Hooray for Feng Shui

A good old cleaning session is always good for the soul.

If there's one thing I neglect when I'm feeling down, it's tidying! It's just one of those jobs that I can't bring myself to do when I've got a lot on my plate and I don't feel up to much. But then it's a double edged knife, because when you're spending a lot of time in a cluttered mess, it doesn't exactly help your head.

So invariably, when I come out of my blue patches, I always have a good tidy up and de-clutter... maybe throw away a pile of stuff I've decided I can do without. Sometimes I go full whack and rearrange my living space. This feels like a change, and never fails to make me feel better.

A few weeks back I decided that not only was I going to have a good tidy up, but I was going to have a bash at a spot of Feng Shui. I have often considered doing it, but have never known enough about it, or really bothered to look into it. But a friend of mine lent me a simple (simplicity is, after all a major key to Feng Shui) and beautifully designed book called 'Chinese Whispers, Feng Shui' by Rosalyn Dexter. It describes the main principals behind the teachings, and gives suggestions on how to use them in your own home.

Now, I don't know how much I believe what I read, but I am a strong advocate of the principal that if something works for you, even if it is just a placebo, then it can't be bad. So I just accepted Dexter's words and tried to understand the thinking behind it.

The basic idea behind Feng Shui is that everything has a flow of energy through it and you can do certain things to use this to your advantage. Since I like the thought that everything in the universe is part of one system where each separate object is affected by and linked to every other object, this principal resonates quite nicely for me. Several Chinese teachings go together to make up Feng Shui, including systems of colours, numbers, astrology and the elements. I got the feeling I was really just catching a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg, but it seemed enough to go on, so I made some notes and drew out a plan for my bedroom based on a grid system given in the book.

Once I knew where everything was going, I started the process. I began by shifting everything from my room... I mean EVERYTHING. All that was left was my bedframe balancing on it's headboard, my red armchair and my desk, all pushed together in the centre of my room. I hoovered and then did a little energy clensing ritual, as suggested in the book. Again, not sure how much I believe in this stuff, but where's the harm if it isn't true, and if it is true, well that's good then isn't it?!

So, to clense a room and get the energy flowing again, you need to start by getting rid of as much clutter as possible. Then you fill a bowl with water, light a candle, and burn some incense (the book said frankencense, but I chose Nag Champra as it's my favourite smell). You then walk around the circumference of the room, clockwise or anticlockwise, whatever your instinct tells you, and as you walk, sprinkle a little sea salt around the edges of the room. Apparently this absorbs negative energy. Once you've done this, you walk around again, this time with metal windchimes. You need to chose windchimes that sounds good to you. All windchimes have a different pitch, and it's pretty personal whether you like the sound or not.

So, you retrace your footsteps, this time tinkling your windchimes. Spend a little more time in areas of the room where you think the energy might have become stagnant- corners for instance, or gaps between furniture. When you've circled the room once, rinse the windchimes with water. Then walk around the room with the windchimes three more times, rinsing them after each circuit. On the final round, concentrate your mind on picturing the energy in the room flowing freely. Once you're done, throw away the water from the bowl.

My housemate was sitting in the garden not far from my bedroom window while I was doing the ritual. She assures me it worked, as everything around her started creaking wierdly when I started tinkling the windchimes!

Once I'd got all the good energy going again, it was time to re-fill my room, putting furniture, ornaments, curtains, throws, cushions... everything I own in a specific place based on the rules written in the book. I was actually surprised to find that I already had many things in the right places. But I did have to make a few changes. For a start, my bed needed to move. Apparently it's really bad to have your head under a window while you sleep, or to have your feet facing a door, and I was doing both of these things. The best place for your bed is to have your head against a wall and your feet facing another wall, but to make sure you can see the door easily. If you can't, it's likely to screw with your instinctual fight-or-flight mechanism.

Then you should place objects in your room using the following rules:

Draw a plan of your room and split it into 9 squares like a noughts and crosses board. The centre square is number 5. The other squares are determined by which way your room is facing: 1-North, 2-Southwest, 3-East, 4-Southeast, 6-Northwest, 7-West, 8-Northeast, 9-South.

