Speakers' Corner

Look your best without spending a small fortune

Money-saving blogger Jane Sparrow shares her tips for looking chic on a tiny budget this summer.

It’s that time again - all the glossy magazines are suggesting hundreds of expensive “must have” products that promise to get you beach-ready and looking fabulous. You can get yourself looking nicely polished and glowing for a fraction of the price though. Here’s how I get ready for summer.

*Glowing skin

First of all, scrub up. The right amount of exfoliation makes your skin look healthier and smoother, and it’s easy to do. Use a body brush or mitt in the shower, paying extra attention to knees and elbows, or use a body scrub product twice a week.

Scrubs really don’t need to be expensive, and most supermarkets and high street chemists sell their own brands for about £3 or thereabouts. Or you can make your own cheaply with a teacup full of brown sugar or table salt mixed with a tablespoon of vegetable oil. Just scrub it over wet skin and shower it off.

Right after drying off, apply body lotion. It sinks into the skin better straight after a shower or bath. Again, cheaper products work just as well as the pricey ones, the main difference is usually the packaging and the scent. You can get great results from E45 Endless Moisture, Garnier Body Intensive and many others, or for really dry skin try a body butter from Superdrug or Boots. These products all regularly turn up as 2-for1 offers.

*Best face forward

To exfoliate your face, use a gentler product. Again, you really don’t need a fancy brand, just something that has fairly small particles in it so it isn’t too scratchy. A very clean bobbly old facecloth plus your usual face wash is surprisingly effective too.

Once you’ve whipped off those dull, dead skin cells remember to use some sunscreen during the day to protect you from UV rays – a minimum of SPF15.

Boots and Tesco own-brand products come out well in independent tests.

*Fake tan

If you’re going to use fake tan think “glow” not “Tango” if you want to look nicely groomed. Don’t stray too far from your natural skin colour, and apply products carefully with smooth strokes. There are only two active chemicals in all self-tanners, whatever the price, so spending a fortune really isn’t necessary.

If I’m not hitting the beach that week, I just use small amounts of gradual tanning lotion on my face and my legs, blending it in well at the neck and the hip so there isn’t too much of a line. A little goes a long way and I tend to buy what’s on offer in the high street chemists, usually Nivea, Dove, Olay, Johnson’s or Palmer’s.

 I also top up with a little temporary bronzer from the Rimmel Sunshimmer range, which is great value for the price.

*Sweet feet

If you're getting your feet out in public, a quick foot file twice a week and a little foot cream applied at bedtime are all most of us need to get nice skin. If your heels are very dry and cracked, try a cheap treatment from the chemist such as Compeed cream, and make it even more effective by putting a pair of cotton socks on for a few hours after you've applied it.

Then all you need to do is get your toenails into shape with an ordinary nailbrush and a nail file or clippers. Push cuticles back gently after a bath or a shower, and apply some base coat and nail polish - I like ELF polishes at the moment (made by the person behind cult brand Hard Candy, but only £1.50 each).

Do you have any tips of your own for getting beach ready this summer? Share them below.

Technology, does it make us better drivers?

Gareth Lane, one of Confused.com's motoring experts and a self-confessed technology geek, muses on whether increasingly hi-tech cars make us better drivers or not. 

A self-confessed technology geek, I love all types of technology and gadgets. I've always been fascinated by the ways in which inventors and manufacturers use it to enrich our lives, make day to day activities easier and, in particular, improve our personal safety. 

Driving is one such activity where technology has made our lives considerably safer and can help us become better drivers.

I recently read an article about Google developing driverless cars and taking one for a test run in the US. I find this totally fascinating and it makes me think back to many science fiction films I watched growing up.  

Other examples of self drive cars include SARTRE, a European project developing driverless cars that will take to the roads in a chain under the control of a professional driver at the front of the chain.

With developments like this, there's no hiding the fact that driving has started to become more automated and computer controlled.

However after further thought, I have started to wonder if technology is actually making us more competent drivers or if it is just increasing our reliance on automatic systems? 

Or, to use another example, does a calculator make a person a better mathematician or just artificially increase ones ability?

Granted we're a long way off computer driven cars as standard but even today there are many devices that drivers have become increasingly reliant on. For example:

• Reverse backup sensors, which alert drivers to difficult-to-see objects in their path when reversing;
• Adaptive cruise control which maintains a safe distance from the vehicle in front;
• Lane departure warning systems to alert the driver of an un-intended departure from the intended lane of travel;
• Tyre pressure monitoring systems or Deflation Detection Systems;
• Traction control systems which restore traction if wheels begin to spin;
• Electronic Stability Control, which intervenes to avert an impending loss of control;
• Precrash systems which sense when your car is about to hit something and prevents accidents by breaking for you;
• Automated parking systems which actually park your car for you with little driver interaction, thanks to parking sensors around the outside of the vehicle.

Granted, some of this technology is still only available in very high-end, luxury cars, but it does make you think. 

It is without doubt that this technology can save lives and is of a benefit to drivers and pedestrians. We're all human and do have accidents. And technology can reduce road accidents and car insurance claims, which in turn can keep premiums down.

