Category Archives: Life & Style

Twelve Top Tips To Cut Household Costs. {Money}

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January is always the cruellest month. After the Christmas blow out, funds are short and everything is more expensive. This week is supposed to be the financially toughest with Christmas credit card bills plopping through the door and just another two weeks to go till payday. Then there are the long nights and the cold weather to add to our joys!

To help, Frost has got financial expert, Jasmine Birtles, bringing you 12 practical tips on how to manage your finances and cut down your motoring costs by spending less and making a few simple changes to your routine.

So, fight back at the seasonal and economic gloom and use these tips to make the most of your money this month and for the rest of the year.

1. Save on motoring costs. Motorists are really feeling the pinch at the moment. Swap your current car for a smaller, cheaper, more fuel-efficient version. If it has very low emissions, you will also save on insurance, car tax and some residents parking schemes. Keep the tyres pumped up at all times and try to drive at a smooth, constant speed as this reduces your fuel consumption. For more information on smarter driving tips visit www.shell.co.uk/fuelsave. Making the right fuel choice can lead to significant savings each year. Shell FuelSave Unleaded & Diesel are formulated to save you up to 1 litre per tank* at no extra cost, helping you to save fuel and money every time you fill up.

2. Get as much as you can for free. Use freebie sites (wisely – there’s a lot of rubbish to sift through!) for free samples of all kinds of things. Also, get into mystery shopping for free restaurant visits and supermarket shopping trips – make sure they are legit, though, like TNS-Global.com or JKSMysteryshopping.co.uk. Get a holiday nearly free by swapping your house with someone in another country. Try the website Homeexchange.com for an amazing selection of homes all round the world.

3. Share and swap with friends and neighbours. Get together with your friends and neighbours to save money. Have a swap shop every now and then where you and your friends swap clothes, accessories and even unwanted gifts. Also, share lawnmowers, power tools and other big-ticket items with neighbours. Bulk-buy food and household goods at the Cash and Carry and share them out with neighbours so that you all end up paying less.

4. Sign up to bargains. There are loads of voucher sites and bargain newsletters that will send money-off deals and vouchers into your inbox every week. Just be discerning about which deals you go for. Sign up for free to the Moneymagpie free weekly newsletter for exclusive deals you can’t get anywhere else [http://www.moneymagpie.com/newsletter-subscription/]

5. Use loyalty cards. If you’re going to spend money you might as well get something back for it. If you use loyalty cards like the Boots Advantage card, make sure you get the most out of them. Boots commonly has ‘mega weekends’, either online or in-store where you get 1,000 extra points (worth £10). When one hits, it’s worth collecting together everything you were planning to buy in Boots to grab the excess. With fuel prices increasing, it’s worth looking at how you can save money on fuel. Shell runs a loyalty scheme, Shell Driver’s Club – you’ll receive 50 bonus points on first registration online and additional points every time you fill up at Shell. Points can be exchanged for money off Shell fuel vouchers – 500 points gets you £2.50 of vouchers.

6. Be clever with your credit cards. If you have a nasty Christmas debt on your credit cards, switch to a 0% deal such as the 17-month offer from Barclaycard or a low lifetime balance transfer card such as MBNA’s card which offers 5.9%. Or, if you pay off your debt each month, get a card that rewards you for spending. Try Barclaycard Freedom where you can earn up to 1% ‘Reward Money’ of your purchase price at over 20,000 participating retailers. You can then redeem it at participating retailers for money off at restaurants and high street retailers. Visit barclaycardfreedom.co.uk for a full list of retailers

7. Do a budget and stick to it. It sounds boring, but a budget is your family’s weapon against the money monster. You can even do it on the back of an envelope. Just add up the money that comes in each month then take away from that all the bills you have to pay to keep the roof over your head, and body and soul together. Once you know what you’ve got left over, you just divide that amount by four and make sure you don’t spend more than that each week. That will keep you out of expensive and miserable debt.

8. Make your home pay for itself. If you’re struggling to keep up with the mortgage, bring in extra cash by renting out a spare room. You can make up to £4,250 a year tax-free by doing this. Or just rent out your driveway by putting it on Parkatmyhouse.com. You could even make megabucks by offering it as a film set. Try registering with Lavishlocations.com.

