Simply Wonderwoman

On the strength that it had been advertised in darling father's Daily Mail, and that I was feeling a bit fragile, I bought, 'Simply Wonderwoman'. by Joanna Gosling.

May I sincerely recommend the Old Style Board on moneysavingexpert.com forums.

Simply Wonderwoman recommended using white vinegar, diluted in the right proportions with water and 30 drops of lavender oil added for fabric conditioner. I know my place, I just dash a glug of neat white vinegar into the machine and it does fine. I suppose if I diluted it then the white vinegar would go further, but I would rather just put in a smaller glug.

There are lots of hints and tips, and some of them are more intriguing than others. I think it is more aimed at the yummy mummy than the crummy mummy like myself. However she did pass on as a divine revelation that you should find a place to put your keys and put them there every time. I already always do that! It is a brilliant sanity saver and if you do not have a key hook, bowl or box then I certainly recommend it. I don't think I will be laminating labels to put on all my keys, because I don't actually have many and it is really obvious which key is which for me. If I had more keys then perhaps I would reconsider. However I will be overseeing OH as he painstakingly takes apart the rats' nest of cables behind the tv and labels every single one of the plugs - dvd player, sky, tv etc. Also I shall be doing the same for the equally tangled mess of power cables sitting in the corner of the kitchen behind the small electric cooker, the slow cooker, the remoska, the blender and the popcorn maker.

One thing she recommended was making a wheat bag out of cherry stones. She said that you can buy them on the internet. With the assurance of someone who knows what designer labels look like, she assured the reader that they were not expensive. I checked. They actually aren't that expensive (really, when you think about it...). I read the recommendations for them. They are unlikely to hold damp or go musty like wheat, they can be microwaved or chilled, they are a natural product (but so is hemlock) and they hold the heat well. They can also be washed in a washing machine though it probably sounds like your washing machine is being sick while you do it.

I haven't bought any cherry stones. Yet.

If I am mad enough to believe that I will actually make the ludicrously easy bags (I have a zillion pillow cases that can be adapted) and that I will actually take the few minutes after tea to heat them up and put them in to warm our beds in the cold weather, then I suppose I should snap up the cherry stones before they get trendily expensive.

I will let you know how I resist temptation. Please do not snigger at reading this.