Many people think of food waste as a benign substance. It rots down in the landfill anyway, so no problem, right?

Wrong! For food to compost properly, it needs light and air. In the landfill, it has neither.

Instead, food devoid of light and air produces methane gas, which contributes to global warming. It is estimated that we throw away a third of the food we buy each week! Through poor portion control or buying too much fresh food that goes off before we use it we create a lot of waste.

Follow these tips to help you reduce food waste, save money and protect the environment:
1. Write a list!
Menu plan your meals for a week. Check the ingredients in your fridge and cupboards, then write a shopping list for just the extras you need.

2. Stick to the list!
Take your list with you and stick to it when you’re in the store. Don’t be tempted by offers and don’t shop when you’re hungry — you’ll come back with more than you need.

3. Keep a healthy fridge.
Check that the seals on your fridge are good and check the fridge temperature too. Food needs to be stored between 1 and 5 degrees Celsius for maximum freshness and longevity.

4. Don’t throw it away!
Fruit that is just going soft can be made into smoothies or fruit pies. Vegetables that are starting to wilt can be made into soup.

5. Use up your leftovers.
Instead of scraping leftovers into the bin, why not use them for tomorrow’s ingredients? A tablespoon of cooked vegetables can be the base for a crock pot meal.

6. Rotate.
When you buy new food from the store, bring all the older items in your cupboards and fridge to the front. Put the new food towards the back and you run less risk of finding something moldy at the back of your food stores!

7. Serve small amounts.
Serve small amounts of food with the understanding that everybody can come back for more once they’ve cleared their plate. This is especially helpful for children, who rarely estimate how much they can eat at once. Any leftovers can be cooled, stored in the fridge and used another day.

8. Buy what you need.
Buy loose fruits and vegetables instead of prepacked, then you can buy exactly the amount you need. Choose cheese from a deli so that you can buy what you want.

9. Freeze!
If you only eat a small amount of bread, then freeze it when you get home and take out a few slices a couple of hours before you need them. Likewise, batch cook foods so that you have meals ready for those evenings when you are too tired to cook.

10. Turn it into garden food.
Some food waste is unavoidable, so why not set up a compost bin for fruit and vegetable peelings? In a few months you will end up with rich, valuable compost for your plants. If you have cooked food waste, then a kitchen composter (bokashi bin) will do the trick. Just feed it with your scraps (you can even put fish and meat in it), sprinkle over a layer of special microbes and leave to ferment. The resulting product can be used on houseplants and in the garden.

With thanks to Atul Bafna

Other articles about food waste:

People are needlessly throwing away 3.6m tonnes of food each year in England and Wales…

Councils are to start collecting food waste separately in order to tackle climate change.

London receives £362,000 grant to save food from landfill.

Reel Estates have been on our journey of buying and selling from very early on.

We were in contact with 2 members of staff in particular. Brian and Peter. A few months into  our journey, we developed a good relationship with Gary and Christine too.

Here’s what worked well for us. Some of these things saved us a lot of strife too!

• They were willing to advise us about offers on our flat that were made through other agents. Really and truly, they had nothing to gain by helping us. No commission. They gained our trust but they sacrificed their time. the best part is they didn’t mind!
• There was a guy who viewed our property through another agent. He came over again (alone), dropped off a letter expressing interest in our flat and making an offer. The thing is, he wanted to keep it a secret from the agents ‘to save us fees’! I got on the phone to Reel and was advised to tell the agent because he’ll use it as leverage to get us to drop the price so we wont really save in the end. Also we’d be vulnerable and would have to pay the fees anyway! All the agent would need to do is prove that they introduced us to the buyer once the purchase was completed. We’d then get hit with a fee and if we’d reduced the price too; we’d be at a huge financial loss! (Note shown below)
• When we were bidding for other properties, Brian and Peter went out of their way to help us in our approach with the agent representing the sellers .
• They kept on finding properties for us and understanding what we truly wanted so they could match our needs perfectly!
• They made sure they came back to us with a response when we left messages or sent emails. Nothing was left pending!
• They brought LOADS of potential buyers to our flat, when other agents barely got anyone through the door. They didn’t trick the viewers in any way. They were upfront, told them it was an ex local flat, expressed the fab condition it’s in, painted a real and full picture of the area, making sure they explained things that the viewer would need to know e.g. the other entrance/exit to Pinner tube station which is open during peak hours, schools, the local library, the High Street, the fabulous parks and more.
• When the flat was about to sell it was Peter who warned me about the fact that we could get hit with dual fees! Why? ‘Golds’ introduced the buyer to us but when we went multi agency, we didn’t continue with them. The buyer then made another offer through ‘Hounds’. This situation would entitle BOTH agents to their commission! Click here for more info about what happened.
• Peter didn’t just mention it once. He mentioned it again as the sale progressed.
• Peter also gave us a number of a solicitor who specialises in contract. This solicitor was amazing! He knew his stuff and told us the bad news very quickly. We would definitely be liable for dual fees!
• When we finally found a place, the place we’ve not moved in to; they went the extra mile to make the completion date sooner, rather than, later.
• They made calls to the seller, both of the solicitors, the mortgage companies and more.
• They found out information, answered queries, helped process forms and so much more.
• If we’d waited for the solicitors to do all of that it would’ve been ages and there would have been a large hole in our pocket and the seller’s pocket too!

