As a student, I was so terrified of getting into debt that I wrote down every purchase and expenditure in a little black book. Debt scared me far more than arriving in London alone aged 18 armed with nothing more than an and a suitcase. No one likes to owe money, but for certain personality types, the fear is particularly real. Money buys many things, not all of them material. Yes, it buys freedom, but more than that, it buys control.
It’s kind of quaint, how diligently I strove to avoid an overdraft – not least because my worry was completely disproportionate. It was the 90s. I had it easy. Not wealthy parent easy, but the next best thing: a grant (from memory, of around £2,500) that ensured I started each term of university with a decent sum of money in the bank that I simply had to preserve. My tuition fees were paid by the local authority, so my grant was mine to spend on food, rent, highlighter pens and as many Moscow Mules as I could drink.
Truly, it was the best of times. Imagine, as an 18 year-old, being given thousands of pounds that you didn’t have to pay back, that didn’t clock up interest, that didn’t make you wake up in a cold sweat every night stressing about whether you’d ever find a job that earned you enough to repay it.
How to be more grateful for daily life in five easy steps
The world feels like a difficult place at the moment, and it can feel very hard sometimes to find things to be thankful for; when we are overwhelmed, we have less capacity to notice and reflect on the good things. Yet, ironically, proactively cultivating gratitude is one of the things that can actually help us feel less stressed.
NHS GP dR RADHA
The science
Research has shown that feeling or expressing thanks can actually alter our brain.
- The balance of neurotransmitters change; more serotonin and dopamine (feel good chemicals) are produced.
- This can be long lasting if we make gratitude a regular habit.
- We also get a decrease in our cortisol (stress hormone) levels which helps lower anxiety.
- Being grateful can strengthen the nerve pathways which triggers positive emotion.
How can we build gratitude?
Change your words
Instead of seeing something as a problem, try to see the opportunities within it.
Our brains are very receptive and what we read or write can alter our emotional system.
Express it
This will not only make you feel good, but you will also get a positive response from others.
How can we build gratitude?
Notice more
Throughout your day, try to notice all the things that are going well; has someone opened a door for you, or smiled?
The basics
By being thankful for the small things every day, we are far more likely to be and stay healthy so that we can enjoy them.
What to do
Gratitude can lead to feelings of optimism, lower our blood pressure, and improve sleep quality.
- Write down what potential good aspects there are to the things you don’t feel like doing, or even what could be worse about it.
- Spend a few minutes writing down three things that you are looking forward to that day, or the good things that have happened to you that day.
- Say thank you to yourself for the things you have achieved, or managed to get through and changed that day.
Sales of battery
electric vehicles hit a record high last year.
Starts at £22,995 for the smaller battery
Available with either a 40kWh battery or a larger 52kWh pack, that offers almost 255 miles, the latest, retro-inspired Renault 5 is both a joy to behold and a hoot to drive.
The interior has been lavished with a level of detail that’s typically reserved for more expensive cars.
4 min read
A champion of EV efficiency
It offers a remarkable 491 mile range on a single charge from the 85kWh battery.
It is a technological masterclass inside with the ability to option screens that span the entire width of the dashboard, including an optional display for the front passenger.
Priced from £37,400
2 min read
It’s a lot of money to part with, but this is arguably all the car you will ever need.
The £89,000 Macan is a premium SUV that somehow manages to blend Porsche’s reputation for dynamics and sporty driving with everyday practicality.
The 95kWh batteries can go from 10 to 80 per cent in as little as 21 minutes from the fastest public charging outlets.
With the business class-style six seat configuration costing a staggering £76,995, it is by far the most expensive Kia ever made, but it backs up its financial demands with a suite of genuinely useful and impressive onboard technology.
It’s fast, goes a long way between stops and charges relatively quickly but the interior is bland, the onboard technology is infuriating and the experience is devoid of emotion.
All of its gadgetry can’t disguise the fact that performance is weak, even for a typically zippy EV, the ride is fussy at slower speeds and it’s not in the least bit enjoyable to drive on a country road.
- While good value (prices start at £17,935) for the 200-mile max range, there are more interesting options from Hyundai, Citroen and Renault for similar money.