Section 1 

is Water 

and represents your career and your journey through life. You should keep colours in this section to navy and black, though if you feel you need more energy in this section of your life, you can use white, gold, silver and grey to boost it. Avoid yellow, ochre, orange or brown unless you want your career and life journey to slow down a bit! In this section you should place images of moving water, an aquarium, glass objects, seascapes, mirrors and bright lights.

Section 2 

is Earth 

and represents unions and relationships. Yellow is a good natural colour to use in this section. If you want growth in this sector of your life, use red and purple. Don't have green or pale blue in this section, unless you would like less energy in it. Place images of union, pairs of things, crystals, cushions, ceramics and flowers. Don't have any solitary figures in this section. A pair of candles is a good thing to have here.

Section 3 

is Thunder 

and represents health, vitality, elders, family and new beginnings. It's colour is green and pale blue, with navy and black to give extra energy, and white, gold, silver and grey to reduce the energy. Place images of rising energy, sunrise, tall plants, music, TV, stereo, bamboo, wood, and family photos in this area.

Section 4 

is Wind 

and represents wealth, blessings and growth. It's colours are the same as section 3. Place tall plants, images of rising energy, wooden objects, family photos, ceramics, gold coins, fans and hanging mobiles in this section.

Section 6 

is Heaven 

and represents leadership, achievement, helpful friends and mentors. Keep colours to white, gold, silver and grey, using yellow, ochre, brown and orange to create energy and red and purple to prevent it. In this section you should have images of support, and metal windchimes.

Section 7 

is Lake 

and represents creativity, joy and children. Its colours are the same as section 6. Place images of playfullness, childrens paintings, animals, vases of flowers, ornaments, games and metal windchimes in this area.

Section 8 

is Mountain 

and represents inner knowledge, wisdom and quiet. Colours in this section should be orange, brown and ochre, with red and purple to add positive energy and green and pale blue to create negative energy. Put heavy objects and cabinets in this section to represent the mountain.

Section 9 

is Fire 

and represents illumination of self, reputation and fame. Colours for this section are red and purple. Use green and pale blue to create energy, and navy and black to create negative energy in this area. Display images of heroes, ambitions and dreams, paintings and sculptures.

As well as this, you should think about where you place your furniture. Think of energy as a kind of wind blowing in through your door and around your room, getting into all the nooks and crannies. You don't want lots of places where it can get stuck. The book also suggested using throws to cover sharp corners, which are said to cause a turbulant energy flow. 

It's also very important to make sure that you like what you're looking at! Common sense really- but don't have anything out on show that makes you feel bad. Take down any photos or pictures you might have that remind you of things you'd rather not think about. Only display things that fill you with happy memories and thoughts. Place mirrors carefully. Mirrors are very important in Feng Shui. Used properly they can make a space look bigger. It's also a really good idea to have them facing something that looks nice. So if you've got a lovely view from your window, put your mirror opposite the window. If you have a brick wall outside your window, make sure you can't see it in the mirror! I have also made a conscious effort to hide everything in my bedroom that has anything to do with work. This is my place for resting now.

I noticed the difference in my room immediately. At first I put it down to the feeling of change and the fact that my room was tidy... but in the weeks since I rearranged it, I have loved spending time in my bedroom. It feels cosy. I can't put my finger on what I like about it now... it just feels nice to be in!

A letter to a VIP

I have felt absolutely helpless to do anything about my painful and unfair £500 benefit overpayment. So I have written the following letter. Now I just need to work out who might be the best person/people to send it to. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.

 Dear ………………

I’d like to tell you my story.

I was always at the top of my class at school. I left secondary school with 9 GCSEs, (which was the maximum number I was able to do) 8 of which were A*s and As. I had wanted to do an extra GCSE during my lunch breaks and after school, but hadn’t been allowed because the teachers didn’t have enough time to help me. I did 5 A levels: maths, physics, English language, art and general studies, and received 3 As, a C and a D. I got a distinction in my foundation year in art and design, and a 2:1 in my Graphic Design degree at U.W.E. Bristol. I was then awarded the Graduate Placement Scheme as a high achiever, and received more training and a work placement.

