Homes for students studying in Sheffield are plentiful and affordable – at least when compared to London’s sky-high rates. You can expect to pay a weekly rent of between £65 and £85 for a room in a shared student house or Sheffield Hallam accommodation, though this naturally varies by area. Understandably, the properties best situated for the universities are in demand and often more expensive.

Start your search with a little fact-finding: the Sheffield University Student Union website has many useful guides for you to download. They also host a housing fair to help you find the best base for your time in Sheffield. Agents and landlords attend the fair, so there’s a good chance you’ll be able to tick housing off your list right there and then.

The house hunting season begins in November, but don’t worry if you’re not able to start the search so soon. There are plenty of good properties on offer in the Steel City.

Most shared flats and houses are for groups of four or five – splitting into groups will offer you the widest choice of properties and help stretch your accommodation budget further.

So much for the where, but what about the who? The people you live with in Sheffield may well be your friends for the rest of your life, if you choose well. Sheffield universities run housefinder events, so ask at the union if you're struggling to find flatmates.

Saving on accommodation is essential if you plan to make the most of Sheffield. After all, there’s much more to the Steel City than libraries and laboratories. The vibey, creative atmosphere and thriving culture means many people who study in Sheffield decide to settle down there. This beautiful city blends a rich heritage with a very modern outlook. There’s a deep and diverse cultural scene, with world class galleries and theatres regularly packed and a music scene that’s birthed countless acts from grime to rock. Check out the iconic Leadmill, where many a famous act has played to small local crowds on their march to the top. 7.2% of Sheffield's working residents are in the creative industries.

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It can be difficult to cope when your children leave home. For years your life has revolved around caring for them and preparing them for the outside world, but when they enter it, it can leave a void. Empty Nest Syndrome is very real, and many people feel a loss of purpose when their children aren’t around the house any more.

There are a few simple ways to relieve these feelings of loss, so you can refocus and concentrate on the new freedom you have in your life.

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Not only does it look a mess, clutter can be a bit of a health hazard too, especially when you have kids around. Think about knives lurking at the bottom of drawers, or heavy boxes waiting to topple on toddlers. Doesn’t bear thinking about.

Here are some tips to help keep the house tidier, and safer to boot.

A Place for Everything

It may be a tired old cliché, but having designated spots for everything from boots to crayons means you can find what you want straight away without tripping over things on the way.

Drawer organisers are easy to buy and cheap, and they’re useful all round the house, not just for cutlery in the kitchen. Use them for:

• Pens, crayons and felt tips in a crafting drawer.
• Hair ties and bobbles.
• Costume or play jewellery
• Make up and brushes

You can also buy or make dividers for sock drawers, and to keep crockery or pots and pans organised.

Shelving throughout the house creates lots of storage without restricting the floor area, and is especially good for keeping glass or other breakables out of little finger’s reach.

Activity Zones within Rooms

We can’t all afford bespoke rooms for every activity. Bedrooms are all occupied by beds and people who sleep in them, and dining rooms are fully fitted out with dining furnishings. We can, however, earmark sections of a room for certain activities and take steps to make sure the kit needed for those activities stays within the boundaries.

• The office in the living room – a small computer workstation in a corner takes up little floor space. Install shelving over the desk for stationery or text books, and use an open bookcase set perpendicular to the wall as a cubicle boundary. Have some books facing each way so it looks good from either side, and pretty it up with trailing plants and photo frames or ornaments.

• Zoning children’s rooms – make a quiet reading corner with a couple of bookcases and a beanbag, or lay a play mat for building bricks or cars. Captain and cabin beds create additional space for activity zones beneath them without taking up extra floor space.

• Elsewhere in house, adopt ideas such as installing a shoe rack in the cupboard under the stairs to encourage people not to leave shoes lying around in the hallway. You could rearrange furniture in the living room to make conversation more important than watching TV, or create zones with colour or textiles that either excite the mind or promote calm.

Going Seasonal With Storage

When you’ve got more possessions than house room but you don’t want to permanently get rid of stuff, putting what you’re not using into self storage is a way of freeing up space. Some people go the seasonal route, storing summer garden furnishings and machinery over winter and winter sports kit during the summer. You could adopt the same routine with clothes if you have favourites that come out every year. Wardrobes are less crammed, and what’s in there stays in better condition.