9. Save on food bills. There are loads of ways of cutting down your food bill each week. Switch one meat dish per week to a vegetarian one that is cheaper. Get tips from Lovefoodhatewaste.com on how to make the most of what you’ve got. Shop at street markets as they are generally 30% cheaper than supermarkets. Go down a brand with food in tins and jars – you won’t notice the difference with most of them.

10. Shop around to save. It goes without saying that you could save £100s on your insurance, utilities and other bills by using comparison sites before you sign-up. Also, though, use sites like Pricerunner and Kelkoo to research gadgets like washing machines, TVs and lawnmowers. You can even save on removal costs by using the website Anyvan.com where ‘man-with-van’ operations and removals firms bid for your job. Find bookkeepers, lawyers and household helpers through Peopleperhour where all kinds of professionals bid for your work

11. Buy secondhand. Now that VAT is at 20%, the best way to avoid the hike is to buy things secondhand, particularly big-ticket items like cars, furniture and electronics. Use eBay, Gumtree, your local paper and family forums such as Mumsnet to buy things secondhand. Quite often, items just a few months old can be half price.

12. Be green. Get into green living and you will definitely save money. Mend clothes and gadgets where you can rather than buying new ones. Cut down on electricity, and your carbon footprint, by avoiding the tumble dryer and hanging clothes out to dry instead, using the ‘off’ switch when you’re not using electronic equipment and keeping the lid on pans when you cook.

* Based on a minimum tank size and fill up of 50 litres. Comparison between a standard gasoline and that same standard gasoline containing our instantaneous fuel economy formula; urban cycle comparison between a standard diesel and that same standard diesel containing our instantaneous fuel economy formula. Actual savings may vary according to vehicle, driving conditions and driving style.

A Peak into A/W Fashion 2011 – Part Two – Trends

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We’ve taken a look at the core colours and richness which is due to explode this coming Autumn and Winter –  now it’s time to take peak at Trends.

First up, none other than Chic Fur – loyal to its spring governing in the fashion world, fur will be a big trend this year. I’m not just talking heavy fur jackets and coats – we’re talking capes too. In addition, it will be an essential accessory tool to add to more simpler, less extravagant formations and textures.

This year will see a more grown up look to women’s wear – the neutral tones and severity of black will play a significant part in portraying a subtle sharpness to women’s fashion.

Florals – Yes,  this Autumn will be making a statement with florals, from light pastels – figurative to romanticism – to deeper mulls, reds and purples. An occasion of mixing and matching with casual day wear to evening dresses.

The 70’s Look – Already making it’s statement for S/S 2011, the look for this A/W will be less hippy, and more chic. We are talking minimalist stripes teamed up with camel colour turtle necks and gently embroidered knits.

Back to the Future 90’s – Deep colours, needle-defying textures – symbolising the strength and boldness of a woman. Minimalistic meets futuristic. Though this is a featured trend that comes back and forth, this Autumn/Winter will see it strike back with force.

Lace – Yes, a niche trend to some, but bringing its versatility back for this S/S, the trend will continue its animating presence in A/W, too. Together with sheers and cut looks, lace will be the friendly option to your add-on closet.

Silks and Velvets – Silks being prominent when it comes to shirts and dresses – outerwear that would be worn more as an illustration for the evening. Velvet – enthused in jackets and capes – mustards, browns, chic camel and gorgeous ruby.

Tweed – In essence, tweed has been a female fashion must since the introduction to tweed-inspired suits and hip tucked-in belts by Chanel – reinvented by many fashion designers. This A/W is the season for tweed enthused suits and jackets – in a palette of warm browns, camel and creams.

Tweed also works in alignment to the uniform style. Returning this year, welcoming an array of blues, greys and mulls. Strikingly bold, and again, wearable in the day and an accompaniment to evening wear.

Knitwear – BIG this year! From the classic roller neck to the boyfriend’s cardigan – a flux of yarns and defining patterns and patchwork enthusiasm.

Money For Nothing – And The Trick’s No Fee

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When Britain lost the War of American Independence in 1783, we nonchalantly withdrew, safe in the knowledge that the fledgling nation had taken on board our delights of fighting a Civil War, and subjugating and exterminating the indigenous people.

Meanwhile, Britain returned to its attempt to turn every schoolroom world map a lurid shade of pink as the British Empire expanded by wont of deciding we knew far better than the cultures of vast swathes of Africa and Asia.

