With increasing numbers of us switching from set tariffs to metered water rates, how to reduce water usage is a hot topic in most homes.

Read on for some great tips and tricks on how you can start saving water and simultaneously start saving on your water bills.

The Obvious:

• Don’t wash dishes under running water. Or, if you have a dishwasher, use it – modern dishwashers use far less water than the volume needed to clean by hand.
• However, don’t run your dishwasher until it’s full.
• Don’t run your washing machine until it’s full either.
• Fix dripping taps – it might seem like this doesn’t waste much water but it will add up.
• Turn the tap off while you’re cleaning your teeth.

The not-so obvious:

• Monitor your water bill, if you’re paying a lot more than you expect, you need to find out why.
• Check your pipes for leaks. If your water bill does seem unusually high, this could be why.
• Water your lawn and plants in the morning or even better, the evening. This will minimise evaporation.
• Use a broom rather than a hose to clean your driveway.
• Put a one-gallon bucket below your shower. If it fills in less than twenty seconds, invest in a more water-efficient shower head.
• Alternatively, invest in a flow reducer.
• Take shorter showers – just a minute or two can save around 150 gallons of water each month.
• Upgrade your toilet for a dual flush model.
• When running a bath, don’t wait for the water to reach temperature before putting the plug in – you won’t notice once it’s ready.
• Fill a jug of water from the tap and place it in the fridge – this will save you having to run the tap until it’s cold each time you want a drink of water.

In light of our competition, in which we’re giving one lucky homeowner a high-tech and high-security rock door, we’ve chosen to dedicate today’s blog post to looking at security in the home.

According to the UK government, homes without any security measures are five times more likely to be targeted by burglars than homes that employ a few simple measures.

If you want to reduce the risk of returning home to find it ransacked, consider implementing a few (or all) of the below security measures.

Everyday measures:

• Keep all keys away from windows and out of sight, and never hide a spare key under a door mat or in a plant pot – burglars know all the places to look.
• Keep valuables away from prying eyes.
• Install a burglar alarm where burglars can see it. If you can’t afford a real burglar alarm, dummy alarms have proven to be effective too.
• Install motion sensor lighting around all entrances to your home.
• Consider replacing your driveway with gravel – the noise means most burglars will avoid your property like the plague.
• Use a timer to turn off TVs, radios and/or lights in the home.
• Keep windows and doors locked every time you leave the house – even if you’re just going into the garden. Burglaries are often opportunistic crimes with thieves frequently on the lookout for someone enjoying a sunny day while their front door sits unlocked.
• Invest in the highest quality windows you can afford. Single glazed windows are incredibly easy to break, so if you’ve never upgraded to, at a minimum, standard double glazing, you’re far more likely to be targeted.
• Our rock doors are not only highly durable; they’re also highly resistant to unwanted guests.
• Be careful about who you let into your home – never allow entry to anyone unless you’re absolutely certain they’re genuine.

While you’re on holiday:

• Avoid shouting about your holiday on social networks. Thieves purposefully target these sites to find people who have declared their homes’ empty.
• On the same note, don’t ‘check yourself in’ to your holiday destination (or even when you’re just out for the day or night).
• Employ the services of a trusted neighbour or friend. Ask them to pop into your house, open and close the curtains, and place your mail somewhere safe.
• If you’re taking your car on holiday, allow your neighbours to use your drive while you’re away.

It’s becoming the big thing amongst those with money to have multiple bathrooms. Not just multiple as in 2 or 3, but sometimes 10 or even more. Less important are the big conservatories and swimming pools the rich used to adore; these days it’s much more important to fit in as many bathrooms as possible. Some people would think this was crazy; however it’s become normal now amongst wealthy people to have two bathrooms to every bedroom in their house, but for what reason?

It could be in an effort to keep guests away from items in a particular bathroom the host doesn’t want them to see. Prescription medicines for secret conditions they want to stay unknown for instance, or perhaps a bottle of anti-hair loss shampoo that they’d rather keep quiet about.