I cannot sing their praises enough.

You read the title! ‘Selling a property is easy. Agents wants commission and try their best to make a sale!’ Do you know anyone who really, truly, fully feels that this is an accurate statement?

I’ve provided a summary of what happened to us below and I’ve added links to posts that’ll shed more light. More detail. The reason that this might be important for YOU is if you come to sell a property, it’s good to be aware of the stunts that some agents pull. Our story may save you money, time, anxiety & stress.

So…here’s our story. Suraj and I were involved with one agent in the beginning. Click here to find out about the initial stages re selling our flat.

We had a lot of interest early on but things kept going wrong. We then got involved with a number of different agents. This didn’t make it easier! It did NOT increase the competition between them and help us make a successful sale. Click here to find out how things went wrong.

THEN it got worse! We had a sale, it was going through and we were going to get hit with DOUBLE fees! Now here’s where the competition kicked in! None of the acting agents made us aware of this dual fee. In fact, Hounds made a point of trying to trick us, pretend it didn’t apply to us and make the sale go through. Once that happened, we’d be stuffed! Click here to read the full story.

So I was on my way to Kings Cross to get a train to Grantham. All I had to do was: -

Go from Pinner to Baker Street & then

Baker Street to Kings Cross

The train terminated at Wembley Park. We got told there was signal failure, a line was suspended, a fire somewhere else etc. It all affected the journey I needed to make!

After that another Metropolitan Line train terminated at Wembley Park too.  I waited 14 minutes to get the Jubilee Line to Baker Street. The only choice was to get the Hammersmith and City or Circle Line to Kings Cross. After what felt like a long wait, I made it to Kings Cross. I’d missed my train so I went to the Information Desk.

The man who was at the desk asked me questions about my ticket and said he wasn’t sure what to tell me because I had a Super Saver Ticket which meant I could only use it on one specific train. He suggested I go back to the tube station and ask for a ‘delays on the underground compensation form’

I assumed it’ be a form I fill out and send off later so I was anxious when I  had to wait in line to simply get a form. I may miss another train! Anyway it was my turn and I got told I needed to go to the Supervisor’s Office. I asked someone else and he showed me where it was. A supervisor came out and he asked for my surname which I thought was strange.

Anyway, he came out with a sheet with my name on it and an explanation of why I was delayed. He said I’d just have to give it to the staff at the platform and they should let me board the next train.

It worked and it was great!

We recently got the flat we live in valued. What a learning curve!

We met our first estate agent, saw some new homes with them and then got our place valued. After their valuation, all I can say is WOW! I was SO chuffed! If I could sell for the price they quoted, I’d have made £100, 000 on my flat in 4 years. This means we’d have more of a budget in terms of buying! I was so tempted to sign on the dotted line and instruct them to sell the flat but I didn’t. Thanks goodness! I’ll explain why later.

After seeing a few places with them we fell for one place in particular. The person who valued our home said that the person selling would accept £50 000 less than the asking price because ‘he’s done it backwards’. It’s not his fault but he’s fallen for a place and is now desperate to sell to ensure he gets it! He said he didn’t want us to get in the same situation but he thinks it’d be worth our while to see it. We saw it and got in the same situation. We LOVED it! Now the thing is; we put an offer in at the amount he suggested and he said they won’t budge at anything more than £20 000 less than the asking price. Thus £30 000 more than what we expected to get it for. So we’ll have to let that go. No probs. We can live with that.

