The economy is on most people’s mind right now, with many people unable to afford to go out and revel with their friends like they used to. That’s why the awful phrase ‘staying in is the new going out’ has come to the fore. It’s an attempt to make you feel better about not being able to go out as much as you used to.

However, there is some good news following the fact that most people can’t afford to go out and have to stay in. It leaves you and your family with more time at home to perform those jobs you’ve been putting off for years, such as painting the spare room, wallpapering the bedroom or sanding the floor in the dining room.

If you’re spending time staying in, and don’t want to sit in front of the idiot box night after night, you can instead apply yourself to making some much needed improvements to your home. This will save you money, as you’re not spending it partying or hiring a professional decorator, and it will help you improve the look (and subsequently the value) of your home.

So put down that wine glass and pick up that paintbrush, there’s some decorating to be done.

Decorating doesn’t have to be expensive, and one couple have proven just that as they’ve redecorated their home with items they’ve found from local skips!

The couple, Paul and Pauline Allen, hail from Brighton and East Sussex and they claim that the most they’ve spent redecorating their home is just a few pounds. It’s surprising too when you consider that the couple live in an old Victorian home.

Fifty-nine-year-old Mrs Allen stated:

When we moved here we had bits like a dining room table and a couple of chairs but that was it. Now it’s full to the brim with lovely pieces.

It’s not stealing, or scrounging or even down to being tight. It’s just throwing things away seems almost perverse when we have a perfectly good home for it.

The couple started ‘finding’ what they could around the area when they moved into their home, a Victorian property built in 1890.

Mrs Allen added:

While trying to find original fittings like doors and the bathroom suite we discovered reclaimed things were so expensive.

That’s when we noticed that other people were chucking the same things out and it went from there. We haven’t bought a single new thing since.

The whole process has taken twenty years, and now their home is practically finished, and restored to its former glory.

There are times when you’re not having a crisis.. your hair is good, you’re having a thin day and you’ve got some free time. You don’t realise in those moments of perfection that in a few days you’ll probably have a day when everything seems to be going wrong. It’s natural and it’s the way of the world. It’s strange however that it takes so little to sort your day out when it’s going wrong, and that more people don’t do something to counteract or prevent the day starting off or continuing on a bad foot. The other day I was having a fabulous day where the sun was shining, I was feeling good about my job and had had a good time with my friends. And then I thought about one of my best friends who I haven’t seen for a while. I know she is having a hard time finding a job and that has been feeling the strain of trying to keep her house going and her spirits high. So I bought her a comedy greetings card that I know would cheer her up, wrote her a message to say thanks for being a good friend, that I miss her and that she’s fabulous. Basically it was a message of faith that things will come good for her soon. I expect that she will get it in tomorrow’s post and that it will make her day. It also makes me feel good that something so small that I have done will bring joy to my friend. Remember the last time you got a card or a little present from a friend or family member for no reason, just because they were thinking about you? Why do people not do things like this more often? Sometimes little gestures can really make the difference.

If you’re trying to sell your house and are finding it difficult, as most people are right now, you’ve probably looked at just what it is that’s preventing your house from selling. The obvious things like cleaning up, making sure no cupboards or doors are broken, and not leaving embarrassing personal items laying around should be your first point of call.

Once this has all been done, you’ll need to look at some other factors of your home and why it’s not selling.

It’s a fact that most people make their minds up on a house in the first seven seconds, so if you’ve got a stunning bathroom upstairs it won’t help your potential sale if your downstairs is a shambles.

As a result, the outside of your home is the most important part, with your curb appeal being of paramount importance. How does your house look when you approach it? Does it look messy from the outside? Does your roof look shoddy, your front door dirty and your garden a mess?

If the answers to these questions is a resounding yes, you’ll need to do something about it. Spend some time (and some money) on your front garden and the outside appearance of your home. It’ll save you more in the long run.

Everything is easier to understand and take in when it is clearly presented to us. The main thing to do when taking stock of your life is to make a list. It will clearly let you know where you stand in line with your goals and help you to deal with separate issues to resolve them. Make a list of the things in your life you are happy with or good at, and another for the things you’re not.  Make sure you list everything as it will make you deal with any issues once they are down in black and white.

You can use the positive list to remind you of why you should be happy and to see how far you have come in life. Whenever you feel a bit down just have a look at this list and it will cheer you up. If it is not quite as long as you would like, use this as inspiration to add more things to the list. Perhaps ask a friend to contribute things she thinks you’re good at.

