There was a post on a facebook group I am on recently where someone asked on ideas to feed 4 people for 8 days for less than £20. In fact the specific amount was £17.64 and they actually wanted lunch and dinner but I thought that this was a good challenge to undertake so here is my list of dinners for that amount: Continue reading Feed 4 People for 8 Days for Less Than £20
Category Archives: Home & Garden
LayZSpa ChemConnect Dispensing Too Much Chlorine
So when I first got my Lay-z-spa Saint Tropez hot tub I bought the chlorine granules to keep the water in the spa clean. These worked really well as they kept the chlorine at the correct level after a shock dose and then adding 2 teaspoons a day of the granules to the water.
In fact I had no problems with this at all except that my only issue was having to make sure I was doing this whether I was using the hot tub or not that day. So I decided that it would make sense to try out the chlorine tablets with the special dispenser that came with the hot tub. Continue reading LayZSpa ChemConnect Dispensing Too Much Chlorine
How to Get Bitumen Off Your Skin
So recently I was refelting my shed roof and had the lovely job of using bitumen adhesive to secure the sheets of felt to each other before tacking them on.
If you have ever used bitumen then you will know that it is a stickly, oily, smelly, black substance that does not want to come off anything, including skin and clothes!
Obviously I was trying to avoid getting the bitumen on my skin but somehow I managed to get it all over the back of both of my arms.
Having not had to try and remove it before I had a look online as to how I would get it off (as soap really does nothing) and the main thing I found was that olive oil or cooking oil was the best bet.
Well I tried the olive oil method and it was pretty much useless. As I didn’t have any standard cooking oil I couldn’t actually try that.
But what I did have was baby oil and all I needed to do was to put a few drops of that on the affected area and it pretty much seemed to ‘dissolve’ the bitumen straight away.
All that was required after that was to wipe the resulting black mix off my skin with some tissue and you couldn’t even tell it had been there.
It strikes me that baby oil is a very kind method of treating your skin if you have got bitumen on it so I would certainly recommend using it if you find yourself in this situation.
I seem to remember that baby oil is useful for other things too, in particular those temporary tattoos that you can get. It takes those off pretty easily too. So if you haven’t got any at home I’m sure there are plenty of other things you can use it for (making skin soft for one thing!) so it might be worth getting hold of some.
Why You Should Raid Your Child’s Piggy Bank Before October
Raiding your child’s piggy bank is not something that I would generally suggest although I am sure there are plenty of people who have suddenly found themselves short of cash or just some change that have needed to do it in the past!
But it might be important that you do it before the middle of October 2017!
The reason for this is the introduction of the new £1 coin that is happening on 28th March of this year. The new £1 coin will be completely different to the old round one as it will be 12 sided and not round for starters. There are many other aspects of the new pound coin that will be different from the old one in a bid to stop counterfeiters.
You will still be able to use the old £1 coin until 15th October 2017 but after that nobody is obliged to accept the coin. However you will be able to pay it in to most post office and bank accounts, even though you will likely not be able to spend it.
So it is probably a good idea to maybe empty out that piggy bank and either swap it for new coins when you get them, or maybe pay it in to a child’s savings account if they have one.
It will be easier to do this before the 15th October deadline as you (or they) will be able to spend it in shops along with the new one pound coin.
So on 15th October 2017 the old one pound coin will no longer be legal tender.
If you are reading this and it is after the 15th October 2017 deadline and you have found a stash of the old £1 coins then take them into your bank and they should be able to credit them to your account.
No doubt there will be plenty of people finding £1 coins down the back of sofas and in clothes for quite a while to come!
How To Boil Eggs – Simple Instructions on Boiling Eggs
Although to some people boiling an egg might seem like a simple task, it is like everything in life you only learn how to do something by either reading about it, watching someone else or learning from family etc. If you haven’t had anyone in the past who has taught you how to boil an egg and for how long you need to boil an egg for then it’s probably about as simple as changing the oil on a car would be for me!
So below are my instructions for how to make soft boiled eggs and how to make hard boiled eggs.
Basic Procedure For Boiling An Egg
Firstly it is best to use eggs that are not straight out of the fridge and that are at room temperature but if you want to boil an egg now and the eggs are in the fridge then just take it from there!
Fill a small pan with water so that there is enough water in the pan to cover the egg(s) by about half an inch or so. Put the eggs into the pan of cold water. The reason for using cold water rather than putting the eggs straight into boiling water is that this helps to stop them cracking.
Put the pan on the heat and heat it until the water starts boiling. Once the water is boiling then take note of the time – it helps to have a second hand on your watch but it is not essential. The time it takes to boil the eggs depends on if you like soft boiled eggs or hard boiled eggs.
Soft Boiled Eggs – How Long?
Now everyone likes their boiled eggs slightly differently but I like mine with the yolk (yellow) soft and the white cooked all the way through – I can’t stand any uncooked white in my eggs! So, to get soft boiled eggs like that you need to cook them for about 3 minutes 45 seconds as far as I am concerned. 4 minutes is fine if you don’t have a second hand on your watch! Try this out and see if this is how you like you eggs boiled and if you want them a bit more soft boiled or slightly more hard boiled then adjust the time accordingly.
You do need to be reasonably accurate on your timing otherwise, if you do leave them even a little bit longer then you will end up with hard-boiled eggs
Hard Boiled Eggs – How Long?
The same applies to hard boiling eggs in terms of how you like them – how hard you want the centres of the eggs to be. For me, if I want to have hard boiled eggs that I might want to chop up and add mayonnaise to and then put in a sandwich, I will boil the eggs for 5 minutes.
If you want to hard boil eggs for a picnic so that you open them when you are out and you are guaranteed of no runny bits then I would boil eggs for around 7 minutes to make sure they are totally hard boiled. Don’t boil them for too much longer than this otherwise they will likely taste a bit rubbery.
When the eggs are boiled, run them under a cold tap straight away and this should stop that green colour from appearing between the yolk and the white.