However, re our home; the estate agent said we NEED to put our home on the market so that we are classed as an ‘aggressive’ buyer. If we want to buy a place and he puts an offer in on our behalf; the seller will want to know that we’re serious about it all. By our home not being on the market, we haven’t had details published, we’ve not had viewers. Thus we’re not anywhere near selling. If us buying a new home is dependent on us selling; the seller will probably tell us to ‘get real’ & get a firm offer first. Now this can work both ways. If the estate agent’s SURE that we’ll sell quickly, we could wait, find a place and then put ours on the market. (This was suggested by a HIP surveyor). However, many estate agents don’t put all the properties on their books. If they know that they can sell it ASAP and they know who to go to i.e. there’s someone who’s chain free and ready to buy or someone who has a firm offer on their place and can buy quickly because of that; the property won’t need to be advertised. Why? Because it will sold straight away without the agent putting any effort in! If ours isn’t on the market, they won’t bother showing us all their stock.

Also, in some ways, the process of selling is longer. Each sale has to start with a HIP now. This all takes time and money. Also the HIP is valid for one year so you wouldn’t want to get that done if there’s nothing that you can afford or there aren’t many properties for sale, because you may well have to pay for another HIP if it’s not valid when you finally buy & sell.

Please take caution when deciding WHO to instruct to sell your property! Here are some things to ask: -

1. What’s the fee that they have for selling your home?
2. Is there a tie in? If so, how long are you tied in for?
3. What’s the fee if you sell your home via many agencies i.e. multiple agencies & does this affect how long you’re tied in for?
4. Do you they have someone in-house who can carry out the HIP for you? Can they suggest anyone else who can do it cheaper? (If they only ‘flog’ the company they suggest; don’t accept it!)
5. How quickly will they advertise your property and how?

Things to look out for: -

1. Do they try and get you to sign them up straight away and push that you sign their T’s & C’s (terms and conditions)?
2. Did they look at your home properly? Did they seem attentive? Did they ask questions about how long your lease is if you’re a leaseholder? Did they ask about the service charge if that applies? These are things that will be important to the people viewing your property.
3. Do they justify what they’re basing the value of your property on? Do they show you ‘comparables’? These are properties similar to yours that are in the same location which sold recently. Thus if a property similar to yours sold for £200 000 last month, it won’t be worth £250 000 now, for example.
4. If they tell you they CAN get £50 000 extra for your property because they have people on their books looking for a place ‘just like yours’ don’t believe them! Even if they find a mug who’ll spend over the odds for your property; when it comes to being surveyed by the lender; it’ll be compared to those near you (as mentioned above) and it’ll be devalued. Thus you’ll have wasted time, money, got your hopes up and you may even be tied in to firm with incompetent employees who overvalued your property.
5. Try and keep your cards close to your chest. The more you can tell an agent the better. They’ll get a feel for what you like and dislike and show you appropriate properties. Contradiction to keep your cards close to your chest right? Well…if you fall for a place, try not to let on. Some estate agents play on your emotions to ensure they get you to spend more so they get a fatter pocket through commission. Thus keep calm & try not to show how interested you are.
6. Some agents don’t share your offer with the person you want to buy from. They come back to you after a week and say that someone’s offered more than you and then encourage you to outbid them. You get into a bidding war with an ‘invisible buyer’. The seller benefits as does the agent. However, you are then out of pocket.
7. If you instruct an agent to sell your home, beware of agents who get their ‘friends’ to come and view your property within a few days/a week. These potential buyers relay lots of positive feedback but then you hear no more. Thus you chase the agent and are ‘drawn in’. This is when they may suggest you drop your price because the buyer said ‘they’re still looking’ because the price isn’t right for example.

Something you can do yourself: -

• Use a site called Zoopla to find out how much your property is worth. This site does the whole comparable thing for you. You’ll see how much it was last sold for and that should be how much you paid for it! It will also show you how much it’s worth now.
• Another site that does the same is called NetHousePrices
• Look online for cheaper HIPs
• Keep CALM. Also try and keep your cards close to your chest. I’ve explained why this is important above.

Some must knows: –

Any contract that’s signed in your home comes with a 14 day cool off period regardless of work done because of it e.g. viewings etc.

If you have any other advice or tips please leave a comment below this post.

You may know that I am a teacher. I am not a parent but I obviously know and meet many parents in my profession. Beyond the working day, I meet parents and parents to be, in the same way most of you probably do. So what’s all this got to do with tuition?