Minimising the things kept at home makes it easier to create a safe environment too. Not only are garages and sheds less attractive as treasure troves and climbing frames to children, it’s easier to keep the inside of the house clean and sanitary when you can easily reach the corners.

An added bonus to organising home storage and clearing up some clutter is the sense of mental freedom afterwards. The home feels more airy and spacious, and is an altogether nicer place to be.

Flying should be a comfortable and convenient way to travel, whether it be for business or pleasure. Thousands of flights happen daily across the globe, so we expect the process to run like a well-oiled machine. So, when something does not go as it should, it is natural to feel frustrated and cheated. Of course, in some cases delayed flights or even cancelled flights can mean a loss of work or missing an important event, so wanting to claim compensation is perfectly natural. However, should you claim on your own behalf or use a solicitor.

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My son was never meant to be an only child.

As the youngest of four children, my childhood home was always full of hustle and bustle with a multitude of playmates. Of course it also meant that there wasn't a moment's peace and quiet, but I wouldn't have traded that for the world. Which is why I was going to have two children.

Was going to.

But it just hasn't happened and at the grand old age of 40, I'm ok with that.

I can recognise now that I'm fairly certain I had such significant birth trauma after my son was born that it may have been borderline PTSD; it certainly triggered anxiety and panic attacks. It's taken a good few years with various counselling interventions to make peace with the mistakes that were made during his birth, but I can now let it go.

He's here, he's healthy, he's happy.

That is the most important thing.

However, by the time I'd adjusted and entertained the thought of childbirth again, I was on the slippery slope towards 40. Having a baby at 32 was hard enough, but this many years later? I dread to think how I'd cope with the feeding dilemma and subsequent guilt combined with the sleepless nights, let alone the physical toll on my body. Pre-pregnancy weight is a distant dream eluding me and I'm nowhere near as fit. Would my body actually hold up through the pregnancy? It is a realistic concern and in order to be physically in a place where I should become pregnant would take at least a year. Then there's the falling pregnant and the actual three-quarters of a year before the baby arrives.

I'd be looking at 43 and my son would be 11. That's a heck of an age gap and one that I know only too well can be very difficult to overcome; luckily I've got two siblings in the gap of twelve years between my eldest brother and I, and it makes it easier. I'm just not sure that it would be very fair on The Boy.

Did I want my son to have a sibling?

Of course I did, it's one of the most amazing bonds and the longest one a person can have. Never have I known three people that I can absolutely adore whilst also wanting to pull their hair out. And I'm not talking about when we were children; my brothers both currently need their heads banging together for many reasons. But I still love them.

There's a saving grace to assuage my guilt; my sister's children. They're incredibly close to my son (my niece is 14 and my nephew 11) and the three of them together are like the Three Musketeers. It fills my heart with joy to see him cuddling my niece like a big sister, learning how to tie his shoelaces from her and the way that she always visually checks he's managing at dinner, or automatically holds his hand near a road. Likewise I'm filled with glee when I see the two boys down in the mud kitchen concocting all mnaner of delicacies for their restaurant; Food and Doogan. Or when they go on a space mission through the garden to the climbing frame rocket with football helmets under their arms.

The bond that they have is similar to that of a sibling, but the best thing about cousins is that you have more of your own space and can have a more effective timeout.

I'm lucky. I have a son. He's funny and kind and amazing and fills my heart with joy. I can't imagine my life without enjoying his company.

And that's why I've accepted that I just have one child.

Now does anyone want to buy a pram?

Let's be honest, we all make bad spending decisions from time to time. Unfortunately, some of us make more bad choices than others. If your dangerous decisions are becoming a habit, then it might be time to sit back and think about whether there's a reason for your pattern of poor investment choices.

There are plenty of ways you can mismanage your funds, from overspending, to compulsively shopping, and even under-estimating your budget. While we're all guilty of making these mistakes sometimes, science suggests that there could be a strong link between your current financial status and your spending habits.

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