Like LBTC suggests check out the second-hand shops. I often do and have got some absolute bargains - like the brand new business suit. It even still had the original price tags on it.

I only had two children - a boy and a girl, both in their twenties now. My daughter and her husband have one child - a boy. They don't want any more children. I think two kids are enough nowadays. What used to annoy me was the pressure that is put on couples to have kids. I was married 5 years before my daughter was born and if I'd 1 penny for every time I heard "Well when are you going to have family?" I'd be wealthy now! If a couple choose not to have children then that is their choice and they shouldn't be made to feel guilty.

I think my pet hate as far as packaging goes is that hard plastic packaging that you need to use a pair of scissors and a lot of cuss words to get into Not only are they impossible but they're dangerous too because of the sharp jagged edges they have.

Plastic bags are a pest too. Why can't they go back to paper bags like we used to have? These could be made out of recycled material and either recycled again or go in the compost bin.

Another thing that annoys me is the cartons, either waxed cardboard or plastic that milk comes in. Years ago it was always glass bottles which you washed out and returned. If you bought the milk from the shop, you took the bottles back to the shop. The only way you can get milk in glass bottles now (at least here in the UK) is if you get your milk delivered to your door, then you put the washed empties out and the milkman collects them. The only snag with that is it is far more expensive than buying at the local supermarket and our milkman comes at 10am - no use on a hot day if you're working as the milk is sour by the time you get home (or the cats have tipped it up and helped themselves, which our cats learnt very quickly how to do )

I think manufacturers need to rethink their packaging. One of the biggest problems we have this side of the pond is the EU and Health & Safety. It is mostly because of them that we have this packaging problem. Biscuits (cookies) must have at least two layers of packaging - for health reasons. Might catch a disease When I was a little girl, we went to the local shop, stuck our hands among the biscuits, put them in a paper bag, got them weighed and paid for them. Oddly enough, diseases like Salmonella, E-coli etc. weren't heard of. It's only since we went all clean and hygenic that diseases like that have reared their heads. Personally, I think we're too clean nowadays.