high pressure. Once finished let the pressure naturally release for 10 minutes. Manually release the remaining pressure and fluff up the rice. For the full sushi-style experience add in the rice vinegar mixture which is made up of 1/3 cup of rice wine vinegar, 1/4 cup of sugar and 1tsp of salt.
This recipe makes between 4-6 portions. I halve this if I am only making rice for Jono and me!
– Owning a glove for your mandolin
Look, I am assuming you own a mandolin. It’s an absolute game changer and we use ours ALL the time. Number one use is probably perfect onion slices for pickled red onions. Followed closely by perfect cucumber slices for Japanese style cucumber salads. The advanced level tip though is to own a pair of cut-resistant gloves. I have lost too many nails and fingertips to the mandolin – it is an unreasonably dangerous kitchen tool. If you pop on these gloves you will never have to worry again! Honestly, zero worry. Our mandolin came with a glove – and one is enough – but it looks like you can pick up the gloves cheaply enough on Amazon too.
Life happiness game changers
– Buying a Kindle
You’ve immediately thought – but I love the feel of holding a book in my hands and turning the pages – it’s just so special. Please, get over yourself. You’re not Belle from Beauty and the Beast, you’re a modern-day human being trying to find as much joy as possible in a cruel and heartless world. Buy the damn Kindle and take it everywhere with you. Throw it in your handbag, your coat pocket, your jeans pocket, and your laptop bag. Whenever you go, always have a book. And I can promise you – you will read more. And more reading is just more joy.
If you’re looking for some joyful reading suggestions you can check out my blog posts on my best books of 2022 and my best books of 2023.
– Always always having cookies in the freezer
I don’t know about you, but sometimes life is really hard and sometimes freshly baked cookies really help. We always always always have frozen cookie balls in the freezer. I make the full batch recipe all the way up to the roll them into little balls step. Then normally it wants you to rest them in the fridge ahead of baking. This is where you pop them on a dinner plate with a little baking paper and let them freeze overnight. Once frozen they can all be thrown in a ziplock bag in the freezer and you can bake them in batches of four to six at a time for everyday life emergencies. I promise you, the bit of work getting cookies in your freezer will pay you back one hundredfold.
– This Weekly meal planner
I have always planned out what we’re eating in the week. It keeps me eating healthily and affordably and avoiding waste. I don’t need to teach you about meal planning…right? But the one game changer is this really lovely weekly meal planner designed by The Frugality. I used to scribble a very similar template on a piece of scrap paper. Now I have this gorgeous starting point and it brings me much joy.
– Buying an Aarke Carbonator
This may be a little London specific but I don’t think anyone should hold back from living their best posh lives. The tap water in London is disgusting. I have gotten a little more used to it but when we first moved here I couldn’t make myself drink it. We purchased a sparkling water machine to add fizz to our cold tap water and suddenly the party water was drinkable! We recently upgraded to the Aarke Carbonator. It is more expensive, but it is also much more beautiful. Also, I no longer wanted to support Sodastream
– Finding the RIGHT sunblock for YOU
We know we need to be putting on our sunblock every day. We know these things. But sunblock can be sticky and gross. The answer is to spend a little time and money on finding the right sunblock for you. Unfortunately, if you’re going to be a fusspot about it (me) then it is going to cost a little more. I have cycled through a few of the big brands including Heliocare and La Roche-Posay. Heliocare was my first choice for ages but they’ve definitely changed the formula and it now leaves a white cast. The La Roche-Posay I tried pilled and I didn’t love it. I am now on the Ultra Violette and it’s my favourite so far. But whatever the right sunblock is for you – it’s out there and you should be making an effort to find it!
Also, yes, Jono uses sunscreen every day too. And yes he has to put it on the back of his neck as he doesn’t have long hair. Yes, you should also be putting it on the back of your neck if it’s out there in the sunshine.
Home saving tips
– Bedding spritz
This is a bananas one. Do you iron your bedding? Of course not, right? We have lives to live! BUT your bed does look infinitely better when ironed. The answer is – a spritz bottle, water and a splash of fabric softener. The water to fabric softener is about a 10:1 ratio but don’t get too stressed about it. You then make up your bed, spritz over it with your magic solution, and give the corners of the bedding a little tug to encourage it along. And when you walk back in about ten minutes later most of the wrinkles will have dropped out!
– Get a robot to vacuum your house for you
I’ll be honest, most of the cleaning in our home falls to Jono. So I don’t have many tips here. BUT Jono recently invested in a robot vacuum cleaner and it runs every day at 10am and our floors are very clean and Jono is very happy.
Work game changers
– Microsoft To Do
I am obsessed with a to-do list and having Microsoft To Do is a game changer! I have multiple sub-lists, I add items to do to my day, I add deadlines and reminders, and I can drag and drop emails and documents to the items to do. It’s just great! And it helps me do things! If you like ticking things off a to-do list I would highly encourage you give Microsoft To Do a go!
– Two screens + Laptop set up
I don’t know guys. Now I am here I can never go back. In my audit days, I was crunched over a laptop like Gollum straight out of the Lord of the Rings. I then started the lifted laptop and second screen life. That was good. And now I am here, two big screens and a laptop lifted up for calls. And quite frankly, I am RUINED. If you work on spreadsheets, write up reports/articles and review other people’s work then you need to get on the two screens + laptop lifestyle. I can’t even book flights on my laptop on the couch anymore without getting angry.
– Anti-glare glasses
I don’t need glasses to improve my vision but I work next to a bank of windows and I stare at screens all day. I have an assortment of relatively affordable and a little bit cool anti-glare / UV glasses to pop on during my work day. They really do help with the squinting (which helps with the headaches) but they also help me get in the work zone (glasses on = hyper concentration-time) and I feel they help jazz up my very tired non makeup WFH face.
Game changers from the gang!
I decided to do a little crowd-sourcing to find out what game changers I might be missing! Every day is a school day and there is always something to learn.
– Magnesium before bed – helps with deep sleep, muscle pain and digestion. I have puuurchased a bottle from Boots and will report back.
– Travel with a luggage scale to make sure you luggage is not overweight (oooor don’t pack check in luggage!!)
– When travelling, pop your shoes in the free shower cap bags you find in hotels
– Learning to say no – love this
– Woolworths – made me laugh
– Invest in a smaller mixer and a hand blender for the kitchen – I can second this. We use both of these things often!
– Blasting freshly mascara’d eyelashes with a hot hairdryer to dry and lift. Never heard of this. Will be trying this!
– Pop leftover chicken bones in the freezer through the month to make a big pot of chicken stock. I absolutely agree with this!! I would add – throw the carrot and onion tops in with the frozen bones as you go too.
– Add liquid egg whites to oats for more protein and to keep you full for longer. I actually add a whole egg which delivers on the protein but also on the boost of creaminess. It’s amazing!
I hope one of these tips helps make your life a little better!
with all my love, Tahlia
