Paper round better alternative?

I thought having a baby one year, followed by a wedding the next was enough. Hell no....two months before our first anniversary we'd moved lock, stock and barrel from Bristol to London. Three years of non stop STRESSors.

Financially it has all taken its toll and that's before petrol went up to a million squid for a droplet. Normally at this time of year I would be planning my spring/summer wardrobe. Oh yes before the March magazines make it in to the house for evening of flicking and picking with the full weight of the collections, I'd normally be on cruise control. I will still be looking at trends, thinking which translates best into 2008 and a women's everyday needs. I will be checking the shops stock from high street to high fashion stores but I am really going to have to be inventive this year with my alterations and dying. If see someone dressed head to toe in black in the height of summer chances are it will be me or this could be the year of the burka.

Having got into this making do mindset I need our household sheets to be balanced and healthy. I don't function well now with minus accounts, I prefer black to red - red is still my number one choice for lipstick though! Foolishly,to help the household budget, a few days ago I publicly announced allotment fever. Now the reality is beginning to dawn.

The book is here, Allotment Gardening by Susan Berger. It is informative, useful and looks like it will be my bible instead of my glorious collection of style books. I am really having to gloss over the descriptions of the people who are allotment peeps. I know I'm going to channel Margo not the Felicity Kendall character from the Good Life and I have a pair of old Gucci sunglasses that I will wear come rain or shine. Most of all I know I've got a lot of digging and doing ahead. My husband luckily is a willing accomplice in this adventure.

Alternatively I could just get a paper round.