How Sez Sees It

Mother nature sucks Because we need to talk more about these things to raise awareness here is my shot. It makes women feel better knowing they are not alone and men need to understand what we have to put up with. For the last year or so I have felt some flu-like symptoms just before my period and for the first 24 hours. This was bugging the hell out of me. It started almost exactly on my 30th birthday and has been happening once a month since. Then I found this great Kotex site with an article about the exact same thing. The expert gives an amazing insight and some really good advice too. I know I will be trying it in future. So what causes it? According to the expert it is something called prostaglandins . These are active lipid compounds that are found in most organs and form around damaged tissue but are also responsible for inducing labor and periods. They cause blood to clot (so that explains a lot) and are responsible for those cramps. However, sometimes they can work ...

I have worked in admin for all my working life now (full-time working life that should be as I had retail jobs before as a student). There are some things I have picked up on that make life that little bit easier for everyone involved as I think there is still a lack of understanding of what administrators are like. As a breed we are pretty open to new ideas and challenges and we love to be kept busy. We also love to learn new things on the job. There are many reasons why we went in to admin. It could be because we love being organised, we want to help people or we just fell into the job and it works well for us (yeah, that last one is me). Just because we are paid to help though does not mean that we are at the beck and call of all. There are some things that need to be remembered about us. 1. We are paid to help...but... That doesn't mean we are just turning up and doing the bear minimum for the job. We actually enjoy being helpful. Remember what I said earlier, it is one...

According to reports 2016 is a particularly bad year for hay fever sufferers. This is something to do with the fact that we had a warm and wet winter and spring and it created the perfect conditions for more tree pollen. The other problem appears to be that the trees are late flowering and this has clashed with the flowers and the grass pollen. Certainly in the last few days the pollen count where I live has ranged from moderate to high. The trouble is that I only realised I had hay fever a few years ago. I had just started a new job and one of the managers was retiring. Our office had so many flowers in it we could have opened our own florists! I developed an itchy nose and throat and really gunky eyes. I developed hay fever. Since then I have noticed that I get a bad bout every other year. Apparently there are certain trees, like the Birch , that have two yearly cycles of really intense pollen and 2016 is one of those years. I have to say that this year I have been especially ba...

Having just bought our first house I can tell you it can be confusing if you don't know when certain things need to happen. How can you put an offer in if you don't have a mortgage? How do you know how much mortgage you need if you don't have an offer accepted? When do you pay and how does it all work? Here is how we did it and this worked really well. Save Get your deposit sorted. House prices change all the time but keep your eye on costs and build up your deposit. I had 10% saved up and used that alongside mortgage calculators (see links in below item) to work out what we could borrow and afford to pay each month. This works the other way too and they can help you work out how much you need for a deposit. There are schemes which require only a 5% deposit ( Help to Buy ) but it is advisable to save up before approaching this scheme too. Remember, you will have to afford mortgage payments and payments to the provider too. Also bear in mind additional costs such as ...

I was brought up by accountants. By that I mean my parents were either full accountants or training. Even my brother has gone into accountancy and, while it was never a career path for me, I have learned a few things about savings and saving money. Here are a few of my tips and tricks (although this is my no means definitive). Savings accounts: There are loads out there and this can seem like a daunting thing. Use a comparison site such as Money Supermarket or Compare the Market (other comparison sites are available...search online for them first) to save time. If you have more time then make a list of banks you trust and go on their own webpages for more information. Often existing customers get preferential rates so if you have a current account see what savings that provider will do for you too. Remember though that most rates only last a year and then drop quite low so it might be worth having a look after a year to see what else is available. The best rates belong to fixed...

I am a first time buyer and, like a lot of people, I knew that it would be stressful, but I believed that I would be able to do everything and researched it all thoroughly. There are some things that sort of come as standard and I am sure most people know about them. We decided to put the mortgage in place and have it agreed in principle before we found a property to buy and this will ensure that you don't have to pull out of a sale later if you are declined the money for some reason. That would be my first piece of advice. Most banks and building societies will do this over the phone with you and then you would go into a branch to confirm it a few weeks later with a mortgage advisor. That would be my advice because in those three weeks it is likely you will find a property. Also, knowing in principle how much you are allowed to borrow means you narrow your search to properties in that price range. Most banks and building societies have calculators on their websites to allow you ...