Laundry symbols can be a little confusing. Many clothes labels provide only pictograms and omit written instructions for important details to keep our garments looking their best.

Over at A Modern Mother, Susanna posted a link to the Net Addiction Center's Internet Addiction Test (IAT). Since most of my work involves working online, I decided I ought to take the test myself just to see if my surfing habits were causing a problem that needed to be addressed.

As it turned out, I scored only 38 and fall into the category of an average online user:

20 - 49 points: You are an average on-line user. You may surf the Web a bit too long at times, but you have control over your usage.

There are three categories which scores fall into, with the next level suggesting there are occasional or frequent problems due to internet usage, and the highest warning of significant problems in life.

I'd imagine most people would fall into the lower category, though it is interesting to answer the questions honestly to discover if addiction to the Internet could be causing problems in your life, or that of someone you hold dear.

Why not take the test yourself (or pass on the link to others who might be interested in their scores)?

Image credit: Amelia Speed, via Flickr

When considering a move, it's essential to learn as much about the area in which you plan to live as possible. Are there shops nearby? A park for the children to play in? What are the options for local schools, and are they good schools?

As we're hoping to move soon, I've been trying to find information about the areas we're looking to rent in. My first port of call would have been UpMyStreet.com, but since the site has been taken over by Zoopla, the invaluable statistics and overviews by postcode are not longer available.

Luckily I have discovered a few excellent alternatives to UpMyStreet.com which may be useful for researching areas you'd like to live, or even just to learn more about your neighbourhood. These sites provide easy-to-digest statistics based on postcode locations, covering social demographics, standards of education, employment statistics and even crime rates.

Many families consider their mobile phones to be their lifelines. The ability to get in touch with each other at any time of day is invaluable. In fact, we often wonder how we ever coped without them!

The increased popularity of smart-phones offers even more functionality. We can load maps to help us find the best route home; send an email to say we'll be home late; tweet traffic news...

But what better way to put our smart-phones to good use than maintaining the personal safety of ourselves and our loved ones?

In this post, I present five excellent smartphone applications which can help keep you and your family safe. All of these offer a free basic version, and are compatible with both iPhone and Android devices.

When browsing the shelves of Toys-R-Us, it's easy to be distracted by the latest craze and "must-haves". While there are a great many modern toys on the market which offer good play value, there are some essential toy types which every well-stocked toy box should include.

You'll find these in nurseries and playgroups across the country: the types of toys which are brought out again and again, and which are rarely relegated to the bottom of the toy box. What's more, these toys offer good educational value, and are relatively inexpensive.

If you're stuck for ideas for what to buy your child for their next birthday, or are looking for gift ideas, check out this cheat sheet of play room essentials and find toys which will stand the test of time.



This cheat sheet is A4 size for easy printing!

Are you looking for ways to support your child's learning journey without having to break the bank? 

With increased pressure on achievement and inclusion, most parents feel it nescessary to help their children learn and develop outside of school hours. Private tuition and subscription-based learning sites can offer excellent solutions, but unfortunately many of us don't have the funds available to pay for such services.

Luckily, supporting your child's education has never been easier! There are multitudes of free resources, apps for smartphones and printable worksheets to help our children build upon their school-based (or home!) education.

In this post, I'd like to introduce you to 20 of the best free resources we use to support learning at home, from discovering the fundamentals of the National Curriculum through to exciting science videos and educational games for smartphones.

The first time I tasted chocolate fudge brownie was last year, when I bought one on a whim as part of a meal deal at Boots. I didn't even eat it right away, instead saving it in the fridge to have as an evening snack. To be honest, I didn't think I'd enjoy it any more than a piece of chocolate cake...

January. The time of year when we begin to dread the snow we know will come sometime before the end of next month.

Personally I dread the thought of running late for the school run, only to find my car is frozen solid and I can't even get the key into the door lock to let us all in out of the cold!

Unfortunately I'm not among the privileged car owners with access to a garage, and often forget to take my cans of de-icer back into the house with me... So I've learned a few thrifty (and fairly speedy) tips to thaw my car in the winter months which I hope Glamumous readers may find useful on icy days.

I originally wrote this post and eBook back in 2009. Since then our food bills have become even more expensive, but the advice offered remains as useful. 

So I've decided to re-publish this post and (hopefully) rekindle a little interest for Glamumous readers who may find it useful in 2013.

As I'm sure we're all aware, the cost of our family food bills has skyrocketed these past few months! According to the price comparison site, MySupermarket, the average weekly spend for a family of four has increased by as much as 25%.
Shocking, isn't it?

While we have little control over the rising cost of fuel, housing and other household bills, we can control just how much of our hard-earned cash we part with to feed the family. Switching over to supermarket own brands is not the only solution: there are many more ways we can choose to save money yet feed our families healthy and satisfying meals.

I've always considered myself a frugal mum. Compared to my friends and family, our food shopping bills are positively miniscule, and yet we always have food on the table, in the cupboards, stored in the freezer... In short, we are never hungry and I often feel smug in my knowledge of thrifty ways which are helping us survive this credit crunch.

So in response to encouragement from my friends (and all the articles in magazines which seem to teach us nothing new about saving on food bills), I decided to write my own ebook: Fabulous Frugal Food Bills.

This ebook offers useful tips, tricks and a scattering of family-friendly recipes to help you save money on your family food bills. From learning how to organize your food stores for maximum efficiency to saving money at the supermarket and even growing your own, I hope you will find something useful to lessen the burden of your weekly shopping trips.

Yesterday I set about purging my entire kitchen of muck and mess. Essentially three years' worth of spring cleaning to be achieved in a single day.

Yes, there was a lot to do, considering I hadn't properly cleaned the tiles, around the chip pan or scrubbed between the appliances since before we moved in, but I'm on a mission with my New Year resolution to keep house and intended to get the job done.

Cleaning the dried on oily gunk from around the chip-pan and cooker was undoubtedly the most difficult element, until I remembered having seen an episode of How Clean is your House in which Kim explained that good old fashioned shaving foam is excellent for cleaning up grease from kitchen tiles.

Essentially, shaving foam is concentrated soap making it the ideal frugal product for grease and grime removal in the kitchen. I covered the greasy spots in a thick layer, rubbed it in with a dishcloth and waited about 20 minutes... After which the greasy gunk virtually wiped off, barely any elbow grease required!

I'd tried loads of other products before to achieve the same thing but had found myself scrubbing for hours despite product claims of being the best grease-busters on the market. My 47p shaving foam did a better job than everything else I've tried combined. So I used it for virtually the whole kitchen - tiles, grubby spots on the floor, cleaning the ventilation fan. Now the kitchen looks like new!

So the next time you need to stock up on cleaning products, ditch the expensive brands and bag yourself a sub-50p, basic/smart price can of shaving foam instead and experiment. I assure you, you'll be glad that you did!

P.S - Shaving foam is also great at removing price stickers and gluey gunk from mirrors and glass too!

If your daughter(s) are anything like mine, your house will have bobbles and hair clips hiding in every corner of the house! Nefotlak has devised a wonderful project to upcycle glass jars and create an organised hair station which I'm sure any little princess will adore!

Use any old doorknobs you may have around the house (or scour charity shops and car boot sales) and decorate the board with paint or fabrics to match the decor of the room. This looks so pretty, I think my little one will have to share with me!

Via Nefotlak

Wishing all Glamumous readers a wonderful start to the New Year!

I've made resolutions to maintain a more organised and homely home in the year ahead, and will be blogging about our household transformations in the coming weeks.

What resolutions have you and your family made?