However, it’s more likely they’ve just got so many bathrooms for the sake of having so many bathrooms. And to show off.

But is this actually rather wasteful? Just a single bathroom can use up a lot of water, with toilets on their own often wasting an unnecessary amount. Imagine having 10 of them all being used, the water used up would be astronomical.

And then there comes the obvious point that it’s next to impossible for that many bathrooms to be used all at once. Even with 10 guests over, unless some highly questionable food has been served, it’s very unlikely that every guest will need to use the bathroom at the same time. It becomes pointless to have so many.

It’d surely be a better use of space to have more bedrooms than bathrooms. But instead, wealthy people are showing how much money they’ve got by building bathrooms. While most rich people taking part in this new trend will have between 10 and 20, a $40m house owns the record at 41. Even after discussing it above, it still raises a simple question: why?

Photo by Leyla.a.

Many of us pride ourselves in living in a clean and tidy home – there’s nothing unusual about this. However there are some people that go a little further than that. You might know someone like this – someone that perhaps doesn’t allow others to sit on the chairs in the living room in case they move the perfectly arranged cushions, or someone that spends the entirety of every weekend cleaning their double glazing and polishing their bathtub.

One problem with this is that it can discourage the use of necessary parts of the house. The pressure of trying to keep everything clean and tidy could lead to drastically abnormal behaviour and be damaging for health.

It’s always best to remember that a house and the rooms within it were designed to be lived in. They weren’t made to look like show rooms forever. Rooms will develop marks and stains as a by-product of them being lived in – and this is a good thing. It shows they have actually been used as they should have been.

Even tidy people will appreciate that houses gather marks and stains; it can add an accidental personalised touch. A stain of red wine in the conservatory could be the reminder of a good night, or a scuff in the kitchen might remind you of the first time you tried to cook up something new.

While having a tidy house is perfectly normal, obsessing over it is not. When deciding that you want to keep your house as clean and tidy as time and physical strength will allow, the stress and worry brought from it could be enough to stop you using your house altogether.

If you’re constantly worrying about accidently dropping crumbs or touching the wall in case it gets stained, your mental and even your physical health could be affected.

The best advice is to use your home as it’s meant to be. Do your best not to worry and unnecessary health risks can easily be avoided.

Thanks to Sterin for the photo.

Pancake Day is a day long awaited by many children around the world in the countries that celebrate it, as it’s a great excuse for them to enjoy the delicious taste of this traditional meal. The original Christian holiday, Shrove Tuesday, made to mark the day before lent began is often almost forgotten as people celebrate the much more widely appreciated ‘Pancake Day’ that has replaced it.

As no doubt traditional pancake recipes, while tasty, aren’t always enough for more adventurous eaters, in the spirit of this day here is a list of some of the more unusual Pancake Day recipes:

1.       Pancake Wraps

While it’s not unusual for the traditional pancake to be folded, have you ever thought of wrapping food up in the tasty treat? Get some sausages and cheese, and cover the sausages in the cheese. Follow up by wrapping the sausage-cheese combo inside a pancake and you’ve got an unusual yet undeniably appetising meal.

Get creative by substituting the sausage for Chorizo or Parma ham and don’t be afraid to be adventurous with your choice of cheese – goats cheese, gorgonzola and of course, good old mature cheddar all taste fantastic when wrapped in a pancake.

2.       Pancake Balls

This next one will require a special pan called an ebelskiver, which is a pan with semi spherical holes in it. You pour the pancake mix in, and then you can put whatever filling you want on the inside. Put them on the hob and turn them over occasionally and you’ve got a surprising new and different way of enjoying pancakes.

3.       Rainbow Pancakes

Perhaps the easiest, this isn’t really an unusual recipe but it comes out with some rather unique results! Applying different coloured food dye to bits of the batter while making the pancake can make the usual brownish look of your regular pancake take on quite a colourful turn. Providing you work at it and put some effort in, you could have all sorts of colourful patterns coming out on your pancakes for you to eat up.