As it turned out, Graphic Design was not for me. My passion and skill has always been for more hands-on activities and so, a couple of years after leaving university, I started my own business designing, making and selling clothing, hats, bags and other wearable items. It grew slowly, mostly selling to friends to begin with, then at a few festivals and craft stalls; eventually I was making enough sales to take the plunge and leave my job to concentrate on the business. A daunting choice but as you can probably understand by now I am by no means lazy or stupid, and when I want to do something very little will put me off.

I quickly discovered that a self employed life is very different to one in employment. Work, and therefore money, tends to come in bursts, which is difficult to contend with when you've relied so far on a steady income.

I looked for advice starting my business but found very little. Business Link were recommended to me, but after a meeting with one of their advisers, I was basically shown how to make a cash-flow chart but given no more help than this. I was told, flat out, that there was no financial assistance to be had, short of a business loan. My accountant warned me off trying to get a loan, saying it was near to impossible in the current financial climate.

I had always avoided benefits. I wanted to be proud of supporting myself and didn't want to be a leech on people who worked hard for their cash. But after searching for financial help that wasn’t there, benefits seemed to be the only way forwards.

I chose to apply for working tax credits, housing benefit and council tax benefit. I found the actual application process relatively easy, though long winded. What was less easy, however, was understanding exactly what I was being given and by what method they had decided upon the amount I was entitled to. A successful applicant is sent a number of baffling letters from different offices quoting figures that appear to have been pulled from nowhere. It seemed I was receiving a new letter with a new set of figures every couple of days initially, and deciphering exactly what benefit I was being given; when; and how, was not easy. In the end I worked this out for myself just by checking my bank account.

The problem with this kind of bureaucracy is that it’s written by people who understand all the facts and figures, for people who haven’t got the first clue what it all means. There is no translation between the two languages. The result is intimidating!

Which is why I believe I have ended up in the situation I find myself in now: apparently owing the government over £500 in ‘overpayment’ even though I have proof that I earned little more than £8000 in total over the last two years.

The situation unfurled as follows: I applied for benefits in early summer last year. My accountant filed my first tax return in January of this year. I was then contacted by the tax credits office saying I was entitled to more money than they had been giving me as I had earned less than the estimate on their books. This was entirely automatic and I had no idea it was going to happen. A sum of money was put into my bank account, back-dating the underpayment of my tax credits over the previous year.

A month or so later I was then contacted separately by the council tax and housing benefits office, telling me that because I was earning more tax credits now, I was no longer entitled to council tax or housing benefit. Not only that, but I now owed them almost £500 in overpayment. I phoned to say this must be wrong and asked what I could do to prove I hadn’t earned as much as they were estimating. I was asked to provide accounts for the last year, which I did. But when the new entitlement form came through, it still said I owed them £500. I phoned to check again, and was eventually put through to someone in the head office who actually knew what was going on. I was told that yes, this was right and there was absolutely nothing I could do. It was just the way the system worked.

Even though I can prove I earned next to nothing during the last two years, I have been told that because I didn't tell them I was earning less than the figure they had on their system, I cannot get out of paying them back this money. The fact that I didn't know exactly when my situation changed because I am in the first two years of running my own business and the numbers change from month to month makes no difference. The fact that I have physical proof of my actual earning makes no difference. The fact that I didn’t know I was going to receive the back payment from the tax credits office makes no difference. And the fact that they chose to use the figure for my increased tax credits, while ignoring the reason I was being given the extra benefits (because I had earned under £4000) makes absolutely no difference.

Now I ask: why exactly do we have the benefits system? Is it not to support low income people as they try to find their feet financially?

I believe that with the current economical situation, the government is so busy trying to make cutbacks they have bypassed the very reason for the system being there in the first place. This type of system cannot function like a business, but it seems to me this is what is taking place. The unemployment and benefits figures are an embarrassment and an inconvenience to our government, and they want us off the system so it doesn’t cost as much to run. Just a few days ago I saw on TV a headline claiming ‘Tax payers are forking out billions of pounds to fund the unemployed.’ Apparently it is important for the good tax paying citizens to be aware of the great burden they are being put under by people like me. We are (every one of us on benefits or living without a ‘proper’ job) being painted as criminals and scroungers, and treated with the same level of respect. We are given a little financial help, providing we go through a strict application process and stick rigidly to a complicated set of rules that are never actually explained in a way we can understand. If we put one foot outside of the line, we loose everything, whether we realised we were doing it or not.

