... that the £5 dress you loved last year is now £20?

Whatever happened to the good old days? 

When you used to be able to buy a whole outfit (and I mean a WHOLE outfit) and you would still have change for £50? 

Whatever happened to those 10p salty treats Space Raiders? I'll tell you what, they aren't 10p anymore, that's for sure. 

These are things you start to notice when you get older... And no I'm not some old woman reflecting on her youth (i'm only 24). The thing is, the other day when I went shopping in a major womans fashion retailer and the bill came to in excess of £75 for a pair of jeans and a SALE dress I start to ask myself- 'When did all this happen?!' When did the time come where id be struggling to buy an outfit and have change for £100? 

The thing is for one reason or another clothes have got more expensive and don't be fooled because its not all to do with the fact that youve grown in the last 10 years because even childrens clothes have shot up in price! Don't get me wrong, things have got a lot better than they have been, with the likes of budget retailers popping up, especially for men i might add, with high street fashion growing in popularity but even these prices are slowly creeping up. This is where you'd probably say thank heaven for Primark. Ha! You'd be naive to think prices aren't on the up here aswell. Don't think we havent noticed that additional couple of quid on the price of that dress that would've been cheaper 6 months earlier. 

So when i asked "Whatever happened to the good ol days when you could buy a whole outfit for £50 and still have plenty of change?" I wasn't really expecting an answer becuse the truth is i know. My conclusion is enjoy these days while they last. When you can buy an outfit for £100 and have change, because in 10 years time it wouldn't suprise me if you didn't get change from £200. So in the meantime what i'm saying is thank heaven for small mercies and when you can just go to Primark. Bloody inflation.

... being a first time home buyer?

Lee and I were FTB's, completed the purchase of our house in September. They say buying a home or moving home is one of the most stressful things in life and from our experience, it was true! The average home purchase can take 4-6 weeks, ours took 5 months.

Here are some tips I would like to share with you to avoid some common mistakes:

1) Look at ONLY what you can afford. Do a budget planner and see what your monthly expenditures are. The last thing you want is to lose your home due to non mortgage payments.

2) Choose a local solicitor who quotes fees between £600-£1000 (not including stamp duty, local search fees etc) The less money you pay, the more likely you are going to run into trouble... Also check some reviews on them before you make a decision and don't trust the ones you see on their own website! Choosing a good solicitor is the difference between moving within any deadlines set our losing your chose property all together (See the Wolstenholmes Solicitors LLP issue)

3) Use a no fee mortgage advisor. They can do a lot of the research for you and approach the mortgage lenders who are more likely to accept your application

4) If you chose to look for a mortgage yourself, make sure you go into a bank and don't do an application over the phone. I recommend Halifax, they were BRILLIANT for us, Abbey wasted 5 weeks of my life after approving a mortgage and then retracting it without telling me! Also, with Halifax, they paid for half of our council tax for the year!

5) Make sure you have a deposit. There is no point in looking into a home if you dont have the money!

6) Dont rush into buying a home. They always say don't buy the first one you look at and its true. We looked at a few new build homes and almost bought the first one we saw. It turned out these particular homes had a HUGE number of defects.

7) You will be hounded relentlesly to buy Home Insurance! I have Home Insurance myself and it includes Life Insurance plan, i.e if one of us were to die, our mortgage would be paid off. In my research I found that £10 was the average quote I recieved for my partner and I. Also maybe unemployment cover if you feel like it would apply to you.

Good luck! 

... when you don’t seem to lose weight?!

My tips are to:

1. Move gyms! Due to the recession a lot of gyms have free day passes. Use the links below (Hurry some may run out end of April) or simply call up your local gym and say you are interested and they may offer you a free trial!
• Virgin Active
• Harpers Fitness
• Fitness First
 
2. If you want to ditch the gym altogether, take up classes! 
3. Join such classes as Boxercise/Zumba/Aqua Aerobics/Circuit Training or even pick up a team sport. Much more fun and you actually enjoy yourself whilst burning fat! It’s on average £5 per class, for an hour’s lesson the average person can burn the following:

• Zumba: on average 650 calories!! (Based on the instructors calculations)
• Boxercise: 350 – 450 calories
• Aqua Aerobics – 500 Calories
• Find out through www.yell.com where your local gyms are and give them a ring to find out what classes they have to offer.

