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Wanna know some of the things we use for our blog or some items that have been incredibly helpful to us? Want to know some of the things we use when planning our trips? Check out some of the things we use below!
WEBSITE
Website Host
We currently use SiteGround for this site. We use WordPress as our dashboard or our interface, but our host is SiteGround. They are incredibly helpful and have helped me to troubleshoot this site so so many times.
Website Dashboard
Currently, we use WordPress.org for our dashboard. It’s one of the most user-friendly dashboards I’ve used and one I would personally recommend if you’re not familiar with coding. Most hosting sites have this automatically integrated as a dashboard, which you can decide once you decide on a host.
Website Customizations
While our web themes are created by a website theme designer, most of the additional customizations we did on our own to try to make it a little different. To accomplish this sometimes we download items from Etsy such as fonts, banners or Creative Market for brushes and templates.
For our blog’s email, we use Google Suite. If you’re looking to create an email that’s branded with your website’s name, allows you to create multiple email accounts under one domain, and helps with verifying your email for email marketing, we would highly recommend GSuite. We love using it for our blog’s email and for communicating with our newsletter subscribers.
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT
Hootsuite
I started using HootSuite when I was working for a business helping other women creating their own businesses. To this day, it’s an experience I will always cherish because it taught me SO much about social media marketing. While I’m no pro, HootSuite is one of the marketing tools we love because it’s so easy to use and ensures that posts are going out – even when we aren’t available to post them ourselves.
Preview App
This is another social media tool that I love. For our blog’s Instagram, most, if not all of our posts are pre-scheduled ahead of time. While the captions themselves are normally written as they’re being posted, the images are planned out and the Preview app helps with that. You can even see what hashtags to use, which is really helpful when you don’t want to use the same ones over and over again.
TRAVEL
Lodging
Airbnb: Airbnb is by far one of our favorite ways to save money while going on trips. When we avoid the red flags, we usually have positive experiences. If you’re looking to save a few dollars while getting a more authentic experience on your next trip, we highly recommend Airbnb. If you use our link, you’ll get $40 towards your trip! Feel free to message one of us, if you’d like the link for it!
Budgeting:
Google Sheets: This not sponsored, but honestly speaking, Google Sheets has been the GOAT for us when it comes to actually set a budget. Excel is great as well, but Google Sheets allows us to share our documents online with whoever needs to see it, which has been really helpful for us.
E-Guides
Our E-Guide for Saving Money While Planning a Trip: Is it vain to share our own online resource as a resource we use, if we actually use it? We don’t plan a trip without going by these tips and if you’re interested in learning how we save money, feel free to sign up! It’s free!
7 Ways to Avoid Getting Scammed on Airbnb as a First-Timer: This is another resource we created based on things we’ve learned when looking for places to stay on Airbnb. There are people on there sadly who scam unsuspecting vacationers. If you’re looking for some red flags to look out for, feel free to sign up for our free resource!
PHOTOGRAPHY & EDITING
Nikon DSLR
The current camera we use for all of our photography is a Nikon DSLR 3100. I’m currently looking for more upgrades to add to this, but it’s one of my favorite cameras to use – especially for candid photography in outdoor lighting. We are considering upgrading our current camera to a Nikon DSLR 3500, however, since we found out recently they aren’t making any new parts for the 3100.
Adobe Creative Cloud
The Adobe Creative Cloud makes editing SO simple! It includes Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Rush, Adobe XD, Adobe Photoshop, and the web versions of both of those applications as well. I really enjoy it because they are applications we use a lot when editing photography or creating graphics. I use it for work also as an educator.
VSCO
VSCO is an application that’s perfect for those of you looking for a free (or paid) application that allows you to add filters to your photographs. For an app it’s surprisingly customizable in that you can edit everything from the warmth, saturation, whiteness, and more! I frequently edit the photographs taken on our phone with VSCO.
Canva
Canva is another application that I personally find to be very useful! When I’m on the go or want to draft up something quick and easy, I use Canva. What I love about it is you don’t have to be a designer to use it. It’s very user-friendly and easy for anyone, regardless of your experience with graphic design.
STORES
There’s many more where that came from, but here’s just a few!
Clothing Stores:
J Crew Factory: J.Crew Factory is one of those stores where you know you’re going nice items. We love buying sweaters and shirts from there when we’re able to.
Target: How could I not include Target on this list when their clothing items are so nice?
Old Navy/Gap: These sister stores/store affiliates are some of our favorites to shop at for everything from gifts for loved ones to items for ourselves. Most of our wardrobe comes from this place.
TJ Maxx: Are you a maxxinista?
Nordstrom Rack: Honestly speaking, sometimes Nordstrom can be very expensive – at least for our educator budgets. However, Nordstrom Rack has some pretty affordable items!
Lord & Taylor: Growing up, I remember we’d drive past this store and I’d always feel it was too expensive to even go into let alone buy anything. It wasn’t until recently that we learned that the clearance items are a gold mine. You can get nice items for budget prices, sometimes while browsing there!
LOFT Outlet: This is another store where I own quite a few items from!
Banana Republic Factory: I’ve witnessed some great deals from Banana Republic’s Factory store!
Home Decor
Target: When it comes to home decor, Target is our jam. We’re Circle members, so we get discounts and exclusive deals for people using the app.
TJ Maxx: Looking for items on a budget? TJ Maxx always comes through!
Home Goods/Marshalls: Depending on where you live, HomeGoods can either be attached to a Marshalls or a TJ Maxx. Either way, it’s one of our favorite stores to buy home decor from.
Etsy: We typically get our custom prints from Etsy because we love the items we find there!
Amazon: We use Amazon for everything from gifts to labels to printer ink.
Ross: For certain items, we love heading to Ross. They have a nice decorative item section!
