I guess because I am a financial journalist I get more than my fair share of these emails about such services but it has made me curious as to whether they are really all they promise. But then that instinct to think things are seldom as good as they seem is also why I’m a journalist.
So anyway I have written a list and I am going to road test the “money boosting” ideas on it.
First up is the log maker.
According to the marketing blurb this gadget helps you turn old newspapers and junk mail into “paper” logs, which can be burned either in a regular fire or wood-burning stove. It costs £16.99 but promises that each log will burn for two hours.
Junk mail and newspapers are something I have in excess so it seemed like it might be a good way of heating our living room, while also saving on trips to the recycling bins at our local supermarket.
The instructions make is sound quite simple – tare the paper into shreds and then soak it before squidging it into the log maker and then you put the press on top push down on the handles. What they don’t say is that it’s really quite messy and loads of water floods out of the bottom when you push down, so make sure you do that bit outside.
The logs come out pretty easily but you really do have to put them in an airing cupboard to dry out for a good couple of weeks. And I have to say that my son absolutely loved the whole thing and keeps asking when we can make more. We haven’t burned any of the logs yet as – one thing it’s too warm for a fire, and secondly we live in a “clean air area” so I will have to check first what if we can.
So what’s my verdict – well its takes longer to make the logs and it’s a whole lot messier than they make out, but for £16.99 I don’t feel like I was ripped off.
Next week selling my broken jewellery.
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