I would very much like to see some change here. At the least I would like my overpayment to be re-evaluated. Further than that, I would like to see a change in the benefits system so that people are given a simple explanation of what they are getting into at the very start, and a fair chance to play by the rules. People should be given the opportunity to prove themselves and their situation, they should not be dismissed and pushed from systems which are supposed to be in place for their support. Am I expecting too much?

How to make dieting fun!

I'm a massive fan of healthy food. It's great to know that every meal you're eating is providing your body with the stuff it needs. I quite often find myself with strange cravings for particular foods like avocados or steak... it's usually because my body's low on certain nutrients that those foods contain.

Dark leafy vegetables like spinach, broccoli, watercress and kale are particularly nutritious. They're full of vitamins- everything from antioxident vitamin C, to vitamin K which helps bones and brain activity; as well as iron (which is vital for women and helps keep energy levels up); copper (which your body needs in order to absorb iron); calcium (for your bones); potassium (which is needed for healthy blood, and also helps balance sodium levels); magnesium; phosphorus and manganese. Watercress is an especially low-calorie and low fat source of these vitamins and minerals.

The trouble with many of these kinds of super-healty foods, though, is that they taste like earth and don't fill you up! I honestly believe that if you're on a diet, the most important thing is to really enjoy the food you're eating. You're not going to get as much of it as usual, so when you do eat, make the most of it! Take time to find recipes you really want to try, spend money on your food (well, since you're not buying as much, you can get away with spending more on what you do buy!) Diet food shouldn't be punishment. If you're giving up the foods you love, you HAVE to replace them with other ones that are as exciting and tasty as possible, or you'll end up having a bad relationship with what you're eating and then you'll be more likely to slip.

I've been eating a lot of soups for my lunches, because I like to try a new recipe out every few days and there are endless possibilities. I wanted to make a watercress soup, but I was pretty disappointed with the result. Hmmm, healthy and tastless! Where's the fun in that?

So here is my attempt at making a more exciting watercress soup. I think it's still a work in progress, but at least it looks pretty, and the rocket adds a peppery twang to what's otherwise quite a bland and earthy flavour. Plus I'll throw in my spelt bread recipe for free!


Watercress and Rocket Soup with Homemade Spelt Bread Rolls

Bread:
Makes 12 rolls
Ingredients:
400g wholemeal bread flour
300g strong white bread flour
300g spelt flour
1 1/2 packets quick yeast
1 tblsp honey
1 tsp salt
approx 1/2 pint tepid water
1 egg, beaten
4tblsp toasted sesame seeds

Method:
1. On a clean surface, pile up the flours, salt and yeast. Make a well in the centre.
2. Mix the honey into the water and pour into the well in the flour gradually, mixing in with your fingers until all the flour is combined.
3. Keep on mixing with your fingers until you've got a dough. You want this dough to be really quite sticky, so if you need to add more water, do. Then knead the dough for approx 10mins. You'll know when it's ready because the consistency will change and it will become elastic and smooth.
4. Rub some oil around the bottom and sides of a large bowl and place the dough in it. Cover with a damp tea towel and put in a warm place for about 1hour, until it's doubled in size.
5. Knock back the dough (slowly punch your hand into the middle of the dough to let the air out, and then gently knead it back into a ball again) then cut it into 12 pieces
6. Shape these into rounds (or whatever shape you want your rolls to be) and place them on lined baking trays, leaving a good 2 inches between each one. Brush with a little egg and sprinkle on a generous amount of sesame seeds.
7. Place back into the warm for a further 30mins-1 hour, until doubled in size again.
8. Put into a preheated oven at 200 C for approx 15mins. You can tell they're cooked by turning them upside down and knocking them with a finger. If they make a hollow sound, they're done.