- It attempts to wow with tech, much of which hinders, rather than helps.
- There’s no tangible benefit over mounting your phone to the dash.
- Simply an average driving experience, adequate range and slow charging speeds.
2 min read
The kitchen gadgets under £25
Victorinox paring knife
It’s comfortable to hold, with a point sharp enough for scoring pastry.
ProCook cast iron pan
For unbeatable searing and heat-retention, cast iron is the top choice.
Tesco chopping board
Priced at just £22, I’ve yet to find another board that matches it for sheer value and quality.
The kitchen gadgets under £25
Pyrex jug
It is the perfect vessel for blending smooth sauces, melting butter, or warming stock. It won’t stain like plastic and the red measurements never fade.
Salter scales
“I’ve had my slim little set of Salter Disc Scales for over a decade, and I’m delighted to see they are still made to exactly the same reliable design today.”
Microplane grater
It uses photo-etched stainless steel teeth that stay razor-sharp for a decade, something the lookalike copycats simply can’t match.
Braun hand-held blender
It’s an essential for everything from making velvety soup to getting the lumps out of white sauce.
Bodum cafetiere
As well as delivering great results, cafetieres are easy to clean and there’s no ongoing filter paper costs or pod recycling to deal with.
5 min read
The kitchen gadgets under £25
Oxo peeler
What truly sets it apart is the chunky, rubberised handle that absorbs pressure and stays completely non-slip, even if your hands are wet. It is inexpensive and incredibly durable.
Falcon pie dish
Made by fusing porcelain onto heavy-gauge steel for smooth durability, it is dishwasher, freezer, hob, air-fryer and oven-safe.
The golden rules for a happy, secure relationship
Psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr Amir Levine, author of bestselling book , explains why we behave the way we do in love.
Golden rules for happy relationships
Start with your own behaviours
The foundation of a secure, connected life is being what I call CARRP: that means being consistent, available, responsive, reliable and predictable. All of these qualities can be enacted in small gestures every day.
Express your needs
People need consistency and connection to feel safe. This is not, ‘You hurt my feelings by never replying to me’, it’s more ‘this is the kind of contact that helps me feel secure’.
Golden rules for happy relationships
The appendix ‘inflammation’ rule
If a relationship repeatedly inflames your nervous system, you need to disengage and deprioritise it.
Lean on community
You don’t need hundreds of friends. You need people and places that regularly remind you that you belong.
Stop blaming childhood
Humans are much more complicated than: ‘this happened to you, therefore you are doomed to be anxious’.
Reach for a
secure script
When something unsettles you in a relationship, your first reaction is not always the most accurate one.
If you’re anxious, your brain may jump very quickly to: ‘this is the beginning of the end’. If you’re avoidant, your brain may say: ‘this person wants too much from me, I need to get away’. So one very practical thing you can always do is pause and ask: ‘What would a secure person do here?’
Loneliness elsewhere
When people talk about loneliness, they often assume it means you don’t have enough people in your life. But you can be surrounded by people and still feel lonely if those relationships leave you feeling excluded, ignored or disconnected.
What to do
- Build a community that works for your temperament and gives you regular, reliable moments of connection.
- You can still be kind to people while not treating them as someone who belongs in your inner circle.
- Explain what you need. Sometimes people simply don’t realise how you are experiencing them.
- Check in with people: does this person actually feel that I’m reliable? Do they experience me as predictable? That’s the only way that you can start to become more secure.
Do some foods leave
you feeling hungry rather than satiated? Experts say there are…
Foods that leave you hungrier
A bowl of cereal and glass of orange juice
More refined cereals are digested quickly, and fruit juice, whilst one of your five-a-day, contains less fibre than whole fruit. This might mean you find yourself hungry again within 1-2 hours of eating this breakfast.
Swap the orange juice for a whole orange, the cereal for oats and milk or serve it with Greek yoghurt or a boiled egg. This would increase the fibre and protein content; two nutrients strongly linked with fullness.
Foods that leave you hungrier
These pastries are made primarily from refined flour and butter, and are relatively low in protein and fibre.