From such unlikely beginnings, our special relationship with the USA has grown and grown. We were never so glad to see our former foes fight alongside us in The Great War, and there can be no doubt that the influx of tens of thousands of American troops turned the tide of a muddy, bloody stalemate.

And, while late to the party again in World War II, American forces once more helped to bring an end to six years of devastating conflict. Meanwhile, GIs (Overpaid, Oversexed, Over Here) brought nylons, gum, jazz and chocolate to a beleaguered and grey England, while getting brides – and surprise children – in return.

Glossing over our penchant for gambolling playfully at America’s feet in gratitude and thus embroiling ourselves in two unwinnable guerrilla conflicts in the Middle East, our tradition of cultural exchange continues to this day.

They gave us Elvis Presley, we gave them the Stones and Beatles. They gave us Hollywood glamour and Marilyn Monroe, we gave them Carry On and Ricky Gervais.

Not forgetting that Halloween barely existed as an event in Britain when I was a kid. The first trick-or-treater I ever heard knock on the door was around 1983.

Faced with one of the local children proclaiming ‘trick or treat’ on the doorstep, my puzzled mum replied: “Trick!” There was a brief, equally baffled pause before the child went to find someone more clued-up.

And though I’ve been a long time out of High School, I don’t recall any talk of Prom Nights in Britain until around the late 90s. The UK didn’t go in for that sort of thing, probably because the film ‘Carrie’ scared the shit out of everyone in 1976.

Suffice to say, my last day at school consisted of a myriad of shirt signings, revenge on those who had royally pissed you off during the year and hasty fumblings with girls who had suddenly become more romantic and attractive as the parting of the ways beckoned.

I digress.

Something else we’ve learned from America is how to sue.

The USA is the most litigious country on the planet. Frankly, you can get sued in America at the drop of the hat, particularly if that hat then trips someone up. And now, we’ve cottoned on to making a fast buck in the same way.

Students, the unemployed or unemployed students who, between watching Jeremy Kyle’s show about British pond life and David Dickinson’s mahogany features on The Real Deal, are no doubt familiar with those ‘no win, no fee’ adverts from legal types.

They tend to show various idiots who have fallen off ladders, tripped over lethal plastic box-ties, or swallowed a pint of weed killer in a misguided attempt to eradicate their own gene-pool, and are now holding fat cheques after successfully blaming someone else for their own incompetence – albeit not quite as fat after the victorious lawyers have taken their mammoth commission.

Trouble is, it’s really no joke. Councils now spend tens of thousands of pounds on compensation every year, ranging from people falling over pavements, being grazed by falling tree branches, hitting heads on low signs and, in the case of a landmark ruling against Hounslow Council, a £100,000 payout to a couple with learning disabilities, who were subjected to abuse by their neighbours.

Regardless of the rights or wrongs of the latter judgement, it doesn’t take a mathematician to realise that if people weren’t suing the council for tumbling over uneven pathways, there might be more money available to get them fixed.

Meanwhile, a number of councils have realised it’s cheaper and easier to fell mature trees rather than put up with the fiddly business of keeping them maintained and so cure the problem of possible conker-shaped bruising.

Speaking of cures, doctors and hospitals now routinely take out malpractice insurance in the event of a legal challenge. Not that loved ones shouldn’t have the right to compensation when something has gone wrong, but there’s something definitely amiss when a man sues the NHS for allowing him to get to 70st.

As Barbara Ellen sagely pointed out in The Observer: “I’m confused. Did his GP say to him, ‘yeah, you look great at 50st, just keep eating”? As he ballooned to the point where it became a military operation to get him to hospital, were nurses feeding him fry-ups? Well, no. Paul Mason is now 37st, thanks to gastric surgery performed by the NHS.”

So, thanks to all this ‘fall down, get rich’ culture, we now live in a Health & Safety wonderland, where school trips are cancelled because of fears of litigation, packets of peanuts come with the disclaimer ‘warning, contains nuts’ and cards for two-year-old toddlers state ‘not suitable for children under 36 months’.

I would go on, but I’ve inadvertently crushed my fingers with the iMac after rooting around for a stray crisp. Now all I have to do is find the name of a good lawyer and Apple’s arse is mine.