But are we better drivers as a result of these automatic driving aids?  My technology head says: “who cares I'm still going to use a calculator” but my heart screams “no!”

What are your thoughts? Does technology makes us better drivers or not? Post your views in the comments box below.

Five tricks for thrifty menu plans

Money-saving foodie blogger Jane Sparrow shares her tips for tasty, cost-effective meal planning.

I’ve found that a small amount of kitchen planning saves a significant amount of money every month, and it also means I eat a healthier, more varied diet.

The benefits far outweigh the small amount of time and effort that’s needed to put a menu together.

 1. Who’s at home, and when?

Before I start my weekly menu plan, I always check who’s going to be home on particular nights. If everyone’s home on a particular evening we eat together where possible to save on waste, preparation time, and the energy needed to heat the grill, oven and hob. It’s also much more sociable and pleasant.

Then I draw up a plan with numbers of people who need to be fed on each evening, to make sure we buy in the right amount of groceries.

The groceries have to include breakfasts, packed lunches and dinners, and sometimes brunch at the weekend, but I only tend to write down the weeknight suppers, and weekend lunches and dinners.

2. What’s on offer, what’s in season?

Next, I look for some cheap but tasty ingredients. I have a quick scan of my usual supermarket’s best offers by checking prices on MySupermarket.co.uk, mainly to see whether they have cheap meat, fish or cheese. Protein foods have a tendency to be more expensive than carb-rich foods, so that’s usually where the biggest savings are made.

I remind myself of different foods that are in season too, since they’re plentiful and therefore often cheapest. The Great British Kitchen and Eat The Seasons are useful websites. I also have a cherished old copy of The Cookery Year by Margaret Coombes that I “borrowed” from my mum when I left home – this has some great, tried-and-tested seasonal recipes.

3. Quick and healthy meals

The best menus make life cheaper and simpler. My midweek suppers are based on dishes that are tasty and quick to prepare, including pasta, big salads, egg dishes, tinned beans, noodle soups and filled baked potatoes.

When I have more time – mainly at weekends – I’ll do things that need longer to cook, such as pies, bakes, slow roasts and casseroles. These all have the potential to make cheaper ingredients such as shoulder cuts of meat into something special.

Menu planning makes it so much easier to have balanced meals as well, whether you’re trying to lose a few pounds, watch your cholesterol, eat more vegetables or follow a fitness regime. If you want to know more about this, the NHS Food and Diet information is helpful, and I really like their tips on how to eat well on a tight budget, and healthy meals for kids.

4. Start fresh, then go to the store cupboard

As much as I want to save cash, I also need to save time since I work quite long hours. For convenience I do one weekly supermarket shop, and top up with a brief weekly visit to a nearby fruit and veg market.

So that there’s no risk of food going off and going to waste, the freshest foods like fish get eaten soonest after the supermarket visit, and the day before the next shopping trip we’ll eat something from the freezer or the store cupboard that doesn’t need much in the way of perishable ingredients.

5. Everyone needs to join in

Once it’s all planned out, I put my list up on the fridge for the household to see. That way people are less likely to open something and snack on it, and accidentally leave us with no food for the following evening: everyone needs to co-operate in order for a menu plan to work.

Tips for festival-goers to keep goods safe on-site

David Trickey, one of Confused.com's IT bods and a seasoned festival-goer, has the lowdown on a free service that will keep your goods safe at festivals this summer.

It’s festival season again and over the last weekend of June, 180,000 people will be heading to Worthy Farm for the 2011 Glastonbury Festival of Performing Arts. Click here to have a read of our festival survival guide.

For one long weekend a working farm will transform into a city of happy festival-goers, with everything that goes with that - entertainment on an epic scale, food, drink, accommodation, sanitation, transportation, energy and crime prevention.

I’ll be earning my ticket again this year by working as a volunteer at one of the site’s many Property Lock-ups.

This is a free service at Glastonbury and a number of other festivals. Dotted round the site (marked with a keyhole logo on the official Glatonbury Festival maps ) is a network of secure storage areas.

The lock-ups are available 24 hours a day and we will look after any of your belongings - from small items such as car keys, passports, and phones to the heavy bags of clothes, food, beer and camping equipment that you don’t want to leave unattended in your tent, risk losing in a flood of Glastomud, or would rather not have to lug round with you all day.

This service is offered for free, although the charities we represent welcome donations. Oh, and we're the guys who hand out the free soap and toilet rolls!

This is a scheme that has been running for many years at Glastonbury and the people who use our services love it.

Unfortunately every year, we talk to the local constabulary who tell us about the incidents of theft and loss reported at the site. Like us they wish that as well as festival-goers making sure they are insured, they would do their best to make sure their valuables are secure in the first place.

Most lost or stolen items will never be found and can result in having to make a claim on home insurance, thus pushing up premiums.

So if you want to make sure you have a great worry-free time at Glastonbury this year then make sure you use the lockups.

See you there.

Read also: Motor tips for your festival trip

Confused.com's guide to festival survival

Festival fanatics: check you're covered