Soup:
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1kg potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 litre hot vegetable stock
150g watercress
50g rocket
salt and lots of black pepper
To serve:
a little low fat yoghurt
toasted pumpkin seeds/sesame seeds/saffron strands

Method:
1. Heat a little oil in a large pan and fry the onions and potatoes for approx 5 mins until softened but not coloured.
2. Add the stock and the garlic and cook for a further 20mins, until the potatoes are starting to break up.
3. Add the watercress and remove from the heat.
4. Pour the soup mixture into a blender and blend until smooth.
5. Chop the rocket up really small, like you would with herbs, and stir into the blended soup, adding some salt and a fair amount of black pepper
6. Serve with a hot toasted bread roll. Swirl a little yoghurt into the centre of the bowl and sprinkle on some seeds or maybe even some saffron strands if you're feeling flash!

Hot chocolate + raspberry liqueur = liquid strawberry cream Quality Street!

Spring comes to our garden

The weather today has been stunning. It's as warm as a summers day. I'm suffering from the after effects of 3 pints of cider and half a bottle of rose and my cure has been a day pottering in the garden.

Getting stuff to grow is hard work! Every spring for the past 5 years or so, I have planted trays of seeds, opting for the Get-Them-In-The-Ground-And-Hope-For-The-Best tecnique, and results have varied! My biggest problem is with the hundreds of hungry slugs and snails who seem to have a taste for baby plants in particular. Most of my little seedlings never get bigger than a centimetre. Then there's the soil in our garden, which is pretty heavy and does that annoying thing of sitting in clay-like clumps when it's damp, and baking solid like ceramic when it's dry.

So this year I have taken matters into my own hands and have decided to try and learn to garden! The book How To Grow Your Own Drugs by James Wong has been really handy, as it's written for people like me who haven't got the first idea how to get things to stay alive, let alone grow from scratch.

It's so good to see honey bees again

It turns out, there's far more to gardening than just getting the plants in the ground. You've really got to take into account where you're planting things, because some plants will only grow in direct sunlight, some like dry soil, some like damp dark conditions, some get huge, some spread across the garden and take over everything else, some need support, some climb, some shoot straight up on their own, some last just one year, some die back and then grow again the next year... I could carry on but I won't.

I figured I'll take this one step at a time, so this year I am mainly concentrating on flowers. I love flowers. They make me feel good, and at this point, I want as much of that as possible. So I've been to the garden centre and stocked up on orange pansies, daffodils, aubritia, anemones, foxgloves and sweet peas. I also bought some marigold (calendula) seeds, which I planted today.

But actually the gardening started well over a year ago. We put a load of topsoil, grass cuttings and other bits of vegetation in a heap down the bottom of the garden where it's shady and damp. This was really just to get it all out of the way, but a nice side-effect has been that we now have a compost heap, which is very handy for growing stuff as it's basically plant food.

Following James Wong's suggestions, I dug up the veg patch a couple of months ago, broke the soil up and then spread on a layer of 'mulch' from our compost heap. Then today, before I planted my first veg of the year, I dug through it all again and mixed the mulch in. This adds nutrients to the soil, and helps stop it from doing the clay/ceramic thing. To finish I watered it with plenty of plant food.

And the first veg to go in? Maris Piper potatoes. I'm going to try and grow my own roast dinner! I've never grown potatoes before, so this will be interesting! I had to dig trenches, scatter in fertilizer (which is a delicious-sounding mixture of blood, fish and bone, and looks like grey dust), fill them to 3/4 full and then place in the seed potatoes. I'm interested to know if there's something special about seed potatoes, because to me they just looked like small potatoes that had been left in the cupboard too long and had started to grow those sprouty bits they get.

The flowers are in pots on our patio, since they all need lots of sunlight, and the patio is the only bit of our garden that's in the sun most of the day. And plus, it make the patio look pretty.

I have done everything I can think of go get my marigold seeds to grow bigger than 1cm! The pots have small pieces of polysterene in the bottom, which is another tip from James Wong. Keep hold of any polystyrene packaging you may have. Broken up into chunks, it can be put in the bottom of plant pots before you fill them with soil. It helps keep the pots light, the soil well drained, and is economical as you only need to fill the pot with as much soil as the roots of your plant require. I've also added fertilizer and sprinkled over some slug killer. I'm not a massive fan of the stuff but I'm at a bit of a loss to know what else to do.