Image: Chris Sharp / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=584

An Early Peak into A/W 2011 – Part One – It's all Colour…

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Ok, so it’s January 2011, the sun is still a counterpart to our day to day routines,  however, one thing that never stops, is FASHION!

Let’s take a little peak into this A/W trends – starting with colour. We all know Burberry has shown us the gateway to mulling rouges, purples and reds. This year is going to be a runway for diverse colours, and let’s face it, no matter what the season, fashion is a playground when it comes to experimenting with colour.

Lets break this down into themes – as this year will be prompting us with a heavy mix and match of moods in colour.

Olive and Gold – The Avante Garde of rich colour beauty. An array of strong, striking bronzes, symbolising the brash fire of a woman! These colours will play happy to patterns in tweed and heavy layed cottons and knits.

Let’s shift to a flurry of Blues and Greys – think Urban meets metropolitan. Minimalist silvers and heavier metallic colours, symbolising culture and diversity. Think striking navys – baby blues, of course conceptualised with the universal pallete noir.

The richness of darker colours – Plums, Auburns, especially on heavily layered georgettes and chiffons. Deep violets on silk yarns – edgy and all about the Winter.

Now let’s get a little girly – Vibrant Pinks on scarves, knits in a pallette of lighter colours, light coloured trench coats, and woollen enthused mittens and gloves – very girl-next-door! Also, rich pinks in the Autumn will be applied to sheer layers and as an extra to ruffled blouses and details on skirts. So delicately Autumn.

Greens – A colour we all connotate with nature, green will be a big colour this Autumn – Mustard and Apple greens. Think rich and natural – energising colours.  A labyrinth of scarves and jumpers – keeping the faith of the 60’s look.

Kenny Dalglish – a hero’s return, and it’s not just sentiments running high.

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By Yue Ting Cheng.

Second comings don’t always work out. Not least in football.

Howard Kendall, Everton’s greatest manager, who won the league twice, was a pale imitator in his second and third spells, while Kevin Keegan’s return to Newcastle was short-lived.

But the curious reappointment of Kenny Dalglish as Liverpool manager – the Reds’ and Scotland’s greatest all-time player – brought an unusual warm feeling to the heart.

Since last year,  I thought that, paradoxically, Liverpool won’t be able to move on until they bring back the past – that Rafa Benitez should be replaced by the club’s favourite son – Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish!

His reappointment brought back childhood memories. It was an era just before the Premier League, pay-per-view, Sky Sports and massive, massive salaries. I read in an old economics book that John Barnes, Footballer of the Year in 1988 and 1990, was paid £100,000… a year! Imagine that. Nowadays, some players earn that in a week.

It was an era before Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United were winning everything in sight, with occasionally Arsenal and Chelsea upsetting them – and for one time only – Blackburn Rovers, managed by, guess who? Dalglish.

Now I’ll say that I am no Liverpool supporter. Yes, the team of the 1980s – particularly the 1987-88 team featuring John Barnes, Peter Beardsley, John Aldridge, Ronnie Whelan, Alan Hansen, Steve Nicol and Bruce Grobbelaar  – remains one of the finest British teams of all time. But I have always supported the two teams of my roots, Norwich and Watford.

But Kenny Dalglish represents something unusual in that he is a symbol of real change. Both in the sense that he was Liverpool’s first player-manager, and following his shock resignation to an entire nation in 1991, marking the end of the Liverpool dynasty.

Then the Premier League happened. Fellow Scotsman and former team captain, Graeme Souness’ reign was the start of a downward spiral heralding an era of underachievement starting in 1991 and lasting till about… now.

Twenty years is a long time in any part of life, especially in football. One could only imagine Dalglish’s burning desire. The feeling that he had unfinished business at the club he should have made dominate English football for another two decades.

In 1991, Sir Alex Ferguson had yet to win a league title. In 2011, with Liverpool and Manchester United jointly holding 18 league titles, Ferguson is now close to bringing Manchester United a record 19th, finally eclipsing the Anfield outfit.  History comes round in circles, it seems.

People are saying that Dalglish has been out of the game for too long or his methods are outdated. Cynics add that he is behind the times, and that he’s not managed a club for ten years – since picking up the pieces following John Barnes’ disastrous spell at Celtic, and a turbulent spell at Newcastle, where he was sacked after finishing 2nd in the Premier league in 1996-7 and 13th the following season.

