If you’re frugal with your household bills, and looking for an extra way to cut costs, you might want to try LED lighting. LED lighting is one of the major ways to save money on your bills, without compromising on the quality of your lights. Here’s how you can save money with LED lighting. How LED Saves Money LED saves money for two reasons: firstly, LED bulbs use less electricity than traditional incandescent and halogen bulbs. Secondly, they last for more longer than other types of light bulbs. You can replace a 60w halogen bulb with a 9w LED bulb – this will use 85% less electricity. ... read more
You Should Know These Things About Your Home
How much do you really know about your home? When you first move in, you might explore to find out where some important things are, like the fuse box and gas meter. But perhaps you've recently realised that you don't actually know a lot about your property. Maybe you're planning some renovations or thinking about how to save money, and you've noticed you know less than you should. Here are some essential things you should know about your home. Where Are the Utility Fixtures? Your home needs water and energy. Many homes in the UK have both electricity and gas, although some might only ... read more
My Mermaid Lagoon – Marina’s Lagoon
Little Miss C is still very much of the age where she loves making small worlds and role playing with them. Often I will find shoe boxes, or other things stolen from the cardboard recycling, full of soil, sand or small pieces of paper to represent some sort of a landscape and then tiny crafted things to represent houses and other household things. Fairies, mermaids, horses and unicorns seem to feature prominently in them at the moment and so being asked to review My Mermaid Lagoon from Interplay was perfect timing. Mermaid Lagoon gives you everything you need to create a magical world ... read more
Jobs That Need A Mum For The Woman On Her Way Back To Work
The subject of work and motherhood is a very tangled one. A lot of women find that they need to take out more time than others, and often make a big life transition from a career woman to becoming a mother. However, there are plenty of women who also find they want to make the switch back. Your career options depend on a lot of things, like how much time you can dedicate to work, how duties are split in the family, whether you use childcare and more. But depending on your circumstances, some of the following jobs might be the best suited to your life as a mother. Picture Managing ... read more
Moving House The Thrifty Way
Moving to a new house has got to be one of the most expensive things you can do. If you are buying, you have likely already landed thousands on a deposit, legal fees and insurance. If you are renting, you’ve already spent time saving up for a few months of rent and a holding deposit, as well as letting fees. This is all before you pay out for a moving van and potentially a hotel to hold you over until everything is unpacked. Like we said – expensive! Image Source Thankfully, there are ways to save money when you move to a new home. From checking out storage near you and bartering on ... read more
Brio World – Village School Playset
It will come as absolutely no surprise to regular readers when I say that Master C is train mad. He creates huge wooden train worlds around the flat and is always being inventive and coming up with new things to go in his worlds. He was therefore thrilled to receive the new Brio World Village School Playset to review. The Village School Playlet is a bit different to many of the other Brio World elements as it doesn't have train track running through it, yet you can assemble it next to an existing piece of track easily enough. It consists of two rooms in the school and a ladder to climb up ... read more
Smurfs: The Lost Village on DVD
A while back I went with the kids to the local cinema to see the latest Smurfs film - Smurfs: The Lost Village. If I'm totally honest it wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but the kids absolutely loved it and have been asking to see it again ever since. This last week their wish has been answered with the release of the film on DVD. The "summer" weather hasn't been great this summer holiday, and with a smaller smaller place to live in, having some DVDs to entertain the kids has been a great respite from everyone falling over each other in our tiny flat. They have loved catching up with the ... read more
Review: Zhu Zhu Pets
Now just the other day I posted on here an infographic which told us that Zhu Zhu Pets were one of the toys of the decade from the 2010s. I'm using the fact that Little Miss C was only just born in 2010 as my excuse for why I hadn't played with Zhu Zhu Pets until very recently. They are exactly the sort of toy that LMC absolutely loves though and so I scored some serious mum brownie points when I opened a large cardboard box to reveal a selection of the latest range of them. Inside we unpacked the Hamster House Playset and an Adventure Ball as well as Pipsqueak, one of the Zhu Zhu Pets ... read more
Safe Breaker
When you're sent toy to review with the word "breaker" in the title then you know it's going to be a hit with the kids. They just love feeling like they're getting around something, which is exactly what they are doing with Safe Breaker. Much as the name suggests, the aim of the game is to break into the safe. Before you start playing though you load the coins into the back of the safe via the slot that is there. This includes four special coins that you put stickers on - three with diamonds and one with an alarm bell symbol. More on the reason for these four special coins later. To ... read more
Fashionable, Not Fussy – How Busy Moms Look Good
When you have a family, your priorities are going to flip upside down in a moment. That’s not a secret to most women. However, one of the changes that many actually find it quite hard to make is that they’re not often going to have the time to dedicate to their wardrobe and their aesthetic as they can. Some days, you are definitely going to have that freedom to stay looking like the yummy mummy you are. But one those days when you find about two minutes of free time, you can still look great. You just have to know how to work with what you got and start filling the wardrobe so that what you ... read more