Toast and jam
Shop-bought packs can contain a lot of white rice, which is digested quickly, and the protein content is often modest.
Foods that leave you hungrier
Vegetable soup
On its own, it is often very low in protein and calories, so hunger can return quickly.
Unless it’s loaded with veggies, it’s probably pretty low in fibre.
Liquids are generally less filling as they require little chewing which may not trigger satiety signals.
Foods that leave you hungrier
Snack bars
They are ideal for a quick pick-me-up, but if reducing hunger is what you’re after, it’d be better to swap it out.
Low-fat yoghurt
A full-fat plain Greek yoghurt with berries and seeds tends to be much more filling due to the protein, fat and fibre.
On an empty stomach, it can actually increase your appetite.
What to eat instead
Instead of thinking about avoiding foods, think about what you can add to them.
- Add beans, lentils or shredded chicken to your vegetable soup and pasta.
- Thicken your smoothies with Greek yoghurt, chia seeds and oats.
- Apple slices with peanut butter, yogurt with berries and hummus with oat biscuits are better snack options than a pre-made snack bar.
- Have alcohol alongside a balanced meal containing protein and fibre.
How to age well
without pain
Will Harlow, a physiotherapist
for the over-50s and author of Independence for Life, shares
the key signs you’re ageing
badly – and what to do about it.
How to know
Ageing well is maintaining the ability to do what you want you want for as long as you want without needing help. Everyone is talking about longevity but what’s the point in living longer if the last decade is painful and you’re [totally] reliant on people?”
The signs to look out for
- The most obvious early warning sign of bad ageing is pain says Harlow.
- Another is losing confidence in doing daily tasks, which can quickly lead to a lack of independence.
- One call Harlow often receives is people calling after having a fall and struggling to get up.
4 min read
How to age without pain
Not just stopping
When people retire, they often put their feet up and stop. Your body really is use it or lose it.
Throughout our entire lives, Harlow says we need between seven and nine hours of sleep.
Social isolation
The lack of connection can increase the risk of premature death by
as much as 29 per cent.
Strength training
It really is the proxy for
overall independence.
The more muscle mass you have, the less chance of heart disease, diabetes, falls and even anxiety, depression and dementia.
The brain can be linked to muscle mass too, Harlow says. It’s not just about being able to lift things. It gives you more energy, better sleep and you’ll look and feel better.
How to age without pain
Daily habits
Do short bursts of exercise, between 30 and 60 seconds, in otherwise dead time during the day.
Stretch in bed
Take joints through a full range of motion for five minutes to loosen it before getting up.
Don’t crash diet
How to age without pain
Harlow advises 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight to stop muscle loss alongside resistance training.
Don’t wait
Harlow finds that many patients put off making a change to their lifestyle until their lives are consumed by pain.
For most people, it’s about reducing the number of times per week you’re exercising, not reducing intensity.
The three ageing tests to do
- Lie completely flat on the floor and get back up to a standing position using any technique. This should take less than 10 seconds.
See how many times you can sit on the chair and stand back up again in 30 seconds. Men should be aiming for more than 14 times and women 12.
The single-leg stand, which involves standing on one leg and balancing for 10 seconds. Everyone should be able to do that and for those under 65, Harlow asks them to do it with their eyes closed.
Despite the job market hiring fewer entry-level roles, employers are still looking for grads…
But you should be prepared to keep an open mind.
We’ve compiled the sectors hiring graduate roles, what degree is required, and what they pay.
The degrees to choose for a career
Hiring in the UK could
finally be on the up
47%
of employers offered entry-level
positions from July.
That is up nearly 15 per cent from the same period last year.
700,000
But graduate unemployment rose to six per cent in 2025 and 700,000 jobless graduates were claiming benefits.
Finance and insurance
- Around 42 per cent of UK finance and insurance employers say they will be open to graduate roles this summer.
- Business loan company Portman Finance Group has taken on 50 graduates over the past four years.
Portman graduates start on £36,000 for the two-year programme and the education you need to apply is a minimum “ABB” of A-levels, and a 2:1 or above university degree. But not in a specific subject.