But his record speaks for itself. Four league titles as manager at two different clubs – a feat achieved by only two other men, the legendary Brian Clough and Herbert Chapman – and countless more as a player, including several European Cups. And Liverpool fans know his passion for the club, inside and out. His reappointment has already galvanised the Reds and the city.  He probably won’t cause miracles. He may be lucky to get the team to finish in the top six this season, but then, who would expect him to? When you clear up a bloody mess, it takes time to get the kitchen clean!

Simply, Dalglish is the spiritual king of Liverpool FC, and a link between past, present, and possible future. Remember, he’s younger than Roy Hodgson – his sorrowful predecessor by four years, younger than his arch-nemesis Alex Ferguson by ten, and even Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger is older by two years.

Who knows how much he’ll be able to achieve? But for me, this story is not about Liverpool, Kenny Dalglish or even football itself, but people feeling optimism when they think they’re down and out. And suddenly a spark arrives.

I don’t know if it has anything to do with him as a man. He’s a very earthy Glaswegian (detractors would say dour and often verbally cryptic!), but although he hardly brims with bright charisma, he has a real straightforward charm and wit about him which more pretentious people lack. But I can sense he really means something to the people who understand him as a man and as a footballing legend.

At the start of last year, I watched an old Scottish television documentary of his life (from a VHS video I’ve had for years) from 1986, about his life until that point. What I was struck by, was not just the documentary style – which was very thoughtful and partly shot on film, giving it an artistic quality – but the minimalism of how they portrayed him, his frankness, and the constant look of worry on his face!

He was still a player in 1986 at 35 years old,  but almost completely free from the razzmatazz and hype you see surrounding players of today like your Ronaldos, Messis and Beckhams. There’s a poignant moment in the film when he walks on the beach with his wife Marina and their kids. He is talking about his family and how much they matter to him. It’s very hard to imagine a modern day footballer in such a scene at all.

So here’s to you King Kenny, and your continued success!

Spotted! Kate Middleton at The Ebury with bridal mags. {Celebrity}

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Kate Middleton has become a regular customer at stylish Chelsea Brasserie, The Ebury, where she was recently spotted poring over a stack of magazines, which looked suspiciously like bridal ones. The restaurant is located a stone’s throw from where the procession will be leaving Buckingham Palace, so is the perfect setting for viewing the Royal nuptials.

Bambi legs: Holly Thomas dips her toe into the icy pool of freelance journalism

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Age is a sensitive issue. ­ From childhood, we are taught that there can be no more heinous insult than to enquire as to a stranger’s vintage. I never really understood why until now.

Despite my youth, given the choice between a student debt-clearing windfall or three years wiped off my passport, I would choose the latter without a blink. Because there is nothing more depressing than awaiting the arrival of another birthday without feeling that you’ve achieved anything to merit celebration, and in the bleak knowledge that you’re another year closer to expiring. And when said achievement is largely dependent on the procurement of a job, or at the very least, sufficient work to keep financially afloat, it’s fairly tempting to climb under the covers with a tub of (cheap) ice cream and eat your way into chilly depression as your pride wrestles with the desire to call Mum and tell her to ‘come get you’.

Yes kids, this is what happens to optimism when you enter the world of freelance journalism.

Perhaps I sound unduly pessimistic. I only graduated in July. However, let us consider the landscape: I took a gap year. I also took a break for personal reasons after university [read: I went home for a few months, confronted a less than savoury family situation, ate an obscene quantity of chocolate, found that didn’t help, and so moved to London]. BUT there are people more organised than me who didn’t take gap years, jumped on the application wagon during their third year, and are now, at the age of 21, sitting pretty in their first job and well on their way to having ‘a life’.

Not everyone of course, we’re talking about the blessed few upon whom karma smiled, and who of course had the acumen to think ahead. But you see what I mean. Once stuck in professional no-man’s land, it’s pretty damn hard to claw your way out, especially when you’re aiming for a job in a competitive field such as journalism (hi), which requires evidence of busy labour. “But I have a first class degree, a bagful of awards and a pretty sweet list of work experience placements”. Nope, unless you’ve been employed by a respectable (ie: widely circulated) publication for at least a year OR have a helluva good specialised qualification, you are barely worth the gum on the heel of that elusive editor who refuses to answer your emails.