4.       Chocolate Pancake Sandwich

This is a pancake for chocolate lovers only. When making the pancake, just before you put it on the hob, mix in some chocolate chips. Make 3 like this. Then after you’ve got them all together, cover one in chocolate spread. Encase the chocolate spread pancake with the remaining other two, having one on the top and one on the bottom. Finally, cover the lot of it in chocolate spread.

5.       Cereal Pancake

An interesting pancake which could be a little bit crunchier than you’re probably used to as it’ll contain a small amount of your choice of cereal. It’s not much different from your usual pancake recipe, you just add in a little bit of cereal while you’re creating the mix and then cook it just the same.

Many people consider their home to be the one place in which they’re completely safe, but what they don’t realise is that their home hides an abundance of hidden dangers.

If gone unnoticed, some of these can cause illness or worse, so it’s worth knowing what to look out for and what you can do to keep yourself safe.

Preventing illness

There are various issues that can arise within your home that can affect your health.

Anywhere where moisture can form, like in your bathroom or basement, is at risk of mould forming. If you become aware of a musty old smell that maybe you hadn’t previously noticed, it’s a big sign that you’ve got issues with mould.

It can form within 2 days or less, and the mould spores it gives off can cause symptoms similar to asthma. You might also find yourself suffering from allergic reactions that can include sneezing and itchy eyes. Mould can often form in places you wouldn’t normally see, like on the back or bottom of wooden furniture, so it’s worth checking out of the way places if you suspect mould there.

The easiest way to prevent mould is to keep your house well ventilated by opening your windows when you can, and trying to keep moisture down as much as possible.

Dust mites are another thing to be aware of as they can too cause symptoms similar to asthma and other allergies. Dust mites live in your bed, on the mattress and in the sheets. There’s no way to prevent dust mites completely, but you can protect yourself from them by using allergy covers over your mattress and pillows to form a barrier and it’s also a good idea to wash your sheets regularly, on a very high temperature.

Protecting children

The colourful packaging of cleaning products and sweet like shape and colour of medicines can attract the attention of little children while they’re exploring your house.

Protecting your children from playing with these items could be a matter of life or death. Many people place cleaning products under the sink, but it’s much safer to keep them and any medicines you have in a higher cabinet that your children can’t reach or get to.

Locking the cabinet and making sure as many of your medicines as possible have child-proof lids will only add to their safety. When you take any of these items out to use them, make sure you keep an eye on your children at the time, as they could take the opportunity while they can.

Be aware of things you can’t see

In your home there could things affecting your health that you can’t see. Invisible chemicals and gasses can cause lasting damage or worse if you don’t notice them in time.

New carpets will sometimes come with a chemical on them that is used in its creation. It’s called 4-PC; it’s normally the source of that ‘new carpet’ smell and it can cause headaches and shortness of breath. If you keep a room ventilated with the windows open as much as possible, the chemical should go away within a week but it is worth remembering if you’re having a new carpet installed.

Another one to look out for (although not literally) is the odourless and colourless gas carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide can be extremely dangerous and even life threatening. Large amounts can cause confusion and impaired coordination and vision, as well as unconsciousness and possibly death. Even in low amounts it can still cause headaches and nausea.

Carbon monoxide can come from items that heat up like furnaces, fireplaces and heaters as it’s used to power them. The simplest way to protect yourself from carbon monoxide is to get a carbon monoxide detector fitted in your home. It’ll warn you if it detects the gas, as there’s no way to notice it yourself.

Your home can be a safe place if you make sure you’re aware of the possible noticeable or hidden dangers associated with it. They’re easy to protect against, especially now you know what some of them are.

Picture by David Hawgood at geograph.co.uk

For as long as bricks and mortar has existed, Britain has been obsessed with home ownership. Rather than be satisfied with the freedom and flexibility of renting, almost every young Brit includes ‘own my own home’ on their list of things to achieve by the time they turn thirty.