Use the negative list to give you a “things to work on” reminder. If there are a few things on the negative list then don’t try to tackle them all at once.  Look at the negative list once a week and set yourself a target to reach by the end of the next week, even if it is just a small step to make some progress.

Pop them on your fridge and keep the lists updated. If you make one small step to changing a point on your negative list every week you will soon see changes to your life, attitude and lists!

If you’re decorating a room you will at some stage have the old dilemma of whether to paper it, or to paint it. There’s no right or wrong answer to the question, but there are a few factors to consider based on what room you’re decorating and who it will be used by.

For example, if you’re going to be decorating a room for a child you’ll need to decide whether the child is young enough, and potentially naughty enough, to be tempted to peal any wallpaper from the walls. Children are known to do this, especially when they have been sent to their room for being naughty in the first place. You also need to consider that your child may add some decoration of their own to the wall, so if you’re going to choose paint (which may be the best option) you’ll want to use something that is wipe clean.

If you’re going to be decorating the bathroom you’ll need to choose wallpaper that is strong and thick enough to cope with the constant damp and humidity experienced in most British bathrooms. The same applies if you choose to paint your bathroom.

So which do you prefer? Paint or wallpaper?

As we’re all a little skint right now, we can’t be expected to fork out thousands of pounds to redecorate our house just because we’re tired of the decor (no matter how drab it might look to us). Therefore there are some things you can do on a budget to make your abode look a little brighter, and more appealing to both you, your family and more importantly, your friends – it’s them you’re trying to impress anyway.

One of the things you can do is replace some of your furniture in your home with newer furniture. This doesn’t have to be expensive either as you can opt for cheap furniture options, or take advantage of the closing down sales from certain furniture stores. The recession may be bad for our pockets, but for some of us it’s great news for potential sales and bargains.

Because of the recession you’re able to pick up some top quality furniture, such as new sofas, quality oak furniture and even some antiques.

Plus, much of this can be bought on interest free credit, which means you can buy now and pay later.

Adding some quality to your home doesn’t have to be costly.

You may think that the middle of a recession isn’t the best time to be decorating your home. Funds are tight, you need to save money and many people are being made redundant throughout the UK. However, if you have some spare cash (and I realise most people won’t) now is the perfect time to go for those home altering jobs and rejuvenate some of your rooms.

The reason that now is the perfect time is simple, many decorators and craftsmen are out of work due to the recession, or are looking for additional part time work in the evenings and weekends. This means that you’ll be able to employ a decorator for your home for a discounted rate on what you would have paid at this time last year, or what you’d be expected to pay next year.

It also puts you in the strong position of seeing several decorators and getting quotes from each of them, knowing that you’ll be able to opt for the cheapest, or haggle down the price of one which you prefer.

The recession may be bad for the economy, but could be great news for the look of your home.

The housing market has collapsed to a ten year low, meaning most of us can’t afford to move home or we’ll end up losing an awful lot of money on our houses. Luckily, as this has pretty much affected everyone, if you’re looking to trade up to a bigger house you’ll be able to do so easily enough as it will have lost value by the same amount as yours or even by more again.

If you’re not looking to move though, you’re probably hoping to ride out the deflation in the housing market and wait for the eventual recovery, which is expected to happen sometime towards the end of 2010.

In the meantime you could set about adding value to your home to make sure it’s ready for the market’s recovery, but which room is the best to develop?

Traditionally, the two homes that add the most value to a home are the kitchen and the bathroom, as these are the rooms that you create a real wow factor with. Sadly these are also the two rooms that tend to be the most expensive to decorate, as a new bathroom suit or a new kitchen can cost thousands each.

Asda continued its assault on the giant that is Tesco when it opened a new supermarket on Bury St Edmunds on Monday. The new supermarket underwent building and design work for months before it was ready, and has cost the US owned Asda £22 million to finish.

Locals were very keen for the new Asda to be constructed on the site of an old Co-op store, which they had branded an eyesore due to its state of disrepair. Locals are also delighted that the new designed store will give 370 jobs to residents of the area.

Locals fought long and hard to have the store built and are also hoping that a bus service will be laid on to ferry them to Asda for their weekly shopping.

Barry Gramlick is the general store manager for Asda, he stated:

After months of preparation, the time has finally come to open and all our new colleagues are very excited about opening our doors to customers.

We aim to save our customers money every day and provide warm, friendly service for the local community.

I’m delighted that we’ve also been able to create 370 new jobs which will help the local economy.

Locals will be able to put their groceries on Asda’s new conveyor systems to help them in this financial crisis.