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By Little Mummy, June 28, 2009 7:11 pm

Apparently Ocado is the new kid one the block in online shopping. Ocado has developed software that can predict when you’ll need to replace household items and will add them to your order automatically.

I’ve been shopping exclusively online (for food and household items) since 2006 and have expressed its virtues before, but I just can’t decide if Ocado is the next step in efficiency or a ploy to have us purchase stuff we don’t need.

Who exactly will stand to gain most from this new software? Ocado co-founder Jason Gissing says in the Times “It should be like an order bought by your partner. It might not be exactly what you want , but it will be something you’d be happy to receive” Hmmm, when I send my partner to the shop he returns with cookies, donuts, bacon for sarnies and bottles of fizzy juice (on offer, of course) which is why I don’t send him, still not sure where the advantage is apart from making Ocado loads of money sending me stuff that I don’t need.

Jason goes on to say “we have got these clever propeller-heads who can work out what’s in your larder”, ah, well it all makes sense now, propeller heads, actually nope, still not getting it. So is there anyone out there that has used or is still using Ocado and can speak in plain English, who can explain Ocado in a way that doesn’t include talking about propeller heads.

What is Ocado? Why do I need it? Is it better than Tesco?

Comments (4)

By Little Mummy, June 1, 2009 12:34 am

It was with great sadness that I read about Kaylee McIntosh the fourteen year old Army cadet who died whilst on an exercise on a Scottish island. Of course those in charge of the exercise have come under criticism for poor organisation and management of the exercise, and while my sympathy goes to her family, I also a feel a bit sad that the ACF (Army Cadet Force) is under fire again (pun not intended), it doesn’t seem that long ago that they were making the papers for other misdemeanors which threaten to drive down an already dwindling membership.

You see I was an Army cadet and I have nothing but a good word to say about the organisation. There’s a lot of press these days about kids going soft and parents stifling, the ACF dares to go where others can’t or won’t, providing an environment where teenagers can grow and express themselves in a safe environment, but inevitably accidents will happen as will human error and this doesn’t amount to ‘murder’ as Kaylee’s father described it. I only hope that this doesn’t discourage other parents from allowing their youngsters to sign up.

Without risk there can be no reward, and the ACF is extremely rewarding. Amongst other skills I learned to shoot, abseil, lead a team, map read, camp and iron yes that’s iron, there’s a lot of ironing, and polishing too! The ACF doesn’t discriminate on class, gender or race, it’s simple, those who show promise and commitment will prosper. The life lessons learned are too many to mention but leadership, teamwork, commitment, responsibility and above all discipline were held on high, the unusual part was that these were instilled most often by senior cadets, sixteen to eighteen year olds.

Many hobbies and groups these days require substantial monetary investment by parents. The ACF does not. On signing up you are issued all your ‘kit’, the only exception being a pair of boots. Weekend camps cost £5, I’m sure it must have risen by now but I’ll bet that it’s not by much. Annual camps lasting two weeks cost £30 that included all food, accomodation and activities, I don’t know of another group that offers that kind of value.

I made lots of friends during my time at the cadets and even found a husband, yes, we met during an Annual Camp in 1998! If it hadn’t of been for cadets I know many of us would have ended up hanging about on street corners, probably getting up to no good, cadets kept us busy twice a week and several weekends a year and then two weeks every summer. It was a bit of a family affair too, both my brother and Alex’ sister joined up too, showing how much the ACF has to offer for boys and girls aged 13-18.

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By Little Mummy, April 25, 2008 7:46 am

Women Work Harder Than Men (and other interesting facts)

Women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours, buy earn only a tenth of the world’s income.

I found this fact to be particularly disturbing, although not really that surprising. There is still huge inequality in the developing world, however, that’s not to say we don’t have our own issues here in Britain, like the inequality of wages. If we are all being fairly remunerated for our efforts then what’s the problem with making the figures public knowledge? Problem solved. Some would argue this would be a breach of privacy, they are probably the same people earning more than they are worth.

Other facts included;

Women produce half the world’s food but own less than 2 per cent of the world’s land.