And once all this was done, I made myself a cup of tea and sat down in the sun. Hangover? Not gone but certainly all the better for a bit of physical activity and a hearty dose of sunshine.

Comfort eating without the guilt: My Favourite Chicken Soup

After a day like today, a person's gonna reach for something... a bottle of gin maybe, or a tub of ice cream... However, I may be down but I am certainly not out, and my determination to stick to my get-less-flabby-by-bikini-season diet still overules.

And here lies the magic of comfort eating in that it really doesn't have to be bad for you. Chicken soup is the perfect thing to warm a bruised soul, especially when it's spicy and filling like this one.

This recipe is the one I've ended up at after many attempts to make the Perfect Chicken Comfort Soup, and has its roots in both oriental and good old English cuisine.

No picture, sorry (I ate it too quickly).

Ingredients:
1/2 onion, chopped small
2 cloves garlic, still in their shells
1 medium chicken breast
1/2 lime, cut into 4 chunks
2 small handfulls dried soup mix (lentils, split peas, barley, etc)
2cm root ginger
2 lemongrass sticks, tough outer shell removed
1 red chilli, deseeded and sliced thinly (or, as I used this evening, approx 6 slices of pickled jalapeno chillies from a jar- these work really well as they're piquante and add a sharpness to the soup)
2 bayleaves
4 thin strips of lemon rind (careful to just get the yellow skin, none of the white rind which is bitter)
1/4 pack creamed coconut, chopped up small
dash soy sauce
plenty of pepper
preheat the oven at 180 C

Method:
1. First put the whole chicken breast into a small casserole dish, with the pieces of lime. Cut 4 or 5 slices into 1 of the garlic cloves and put it, whole, into the dish. Cover and place in the oven for approx 10-15mins.
2. Meanwhile fry the onion in a little oil until soft.
3. When the chicken is cooked through, remove it from the dish and cut into strips approx 5cm by 1cm thick. Place these in the pan with the onion and cook for 2mins, before pouring over about 2 pints boiling water.
4. Now take the garlic from the dish, remove it's skin and squash it to a pulp, then add it to the pan. Squeeze the flesh from the lime pieces and add this too. Then peel and finely chop the remaining garlic clove and add this, along with the bay leaves, lemongrass, chilli, ginger, soup mix and strips of lemon skin.
5. Bring the soup to the boil and let it simmer for approx 25mins, until the lentils are cooked but still have a bit of bite to them.
6. Pick out the bay leaves, lemongrass, ginger and lemon skin and discard before adding the coconut. Add soy sauce and pepper to taste. Cook for another 5mins to ensure all the coconut has melted, then get it down you and feel the love!
Serves 2 (or one particularly sad and hungry soul)

A WARNING to those on low income

Careful when dealing with government benefits!

I always avoided them. I wanted to be proud of supporting myself and didn't want to be a leech on people who worked hard for their cash. But when I decided to leave work and attempt to run my own business, benefits seemed to be the only way forwards.

Being self employed requires a lot of hard work and financial control. Work, and therefore money, tends to come in bursts, which is difficult to contend with when you've relied so far on a steady income. You need to be able to stay on top of what you spend and when you spend it, never going on a spending spree just because you've come into a few hundred pounds: you have to be aware that next month you might need that extra couple of hundred!

At the start, you might not make any money at all. But you've still got to eat and pay the bills, so you'll look absolutely anywhere for a few extra pennies. And there, staring you in the face, are benefits. Free money. Money that you've already paid tax towards. All you have to to is prove that you're not earning much and they put it right into your bank account. And it's organised by the government, so you must be able to trust it, right? It's purpose is to help people in this kind of situation, right?

Well, it does help a little. It's nowhere near enough to live off and it's a royal pain in the arse to get started: you need to fill out forms and provide accounts and spend hours on the phone, mostly listening to that rusty classical music they pump through with the odd interuption to remind you you're in a queue because their staff are busy helping someone else. But once it's going, at least until the end of that financial year, it's just the odd twenty pounds or so that goes straight into your bank account.

