Northern Girl on... My favourite apps/social media feeds

My social media feeds and phone notifications are a great source of inspiration for me to get out and explore. Just this weekend we were able to complete a treasure hunt inside a museum thanks to a post we'd seen online (I'll be blogging about that later.) So I want to take you through my London apps and favourite social media pages that allow me to explore and keep costs down.

A screen grab of my "London" folder on my phone featuring my dedicated London apps

• Citymapper - A must. A great little app to help you get about, even if you only visit London it's a great way to easily navigate your way around The City with the added bonus that you can use it in other cities such as Paris, Berlin and Barcelona making it easier to deal with any language barriers!
• Santander Cycle Hire - I'll be writing a post later about my love of Santander Cycles but this app makes them so easy to love. It tells you where your nearest hire points are and how many bikes/free spaces there are currently. These bikes are so cheap and actually a lot of fun to ride around, especially in parks such as Hyde Park and Victoria Park.
• Fever - It's a great little app that can tailor 'your London'. Tell fever what you're in to and they'll notify you when things are happening that you're interested in; from discounted theatre tickets to offers on Brick Lane market stalls they have so much choice all heavily discounted (chocolate strawberries for a fiver on Brick Lane!)
• Circle - A bit more of a safety conscious one than anything, circle allows you to add key contacts which you can instantly message with an SOS and your location should you feel in danger at any point.
• Drinki - My favourite of them all! Drinki basically entitles you to free drinks at a whole range of London bars. My local is Rum and Sugar at Canary Wharf and with the app you get a free Strawberry Mojito. In the app, redeem code CSPACEY1 to get an additional free drink. The app refreshes every 14 days = free drinks every couple of weeks! (Samsung users, I recommend searching "Drinki London" in GooglePlay.)

The Drinki app - redeeming the code and an example of one of the free drinks

• Blue Plaques - Great for if you're heading out for a walk, you could even create your own walking route (see previous post Walking Tours) and try and hit as many of the Blue Plaques near you.
• Time Out - I love the team at Time Out. They're great at posting regular articles on some of best and interesting things to do in London. They do it on a weekly basis and special posts when there are events on at the weekend. Definitely worth having the app and them on social media so you don't miss a trick.
• Londonist - This was is a bit more fun than cost saving. Like Time Out it's a great little way to find interesting things to do from the locations inspired by Harry Potter to the best coffee shops in London, they cover a range of things. They also post regular videos with interesting features/trivia about the City (great pub quiz knowledge.)

Social Media:
In addition to the apps listed above, there are also a few more things that populate my news feed that I couldn't live without when living in London:

• 10 ways to have more money as a student, without working (10 Ways for short) - These guys are brilliant at sharing/posting when offers are currently on-going; be it cheap lunches, bargain reductions at super markets or amazon sales and glitches. Perfect for keeping your eye out on your 'need to have items' and bagging them at their lowest price.
• Stylist & The Debrief - I follow both of these for the same reason, not only do they post great articles - I am a huge fan of the style of writing at The Debrief - but they also post articles on saving money, cheap and easy lunches and how to do city breaks on the cheap.
• Secret London -  Similar to both Londonist and Time Out London, Secret London updates their page with great articles with interesting and unusual things to do in The Capital, it was a post here that enabled me to discover the museum treasure hunts!