What happened though? When did the outlook become so bereft of any hope? And when did we supposedly bright young things become such ungrateful, acrid husks of woe? After all, a few decades ago my main concern would have been the hunt for a groom to worry about all this job malarky on behalf of us both. Now that’s only plan two (*JOKE. Unless things get really bad).

The recession (I’m really sick of that word, so that will be the only time I whisper its bromidic name in the course of this moan, er, article) obviously hasn’t helped.  The unrealistic glamorisation of the hack trade, has, I think, also added rather to the numbers of aspiring scribes clamouring for their slice of the journo pie.

Take Twitter for example. I joined a couple of months ago because it appears to be the ‘done thing’. And thanks to Twitter, I am now privy to the minutiae of the lives of almost every well-known journalist one might care to name.  And this doesn’t just entail their personal opinions on the hot topics of the day, but actual titbits (or jaw breaking gobfuls) of their home lives. And what fabulous lives they are.

Initially, I must confess to having felt a hint of jealousy. When, for example, India Knight and Caitlin Moran, both highly successful and extremely talented self-made journalists tweet each other to arrange celebratory cocktails “when you’ve finished your book” (and we know that this book will inevitably sell by the bucket load), the figurative stomach thunders with hunger for that lifestyle – the luxury to type away in one’s beautiful London home safe in the certainty that the fruits of your labour will comfortably furnish an entire Christmas shop within the hallowed confines of Selfridges and Harvey Nichols.­

I wouldn’t dream of suggesting that this is undeserved, or that these fortunate women didn’t have to pay their dues and work their way up. But things have undeniably changed in the last couple of decades, and whilst deeply painful to accept, we ‘newbies’ (until October that is) must either find something else to do or acknowledge the fact that we’re just going to have to suck it up and endure whatever it takes to get ahead.

SO if you can’t afford an MA or quickie journalism course (I can’t), write. Get a blog. Learn your stuff. Apply for things. Obviously learn how to use InDesign, WordPress, etc. But to be honest, though all the technological fireworks look pretty on a CV, ultimately the key thing is to be good and be motivated. And be interested. It doesn’t matter what your topic is; be it music, film, fashion, the environment (gulp), whatever, keep up to date so that when your dream job comes up you’ll ace the interview. Don’t be picky.

Frankly, if you’re actually talented you don’t need loads of serious writing practice. Just take what relevant work you can, suck up, be prepared to make tea and copies, and thank your lucky stars you have somewhere to go in the mornings. And most importantly, find the thing that spurs you on, cling to it like a limpet, and let it push you forward. For me, that’s watching India and Caitlin on Twitter, and imagining the day when I too will have 57,000 followers (sounds quite cult-like doesn’t it) and can afford to stuff myself to the gills with organic goodies bought online and delivered to my W1 door.

Five of the Best Gloves AW10-11 {Fashion}

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You’ve got your faux fur, your cape, your hat with animal ears, it’s almost spring but not quite and there’s still a chill in the air. So chilly that writing emails on our berrys on the go becomes a chore too much. So what’s a girl to do for her frosty fingers? Well we’ve found 5 of the toastiest and we think you’ll like them too…

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Asos “Mango Balm Bow” Glove, £38

If chic and ladylike is something you’d like to call your sense of style then these might be the ones for you. Leather with a press stud fastening and bows on the wrists.

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Top Shop Rust Faux Fur Trim Cable Knit Gloves, £16

Old school nostalgia brought up to date with tactile faux fur trim. Thread them through your coat for that feeling of having never grown up.

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Asos Sheepskin Gloves, £19

Want your digits to be extra warm? These will probably do the trick. Sheepskin gloves from Asos with a thick pile cuff. Like hugging a sheep, but with less confusion and bleating.

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All Saints Ambrin Gloves, £25

These fine knit Cashmere/Wool gloves with ruching and tassle details are the sensible, stylish and yet somehow trendy option. Go smart, go casual, scrunch them up and pop them in your handbag without taking up too much room.

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Miss Selfridge Grey Long Button Gloves, £10

These woolen gloves from Miss Selfridge will keep your hands and your wrists warm. They also come in black you say?

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