But why is this?

The UK alludes home ownership to status and success, a belief we share with another property obsessed nation: the USA. We also like the feeling of security that comes with the knowledge that our home is entirely ‘our own’ (something that of course, doesn’t actually happen until the mortgage is done and dusted with).

Yet the truth is, buying equates to great risk and serious commitment. A new job in another area of the country means selling-up and finding somewhere new – a costly and potentially prolonged experience. A job loss puts homeowners at great risk of losing everything they have scrimped and saved so hard for.

Doesn’t everyone the world over strive to home ownership?

It’s easy to fool ourselves into thinking that the fact we’re so obsessed with home ownership means that everyone else is too. This isn’t so. Across the pond in many parts of Europe, the percentage of working adults choosing to rent rather than buy is far higher.

For instance, in Berlin 90% of the residential market is made up of rentals. In Hamburg (a city known for its wealth) 80% of its residents are still renting. Renting is also greatly prevalent in Italy and Spain amongst other European nations.

Why?

Renters in Britain are, as a general rule, treated very poorly. Rents are expensive, most lets are short-term and we’re rarely permitted to house pets or adapt the property to our tastes. Essentially, renting is treated as a stop-gap on the route to buying. We’re usually discouraged from ever seeing the property as truly ‘our home’.

Attitudes in much of Europe are very different. Five year lets are not uncommon while it’s most unusual for renters to not redecorate their new homes.

Britain also enjoys a rather lax approach to the regulation of letting agencies. Anyone can set up a letting agent and a licensing scheme was only introduced in 2009. Until recently, tenant’s deposits were completely unprotected.

Is that all?

While we’re encouraged from all corners to buy in Britain, in many other parts of Europe, buying when you’re not entirely financially secure is actively discouraged.

In Germany for instance, most lenders require a 20% deposit plus proof of earnings dating back several years.

So should we forgo our buying dreams?

Not at all. The fact is: no-one wants to be renting in retirement, and it simply is a great feeling to ‘own’ our own home; to be able to do what we want with it whether that’s building a conservatory or digging a bomb shelter.

It would be nice however, to see a move away from this obsession with buying as soon as it’s feasibly possible: something that might just happen should the way we treat renters continue to evolve.

In reality, we don’t need to be buying in our twenties or even our thirties. Job loss, change and relocation are common at this age, not to mention the fact that most of us will be far more financially stable in our forties and fifties – thus greatly lessening the stress of dealing with broken boilers and spiralling mortgages.

Thanks to digitalart and jscreationzs for the images.

Electronics giant LG recently launched its Smart Manager Fridge at the Las Vegas CES technology fair. Despite previous brands having tried, and failed, with similar concepts, LG believe that this smart fridge is the fridge that will transcend kitchen technology to a point at which we rely as much on our smart fridges as we do on our smart phones.

Yet reception for the smart fridge has not been entirely positive. Hailed as the ‘idiot fridge’ by The Guardian it seems the average homeowner doesn’t see the need for a fridge that can tell them what to cook, how to cook it and even formulate a shopping list of their behalf.

And why would we?

The success of the smart phone is based largely on two things: they allow us to access the internet on the move with absolute ease, and they integrate a number of devices (i.e. an mp3 player and a hand-held gaming machine) into one light and portable gadget.

The smart fridge does very little that we can’t do already in only a little more time, while also ‘helping’ in ways we might not even want it to. One of the fridge’s specialities is adding items that are nearly empty to our shopping list – but who says we want to buy that item again?

Not only do online shopping lists save previously bought products – meaning that adding them to a new shopping list involves the momentous effort of merely ticking a box – but even if we do want the same products we bought last time, we might want to choose a different size or brand. We might even be picking up some milk on our way home from work and thus, don’t want it delivered in the weekly shop.