Domestic violence, where women are predominantly the victims, kills and injures more people in the developing world than war, traffic accidents or cancer.

A third of the world’s women are homeless or live in inadequate housing.

It’s easy to forget that there are huge swathes of the world where women do not enjoy the same level of equality that we currently enjoy in the west.

(Source: OU Social Science Newspaper)

Teachers Stifle Pupils Interest in Current Affairs

Stories like these are appearing more often, perhaps because of the social appetite to criticize our education systems, or maybe it is representative of the actual situation, who knows… There’s always some news piece about children being prevented from going on vacations (educational or not), or taking time out of school to do something other than study within the constraints of four walls. Four walls are not a prerequisite to learning, and neither is a formal teacher for that matter, every man (woman, or child) is capable of being his own teacher. That’s not to say that I don’t hold our teachers in high regard, I do, I just believe that there is more to learning that being taught (within four walls) and we, as a society, are missing a trick not to recognise this. I’ve always felt that a more flexible education system is what is required for the future, a flexible and dynamic education system which will nurture tomorrow’s generation of free thinkers.

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By Little Mummy, November 7, 2007 9:40 am

Raising kids website has reported on a BBC survey that has released some interesting data on average families in Britain. Here are some of the stats;

Average Family Size = 2 Adults and 1.8 Children

I don’t really understand how they arrived at 2 adults, we’re always being told about the rise in one parent families, so unless there are thousands of three adult/parent families then those averages don’t add up.

Anyway we fall below this average as we have ‘only’ one child

Average Income £32,799

Once again, we fall below this average

Average Weekly Spend £601.20 (includes mortgage)

Utilising my newly acquired maths skills, I conclude that average savings are therefore £1536.60 per year, or £29.55 per week. I’m not sure if this includes retirement funds etc… even if it doesn’t that’s quite a low percentage – approx 4.7% of the annual wage is saved.

Our weekly spend is about half of this figure!

The most popular family car is the Ford Focus

Our car is both smaller and cheaper than the Focus.

To summarize, we earn less, we spend less, we have less children, and we have a smaller car. If only there were a metric for happiness, I think we might be above average for once.

Comments (3)

By Little Mummy, October 10, 2007 2:07 am

I started my decluttering plan on Sunday by doing a boot sale. It was a strange kind of day. Up at 6am, drove to boot sale site (first time we’ve ever been to this one) where we were versed on the ‘rules’. No setting up until the claxon sounds. Claxon will sound at 8.30am. Exactly. At 8.30am there will not be a steady stream of sunday morning perusers, but a swarm of bargain hunting vultures happy to negotiate the price of gold through the car window. Yes I ‘illegally’ sold some old jewellery via the car window, it was rather exciting in a gangstery sort of way!

To say it was non-stop was an understatement. I don’t think there was one moment when the stall was without customer. The claxon sounded again at 1pm to signal the end of the sale and the moment when packing was allowed to commence. Craziest boot sale I ever went too….

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It was quite a lucrative weekend as I also won a prize in the Problogger Birthday Bash. I won a $25 gift certificate for Amazon, I bought two books – America’s Cheapest Family and The 4 Hour Workweek. Both books have been on my book list for a while, and as they are both specifically American, this was the ideal opportunity for me to get them. I plan on doing some bloggy stuff surrounding these books which may include posts, reviews, and test drives of some of the advice in the books, should be fun, especially test driving some of the frugal tips from America’s Cheapest Family!

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I was interviewed by Melitsa’s Play Activities. You can read the interview here.

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Ingenious Rose has written an interesting post about her thoughts and feelings on her daughter starting school in January.

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The Carnival of British Parents is live at Little Legends. Unfortunately there are only a few submissions and I’d urge all British Parent Bloggers to submit an article for the next edition, as it’s a great community tool that can bring you some new readers.

The Carnival of Family Life is hosted at My Wealth Builder, fantastic interactive edition this week. Enjoy!

Comments (12)

By Little Mummy, October 5, 2007 5:46 am

I’m not sure I’ve heard anything quite as riduculous for sometime.

Butlins are offering parents midweek breaks where they’ll be able to get advice on avoiding tantrums and sticking to eating/sleeping routines whilst on holiday. The ‘advice’ will be given by specially trained redcoats.