Trade and logistics
What makes it particularly rewarding is that there’s always something to learn.
Nearly half (47 per cent) of trade and logistics companies will be giving graduates a go this year.
Salaries start at £30,000 with an uncapped bonus, rising to £50,000 plus a company car as a senior account partner.
Technology and IT
More than half (52 per cent) of UK tech and IT firms are actively looking for graduates.
Successful entry-level candidates can earn a basic salary of up to £35,000, with the opportunity to triple that within their first three years of working.
4 min read
Public sector, health
and social services
46 per cent of public sector, health and social services organisations are also ready to take graduates, according to a survey by Manpower.
- For example, Police Now runs a graduate programme into policing. They recruit graduates from any degree field, as long as they achieve a 2:2 or above. Starting salaries range from £31,164 to £42,210 depending on location and rising each year.
Can we treat guests without blowing our budget?
According to Waitrose, a dinner party revival is underway led by younger people trying to reduce the cost of getting together.
Always have bread
People will feast on the
ELLA RISBRIDGER, AUTHOR OF THE KITCHEN BOOK – GOOD FOOD FOR EVERY DAY
bread, and then need less fish/steak/expensive whatever. All small plates restaurants know this: this is why the first thing on the menu is always artisan bread and butter.
Use vegetables as centrepieces
Add pantry items
Graham’s recipes include a braised cabbage with a preserved lemon sauce, a roast cauliflower with saffron, and harrisa roast carrots with mango labneh.
How to host on a budget
Improve the everyday
Guests will always appreciate a stellar interpretation of the ordinary. Think lasagna or curry.
Cooking dinner for your guests is spoiling them – you’re being generous with your time, your effort, and your home. So don’t feel the need to go overboard elsewhere.
Ask for help
Ask friends to bring a contribution, be it a nibble or a pudding.
Big platter energy
[Presentation] can be the key to elevating something . Spaghetti and tomato sauce suddenly looks like a feast when tumbled on a lovely big plate, dressed with olive oil and parmesan and placed in the middle of the table.
Food writer and editor Eleanor Steafel
How to host on a budget
Taco party
Have one expensive filling, like shredded chicken, and two cheaper options, like refried beans, says Ella Risbridger.
Shop-bought ice cream is so easily zhuzhed up with the help of handy toppings, says Eleanor Steafel.
This is all that my daughters will be able to do – imagine – for their reality is diametrically different. They’re as incredulous that I was given free money as I am that they will graduate with up to £50,000 of debt. While I had little cause to worry, they have every reason to. It makes me sick to my stomach that they and the 1.5 million other students currently in higher education in England will start their adult lives with this crippling financial burden.
In England, the old-style student maintenance grant was effectively phased out for new students from 1999, with living-cost support shifting primarily to loans. Tuition fees arrived in 1998, initially capped at £1,000 a year and means-tested. In 2006, fees rose substantially to £3,000 a year, with tuition-fee loans introduced so students no longer had to pay upfront. The really dramatic increase came in 2012, when the maximum fee rose to £9,000 a year. Maintenance grants were later reintroduced, but abolished again for new students from 2016, replaced by larger maintenance loans.
Today, England has one of the most expensive student loan systems in the world. More than £21bn a year is loaned to students in England, with the value of outstanding loans estimated as being £295bn. By the late 2040s, the government forecasts this will climb to £500bn. This year, anger has focused on Plan 2 loans, which have such high interest rates that borrowers owe more than when they started repaying them.
The average student loan debt upon graduation fluctuates significantly across the UK. According to data monitored by The House of Commons Library, the highest debts are incurred by students in England, who face debts of £43,000-£53,000, compared with £39,000 in Wales, £28,000 in Northern Ireland and £17,000 in Scotland, where tuition is still free for residents, which explains why more than one 18-year-old I know tried to apply to Scottish universities by using their Scottish grandparents’ home addresses. One claimed he’d emancipated from his parents and was living with his 85 year-old granny in Glasgow. While his story didn’t pass muster with UCAS, you can see why he (and his parents) might feel motivated to be economical with the truth when a lie might save them £43k.
