Introduction

Moving away from home, into your own flat or bedsit, sharing or solo, can be tremendously exciting. For the first time you are an independent adult. There’s no one to tell you to tidy your room, you can stay out until all hours on Saturday night and spend all of Sunday in bed. Freedom! But with freedom comes responsibility. Suddenly you’ve got to deal with bills and cleaning and laundry, and on top of that you’ve got to feed yourself. Of course, you could live on a diet of reheated frozen and packaged ready-made meals, take-aways, and beans on toast. Why bother to cook when there is so much else to be done?