I have more than a few problems with this. For a start, I go on holiday to relax, not to make appointments to discuss my parenting skills with a complete stranger, who doesn’t even know my child.

In my experience redcoats are young, single, and highly unlikely to be parents. They’re either waiting for their ‘big break’ or have aspirations of becoming a club 18-30 rep. They most likely drink too much, smoke too much, and party too hard, that’s the rep/redcoat culture, and good for them, but parenting advice? No. I think I’ll stick with my own parental instincts, or worse case scenario, seek a ‘professional’.

Does anyone find this proposition appealing?

Comments (1)

By Little Mummy, October 4, 2007 1:28 am

Here is a picture of me proudly erecting the Sold sticker to my For Sale board. The proposed move in date is 23rd November 2007, so I have already begun sorting out a lot of stuff and plan to do a boot sale on Sunday.

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The Carnival of Family Life (last week, sorry a bit late posting this) is presented at Mom on Wheels. My highlights are;

A thought provoking post by Husbandhood, something you should remember while you’re raising your child.

Why I Want To Retire Early, Change Roles and Live On One Income talks of the kind of life many of us are striving for.

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Scribbit’s Winter Bazaar is underway with a fabulous ghost cake with flaming eyes, this would be a real treat for Halloween.
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This weeks’ Carnival of Family Life is presented at the real life blog.

Comments (2)

By Little Mummy, September 24, 2007 1:57 am

You may have read in my last post that we have bought a house. We currently live in a flat in Edinburgh so this will be a big change. The new house is just outside Edinburgh and finally we’ll have our longed after garden – front and back! We now have the task of selling our own home which has involved a spot of decorating and getting people in to fix niggling faults. It’s been a busy time but it goes on the market today, so keep your fingers crossed.

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I enjoyed this post at GNMParents about afterschooling. It covers how to take a simple activity or game and extend it so that it becomes educational too.

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I’m a little late as this is last weeks carnival of family life, still, it deserves a big shout out.

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Check out my articles page (which I will be updating soon) for the best of littlemummy.com.

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By Little Mummy, September 18, 2007 11:30 am

Erin’s achievements this week have included counting to six, drawing on my shoes, saying “sausage” and “bubbles”, drawing on the highchair, completing a jigsaw alone, drawing on the wall, occupying herself in the morning with a book while I wake up, drawing on her toy kitchen. Are you following the pattern? The toddler phase is definitely a series of highs and lows!

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We have been occupied viewing several houses, of which we have made offers on two, no word yet though. Our own flat goes on the market on monday and I have a few jobs to complete this week including laying the rest of the bathroom floor, touching up some grouting, painting the hall, glossing surrounds and organising an electrician and domestic appliance workman to do some odd jobs. To say that we are busy here is a bit of an understatement. Needless to say the blogging may slow a touch while we focus on matters closer to home.

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If you’re new here, and I know a few of you have found my site via blogrush, here are a few highlights from the archives;

Stencilling with Doilies Activity – this one is prefect for preschoolers.

Baby Games – inspiration for doing something fun with your baby.

It’s the perfect time of year to go bark-rubbing.

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By Little Mummy, September 12, 2007 12:01 am

Erin had her first gymnastics class on Saturday. It’s held at the local gym, I was impressed to find they had all the miniature apparatus like mini bars, beam and vault. Erin tried the bars and the vault, the beam was a bit too much for her – hopefully next week. At only £3 a session I thought it was quite good value, especially in comparison to similar organised gym based activities. I’ve booked for a further six weeks, the olympics here we come! Oh dear, I think I’m turning into one of those pushy parents…

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The Carnival of Family Life is up now. My highlights this week;

Who’d have thought watching an apple rotting in a picture blog could be so entertaining, might have to try this one when Erin is older, even though it is a little unusual.

I also enjoyed vacations that work with extended family. Here are some more pointers on holidaying with family, I wrote these following a fun holiday to the Lake District.

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And finally, please check out my post at British Parent Bloggers if you’re considering starting a blog – Get Your Own blog in 3 Easy Steps