One feature of the fridge that I am quite endeared to however is its ability to suggest recipes to you in accordance with the contents of your fridge.  However this isn’t anything that can’t also be achieved using online resources such as Super Cook – a handy feature certainly – but is it one that makes the fridge worth its hefty £2,000 price tag?

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If our last blog post didn’t convince you to stay in the glorious UK and appreciate all that’s great about it – here are a few things to take into consideration before you make that jump and move overseas.

Pensions

Needless to say, a move abroad will affect the rights you probably take for granted as a UK citizen.

You’ll still be entitled to your state pension if you move abroad, but it will only be subject to yearly increases if you move to a European Economic Area, or a country that has a special agreement with the UK.

If you’re planning on building a pension abroad, your rights will vary from country to country.

More information on pensions when moving abroad is available here.

Health

Moving abroad may mean sacrificing your entitlement to free health care. Many countries have no national healthcare service at all, while those that do may operate it in a very different way.

Ensure to research the healthcare in your chosen country: what’s available and are you entitled to it? If you will need private healthcare, are you able to afford it?

Home

While your initial instinct might be to sell your home in the UK, consider renting it instead. This means that should the grass not be greener abroad, a return to the life you had before is quick and painless.

However: you will need to inform your mortgage lender and insurance providers that the property is now being rented out. You’ll also need to find a trustworthy letting agent to deal with any problems while you’re overseas.

It’s also a good idea to provide the Land Registry with your new address since empty or rented properties can be targeted by fraudsters.

You will also need to notify the council, your bank and your utility companies of your move and should contact the Post Office about mail forwarding. If you have children, you’ll need to tell their school and local education authority when they will be leaving.

Your New Home

Buying a home abroad takes careful consideration. As well as the obvious pitfall of language barriers, many countries have strict laws regarding immigration and it’s not uncommon for scammers abroad to target foreigners wishing to move.

It’s also a good idea to avoid buying an unfinished property. Many Briton’s have been left with an unfinished and unsellable home on a derelict estate. Buying in an established area should protect you from such eventualities.

Thank you to FreeDigitalPhotos.net for the image.

Many of us dream of a move overseas, and who can blame us? The UK enjoys little sunshine, we work harder than most of Europe and the recession is hitting us hard.

But is a move to another country really the route to paradise? Or is it more likely to end in loneliness, financial trouble and a difficult return home?

Friends and Family

Few of us want to leave friends and family behind, making this the biggest obstacle many of us face when thinking about a move overseas.

Carefully consider whether you can handle this. Do you have a very close-knit group of friends or are you a social butterfly that makes friends everywhere they turn? If you’re someone who values your close friends while struggling to make new bonds, you may find life difficult in a new country.

Also, will you be able to afford to visit your friends and family and will they be able to visit you?

Language

Language barriers can make life very difficult abroad. Even those who do speak English may not welcome those who don’t try to speak their mother tongue.

Enrol in some language classes before moving abroad. This should give you a good head start and then, if you do make the move, ensure to get involved in local life and try to speak the local language. It will make your life much, much easier in the long run.

Culture

Visiting a country on holiday and moving there are two very different things. A week or two in a strange land only gives you a snapshot of what life there is actually like. If you’ve spent your entire holiday in a resort, you may have no idea of anything more than the country’s weather.

Research a country, and region, thoroughly, before actually committing to a move. Talk to other expats and visit at different times of year.

Buying Abroad

While buying property is never a straightforward process, purchasing a home overseas magnifies the difficulties and risks you face.

Beware of scammers who target foreigners with little understanding of the local language and laws.

Ensure you know the price of property in the local area and make sure to enlist the help of an unbiased and multi-lingual solicitor.

The fact is that many expats have landed themselves in deep trouble when their dream home turned into a nightmare. Treading carefully can help avoid such an eventuality, but remember that whenever you buy abroad, the risk of disaster striking increases dramatically.

Thanks to Liz Noffsinger for the photo.