Personally, I would recommend Aqua Aerobics you can go at your own pace and it’s good if you want to get in the water but are not a keen swimmer or you don’t want to ruin your hair (ladies with weaves or perms know what I’m on about!) and you really burn the calories.

Remember: The harder you work the more calories you’ll burn!! 

... doing your business in gross toilets?

Here is what I recommend...

1. Hold it - wait till you get home!! I appreciate this isn’t always the case so…
2. Always carry hand sanitizer! Kills 99.9% of germs.
3. Fully line the toilet seat with loo roll!
4. Stoop!!

... all the hype over Wayne Rooney?

Now I must admit, I'm not the biggest football fan. I have sat down and watched a game or two and I am with someone who is so much of a football fan, that I generally pick up on all the interesting bits.

What I find shocking is the hype over Wayne Rooney. I'm not going to deny the fact that the man is an amazing football player, however, how must the other players feel when everyone and even the commentators turn round and say "Rooney isn't playing, there is a high chance we will lose".

Talk about having a lot of faith in the rest of your players! Its like saying we should expect a really bad episode of Family Guy if Quagmire doesn't make an appearance, Destiny's Child without Michelle or making a Victoria Sponge without the Jam! Yes it would be missed, but it shouldn’t really make much of a difference. It is absolutely ludicrous.

That we as a nation should do, is not put all our eggs into one basket and start having a little faith in our other players. There is nothing more disconcerting than hearing your team is going to fail without a particular person. You are seriously setting yourself up for a fail if you keep that attitude. I would hate to have been playing on the England team when Wayne Rooney "broke" his ankle, I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that "England had no chance". All I would say is thanks for believing in me. There is no "Rooney" in team!

There are plenty of other fantastically skilled (and fantastically over paid) players in the UK at the moment. In the words of George Michael, "You gotta have faith". This much pressure on one person can't be healthy either, look at all the famous melt downs of Christmas past:

Britney Spears - Shaved her hair off

Lindsay Lohan - Likely hood of her doing another movie is ZERO.

Whitney Houston - if you haven't seen it, check out this link

All I can say is yes Rooney is a good player, but start believing every the other 10 players trying to win the match for you. 

... people who don't like Apple Products?

We all know someone who has there own opinions on branded products. They either refuse to use a particular brand or are afraid to stray away from another. The most common opinion I hear are the people who say “Is that an apple product, get it away from me!”. These people I find are secretly jealous of apple products, but are too ashamed to admit it.

I was lucky enough to try out the new apple iPad this week and it is in all words "awesome". If you have ever owned or used an iTouch, then you will notice is pretty much the same thing but on a larger scale. 

The iPad looks and feels classy and is packed with features suited to today’s modern day home. With storage capacity of 16G, 32G or 64G you have enough space to store your personal music, photos and movies as well as applications available from the app store. Its ideal for watching movies on the train, on a plane or in a car. You can use the internet via its Safari web browser with the option of a keyboard docking station, making typing easier. There are two types of iPad;- one with Wifi and the other with wifi and 3G, making the iPad ready to use on the go.

Only the Wifi versions are out in America at the moment with models coming to the UK in late May. Prices are expected to start around £500 for the entry model (16G with Wifi), making the iPad a pricey accessory to your home. It will appeal to the Apple users already as all Apple products do, but may also turn a few apple haters into lovers. Rival companies are now producing their own Windows 7 Android-powered versions which will all be released later in the year.

Do I like the iPad? YES. 

Will other people like it? YES. 

Will the people secretly jealous of Apple products like it, YES...

...but they will tell you NO!

... finding out you spent more money than you should?

I hate getting ripped off. Its one of my real hates! It very rarely happens to me actually but when I do, man my blood boils!

I always like to do a lot of comparisons when buying expensive products. For example, I just bought some brand new gym equipment; -

Roger Black Silver Motorised Treadmill Running Machine

Roger Black Gold Medal Rower - AG-13402

Roger Black Bike X Trainer Combo

all for £408.99 when it should've cost me £1049! How did I make such a saving?

Simply by shopping around!

I bought all these items on eBay, some of the items offered free delivery too. They were all items that had only been opened and returned to the seller so they were in PERFECT condition.

There are a lot of sellers on eBay that sell perfect quality items with damaged boxes. All of these items have been checked and repackaged and offer customer service support if the item is not up to the standard you have expected.

So go on, check it out!