Well, I went to the park a couple of days ago and as I sat on the swing, soaking up the sun, I got talking to a father about his daughter who was 3 years old. She has been attending a Montessori nursery and she will be attending a state school in September.

He and his wife are concerned. They feel that she has been stimulated at the nursery and by her mum but this may change once she starts school. In order to make sure she remains stimulated, they’re looking into having her tutored.

Now I can imagine some of you nodding and some of you thinking ‘but she’s only three years old!’ Either way, regardless of our personal opinion, will it be good for the child?

Most teachers I know will say that the child will do enough at school. Thus they should be allowed to enjoy their evenings reading, socialising, doing practical things, going for walks, learning about the world around them and playing games, for example. Now that’s quite a lot to do without adding tuition to the list. These things that I’ve mentioned are not flimsy things. They are really important. Children learn a lot through these things and many of us know that it’s difficult to get by on academic skills alone.

Some children are worked so hard in tuition that they switch off at school. Just like adults who come home from work and can’t face doing more work; children also need a release, a time to play. If this is not given to them, they might find it very difficult to fulfil expectations at school.

So when is tuition OK?

If your child is having difficulties with something that’s fundamental to their learning, then ask his/her class teacher if tuition would help. There may be a better way. A less costly way. A more interactive way and a way that will be less intimidating for the child.

If tuition is a good idea, make sure you know when to stop. It won’t support your child if you keep finding new things to have them tutored for.

Strengths and weaknesses

We spend a lot of time fixing things, rather than, supporting our strengths and skills. If your child is, for example, really strong in maths (also known as numeracy) but not in english (also known as literacy) then why not support their learning in maths? This doesn’t have to be through tuition. It could be through playing games, looking things up on the internet, joining a club of some sort and so on.

Who should the tutor be?

Now here’s where your choice can make all the difference.

Anyone who’s 25 or over may not know but schooling, the content and methods used are different to when we were at school. Some things that I learned later in secondary school are taught much earlier. Other things are taught in a very different way.

Teachers who have qualified recently will have been trained with tools, such as, the National Curriculum, the National Literacy Strategy and the National Numeracy Strategy. They will have been taught that we no longer teach children to add a zero when multiplying by ten because the child learns the trick but they won’t necessarily understand how it works. Also research has led decisions making about when we should teach certain topics and in which order they should be taught. Thus things are quite different to how they used to be.

Teachers who qualified before these strategies were introduced will have had INSET on them, so they will be up to date with this information too.

Tutors are not in either of these groups. Thus when your child is learning, especially early on in his/her life, it’s imperative that they are taught in a way that will support their learning at school, rather than, hinder it. If the tutor is unaware of current methods and those that have been discarded, it could confuse your child and affect their confidence. If the current strategy supports teaching multiplication before division but the child learns division first they may not be able follow what they are taught in school.

Hopefully, schools and staff will encourage your child learning in lots of different ways, whilst being exposed to different methods so that they can choose and use what works for them. However, this is usually beneficial with older children. They can choose a method that works for them once they understand the theory and how to apply their knowledge.

None of this is supposed to be prescriptive. However, if you are going to spend money tutoring your child, I’m assuming that your goal would be to support them. In this case, it would help to find a tutor who is familiar with these strategies so that they can assist your child better.

As you can from my post on 15th March, I have been thinking about electricity and the tariff I’m on a lot. So I wrote this letter to Green Homes Concierge in order to check that what I was doing was ‘right’. Here’s what I asked: -

Hi ya

I am writing to ask you about using electricity.

I have economy 7 at the flat I live in.

Thus to charge mobiles, do a load of washing etc. I plug a timer into the relevant socket and set it to be on during economy 7 hours.

In my mind, this means that the timer is on during non eco 7 hours for the timer to operate but the item plugged into the charger does not work until it is set to i.e. during eco 7 hours.

Am I right in thinking that the cost of the timer being on is minimal compared to doing a load of washing or charging a phone, for example?

Thanks

Heena

Hi Heena,

Thanks for your query.

Exactly – you are correct to assume that the timer only uses a minimal amount of electricity, and is therefore a cost-effective way of charging your equipment and doing the washing. Such activities use a comparatively high amount of energy, whereas the timer will use a much smaller amount during the daytime tariff.

An inventive way to make the most of the economy 7 tariff without having to be awake in the middle of the night!

Hope this makes sense and answers your question.

Thanks and regards,

Natalie