As someone born in Edinburgh who chose to study in London (a foolish decision for someone so scared of debt), there’s a pleasing symmetry in the fact that my younger daughter, who’s 16, was born in London and fancies studying in Edinburgh. But she won’t, because the University of Edinburgh, in common with all Scottish universities, offers BA courses that span four years, as opposed to England’s three. The idea of racking up 25 per cent more debt to study at any Scottish uni is as fantastical as it’s preposterous. It may also explain why some Scottish universities seem to boast an unusually high proportion of wealthy English and overseas students.
To be fair to wealthy people, some do seem to insist that their student offspring take out the loan in a bid to teach them about financial independence. Maybe they genuinely refuse to help them pay it back, or maybe they drop a few thousand here and there into the bank account. Who knows? It’s not my world. My world is a 20-year-old student who is about to enter her final year at a Russell Group university, whatever that means, and who has worked her way through uni from the beginning.
I can’t speak for my daughter except to say there aren’t words to express how proud I am that she’s had the drive and determination to work double shifts (usually 16-hour days, six days a week during the long university holidays) in a busy London restaurant throughout her degree to reduce her debt.
But I also worry about her work/life balance. How jarring that this harried term, with all its implications, should even apply to someone so young. It’s wrong that thousands of teenagers leave further education with a massive debt hanging over their heads. It’s wrong that for some, this reality is so terrifying that they almost can’t tolerate it, and are driven to extreme measures, and long working hours, in an attempt to mitigate.
Whether students feel forced into finding paid employment while studying for their degrees or not, the looming spectre of the debt they’ll have accrued by graduation can’t fail to have an impact on their university experience. Where my only concern was turning in my essays on time, theirs is a pressure cooker of responsibilities. I’ve heard of some students so busy working to make ends meet have missed out on university life altogether.
Granted, getting drunk in the student union on subsidised beer is a privilege, not a right, but it still feels harsh that there’s a two-tier system at play, where those with financial support are living their best lives and those with little or none are worrying how to balance the books. How can this not compromise your experience of further education? Rather than immersing themselves in the opportunity to learn more about a subject they love, or at least chose to study, the poorest students are left worrying whether they’ve signed up to some naive three (or more) year financial gamble.
It’s hardly surprising that mental health issues are rising among students. A 2025 survey by Save the Student found that 75 per cent of respondents said they were worried about making ends meet, with 50 per cent saying money worries had negatively affected their mental health. Meanwhile, 61 per cent said they skipped meals occasionally to save money, 10 per cent had used a food bank and 48 per cent had considered dropping out because of money-related issues.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, they also have to contend with the clusterf**k that is the graduate job market: AI, decreasing numbers of entry-level roles, and the very real concern that they might never find a job, never mind one that will earn them enough to pay back their loan. While the government claims that 87.6 per cent of graduates were in employment in 2024, this statistic pertains to working age graduates aged 16-64. A more useful statistic is that seven per cent – roughly one in 14 – of students who graduated in 2023-4 (the most recent year for which figures are available) were unemployed 15 months after graduating. Graduate job postings, meanwhile, have fallen about seven per cent year on year in 2026.
This, combined with spiralling interest rates and complex, controversial changes to the income threshold for student loan repayment, has created a tsunami of fear. The IFS estimates that the government’s decision to freeze the threshold at £29,385 for three years, rather than increasing it with inflation, will make the average graduate repay about £93 more in 2027-28 and £259 more by 2029-30 than if the threshold had risen with inflation.
There’s some glimmer of hope in that Andy Burnham’s government has promised to review England’s student-loan system, describing current arrangements as unfair and burdensome for graduates. The review will examine repayment terms, particularly Plan 2 loan. The government has also committed to reintroducing targeted, means-tested maintenance grants from 2028–29, worth up to £1,000 a year, alongside loans, funded through a levy on international-student provision. While this won’t cancel student debt, it aims to reduce the burden on lower-income students and make repayments fairer.
As for the idea that your student days are the best and most carefree of your life, chance would be a fine thing. Although a complete overhaul of the current student loan system would be even finer.
Find Laura on X @LauraCraik and Instagram @lauracraik