But here's the catch. We're in the financial shit right now. Right in it, up to our chins. Every decision our government makes is based on finding money from somewhere. There's a lot of pressure on services like benefits to keep costs down. Benefits and unemployment are, in particular, a very grey area. Nobody wants unemployed people on benefits who earn no money. It means that people in work have to pay to keep them alive. It means the economy is bad. It's embarrassing for the government and it's very difficult to fix. The benefits system wants to get people off the system.

So if you're going to get yourself into it, you need to be aware of exactly what you're getting yourself into. I wasn't and I've been bitten in the arse and let me tell you it's not a small bite and it bloody hurts.

When I applied for benefits they based my claim on what I had earnt the year before, when I was still employed. I told them that I was now self employed, but they're not interested in the details, only the figures. A year went by and I didn't tell them that I was now earning less. Basically, I didn't think it mattered because I was earning so much less, I assumed all that would happen was that they'd owe me more money.

In January I filled in my first tax return and was automatically contacted by the tax credits people saying I was entitled to more money than they had been giving me. Without having to do anything, a sum of money was put into my bank account. A month or so later I was then contacted separately by the council tax and housing benefits office, telling me that because I was earning more tax credits now, I was no longer entitled to council tax or housing benefit and not only that, but I now owed them almost £500. I phoned to say this must be wrong and was asked to provide accounts for the last year, which I did. But when the new entitlement form came through, it still said I owed them £500. I phoned to check again, and was told yes this was right and there was absolutely nothing I could do, it was just the way the system worked.

Even though I can prove that I earned next to nothing during the last two years, because I didn't tell them that AT THE TIME, I owe them that money. And the fact that I didn't know I was going to be getting the money from the tax credits people makes absolutely no difference.

So, from personal experience, here is my advice:

1. IF YOU'RE SELF EMPLOYED, KEEP ACCOUNTS. Do them carefully and bear in mind the less you earn the less tax you will pay and the more benefit you can claim. But at the same time if you're looking to make it as a business, and if you want to be able to apply for loans, grants or investments, you will need to show that you can make money. It's a fine balance!

2. FILL IN YOUR TAX RETURN or they will chase you like dogs.

3. KEEP TRACK OF HOW MUCH YOU ARE MAKING. They will want to know exactly how much you make every year, so make sure you know it yourself. The amount you are given is based on what you earned the previous year. So if you're applying for benefits now, in 2012, they will want to know how much you earned in 2011. They'll want proof too so make sure you keep all your bank statements, payslips and P60 forms.

4. TELL THEM IF ANYTHING CHANGES. Tell them as soon as you know. Keep telling them if things keep changing. Yes it's a pain in the backside sitting on hold for 30 minutes, but your backside will be far more damaged if you don't do it and you get hit with a 'repayment'.

5. REMEMBER THEY'RE FICKLE. It's only natural to get excited when a large sum of money appears in your account, but bear in mind they might ask for it back. If it doesn't seem to make sense, contact them and ask rather than hoping for the best and spending it all at once, however tempting that is. They seem to change their minds at the drop of a hat.

6. TRY AND UNDERSTAND YOUR BENEFITS, because they're complicated. It's not just a case of having money put into your account. You'll have tax credits that are supplied by the tax credits people. Then you'll apply to one place for housing benefits and council tax, but they'll be paid separately: housing benefit into your account, and council tax benefit taken off your council tax bill in what seems like an almost arbitrary way. And some parts of the systems seem to talk to each other but not others: for instance, the housing benefits and council tax people heard that I was earning more tax credits, but not that it was because I was earning less money overall- it was still judged on the intial figure I presented when I applied. So the best thing to do is sit quietly from time to time with a strong cup of coffee and plenty of biscuits to keep you sane, and to go through all the paperwork and attempt to make sense of how much you are being paid, when, and why. If it doesn't make sense then phone them and get them to explain it to you.

7. TAKE IT SERIOUSLY. It may seem like an easy route to money, but this is your own income you're dealing with here and if you don't pay attention to it, you might end up in difficult circumstances like me. It seems totally obvious to do all these things, but you'd be surprised how easy it is not to. I only learned in hindsight because they don't tell you any of this when you apply.

And best of luck to you!