Hiking up the Style, with Leki Poles and Bogs Footwear

I've wanted some hiking poles for ages, because they are brilliant for reducing strain on the joints, particularly  downhill, and I felt they might help me to walk further and increase my exercise a bit. Fortunately, Leki at Open Air, who are experts in the field of walking paraphernalia, were happy to send me some to try out for free and find out what hiking poles can offer to support your trekking goals, big or small. Also in this post, the very latest from Bogs Footwear, who sent me some boots to try out that I think actually could be magic. If you thought walking in the rain wearing something resembling slippers was nothing more than a crazy dream, you may be surprised...

Free Printable Student Recipes: Easy French Bread Pizza

Day two of our student recipes and this one is particularly popular with young children too. It's very cheap to make because you can use food you have in the house for the toppings, even your fridge leftovers. Vegetables, cooked meats, even fruit, you can let you imagination go wild! It's a great way of finding out what you do and don't like on a pizza and to ensure all your leftovers get used up, saving you, or your student offspring, money. Baguettes and French sticks are often reduced to clear in supermarkets towards the end of the day, so there is more potential to save money, and you could even go for a flavoured bread for an added twist. Recipe 1 is here.

Win a Disney Star Wars Projection Watch

Free Printable Student Recipes: Easy Sausage Casserole

If you have students starting University soon, this may be the series for you. All this week, I will be posting recipe cards, which you can download and print, featuring some of our favourite easy, cheap recipes. You can either give them to your nest-flying offspring to take with them, or use them to teach younger children how to cook. It's never too early to learn about budgeting and cooking your own meals, and these are so easy, it's a great place to start. Children are more likely to eat something they cook themselves, so it can help expand their menu a bit too! This Sausage Casserole contains just four ingredients and takes under half an hour to make. 

My Sunday Photo: The Lord Mayor's Chapel, Bristol

Quality Built to Last with Vorwerk's Kobold VK200

There was a time when, if you bought something, such as a fridge, or a toaster, you would assume it would last for years. In my parent's day, no one expected to replace an electrical appliance. Perhaps perform a repair now and again, but you would anticipate having the same one until it got a bit battered and loved, then replacing it would be a major event. In today's 'consumable' society, everything seems to need replacing every few years and its driving me mad. In the last five years, I have been through three vacuum cleaners, the quality has been that bad. So, in this review I am investigating what you get for your money when you invest in the Kobold VK200, from Vorwerk. An appliance designed to last.

Win a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Duvet Set

Camping Must-Haves and What You CAN Leave Home Without!

Camping can be ideal as a low-cost family holiday option when money is a bit tight. However, on your first camping trip, it can be very easy to get bogged down with the different products available to buy, until you end up spending the cost of a week in the Algarve. As we've got better at camping, we have found some products that have been invaluable, and some that haven't. This is our guide to your camping essentials and how to keep the costs down by avoiding what you really don't need. This post contains items we've bought, and some we were sent to try and really liked. I have marked the review items, with an asterisk * for clarity.